‘Now’ brightens slow week

It’s a good thing that Vol. 19 in the hit compilation series “Now That’s What I Call Music!” arrived last week or the troubled record industry might have had its most embarrassing week in 18 months.

That’s how far you have to go back to find a week when the nation’s best-selling album didn’t sell at least 100,000 copies

The latest “Now” package, featuring hit singles by Gwen Stefani, Coldplay, the Killers and others, comfortably topped that figure last week by selling 436,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Without it, the top spot would have fallen to Mariah Carey’s “The Emancipation of Mimi,” which sold 90,000 copies. Her CD has sold nearly 1.7 million copies since its April 19 release.

Besides the “Now” compilation, new albums by Carly Simon and Mary Mary debuted in the Top 10 on Wednesday. They finished No. 7 (58,000 copies) and No. 8 (57,000 copies), respectively. Overall, sales were down about 10.5% from the same week last year and are now off about 8% for the year.

And what was the last No. 1 album to fall short of the 100,000 mark? OutKast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” which sold 86,000 in January 2004, during a resurgence in its third month on the chart.

-- Robert Hilburn