Billboard.com reports: The Jonas Brothers are on track to score their first No. 1 album next week on The Billboard 200, as "A Little Bit Longer" (Hollywood) leads Nielsen SoundScan's Building chart, released this afternoon (Aug. 13).
Unweighted sales of "Longer" through the close of business yesterday (Aug. 12) stood at 201,000. Billboard estimates the nine merchants who report to Nielsen SoundScan's Building chart -- Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, Circuit City, iTunes, Starbucks, Borders, Target, Anderson Merchandisers and Handleman Co. -- comprise about 80% of all U.S. album sales.
Both Hollywood and its distributor, Universal, are projecting that "Longer" could finish the week with a number between 675,000 and 725,000. Based on the percentage of first-day sales that recent albums by Carrie Underwood, Usher, Mariah Carey and Jonas Brothers labelmate Miley Cyrus contributed to their first-week sales, Billboard estimates that "Longer" could surpass 600,000 and might start with as many as 725,000.
Hollywood GM Abbey Konowitch says, "We knew the fan base was as fanatical as it gets, but what was done by the group and us in the past few months, in a way, flies in the face of conventional marketing." That includes the band having played the bulk of the new album live in concert since last fall and encouraging fans to share YouTube performances of the songs.
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