MCHG sales update

EVERYONE’S A WINNER: The lack of top-of-homepage visibility for Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail in the iTunes Store didn’t appear to hurt the pre-order, nor is it slowing down today’s release, which is currently perched at the top two slots on the chart, the clean version being #2. What’s more, five of the iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap Top 10 this morning are from the album: the JT single “Holy Grail” (#1), the minimalist "Tom Ford" (#4), the Rick Ross-featured "FCKwithmeyouknowIgotit" (#6), “Part II (On the Run)” f/Beyonce (#7) and “Oceans” f/Frank Ocean (#8). Meanwhile, Target has indeed chosen to take the album, while a Samsung/Jay-Z commercial ran last night on CBS with a Best Buy tag—a smart use of those Samsung marketing dollars—and possibly to lure shoppers to the recently opened Samsung Experience Shops at many Best Buy locations. Plus, the fact that there’s a clean version means Walmart is in the mix as well. The overall result of all this visibility? It now appears that the traditional release of MCHG could have an even better first week than 2009’s The Blueprint 3 (465k) and 2012’s Watch the Throne (476k), and it will at least wind up in the same ballpark. Our current guesstimate for the conventional release of MCHG is 450k, give or take, based on early, early reads. (7/9p)