The quality of his upcoming album and the ability of its singles to impact radio will play huge factors, but things are looking promising in terms of Scotty McCreery’s ability to succeed commercially following his “American Idol” victory.
McCreery’s digital performance collection begins on the Billboard 200 with 23,000 downloads, topping the mere 2,000 debut for the collection from season nine winner Lee DeWyze.
Prior to that, season eight winner Kris Allen garnered only 10,000 first-week sales for his digital album, while that year’s runner-up Adam Lambert moved 16,000 downloads. Lambert went on to sell about 200,000 debut-week copies of his full-length LP, an impressive figure in the current music climate, signaling true promise for the forthcoming McCreery album. Allen’s full album moved 80,000 in its opening frame.
On the single side, McCreery’s debut single “I Love You This Big” opens with 171,000 downloads, marking the best post-“Idol” single debut since season seven winner David Cook moved 236,000 copies of “The Time of my Life.”
Season ten runner-up Lauren Alaina sold 121,000 copies of “Like My Mother Does.”