ONE-DAY SALES: GAME ON!
According to early reports from national accounts, after one day on sale, the G-Unit/Aftermath/Interscope rapper’s The Documentary is on track to sell upwards of 600k in its first week. Sounds like he can buy Boardwalk and Park Place.
Some stock issues have been reported, but they are evidently being handled quickly, and no shortages are expected for the remainder of the week. The bitter cold currently gripping the Midwest and East Coast, however, could possibly dampen sales if it gets worse and people stay away from stores, but as of now retailers say it doesn’t look like a big factor.
Next week, it’ll be Kenny Chesney’s turn to wow ’em, as the cowpoke unleashes his Jimmy Buffet-inspired “Guitars and Tiki Bars” country-star-on-vaction sound. Observers say not to expect Be As You Are (BNA), which is reportedly quite a departure from Chesney’s other work, to sell his usual half-million in its first week, since it’s so different. But then again, it’s Kenny Chesney, so don’t count him out.
Meanwhile, the market for recorded music in the U.S. continued to take its post-holiday dump last week, slumping another 9.6% (1 million units) compared to the week before, and falling off the pace set in the same week last year by 8.6% (900k units). For the still-young new year as a whole, sales are off 19.7% (5 million units) compared to the same point last year.
Interestingly, though last week sucked sales-wise, with only 9.6 million albums moved, it didn’t suck as bad as the week ended Feb. 4, 1996 (8.9 million) or the week ended Jan. 26, 2003 (9.4 million), still the two worst sales weeks on record since the folks who tally such things started keeping track.
