ONE-DAY SALES: HEY NOW, HEY NOW, DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER

In the middle of the dog days, along comes another volume of the Now series of single collections, like a shimmering oasis in the desert… OK, so maybe we got a little carried away, but isn't it remarkable how putting out a Now album continues to very much like printing money?

This time around it’s Capitol’s turn, meaning Coldplay will have a labelmate (sorta) in the upper reaches of next week’s album chart, where it’s been ensconced for two months (as it happens, the latest edition of the series climaxes with the band’s recent hit “Speed of Sound”). Early retail reports indicate that Now 19 is cruising toward a finish in the vicinity of 400k, which oughta be enough for the album to take #1 and #2. Now that’s what we call a shoo-in, considering that R. Kelly earned the top spot this week on 130k, while the week’s top debut, Slim Thug, moved 129k.

Yesterday’s other noteworthy bows included Columbia’s Mary Mary, a poppy, youthful R&B group, who are trending toward 50k or so, and B5, the second Bad Boy act to be released under the label’s deal with WMG, who appear to be heading toward a figure just south of 50k. Columbia also came with a standards album from Carly Simon, who’s making the TV rounds this week, and the soundtrack to The Dukes of Hazzard a couple of weeks ahead of the movie. At this point, each is expected to finish up at thirtysomething.

On the year, the music industry passed the 300 million-unit plateau this week, and that’s a lot of records…just not as many as last year at this time—7.7% (or 25.4 million) fewer, in fact. But look on the bright side—sales were down only 2.3% (or 247k) compared to last week. On the other hand, business was off by 7.5% (or 834k units versus the comparable week last year. The sales total for the week was 10.2 million units.