NOW IS THE TIME FOR SALES TO BEGIN

No, not this miserable bunch of 0’s and 1’s that passes for a website...

No, we mean the 20 proven smashes jam-packed onto Sony Music’s brand spanking-new Now 22. Like Rihanna’s “S.O.S.,” Sean Paul’s “Temperature,” Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’,” T-Pain’s “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper),” Three 6 Mafia’s “Poppin’ My Collar,” Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day,” KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Walk Away”... All on one piece of plastic. Hey, you get the idea. It’s almost as good as an iPod, and it could just move 400k copies, based on one-day sales from our usually reliable retail sources around the country, making it a runaway for #1 on next week’s HITS Top 50 (and you know where to go to find out).

Next up will be another rapper inside the WMG stable, with Rap-a-Lot/Atlantic’s Pimp C representing the Dirty Southwest on the wonderfully named Pimpalation: Chopped and Screwed to the tune of 90-95k, which would put him neck-and-pencil neck geek with Radiohead meister Thom Yorke, whose critically praised XL solo album The Eraser seems headed for a similar total, thanks to a #1 ranking at iTunes. That one will be distribbed in the U.S. by WMG's indie arm ADA, by the way.

Warner Bros.’ Muse, Q Prime’s gradually building U.K. arena-rockers, return with Black Holes and Revelations, their fourth effort as charismatic lead vocalist Matthew Bellamy attempts to conquer the U.S. market, with early returns indicating something in the 50k range, a nice number.

Koch’s Diplomats Present, from the Cam’ron hip-hop camp, looks headed for between 30-35k, slightly above the range for Daylight/Epic’s MTV teen reality show star Cheyenne Kimball’s The Day Has Come, which will undoubtedly be boosted by this morning’s appearance on Regis and Kelly and airplay for the single, “Hangin’ On.”

In case you were interested, sales were down over 6% from last week, down between 14-15% vs. same week last year, and now down over 4.5% to date. Thank god for Now.