ADELE EARLY RESPONSE:
BEYOND BELIEF (UPDATE)

Regarding the first-day response to the new Adele album, 25, the term “feeding frenzy” doesn’t sufficiently describe what's happening here in the States—and presumably around the world.

Early sales are unlike anything we've seen in the modern era. The numbers are so extraordinary, we don’t have anything to properly benchmark them against. Digitally, 25 should sell over 1m, giving it the biggest-ever digital sales week. Physically, however, there haven’t been enough huge titles released since the new Friday street day for us to develop a model on which to base 25’s trend.

Could Walmart and Target combined sell north of a million? That would be nearly twice the 527k the two accounts sold collectively on Taylor Swift’s 1989, which went on to sell nearly 1.3m in its debut week. Amazon, which broke the preorder record earlier this week with 100k+, now must get them all shipped by Monday night in order to count for next week’s chart.

And what of Thanksgiving Day, the last day in 25’s first chart week? Will the holiday hurt the album’s momentum or help get it over the hump? With many retailers open on Thanksgiving evening, will that provide the last-minute surge to move 25 beyond the 2.4m first week record set by NSYNC in 2000 and possibly even hit 3m in its first week.

At this point, 2m+ is a lock. Can it hit 3m? Stay tuned.

Stay tune for further updates.