Prince's 'Lotusflow3r' Off To Strong Sales Start

April 01, 2009 05:52 PM ET

Keith Caulfield, L.A.

Prince's new album, "LotusFlow3r" (NPG), issued exclusively in the U.S. through Target stores on Sunday, March 29, leads Nielsen SoundScan's Building Chart, which was released today, April 1.

Yet, the album may not finish the week at No. 1.

Why? The Building Chart reflected unweighted sales through the close of business on Tuesday, March 31. Which means that new releases -- which almost always bow on Tuesday -- usually only have one day's worth of sales included on the Building Chart that is released on Wednesday of each week. However, Prince's album dropped on Sunday, so the Building Chart actually reflects the set's first three days worth of sales.

We'll have a better gauge on how next week's official Billboard 200 chart will shake out on Friday, April 3, when SoundScan releases its next Building Chart. As it stands now, Prince's album is ahead of the No. 2 set, Keith Urban's new "Defying Gravity" (Capitol Nashville), by a very wide margin.

Billboard estimates the seven merchants who report to Nielsen SoundScan's Building chart -- Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, iTunes, Starbucks, Borders, Target and Anderson Merchandisers -- comprise about 60% of all U.S. album sales.

Other albums looking good for a top 10 debut on next week's Billboard 200 chart include UGK's "UGK For Life" (UGK/Jive/JLG), Diana Krall's "Quiet Nights" (Verve) and Flo Rida's "R.O.O.T.S." (Poe Boy/Atlantic).

Nielsen SoundScan's sales tracking week, as reflected in the official Billboard 200 chart, runs from Monday through Sunday of each week. The newest Billboard 200 chart, released today (April 1) -- where the "Now 30" compilation debuted at No. 1 with 146,000 -- reflected the week that ended on Sunday, March 29.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/prince-s-lotusflow3r-off-to-strong-sales-1003958005.story