Are Madonna's first-week sales numbers a disappointment? Blame Mariah.

[markm]

Are Madonna's first-week sales numbers a disappointment? Blame Mariah.

While Madonna scored yet another No. 1 album, it may not have been the blockbuster opening that some were expecting.

She sold 280,000 copies of "Hard Candy," according to Nielsen SoundScan, in its first week in stores. First things first: With the days of the CD as the music format of choice seemingly numbered, any album that sells in the six-figure range is a bonus for the music biz these days.

And those who rolled their eyes at yet another blog alluding to the death of the CD, ask Madonna herself, who last year signed a $120-million deal with a touring company in Live Nation. And this summer, fans will get to see that deal start paying off. Madonna will be generously coming to a whopping 16 North American markets, according to Billboard.

Great Diva Sales Race of 2008

Yet it's also hard not to note that Madonna's "Hard Candy" sold about 180,000 copies less than Mariah Carey moved two weeks ago. She's still significantly ahead, though, of the 181,000 copies sold by Janet Jackson's "Discipline" when it debuted in March.

But back to Carey. Her "E=MC2" scored the highest debut of the year when it opened at No. 1 after selling 463,000 copies. In just three weeks on the chart, "E=MC2" has sold more than 740,000 copies.

Album sales may be down across the board, but Madonna would certainly be expected to be closer to Mariah than, say, Leona Lewis, on the diva totem pole. Newcomer Lewis entered at No. 1 a few weeks ago, her debut, "Spirit," selling 205,000 copies.

To compare "Hard Candy's" stats to Madonna's last record: in 2005 her Euro-influenced "Confessions on a Dance Floor" opened with 350,000 copies, according to Billboard. It's rare these days for an artist to actually top the first-week sales of a prior album, but if anyone could do it, it would certainly be Madonna. And Mariah just did it.

So it's easy to view Madonna's sales tally as a disappointment, a sign that she's losing her grip on the pop marketplace. But don't.

CD sales just an added bonus

Billboard downplays Madonna's sales dip, noting that "Confessions" opened during the holiday season. The trade also fairly points out that Mariah may have benefited from appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "American Idol."

On one hand, Madonna is a bigger international brand than Mariah will ever be, and she was just inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But on the other, the marketing campaign for "Hard Candy" was one based less on promotion than it was partnerships. The album may not have been endorsed by Oprah, but the marketing campaign leading up the release of "Hard Candy" has been far from what anyone would call subtle. There's the Sunsilk commercials, the branding promotions with Verizon, the odd YouTube video and the video gift to gossip blogger Perez Hilton.

Additionally, Madonna's lead single "4 Minutes" has been inescapable. It's still a top-10 hit, and her second single, "Give It 2 Me," has just debuted inside the top-100. But even more important, "4 Minutes" has given Madonna something she didn't have at all with "Confessions on a Dance Floor," and that's a hit on U.S. radio.

But if there's a problem -- if this is a problem -- with "4 Minutes," it's that it is as much a Justin Timberlake or Timbaland single as it is one from Madonna. It's also a song that will spur download sales, but not necessarily album sales.

For instance, as fun and silly as it may be, "4 Minutes" also could have appeared on Timbaland's 2007 album "Shock Value," or Timberlake's "FutureSex/LoveSounds." It's a song fit for an iTunes playlist as much as it is a new Madonna album.

Indeed, by lining up today's top producers and superstars -- Timberlake, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, etc. -- Madonna has created an album that may sound swell stacked up with everyone else on the radio, but it also risks the danger of failing to set itself apart.

But "Hard Candy" doesn't really need to stand alone in order to be a success. The end result is an album seemingly built to sell millions of single-track downloads, ring tones, videos and bits of whatever digital accessories exist. And for pop music as business plan, that may prove to be one of Madonna's smartest moves yet, whether intentional or not.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/extendedpl...adonnas-fi.html

[GOD]

well HC is much better than K=FC2 so who cares?

[Guest bluejean]

This article isn't one sided enough to make a real point... It's too "but on the other hand"

[mtzlplk]

Blame Mariah? Why? She did her own thing... so let her be... she deserve her 462k debut, she whoreked hard for it for more than a month...

and MADONNA deserves her debut as well...

[Guest Coked Up Baby Boy]

Let's blame Mariah for the hole in the ozone layer as well, it's CLEARLY her fault.

