Despite a 3.5% sales increase to 261,000 copies, Usher's "Confessions" falls to No. 2 behind "D12 World." Prince's "Musicology" (Columbia) holds its place at No. 3, on a 10% decrease to sales of 170,000 copies in its second week. Mario Winans drops three spots to No. 5 on a 44% dip to 124,000 copies of his Bad Boy debut "Hurt No More."

http://www.billboard.com/...1000502978

© 2004 VNU eMedia Inc. All rights reserved.

It's already been said many times, many ways, but I gotta say it again: PRINCE IS A GENIUS!!!!!
Congrats again to Prince.

Mario fell 44%! Ha!

Hey guys who am I pretending to be?

" Number 3 huh? Too bad the album sux. Not innovative, blah blah blah!"

Again, congrats to Prince and all the purple hippies who hopped on the paisley bandwagon and never jumped off.

VinnyM27 said:

most do fall that much after the first week.....no surprise really...

GO PRINCE!!! GO PRINCE!!! Awesome news.

Is 170,000 the total sales or just for the 2nd week?

skywalker said:

divo02 said:

191,000 first week, + 170,000 this week!!!!
congratulations Mr.Prince

Not hating but 5 concerts at 15,000 a night probably helps quite a bit.

lovemachine said:

He would have been at #5 without those.

Still seems pretty good.

bkw said:

Yeah I agree it's good but I am of the opinion that the give-aways don't belong on the charts because people are only paying an alleged $5 for the disc and they have no choice.

skywalker said:

lovemachine said:

Sure they have a choice. They can choose not to go to the concert. What I don't understand is why someone would want to see a Prince concert, yet be upset that he's charting well. Prince could have had no idea how much success his album would have had, so he figures since fans who come to see him don't buy albums as much as kids do, he'll give them a free cd.

The concert prices are in line with what they would have been without the giveaway and it sure doesn't seem to be keeping people from going to the concert.

So what we're really talking about is a really great promotion. It's called "buy one, get one free" and it's as old as the act of selling.

MarcelJ said:

I just think it's opening a door that shouldn't be opened. If Bruce Springsteen had done that for the Rising tour he would have had an additional 3.2 million sales. Artists who play stadiums would put up huge numbers. The Rolling Stones...damn they would have the number one record each year they toured. Plus as some have suggested what if someone signs a deal with McDonalds and they give away a copy with each meal sold.

A cd doesn't cost much to produce and it's a very cheap way for Prince and other artists to juice their numbers. What you say about promotion is true, but promotional copies aren't supposed to count.

I agree that it is dumb that the count the concert CDs in there, but I'm glad that they are doing it for Prince because it will make him look more successful and lead to him selling even more albums.

VinnyM27 said:

RupertZ said:

Pretty good for something dumb, eh?

lovemachine said:

when people say that it makes me cringe..the cd is counted because it is givin out at a concert not a freakin Mcdonalds not a burger king..etc...there is no way Soundscan would count cd's at places that don't involve music..there is no way they would count a cd with a happy meal
[This message was edited Wed May 5 19:51:27 2004 by Mazerati]

Musicology didn't lose any ground?! HAPPY DANCE, HAPPY DANCE!

I just listend to the album a couple times, and there's something about this album. Well, two somethings. First, this was how I felt when I listened to 1999 - like I could memorize every note and every nuance of the songs easily. Second, it's very interesting to see Prince meld his NPG sound with his older Revolution type mood - it creates a whole new sound field for Prince to explore, that should keep his listeners very happy.

Eric

I just think it's opening a door that shouldn't be opened. If Bruce Springsteen had done that for the Rising tour he would have had an additional 3.2 million sales. Artists who play stadiums would put up huge numbers. The Rolling Stones...damn they would have the number one record each year they toured. Plus as some have suggested what if someone signs a deal with McDonalds and they give away a copy with each meal sold.

Ummm, like - YEAH! That's the whole point. Between The Rolling Stones and Britney Spears, who do YOU want to see at the top of the charts? The young punks need to pay homage, and remember that there's grown folks handlin' thangs today!

Too bad this idea didn't come up before. Albums like The Rainbow Children and The Gold Experience, deserved to be on the top half of the charts (I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS!), and this woulda helped them.

Actually, anyone who thinks Soundscan/Billboard is fair reflection of what happens at the customer level is out of his/her mind. Like worrying about corrupting the morals of a two-bit pimp.

poetbear68 said:

i'm wit'cha poet...charts are supposed to show the amount of orders from the label (distributor) to retail (tower, virgin, itunes, barnes & nobles, why not ticketmaster...etc.)
at least prince is proving you dont have to spend a million bucks on radio promotion to sell records, like everyone else on the charts!Genius....just WATCH others acts jump on the bandwagon...

poetbear68 said:

This issue has already come up...back in '94-'95 McDonalds sold an exclusive Garth Brooks album. It sold over a million copies but was ruled ineligible to chart on Billboard. So there's no worry about the practice getting out of hand.

Aerogram said:

-----
Don't waste your time trying to explain anything to the haters on this site. There is a lawsuit rignt now because some marketing company said it was not paid after helping double scan CD's for various labels.

Artist have hit records because labels want to have hit records. Prince is just playing the same game that record companies have been playing for years. It is time for the little guys to rise up and take some control.

Mazerati said:

If you paid more for it, they might! Fortunately, concerts are one of the few things that people can charge that much for, then add an extra ten bucsk, and still sell out huge venues.

laurarichardson said:

I don't think that people should be labelled haters for merely trying to understand/debate the process! I actually asked someone who knows the business about it yesterday. She thinks its pretty genius, and she explained that, as Aerogram was saying, the Soundscan is already totally weird. Different record store have different weight in the chart, double scanning happens, etc. She was also saying that, in order for these to count, Prince probably bought them from a distrubutor first, so it's not like he wasn't taking a financial risk with this. An interesting question she had: The real debate might be when to count the sale, when it's bought from the dist., sold to the fan, or picked up at the concert?

All of U haters need 2 B happy and "Shut up already DAMN!"

Aerogram said:

- Aero, I think Rupert tried to mean ´unfair´.....but it´s cool to see Princey on charts again. If ´A million days´ is released as a single, chances are bigger.