Hottest Selling Albums of the Year Erupt on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Album sales have continued to trend downward most of this year sagging anywhere from 10-15% compared with the same week last year in the US for most weeks of 2008. However, albums in both the US and the UK have been successfully luring music fans to part with their money in record numbers this week. It is a a quite welcome relief for pop music retailers as we head into the summer months.

In the US it is Lil Wayne's completion of Tha Carter trilogy with the album Tha Carter III that is exciting fans. Buoyed by the big hit single "Lollipop," Lil Wayne is expected to sell just short of 1 million copies of this collection in its first week. That is more than double any other first week sales so far this year, and it is expected to challenge Kanye West's first week sales of 957,000 for Graduation in September 2007. No album has sold over a million copies in its first week since Usher's Confessions in 2004.

On the other side of the Atlantic it is an album that was expected to be big but is outselling most expectations. Coldplay's album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends sold over 125,000 copies in its first day in stores in the UK. The album has a shortened release week but is still expected to have a chance to reach platinum status in the UK by the time UK charts come out on Sunday. With only the first day of sales, the album was already outselling the other top 5 sellers combined even though they had already benefited from a few extra days on sale. The excitement over Coldplay rivals that of the peak of interest in beloved Brit rock band Oasis.

Back in the US, the release next week of Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends is expected to be big as well. Fueled by the hit "Viva La Vida," Coldplay's highest charting single yet, retailers are expecting big sales. Online previews have generated record interest in the album. Next week we will know much more.

_{Lil Wayne album cover courtesy Cash Money Records
Coldplay album cover courtesy Capitol Records}