[Bebe Glazer]

Let's blame Mariah for the hole in the ozone layer as well, it's CLEARLY her fault.

exactly. The way she works that private jet which takes her all over the world so she can shoot those fake candid beach photos of herself..

[Queen Bitch]

I wonder if the American Queen Of Pop's wedding was a bid to keep the pretender to her throne at bay on the album chart? I suppose it beats slitting her wrists again.

[Guest Hafo]

Or shaving her head

I am starting to think that either WBR or Madonna or both don't give a damn about this album at this stage. It's shipped 2.5 M already plus perhaps 2M downloads/ringtones, which is probably one of the biggest shipments of the year so far, with close-to-null promotion. It's a pity that the 2nd week sales are going to nosedive, for statistical purposes though. Maybe they are betting on the tour to sustain sales? I cannot see Give It 2 Me doing much of an immediate business, since the last Madonna album to benefit from non-first singles was "Ray of Light". We'll see though, hope I'm proven wrong.

[SkyHigh76]

I hate articles like this.Why do they have to keep over-analyzing the chart position? Madonna sold 280k her first week and she has the Number One album in America.Mariah has nothing to do with it.End of story.

[Skin]

We all know that if Madonna did Oprah and two nights of Idol and Good Morning America her sales would have been much higher. Mariah is even going back on Oprah to talk about her marriage and I am sure her album will be plugged non-stop again. Bitch knows how to pimp her product. But besides that, Hard Candy had the 3rd highest debut of the year in America. Not something to sneeze at, and if Give It 2 Me becomes a hit I am sure it will cause more casual Madonna fans to buy the album who might have been confused by 4 Minutes and whos song it was.

[Andra]

who cares, didnt HC outsell worldwide mariah's album? and 4 Minutes also outsold Touch My Body. Or am I wrong? how much the 2 albums sold worldwide until now?

[Queen Bitch]

I am starting to think that either WBR or Madonna or both don't give a damn about this album at this stage.

I just find the lack of promotion UNFATHOMABLE - those gigs in NY and Paris are more to flag up the tour.

[mtzlplk]

who cares, didnt HC outsell worldwide mariah's album? and 4 Minutes also outsold Touch My Body. Or am I wrong? how much the 2 albums sold worldwide until now?

E=MC2 (1,075,000) 3 weeks

HARD CANDY (802,000) 1 week (44k was an anomaly)

[Guest harbors]

why blame Mariah? BLAME MADONNA LAZY OLD ASS INSTEAD.

[moe]

I just find the lack of promotion UNFATHOMABLE - those gigs in NY and Paris are more to flag up the tour.

Exactly, half the people I talk too don't even know Madonna has an album out!

[Littlebastard]

speaking to a person who works at sony Canada she told me that the album is selling extremely well for 1. This time period 2. No promo

so that's all i need to know

[nino89]

who cares..she's No 1...

[Supernatural]

I wish we knew what Madonna is thinking so we could stop speculating, but it's possible she would rather save the Oprah sort of promo for her albums with Live Nation (where she'll have more to prove and more $ to make)... or maybe she only cares about touring (like Mariah only cares about #'s) and albums are just a launching pad for her fan base to come out... we really have no idea but in the end she's going to make a fortune touring this year while Mariah um... eats a Famous Bowl at KFC. That's about it once she can't move any more copies of her album. There'll be the re-release, a divorce from Nick Cannon, and that's about it til the next album. And what will sales be then? Will we be arguing how Mariah worked for her 56 copies sold and Madonna didn't to debut with 27 copies? Everything's changing so fast, Billboard may be irrelevant in a couple of years. I feel like I'm stating the obvious but if you look over the past year it's clear that touring is priority #1 for M.

[Guest nothingfails0603]

I think it's a little disappointing that Madonna's become a touring act. I mean, I hated that she was off the road in the 90's but at least it was good that the albums were priority over the tours. Whenever I think of the tours being a priority over the album, I think of people like Cher and Rolling Stones who perform the same shit year in and year out and the new albums are nothing more but an excuse to get back onstage. I hated when Madonna backed out of a ROL tour (I know Lourdes was little, but no younger than David is now) but at least back then you knew it was about the music. Madonna's still making too good of music to become a touring act, compared to someone like The Rolling Stones, who haven't released a decent album in over 25 years are.

