Beyonce’s album sales hit record
Still got it … Beyonce’s fifth solo album chalked up record digital sales in its first three days of release.
Source: AP
BEYONCE’S fifth solo album has sold more than 600,000 units in
its first three days, setting a record for first-week US digital sales.
Beyonce’s self-titled album was released early on Friday morning
exclusively on
iTunes unbeknownst to the public. Apple said on Monday
that the album sold 617,213 in its US iTunes Store. It sold 828,773
internationally.
"You have to be innovative. The internet has changed the game. You’ve
got to look at how to address the fact that most artists’ albums leak
before their release plans,” said Lee Ann Callahan-Longo, the general
manager of Beyonce’s production company Parkwood Entertainment, who
released the album alongside Columbia Records.
"Look at where your opportunities can lie and that’s kind of how we
approached it,” she continued in an interview Monday. "We had a
multitude of things we were trying to accomplish, some things we were
trying to avoid, and this turned out to be the right perfect plan for
us.”
Beyonce surprised fans with the release of the album, which features
14 songs and 17 videos, and social media website exploded with mentions
of the singer and her new music. In three hours, it sold 80,000 units,
and the build-up continued over the weekend.
"It really wasn’t about making a hit record or chasing what sounds
like today’s music for singles,” explained Callahan-Longo, who has
worked with Beyonce for seven years.
Beyonce features collaborations with
Jay Z, Drake, Frank Ocean and Justin Timberlake, who co-wrote two songs.
The album is being sold by iTunes exclusively for a week at $
US15.99. It will be sold in retailers and others websites this week.
"It wasn’t easy and we were really careful,” Callahan-Longo said of
keeping the album a secret. "It started with a very small core group of
people and only grew when necessary in order to make something happen.
It got a little dicey there and concerning as we got closer and closer
as the circle had to widen.”
Beyonce broke the first-week digital sales record for an
album in the United States. It also marks the singer’s best first-week
numbers. It will debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart this
week.
Callahan-Longo said the Jay Z-featured
Drunk In Love and
XO, co-produced by Ryan Tedder, will be launched as singles.
She said Beyonce came up with the idea to launch a "visual album.”
"She said to me one day, ‘I really want to do a visual album. I want
to do all the videos and I want to put them out.’ I looked at her and I
said, ‘Whoa, wow, oh my God,”’ she recalled. "We all said to her, ‘Wow,
you’re crazy, but OK, let’s think about that.’ And we really kind of sat
down and figured out how could this actually happen.”
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