US Sales:
At No. 2 on the Billboard 200, the much buzzed-about R&B singer/
songwriter Frank Ocean bows with his debut studio effort, "Channel
Orange." The set sold 131,000 in its first week -- mostly from the iTunes
Store. However, about 3,000 of that sum were physical CDs.
The set was initially exclusively released via iTunes on July 10 -- a
week before its advertised street date of July 17. Since it dropped
digitally, physical retailers were instructed by Ocean's label to start
selling the CD version as soon as it arrives in stores. In turn, many brick-
and-mortar retailers had the album on its shelves over the weekend.
Ocean's debut surpasses Usher's recent first-week with "Looking 4
Myself" (128,000) and almost matches the figure Chris Brown
launched with "Fortune" a week ago (135,000). Ocean's bow is thus
rather stunning. Consider how his album -- with comparably little
promotion compared to Brown and Usher and basically only available at
iTunes -- basically sold as well as two superstars with multiple hit radio
singles and wall-to-wall promotion.
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indus...07604152.story