Because Gaga is more important, and bc she had the girls fuming with 1M first week, 8M total sales.
Also, I've never heard anyone call Rihanna a flop, yet her albums have always opened with less numbers than ARTPOP.
Because it wasnt something highly promoted and it wasnt bei g sold for 0.99 it was for 3.99. If you had that gift card you would essentially get it for 0.99 cents. Which is the same with every album. If you had a iTunes gift card with $9 on it, then of course youd have to spend the next 99 cents + tax out your pocket.And it was just for 1 day I believe.
Because it was $3.99, not 99c. Some blog taught people how to use a coupon code, but who tf is really gonna go through the trouble?
Lady Gaga was 99c. Heavily advertised, and she ended up breaking records because of it. That's a bit more dastardly than a 99c deal that requires a bunch of hoops to jump through.
Because it wasn't 99 cents they had a holiday sale for thanksgiving where all new albums were on sale for 3.99 they were also giving out free $1 gift cards for digital downloads so amazon promoted Rated R for 99 cents with the two sales for only one day