WEEK IN PREVIEW:
DOLLARS BEFORE CENT

Amid the action surrounding last Tuesday’s releases hitting this Tuesday’s chart is the looming presence of a title hitting stores this Thursday. Are you following?

Yes folks, in this brave new world, Shady/Aftermath/Interscope’s early release of 50 Cent’s album on Thursday, Feb. 6, has retailers and weasels alike buzzing over how high its numbers can fly in only four days of number crunching. Rest assured, they will be high.

Until then, immerse yourself in this week’s chart battle for #1 between Reprise’s Zwan and Open Wide/Columbia/CRG’s Dixie Chicks, with early reports giving the edge to Billy Corgan’s post-Pumpkins incarnation. Naturally, the incredible Norah Jones (Blue Note) is still strong and will continue to live in the Top Five.

The aforementioned Chicks and Shania Twain (Lost Highway/IDJ) are both feeling consumer love as a result of Super Bowl Sunday, as is Coldplay, which proves that Jimmy Kimmel’s new show can elicit sales, even if it fails to elicit laughs. Be patient and give that show some time, folks—this is not the music business.

Among the album titles feeling the surge of a smash single is Kid Rock’s Cocky (Lava/Atlantic/Atl G). His Country duet with Sheryl Crow continues to reignite an album that’s already near 2.5 million—and which was first released in November 2001.

Other albums surging due to smash singles belong to Avril Lavigne (Arista) and John Mayer (Aware/Columbia/CRG), both of whom carry solid momentum into the upcoming Grammy love fest.

Speaking of singles, there’s a bunch of them being played by the Clear Channel, Infinity, Cox, Entercom, ABC, Cumulus and Radio One corporate entities. There was a time when they were being played by individual programmers, but why should we live in the past?

That said, the present is 50 Cent. Get ready for an interesting week.