Happy days are here again for the beleaguered music industry...at least for a week. It turns out that everyone who was wondering whether Mariah, Madonna, or Usher would have the biggest blockbuster sales opening of the year had their eyes on the wrong contenders: It's rapper Lil Wayne, who's set to have the most massive first week of any new album this spring, by far. And, contrary to industry wisdom, it seems the album was helped by premature leaks.
How huge will it be? Tha Carter III just came out Tuesday morning, so it's difficult to tell from less than a day's worth of sales, but an exec at Lil Wayne's label estimates the disc will sell between 850,000 and 950,000 by the end of its first week. If their numbers are correct, that would be about double the opening figure for 2008's current record-holder, Mariah Carey's E=MC2, which opened with 443,000 copies. "The accounts were bullish by 10 in the morning," reports Pat Monaco, exec VP of sales for the Universal Motown Republic Group. "The sales the first few hours were exceeding the rate that the Kanye album sold a year ago." (That one ended up selling 957,000 the first week; nothing has come close since.) "Wayne was one of these records that, because it was so highly anticipated, with the leaks and everything, it caused more people to go out at 8 in the morning to buy the CD."
How huge will it be? Tha Carter III just came out Tuesday morning, so it's difficult to tell from less than a day's worth of sales, but an exec at Lil Wayne's label estimates the disc will sell between 850,000 and 950,000 by the end of its first week. If their numbers are correct, that would be about double the opening figure for 2008's current record-holder, Mariah Carey's E=MC2, which opened with 443,000 copies. "The accounts were bullish by 10 in the morning," reports Pat Monaco, exec VP of sales for the Universal Motown Republic Group. "The sales the first few hours were exceeding the rate that the Kanye album sold a year ago." (That one ended up selling 957,000 the first week; nothing has come close since.) "Wayne was one of these records that, because it was so highly anticipated, with the leaks and everything, it caused more people to go out at 8 in the morning to buy the CD."
credit: Hollywood Insider
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