Book of Mormon cast album reaches Billboard chart at #3

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 12:01pm

When was the last time a cast recording had this much success??
BOM album #3 on Billboard chart

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 12:02pm

When was the last time you could buy a hit album for $1.99?

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 12:04pm

Book of Mormon cast album ranks #3, behind Adele's "21" and Lady Gaga's "Born This Way".
Billboard.com article

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 12:07pm

It's the highest ranking of a cast recording on Billboard's chart in 42 years (since Hair in 1969).

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 12:28pm

Amazing!

[ace33]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 12:46pm

i wasnt that offended that they released the album for $1.99 after the first wave of loyal fans paid full price... but c'mon now.

while the success is great, and the praise warranted... it almost makes me think that the discounting was a stunt in order to boost its rankings so they can brag.

the most telling statistic: ""No doubt the set is also spurred on by AmazonMP3's multi-day sale pricing of the digital album.... In turn, of the album's 61,000 haul, downloads make up an exceptional 85% of its sales week."

EIGHTY-FIVE percent!

[perfectliar]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 1:14pm

Joe - About 2 weeks ago, when Lady Gaga's Born This Way was offered on Amazon for $0.99.

And who cares if there were so many downloads sold at $1.99? The point is that people WANT it and GOT it. Amazon is taking the hit for the lower price, in order to promote their new Cloud service. So if it's going to expose new people to musicals and at the same time break records, why not? I highly doubt when the $1.99 promotion was started that they had hoped for anything this big.

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 1:22pm

Hey, I bit.

I like it a lot and since there's no hope of seeing it anytime soon aside from lottery or SRO (both distant possibilities), it'll hold me.

But can someone who's seen the show tell me if there's much in the way of any shading to Josh Gad's performance in the non-musical moments. On the cast album, it comes across as Barfee redux. Funny yes, but equally annoying.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 1:42pm

I wasn't complaining- just pointing out that price is a huge issue. It's not to diminish Book of Mormon's accomplishment- I hope a bunch more shows do it, frankly.

[singalongsong2]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 1:58pm

Wow. It is awesome to see a cast album on the mainstream charts. :)
Updated On: 6/15/11 at 01:58 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 9:27pm

Here are some breakdown figures:

Mormon sold 61,000 copies this week. Billboard's Keith Caulfield reports that this is the biggest one-week total for a cast album in Nielsen SoundScan history. The old record was held by Highlights From The Phantom Of The Opera, which sold 54K copies during Christmas week of 1992. This week's sales tally for Mormon consists of 9K CDs (this was the first week it was available on CD) and 52K digital copies (goosed by a $1.99 sale at AmazonMP3, which ran from Thursday through Sunday).
Some other interesting factoids in this link

....but the world goes 'round

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 9:47pm

I think the real test here will see how other cast recordings perform post this (very brave) promotion, and how THE BOOK OF MORMON continues to sell post-promotion.

[Branson East]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 11:14pm

One may wonder, given this from Billboard.biz:

After its initial first week, the "Mormon" album fell to No. 124 (4,000) and then slipped off the tally last week -- only to re-enter now at No. 3 in a post-Tonys frenzy....

[O]f the album's 61,000 haul, downloads make up an exceptional 85% of its sales week.

And most of those, we can be sure, came from Amazon.com.

Alleged hits like this and Lady Gaga's will not keep the record biz from declining, and BOM won't broaden the cast album's niche audience. Don't forget that label's name: Ghostlight.