Canadian artists racking-up sales

In the categories of sound recording and music video/DVD sales, September has been an extremely successful month for Canadian artists, especially for Vancouver-based rock band Nickelback.

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Nickelback's latest album The Long Road (EMI Music Canada), released on September 23, 2003 took a short cut on the charts and has already shipped double platinum. "Someday", their latest single, jumped to #1 on the Hot AC Audience Chart making Nickelback the first Canadian artists to ever reach the top of that format. With 45,539 copies sold during its first week of release, The Long Road debuted at #1 on the Canadian Soundscan Top 200 chart. Chad Kroeger (lead vocals/guitar), Ryan Peake (guitar/vocals), Mike Kroeger (bass) and Ryan Vikedal (drums) also performed well south of the border, debuting at #6 with sales of 200,184. After their first week at retail in other territories around the world, the boys debuted at #3 in New Zealand, #4 in Australia, #4 in Germany and #5 in the UK.

The Long Road is an affirmation of Nickelback's desire to establish itself for the future. With "Someday" still enjoying extensive airplay at the top of the charts on almost every radio format it seems as though Nickelback are seeing clearly what lies ahead of them rather than looking at the road behind them. The band is presently touring Germany to promote the new album and after that they will commence a worldwide tour in the US starting on October 14 in Lubbock, TX. Canadian fans will get the chance to see Nickelback rock out in January and February of 2004 when they return home with their highly anticipated tour.

Other Canadian artists who have recently done extremely well with sales and radio-play include Big Sugar with their album Brothers and Sisters: Are You Ready? (Universal Music), hot rocker Sam Roberts with We Were Born in a Flame, also Universal, and Three Days Grace with their self-titled album (BMG Canada Inc./Jive). All three have reached Gold with 50,000 units shipped.

For more details, visit www.cria.ca.