For example, Mariah Carey's Music Box. In 1993, debuted at #2 with 174K. Fifteen weeks later, it sold 505K copies and reached #1. It ended up going Diamond. Albums usually sold 10x or more of their debuting amount.

Nowadays, an album's total sales can be pretty much predicted with its first week sales. Albums that debut with 100K generally sell 300K - 500K. Albums that debut with 300K generally sell 900K - 1.2M. Even an album that debuts with almost 1 million (The 20/20 Experience) only sells 2.2 million total, whereas ten years ago it would've gone Diamond. Most albums only sell 2x or 3x of their debuting week.

So what happened?

Originally posted by Ratchet-Konst Piracy.

The 20/20 Experience was pretty front loaded. It passed 2 million copies only a month ago. But I agree about the others.

Originally posted by Ratchet-Konst Piracy.

Originally posted by Honey The 20/20 Experience was pretty front loaded. It passed 2 million copies only a month ago. But I agree about the others.

Originally posted by Pop pop123 Lana Del Rey Born To Die has been on the charts for 83 weeks. Still inside the top 30.

Originally posted by MusicTalker Only a couple albums do a year: this year, The 20/20 Experience, Night Visions, Unorthodox Jukebox, The Heist, The Truth About Love, & Here's to Good Times.

Because everyone has so many more ways to listen to music these days & piracy.

I don't think it'll sell 3 million. Tunnel Vision was the last single but it had no promo and flopped. Part 2 is coming out this month, and people will buy that instead of Part 1.