If it was just the marketing plan, then it would have died after the first week. An album riding solely on surprise wouldn't sell 3 million+ in 2 months
There's nothing to suggest that she would have done worse than 4 with a traditional release. That's just irrational ATRL logic.
I'm not going to attribute the success of the album to the marketing plan, because if the quality wasn't there, it would have fallen flat on its face. I can imagine it's successful because of quality, innovation, anticipation and word of mouth.
It's all part of it. The album has cheap pricing (like 51 cents per track), a great promo campaign (from the commercial campaign to the Superbowl), is a visual album (which is easier to sell than a studio album), etc. but it's still a fifth album from an artist over 17 years in to her career with a minimal promotional campaign in comparison to most pop girls like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift. Plus, there's no guarantee that promo will always sell a record (see: Bionic and Lotus). For it to be the top-selling album of 2014 so far signifies that every factor has to be aligned just right.
There's nothing to suggest that she would have done worse than 4 with a traditional release. That's just irrational ATRL logic.
I'm not going to attribute the success of the album to the marketing plan, because if the quality wasn't there, it would have fallen flat on its face. I can imagine it's successful because of quality, innovation, anticipation and word of mouth.
You have to accept word of mouth came from the surprise release and the 17 videos she filmed. Nothing to be ashamed of being successful because of marketing, in my opinion it was genius and I actually respect her for taking the risk
Clearly, there was hype for this album.
