CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: Warner Music Group announced its change in command at Warner Bros. Records a week ago Tuesday (9/14, see I.B. Bad's take on the events here), which just happened to be the street date for its Linkin Park album, the label’s most anticipated release in what has been a distressingly fallow year, with the most conservative in-house projections at a 400k debut. But the album (following up a May 2007 LP that sold 623k en route to 3m) moved just 254k units in its first week. That outcome echoes last month’s disappointing start for Katy Perry (194k, and now at 380k after three weeks), but not for the same reason. Whereas some believe Perry’s singles sales cannibalized her album, Linkin Park fell short of expectations in large part because of a poorly chosen first single. (9/23p)
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