BURBANK, CA - (Top40 Charts/ By Luke Burland/ Warner Bros. Records Publicity) - Thanks to chart-topping sales by
Linkin Park and Michael Buble, Top 10 debuts by Neil Young, Arctic Monkeys, and Ashley Tisdale, and continued success of albums by Josh Groban, Red Hot
Chili Peppers, and My Chemical Romance, Warner Bros. Records has taken over as the Number One label in overall market share for 2007.
This week, Linkin Park's new album, "Minutes to Midnight," debuted at Number 1, selling 622,827 copies, the biggest first-week sales of any artist in 2007. "Minutes to Midnight" replaced Michael Buble's "Call Me Irresponsible" at Number 1 on the Soundscan Top 200 album chart. "Call Me Irresponsible" is currently Number 3, followed by Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" (released on Nonesuch Records, a division of Warner Bros.), which debuted at Number 4 - the highest-charting album of the band's career. Warner Bros. Records has a 19.11 percent share of current album sales for the week, nearly one out of five current albums sold in the U.S. In addition, Warner Bros. has dominated digital track sales this year and is currently the Number 1 digital label for both albums and tracks.
"Minutes to Midnight" is the third Number 1 debut for Linkin Park. The album is already platinum internationally, with 1.56 million copies sold around the world and Number 1 debuts in 22 countries, including the UK, Canada, and Japan. "Call me Irresponsible" is Buble's first Number 1 album. With 445,430 copies sold in just three weeks, it is on track to become his third multi-platinum album. "Call Me Irresponsible" also claimed the top spot in seven countries, including Germany, Australia, and Buble's native Canada. Wilco's fourth album for Nonesuch, "Sky Blue Sky," sold 87,342 copies this week, a first-week career high for the critically acclaimed Chicago rock band in the U.S.
Warner Bros. Records' Number 1 status speaks to the breadth of the label's roster, which in addition to Linkin Park, Buble, Groban, Chili Peppers, and My Chemical Romance, also include charted albums by country artists Blake Shelton and The Wreckers, emerging alt-rock singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, career rockers Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Green Day and Neil Young, comedy superstar Larry the Cable Guy, and soundtracks for award-winning box office smash films "The Departed" and "Spider-Man 3."
Coming this summer, Warner Bros. Records will release albums by The White Stripes, Mike Jones, Smashing Pumpkins, Big & Rich, Faith Hill, Paul Simon, as well as "Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur," a collection of iconic songs by John Lennon recorded by Green Day, U2, and R.E.M., among others.
