Member Since: 12/1/2011
Posts: 24,324
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Remember when katy's terrible music killed album sales
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Originally posted by Katy Perry's Album Sales Spark New Worries
It didn't meet first-week sales projections in the industry. And that, in turn, has sparked worries that the album's performance may affect retail orders for other superstar releases due later this year.
Executives at other major labels say they expected Perry's sophomore album to debut with sales of anywhere from 300,000 to 700,000 units, with most figuring the album would scan about 400,000.
"I'd like to meet one industry executive last week who thought her album would do under 200,000 units, because I don't think that person exists," a senior executive at a rival major says.
"It was a wake-up call for some folks," the head of sales at another competing major says. "Some think the sky is falling. Others said, 'Wait a minute, she's a singles artist.' And still others said EMI should have put out the album six weeks ago and it would have sold more."
According to sources, EMI shipped 1 million units of the album prior to its U.S. street date of Aug. 24, which indicates that big-box retail chains like Walmart, Target and Best Buy were expecting the album to post robust first-week sales, as was Starbucks, which featured the title in its stores.
It would also be roughly in line with typical industry practice of shipping about twice as much product as anticipated first-week sales for a major album release. But prerelease shipments of "Teenage Dream" turned out to be about seven times debut-week sales.
The album sold 89,000 units at mass merchants and 65,000 through nontraditional merchants, including 50,000 downloads. It also sold 35,000 units at chain retailers and 3,000 units at independent stores and regional chains.
Competing major-label executives say it wasn't EMI's fault that the album didn't meet sales expectations. "EMI did a tremendous job in setting up that record," one executive says.
Newbury Comics head of purchasing Carl Mello says he expects "Teenage Dream" will sell well through the end of the year and that it will be one of the holiday season's top titles. But he notes that the album's first-week sales "aren't as big as you would think for somebody who has become so omnipresent."
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selling 89k physical albums out of 1 million shipped 
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