Kelly Clarkson :: New Album Super hit

American Idol Kelly Clarkson's endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Dec. 28 may have helped draw attention to the original "American Idol" champion, but despite multiple reports from other news sites, it did little to help the sales of her "Stronger" album. According to both Nielsen SoundScan data and sources in the know at Clarkson's label, RCA, little evidence exists to support the theory that Clarkson's praise for Paul helped her sales. In fact, her album sales actually dropped when compared with the previous week.

In the week that ended on Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, "Stronger" sold 40% fewer copies than it did the previous week (25,000, as opposed to 41,000 in the week before Christmas). And while it moved from No. 39 to No. 17 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, its upward momentum this week was caused by it having a less-steep decline in sales as compared to the rest of the titles on the chart (the overall album market was down 49% in the week after Christmas). Its total sales stand at 451,000 after 10 weeks.

Its smaller drop, as compared to the rest of the market, is owed to its gain in download sales - it saw a 232% increase in the digital space (selling 14,000 downloads for the week). But Ron Paul probably didn't have much to do with that rally, either. The bulk of digital album sales -- for Clarkson or any other artist -- come from the Apple iTunes Store.

And last week, coincidentally enough, iTunes heavily promoted both her sale-priced "Stronger" album and her new exclusive "iTunes Session" EP (released Dec. 27) on the front page of the store. Many of the stories generated regarding "Stronger's" sales jump were focused on its physical CD sales via Amazon.com and how it zipped up the Internet retailer's "movers and shakers" ranking after her Paul comments. Some journalists may have thought this meant the album was flying off Amazon.com's shelves. In actuality, "Stronger" sold 600 copies last week via Internet retailers (including Amazon.com) -- down 72% compared to the previous week, when it moved 2,000 copies.

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