Member Since: 8/19/2013
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US
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Beyoncé's "Beyoncé" sold 617K copies in the U.S. in its first three days of release. That's the fourth highest one-week sales total so far this year, following Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" (968K), Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" (792K) and Drake's "Nothing Was The Same" (658K).
Both Timberlake and Drake are featured on B's star-studded album, which consists of 14 songs and 17 videos. The album is an iTunes exclusive for now. A CD/DVD combo is due on Friday.
This is the greatest one-week total for an album by a female artist since Taylor Swift's "Red" bowed with sales of 1,208,000 in October 2012. It's the greatest total for an album by an R&B artist (though Beyoncé obviously transcends that label) since Mary J. Blige's "Growing Pains" bowed with 629K in December 2007.
This is the fastest start for a Beyoncé album. The old record was held by 2006's "B'Day," which sold 541K in its first week. "Beyoncé" sold nearly twice as many copies in its first week as B's 2011 album, "4" (310K).
This was a stealth release that few knew about as late as last Thursday, when initial sales projections had Garth Brooks holding on to the top spot for a second week. Beyoncé's album was put on the market without any advance hype; as Hits magazine put it, "without any wind-up, preamble or tease." This is contrary to the usual pattern with superstar releases, where there is a carefully-planned build-up that entails from two to four months.
Only one album has ever sold more digital copies in one week. That's Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," which bowed with 662K in May 2011. (An estimated 440K of those were sold for just 99 cents in Amazon's MP3 store).
Beyoncé's album sets a new record for the fastest start by a digital-only release. The old record was set by the all-star "Hope For Haiti Now," which sold 171K copies in its first week in January 2010.The old record for a digital-only release by a single artist was Lil Wayne's "I Am Not A Human Being" which sold 110K in its first week in October 2010.
With this debut, Beyoncé becomes the first female solo artist to reach #1 on The Billboard 200 with each of her first five studio albums. Only one other artist in chart history has hit #1 with his or her first five albums: Rapper DMX, who achieved the feat between 1998 and 2003.
Only three other African American women in chart history have amassed five or more #1 albums. Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey lead with six. Alicia Keys has also had five. (Carey and Keys are biracial.)
In just one week, "Beyoncé" has topped Rihanna's "Unapologetic" as the year's top (non-rap) R&B album. And it's closing in on P!nk's "The Truth About Love" as the year's best-selling album by a female artist. (Both of those albums sold additional copies in 2012.)
Beyoncé needed a career lift. Her last album, "4," was her least successful. It has sold "just" 1,381,000 copies (great for most artists, a disappointment for Beyoncé). It was also her first album to fail to spawn at least one top 10 single. The album's highest-charting single, "Best Thing I Never Had," stalled at #16.
"Beyoncé" is the seventh album of 2013 to sell 500K or more copies in its first week. This is the first year that seven albums have sold 500K in their first week since 2008.
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So true.
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