Britney Spears' Business Spirals Down Along With Her

As Britney Spears the woman has crumbled, so too has Britney Spears the business.

The faded pop princess' latest album, "Blackout," has sold a paltry half-million copies since its October release, according to HitsDailyDouble, which tracks album sales week by week.

Amazon.com doesn't release specific sales numbers, but it gives rankings to its products based on their popularity with customers. "Blackout" is currently ranked an unimpressive No. 200 in music sales on Amazon — well below "Alvin and the Chipmunks," "Anne Murray Duets: Friends & Legends," "Rhythm & Romance" by Kenny G and something called "Facing Future" by someone named Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole.

Amazon's rankings of Spears' other albums are not even worth mentioning.

"Greatest Hits: My Prerogative" ranks 5,672 in music sales, "In the Zone" comes in at 5,331, "Oops ... I Did It Again" ranks 5,789, "Baby One More Time" registers at 7,556 and "Britney" is at a lower-than-low 12,217.

Britney is apparently doing better in the world of iMusic. Apple doesn't disclose download numbers for specific songs or albums on its iTunes service. But on Thursday, Spears' "Blackout" single "Piece of Me" was in the top 10 iTunes downloads.

Though radio stations generally won't admit that they've been reluctant to play Britney's music because of her bad press, songs from the "Blackout" album, including "Gimme More," have been noticeably underplayed.

For one New York pop music station, it doesn't matter what Spears has been going through.

"We really didn’t shy away from her because of anything to do with her personal life," said WPLJ 95.5 FM's music director Tony Mascaro. "We didn’t embrace Britney as an artist from Day One. We didn't play Britney because it didn't fit with what we do on air."

Had Spears' songs made the cut at WPLJ, the station "probably would have stayed with her regardless of her situation," Mascaro said, adding that music would be banished from the airwaves only "if an artist turns out to be a raving criminal or does something really bad."

Case in point: Michael Jackson, who went to trial on pedophilia charges for his questionable antics with young boys.

"I think radio got a little hesitant with Michael Jackson," Mascaro said. "Some of the stuff he was going through was a little more on the weird side."

Nonetheless, the King of Pop is outranking Spears on Amazon.com. His "Michael Jackson 25th Anniversary of Thriller" album comes in at No. 91 in music sales — 109 albums ahead of "Blackout."