[Guest nothingfails0603]

I do agree with the mission statement of the article though. The media and fans in general love to compare artists in terms of other artists. With Madonna and Mariah releasing albums concurrently, you've seen the difference between them. Mariah whored the album everywhere and made sure every single person who as much as enjoyed one Mariah song knew she had a new album out, and got 462k. Madonna dropped an album out with little promotion and with fans who didn't even know she had a new album out, and relied mainly on airplay for her song (which gets half the audience impressions Mariah;s song got at it's peak) and opened at 280k. It really isn't a flop or disappointment considering the levels they promoted the albums, but the media as well as fans will see it as such and see it as "proof" that Mariah is bigger. When who knows what might've happened if Madonna did a one on one with Oprah promoting the album, or American Idol had "Madonna week" or she performed on The Hills making sure to let the audience know 4 Mins is available on iTunes, etc.

It makes sense why one should blame Mariah and her obsessive tactics to push an album compared to Madonna dropping an album and seeing how well it'll do on her name.

[Supernatural]

Yes but things are different now with very little money to be made with album sales. Even when albums were selling 10-20 million acts were complaining they weren't seeing their money, can you imagine what it must be like now? A huge tour is now the equlivelent of scoring a Thriller or Jagged Little Pill in the music business. Mariah is going to do everything under the sun and her album will end up selling like an early 90's Madonna album. No one that doesn't have to stay stuck there is going to.

[Supernatural]

It really isn't a flop or disappointment considering the levels they promoted the albums, but the media as well as fans will see it as such and see it as "proof" that Mariah is bigger.

As album sales drop every year where will Mariah be in a few years? Finished.

[Laprol]

EW's chart report shows Hard Candy being at #1. The caption reads:

About 280K fans were sweet on Hard Candy, a much softer opening than the 463K bow Mariah enjoyed two weeks ago.

This is the same magazine that gave E=MC2 an A-, and Hard Candy a B+. They also had the face-off between the two and said Moo won round 1 because of TMB.

Since when has this magazine become such an ardent Moo supporter? Are they mad because M never grants them a cover story??

[Supernatural]

They haven't liked Madonna for a long time.

[Guest iMisto]

Ok... So

Mariah's global debut was 600k??? What are the exact numbers again?

Madonna, according to Media Traffic global chart did 758,000. She wins for the worldwide debut.

[Guest seancannon]

Oh sweethearts, who cares???????

Get a job!

Get a hobby!

Go for a jog!

[Guest iMisto]

Oh sweethearts, who cares???????

Get a job!

Get a hobby!

Go for a jog!

Rub one out!

[lori]

I think everyone's missing the whole point of this article. I think what it's saying is that people might look at Madonna's sales as a disappointment because of the comparison to Mariah's sales, but it really is not. It's saying that CD sales are just an added bonus. The strategy seems to be to sell individual tracks in the millions, ringtones, make commerrcial partnerships or whatever else and make lots of money that way. It even says in the end that this may be Madonna's smartest move yet, whether intentional or not. The music business is changing rapidly and people just have to accept that. Mariah may be selling more CDs but may actually make less money thant Madonna. How much money can an artist make if a CD sells for $10 while production, marketing and distribution costs are getting higher. Coldplay just announced that you will be able to buy their CD on a buy one take one basis on internet downloads, their reasoning being that nobody buys full albums anymore. And just like Madonna, their CD is just a marketing tool to promote their forthcoming tour. Here's an article wherein

Guy Oseary himself says “In the past, people would tour to promote their albums; today they put out albums to promote their tours”.

http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/b...treme-makeover/

[Supernatural]

“In the past, people would tour to promote their albums; today they put out albums to promote their tours”.

http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/b...treme-makeover/

Exactly. Madonna is in a fantastic position right now. It fustrating to see press and fans bicker about album sales when in the grand scheme Madonna is light years ahead. If you like numbers just look at Madonna's touring #'s compared to other acts. And in that department Mariah Carey may as well be Paula Abdul. Mariah Carey always has been and always will be smoke and mirrors. I wasn't kidding a few posts ago- the day will come where she's gloating because she debuts with 45 copies to Madonnas 26.

[Skin]

Im freakin confused. So how much has Hard Candy sold World Wide so far? Should I not add the 44,000 that was on the United World Chart last week? And why was it there?