The New York Times-20080124-Keys Is No- 1 as CD Sales Plunge- -Brief-

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Keys Is No. 1 as CD Sales Plunge; [Brief]

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So far 2008 has not been a good year for music sales. This week Alicia Keys, below, stays atop the Billboard chart with As I Am (J), but the number of copies that CD sold is barely above the historic low for a No. 1 album. Nielsen SoundScan reported that 61,000 copies of the album sold last week; the least number of weekly sales for No. 1 is 60,000, set by the Dreamgirls soundtrack a year ago. (The numbers are rounded.) This week the Juno soundtrack (Rhino) is at No. 2 with 58,000, Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains (Geffen) is No. 3 with 52,000, and Radiohead's In Rainbows (ATO) is next with 46,000. The R&B singer Raheem DeVaughn opens at No. 5 with 45,000 sales of Love Behind the Melody (J) and John Legend's new Live From Philadelphia, available only through Target, reached No. 7 with 33,000.

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