Holiday shoppers planning to give the gift of music this year came out in force last week, as sales increased for nine of the Top 10 albums that will appear on the forthcoming Billboard 200 album chart, as did sales for most of the other albums gracing the chart.

Creed [ tickets ]'s "Weathered" (Wind-Up) saw its sales jump about 40,000 units from 417,000 last week to about 458,000 this week, according to industry sources. The album will now spend its third consecutive week atop the chart.

The latest two entries in the "Now" compilation series--"Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 8" (Virgin) and "Now That's What I Call Christmas!" (Universal)--saw sales jump as well, with increases of about 12,000 and 60,000 respectively, sources said. That keeps "Now! Vol. 8" at No. 2 for a third week in a row, while the two-disc "Now" Christmas collection jumps from No. 6 to No. 3.

Seeing a sales jump of about 39,000 copies over its previous week total, meanwhile, is Britney Spears' "Britney" (Jive), which climbs one notch to No. 4. Mannheim Steamroller's "Christmas Extraordinaire" (American Gramaphone), an album whose holiday-season chart conquest saw it jump from No. 15 to No. 8 last week, experienced a sales increase of about 70,000 copies to rise from No. 8 to No. 5.

Despite selling about 10,000 more copies than during the previous week, Garth Brooks' "Scarecrow" (Capitol) slips two places to No. 6, while Enya's "A Day Without Rain" (Reprise) resumes its forward momentum by rising from No. 9 to No. 7, thanks to a sales boost of about 35,000 copies over last week.

Ludacris' "Word of Mouth" (Def Jam), which debuted at No. 3 last week, is the Top 10's only entry this week to experience a sales slump; the album, which moved about 281,000 copies last week, saw its sales dip to about 194,000.

Nickelback's breakthrough album "Silver Side Up" (Roadrunner) jumps back into the Top 10 this week at No. 9 after spending the past couple of weeks in the No. 12 spot. The album, which features the group's current No. 1 hit "How You Remind Me," saw its sales increase about 46,000 copies this week.

Also returning to the Top 10 this week is "Missundaztood" (Arista), the sophomore effort from Pink. The album, which debuted at No. 8 two weeks back, climbs back to No. 10 after spending last week at No. 11.

Entering the chart further down, meanwhile, is "America: A Tribute to Heroes" (Interscope) at No. 17, Limp Bizkit's "New Old Songs" (Interscope) at No. 26, OutKast's "Big Boi & Dre Present OutKast" (La Face) at No. 31, Nate Dogg's "Music and Me" (Elektra) at No. 32, Fat Joe's "J.O.S.E." (Lava/Atlantic) at No. 37, Yolanda Adams' "Believe" (Elektra) at No. 43, Mack 10's "Bang or Ball" (Cash Money/Universal) at No. 48, Mariah Carey's "Greatest Hits" (Columbia) at No. 52, Ice Cube's "Greatest Hits" (Priority) at No. 54 and Cypress Hill's "Stoned Raiders" (Columbia) at No. 64.