Oh my..... If he does beat Madonna then Lionel is King! Because his record label only expected something like 20,000 first week in America originally. Here in England I think he got a top ten with no promo! So who knows.
Oh and iTunes does not mean anything in regards to album sales though.
"Luvin'" has sold over 100,000 downloads in the U.S., while pre-orders for her album via the iTunes Store stand around the 50,000 mark. Comparably, Madonna's last lead single from a studio album, 2008's "4 Minutes," bowed with 217,000 downloads in its first week of availability (it was released on a Monday). Or, a little more than double what "Luvin'" has sold.
With the slightly more than 20,000 in pre-orders, industry prognasticators suggest that Richie's album, which hit stores today, will generate about 75,000-100,000 for the week ending April 1.
iTunes is not a great indicator of album sales but Amazon is a pretty good one. iTunes and Amazon combined give you a general idea. Pre-orders will probably give Madonna the edge.
Universal Republic’s T Bone Burnett-produced Hunger Games soundtrack, which features the first track by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars and includes tracks by Arcade Fire, the Decemberists, Miranda Lambert, Kid Cudi and Maroon 5, among others, will debut at #1 on the HITS album chart next Tuesday with an estimated 150-175k in sales. The highly anticipated movie version of the first of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy of best-selling dystopian young adult novels opens this Friday. The following week will be UMG’s as well, with the release of Madonna’s first Interscope album, MDNA.
