According 2 a recent post on the NPGMC website, and an article on Billboard.com which apparently requires u 2 be a site member 2 read, Prince's CD giveaways past the street date (April 20th) of Musicology will count towards album sales. How bout that?
[This message was edited Sat Apr 24 13:54:28 2004 by getwild007]

getwild007 said:

how can a giveaway count as a sale?

its a brilliant marketing tactic for him, though.

ufoclub said:

they're not technically giveaways, since the prince of $9.99 is in with the ticket price. Prince is showing an unusual amount of business savy lately. Wonder wut happened

The Kid showing business sense...Who the hell would've thought?

PurpleKnight said:

it'd be interesting 2 know whether or not he knew it would work this way.

True, but... It still doesn't seem the same to me: someone receiving the CD along with their concert admission, VS. someone deliberately purchasing the album because they want it. But I can see both sides of the argument, and good is good: I hope this makes him #1!!

I wonder if any other artists or industry members will complain? Maybe this will become a big scandal, LOL! Just more PR for Prince if it does.

Here's the article from Billboard:

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A LOOK AHEAD: For each of the four weeks that his "Confessions" has topped The Billboard 200, Usher has been oblivious to the other 199 albums on the chart, having been virtually uncontested during that reign.

This issue, for example, despite a 35% slide from Easter week (302,500 copies), his lead over the No. 2 spot widens, as "Now 15" has an even larger decline (122,000 copies, down 56%).

Figure that Usher will remain similarly unruffled next issue, despite worthy competition from new albums by R&B sophomore Mario Winans and veteran star Prince, the latter with his first major-distributed album since 1999. Why does that year ring a bell when I think of that guy?

The total for Prince's first Columbia outing will be enhanced by new-fangled venue sales, as the purchase of every ticket on his current tour includes the cost of his new album, which is distributed at his shows. Since there is a value ascribed to those CDs, Nielsen SoundScan will count those copies in its tallies.

To remain consistent with other pre-street sales windows—including direct-to-consumer sales or albums that are sold in Christian outlets before they move to mainstream accounts—The Billboard 200 will only count CDs from shows that happened on or after the street date for Prince's "Musicology."

The cycle for venue sales is Thursday through Wednesday because of the extra steps required to verify that data, so the only show from the tracking week that will count toward Prince's opening week will be the April 21 show at Colonial Center in Columbia, S.C. Capacity for that venue is 17,500, so that is the maximum contribution that concert-distributed CDs will yield in the first week. Got it?

Winans' story is much less complicated. No orders bundled with tickets, and the clock started with the album's April 20 release date. Looks as if he will sell more, too.

Even with Prince getting added sales from that Carolina concert, Winans should earn the big chart's Hot Shot Debut. Based on retailers' first day numbers, sales crunchers put his "Hurt No More" at 200,000 copies, while Prince looks as if he will start with about 165,000-185,000.

One chart watcher thinks Usher will slide by 14%, which would keep him well ahead of the pack with about 260,000.

Those sales projections suggest that R&B will monopolize the big chart's top three next issue for the first time since last July, when Ashanti, Beyoncé and Luther Vandross led the chart. That is, if you consider the versatile Prince to be an R&B act.

You can read an excerpt of the article right here:

http://www.prince.org/msg/7/91020

qzxk0c said:

Clutch. thx 4 posting this!

And, by the way, can any1 remember the last time Prince was in the top 10 on Billboard, much less the top 3? Dammit this kool!

getwild007 said:

album wise TGE was #6, before that...hold on ill check! emancipation was 11. c&d was26, black album 47, come 15, bloody hell, diamonds and pearls NUMBER 3! so musicology will be princes highest album chart in 12 years! now thats a (commercially speaking) comeback!. it will also be his biggest selling album since then wont it? or symbol?

softandwet said:

'm pretty sure that the album hit the 2 million mark, so this will be probably his biggest hit since 1992. so yeah, 12 years. Hard 2 believe ain't it?

Ok, this sounds great and I agree...The Cd is being included in the cost of the ticket anyways....so this means the following shows should be included into the count:

21.04.2004: Columbia/SC, The Colonial Center, $75,
22.04.2004: Knoxville/TN, Thompson-Boling Arena, $65
23.04.2004: Raleigh/NC, RBC (Royal Bank Of Canada) Center, $75
25.04.2004: Ft. Lauderdale - Sunrise/FL, Office Depot Center, $76.50

Plus the Cd retail sales...BESTBUY has an awesome deal for $9.99 and Trust...ppl have taken advantage of that, whether they have a copy from the show or not!

Its always great to have pictures, crisp quality of the musicology video and words to your favorite jams on the new disc!

So I predict PRINCE will enter the TOP 200 Charts@ #2!!!


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CandaceS said:

It doesn't seem right to me - people purchasing concert tickets don't have a choice of NOT buying the album and saving the money. So it's not a real reflection of the album's popularity. If I buy a burger meal and they give me Musicology whether I want it or not claiming it is incorporated in the price of the meal, that just seems like a cheat to inflate the sales figures to me.

I don't believe this will work in the UK, they tend to have strict rules about what is elligible for chart sales - for instance, that cover of 'I Would Die 4 U' by Space Cowboy a while back was inelligible as a chart single so I heard because the mixes on the disc pushed it over the time limit for a single.