On this date in 2006, Prince was the ruler of the
record charts. His album "3121" captured the number-one spot,
with SoundScan reporting it had sold more than 183,000 copies. It
was the first time in nearly two decades he has posted a
top-selling album.

Yikes - it's been 4 years already??

What a great time - coming off the commercial high of Musicology, "Black Sweat" was in heavy rotation on Vh1, "Fury" on SNL, a website that was semi-useful, and a number-one album... a great rebirth!

Then came Planet Earth... and, well... yeah.

OK; 4 years went away fast.

I only like a few tracks from the 3121 album though.

Average: 5/10

Those were the days. I saw him three times that year.

3121 appealed to a lot of people. it was his first Number one since Batman. Im guessing what made the album sale well was the SNL Performance and Black Sweat promo. I even saw the cover for the album on a teen drama show known as Degrassi

Ha!
Yeah remember the good old days lol.

I just listened to Fury from SNL. THAT should have been released to radio!

And how unusual the record industry has become when a mere 183,000 records makes the #1 spot. It was only six years before that when bands were making records in selling a million copies in the first DAY, or the first week.

More over, the internet has put a huge dent in record sales. I just found that measly number amusing compared to just 10 years ago.

Nsync's No Strings Attached, in 2000, sold 2.4 million the first week, and 10 million over all. It was #1 on the charts for eight weeks. LONG time. That's an incredible amount of records, whether you like them or not. And through the next 10 years, until December 2009, no other album sold matched those numbers. That's why it was named #1 album of the decade.

Numbers like that would be nothing more than a pauper's dream these days. People are lucky to go platinum once, REALLY lucky to go twice.

If you think about it, Prince's record deal with WB (that infamous $100,000,000 deal) would have fallen flat these days. Part of the deal was a $10,000,000 advance on a record, IF the previous record had sold 5,000,000 units. There's no way Prince could sell 5 million records, not even 10 years ago. He hasn't sold that many of one album in a very, very long time. He'd not be getting that much needed cash flow, and his albums would be viewed as flops. (They sort of are viewed that way anyway.) Not even the stunt he pulled with Musicology garnered much more than 2,000,000. His last big record with sales was Diamonds and Pearls with 8,000,000.

ernestsewell said:

Numbers have been on a sad, inevitable decline for quite some time...that 183,000 for 3121 is actually somewhat impressive these days. It's a bit unfair though to compare anything to No Strings Attached. It's the biggest single week in Soundscan history. But notice that it sold nearly a quarter of its total sales in that first week; those teen pop albums were very heavily front-loaded. By comparison, Purple Rain spent 3 times as long at number one and has shifted several million more copies than NSync's album. It still continues to sell today, more than No Strings Attached. Those teen pop albums haven't really connected with a younger generation (as those kinds of albums typically don't).

There's been a slight spike at the number one spot recently thanks to Lady Antebellum, Sade, and (gasp) Susan Boyle, but it will be interesting to see the numbers at number one another ten years from now!
[Edited 3/30/10 8:33am]

ernestsewell said:

Yep. Odd world this cyberthingy we play in everday.

renfield said:

No Strings Attached was an album, not a single. The ALBUM sold 2.4 million in a week, the FIRST week it was released, which means Tuesday-Saturday. Soundscan has been around since 1991 or so. It might have sold just under a quarter in its first week, but it still sold another 7.6 million at some point. Purple Rain sold 13 million in its initial run in 1984. So with the internet and Napster in full swing in 1999, it's a big accomplishment to sell 10 million records in a short amount of time. It's a fair comparison because it shows the very thing you and I agree on - which is the decline of record sales. 183,000 is so paltry. Even if Prince was making $10 an album (which apparently he got a lump sum), he would only stand to make $1.6 million on Lotus sales the first week. Not a lot of money per se. He can't make $10 on it now because it's 4.99 as a regular price now. They can't give the damn things away it seems.

You don't know if Purple Rain sells more than No Strings Attached. Back catalog sells are replacements most times, not new buys, so it's sparse at best. Purple Rain isn't being snapped up by 20 year olds these days. Nsync stands a better chance at that. I would be Nsync album sales go up a tiny bit when Justin puts out an album, more than Purple Rain sales go up a bit when Prince gets a little bit of press for something. 20 year olds don't know who Prince is, not in the way we do. But they DO know who Justin Timberlake is, and his new music creates a desire for the older music.

And 183,000 is something for sure, especially since Prince sold less than that for Lotus and made #2 on most charts, showing that sales are still declining over the past 4 years or so.

ernestsewell said:

Yes, it sold that in a SINGLE week, not over multiple weeks. I thought that was pretty clear. No need to over-simplify for me when you're the one who misunderstood.

Also, it's easier to find how many copies an album sells in a week than to figure out WHY people are buying or how old they are. That's some heavy duty assuming on your part. I'm just saying that teen pop albums are part of the teen zeitgeist of the times and don't usually hold much appeal with younger generations once the target audience has grown up. Purple Rain was popular with teens but was not a "teeny-bopper" album. The same reason Madonna's back catalogue outsells Debbie Gibson's or Tiffany's. Those acts hold nostalgia with the teens of the time once they grow up but are usually too dated to have much appeal beyond that. Justin has reached a more mature audience and I imagine his past albums do better than NSync's at this point.
[Edited 3/30/10 14:13pm]