WEEK IN PREVIEW:
CHART SHAKE-UP
At the top of the HITS Album Chart, it’s a battle between Bad Boy/Arista’s P. Diddy and Roc-A-Fella/IDJ’s Cam’ron for #1. Both are competitively priced: retailers are receiving a $2.50 rebate for each Cam’ron sold the first two weeks, while P.Diddy was offered on a 24% discount to retailers until 5/10.
Just behind those two is Weezer (Geffen), with Moby (V2) and Rush (Anthem/Atlantic) also looking like Top 10 debuts.
Streeting Tuesday are new discs from Columbia’s Marc Anthony and the first Urban-themed Now complitation, Off the Hook (Columbia).
The radio Einsteins tell us that Interscope’s Enrique should be Most Added at Top 40, with clean-up on Creed (Wind-up), Avril Lavigne (Arista) and Dirty Vegas (Capitol). Kelly Osbourne’s "Papa Don’t Preach" (Epic) should have a good first week as well. The rockers in Rock are freaking out over Adema’s "Freaking Out" (Arista), while Most Added at Crossover should be Roc-A-Fella/IDJ’s Jay-Z, and in Urban it looks like Def Jam South/IDJ’s Ludacris, with "Move Bitch"—which is also what the Urban department said to us when we asked them what was going on in their world.
And if you’ve read this far, you probably really care that the Webcasting CARP ruling is expected tomorrow. Also, EMI will announce its preliminary results for its fiscal year, which ended March 31.
Also this week, look for your office building to start clearing out at about 2 p.m. on Friday, and the bars near the HITS cesspool to start filling at a similar time.
