Carey Caps '05 by Capping Fiddy

Album sales were slow for the week and down for the year, but the final lap proved to be a neck-and-neck thriller.

After spending nearly the entire year as the all-around top seller, 50 Cent's The Massacre fell short within spitting distance of the finish line. Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi barely edged past The Massacre during Christmas week, and with the year's final numbers released Wednesday, Carey officially short-changed Fiddy's bid.

The Emancipation of Mimi sold 4.97 million copies for 2005 compared to The Massacre's 4.85 million for second best, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (By comparison, 2004's runaway biggest seller, Usher's Confessions, moved just under 8 million copies.)

Carey's comeback disc performed like the Energizer Bunny, by going and going and going with moderate yet steady sales. In contrast, Fiddy boasted a spectacular opening week (1.14 million units to Mimi's 404,000) and a year-best five weeks at number one (ended by Mimi in April). Still, as of the year's final sales week, the perpetually Top 10 Mimi sold another 102,000 discs to The Massacre's 18,000.

Two discs that were originally released in 2004 remained hugely popular in 2005. Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway sold nearly 3.5 million copies to be the third-best-selling album last year; Green Day's American Idiot followed at four with 3.4 million. To date, the albums have tallied 4.5 and 5.2 million copies, respectively.

Back in June, Coldplay's X&Y kept the Black Eyed Peas' Monkey Business from topping the charts, yet the hip-hop foursome finished slightly ahead of the moody Brit rockers for the year. Monkey Business sold just over 3 million copies at five, while X&Y sold 2.6 million at six.

The remaining Top 10 albums for the year were Rascal Flatts' Feels Like Today at seven (2.511 million), Gwen Stefani's solo debut Love.Angel.Music.Baby. at eight (2.505 million), Kanye West's Late Registration at nine (2.4 million) and the list's lone rookie, the Game's The Documentary, at 10 (2.3 million).

Total album sales were down over 7 percent for the year, falling from 666.7 million to 618.9 million copies. However, total music sales (all formats, including digital tracks and music videos) jumped 23 percent to just over 1 billion units, the first time sales ever crossed the billion mark. Digital sales also skyrocketed, with digital albums jumping 66 percent on 16.2 million sold and digital tracks up 150 percent on 352.7 million. Internet album sales (i.e. CDs sold via online retailers like Amazon.com) were also up, from 22.2 million to 24.7 million, for an 11.3 percent gain.

Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" led digital song sales with 1.17 million sold, followed by Kanye West's "Gold Digger" at two with 1.09 million and Weezer's "Beverly Hills" at three with 962,000. Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" (960,000) and Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" (918,000) wrapped up the Top 5.

Speaking of digital tracks, a new sales record was set in the final week of '05 with 19.9 million purchased for the week, surpassing the previous record of 9.5 million. This also marks the first time that another format exceeded album sales, since only 16.8 million albums were sold last week.

For the year's final week, Jamie Foxx's Unpredictable leapt into the top spot, making the Ray star the fourth actor ever to claim both a number one album and an Academy Award. Foxx also followed in Ray Charles footsteps--the late great legend was the last artist to top album sales without having opened at number one. His posthumous Genius Loves Company accomplished the feat last February--the same month that Foxx won the Oscar for portraying Charles.

Unpredictable finished last week selling nearly 200,000 copies, while Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough fell to number two on 193,000 copies. In what was a predictably slow post-holiday period, the highest debut belonged to the Ying Yang Twins' U.S.A. Still United, selling 35,000 copies at 45.

Other notable '05 sales tidbits:

Here's a recap of the Top 10 best-selling albums of 2005:

1. The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Carey, 4.97 million copies
2. The Massacre, 50 Cent, 4.85 million copies
3. Breakaway, Kelly Clarkson, 3.5 million copies
4. American Idiot, Green Day, 3.4 million copies
5. Monkey Business, Black Eyed Peas, 3 million copies
6. X&Y, Coldplay, 2.6 million copies
7. Feels Like Today, Rascal Flatts, 2.511 million copies
8. Love.Angel.Music.Baby., Gwen Stefani, 2.505 million copies
9. Late Registration, Kanye West, 2.4 million copies
10. The Documentary, The Game, 2.3 million copies