Rihanna’s ‘Talk That Talk’ entered the Billboard 200 at #3 this week and it became her sixth consecutive album to miss the top spot on the tally. However, what really baffled her fans were the relatively slow sales of the project, despite the record being preceded by its widely successful lead single, ‘We Found Love’.

With sales barely exceeding 197K copies, ‘Talk That Talk’ actually sold 10K copies less than Rihanna’s previous album, ‘Loud’. So what exactly is the reason for the slow start of the record? Well, while there may have been many possible causes, the main reason for the slow chart start lies with Rihanna’s US fans themselves.

Rihanna is the quintessential Pop star of the 21st century, appealing to the masses of the dominant iTunes generation – the 16 to 25 age bracket – who require striking visuals and simplistic hooks to stimulate their interest. Yet, although she has thus far enjoyed incredible success on the singles charts because of her ability to satisfy their demands, Rihanna’s team has overlooked a crucial fact – the children of this digital era typically do not buy albums on a large scale.

Regardless of how well her songs perform on iTunes and radio, Rihanna’s fans are generally not interested in buying complete albums. Reflecting on the trend of her past sales confirms this point as her top-selling release – 2007′s ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ – has sold only 2.7 million copies in the US to date and none of her other albums have surpassed the 2 million mark.

On the other hand, Adele, for instance, has generated massive sales with her ’21′ LP, which has already topped 4.6 million copies in US sales after only 9 months – more than three times to total of Rihanna’s ‘Loud’. Yet, why is Adele, who only has two #1 singles, rarely moves anything except her mouth during her shows and simply sits on a stool in a her videos, outpacing Rihanna? The answer is once again found with the audience in question.

Adele is an Adult Contemporary artist and her target market arguably represents the larget album-buying audience in the US. As such, although she may not always score hit singles – the successes of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and ‘Someone like You’ were truly unusual – with the right material and promotion, Adele is guaranteed to have a huge advantage on the album charts.

So how has Rihanna managed to sell albums at all? Similar to her close friend Katy Perry, she has to perform near excessive promotion and issue a wave of singles with the intent that those members of her fanbase who aren’t just looking for a new ringtone would buy her records. Of course, special discounts and bonus content, such as posters, pictures and video packages, also help her cause.

Hence, Rihanna’s greatest strength on the singles charts is ironically her downfall on the album tallies. The very fans that guarantee her dominance of the digital singles charts and force her song titles onto the list of Twitter’s trending topics will do almost anything except buy her albums.

Ultimately, Rihanna may enjoy slow sales that eventually result in long term success but as was the case with her ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’, ‘Rated R’ and ‘Loud’ projects, Rihanna’s team will have to launch a much larger promotional campaign than her Adult Contemporary counterparts and issue a flurry of singles just to keep her ‘Talk That Talk’ album on the charts. Rihanna may lead her fans to ‘Talk That Talk’ on iTunes but she can’t always make them click ‘purchase’.

http://thelavalizard.com/...bum-sales/

Rihanna has a new album??

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Drama hunny.

It is very true and her stan haters have been saying this for years now.

It's like having one sandwich a day or having 65, if there is too much of something, people will reject it. She's been on the scene since 2004 and is on her sixth album when most artist are on their second, do we need this much of her?

People latch on to her and Katy as they are two of the most popular artists but it happens to most artists in the pop sphere at the moment. I read about an artist who had a #1 on the Billboard not too long back, and he pushed less than 20k albums in the first week, and around 10k the second week, after that it disappeared completely from the album charts.

But with regards to Rihanna, I do think she might push a few more albums if she simply stopped releasing so much product. I haven't heard the new album but chances are they could have trimmed the fat, boiled it down to the best 6-8 songs, released it as an EP but also done a deluxe version of the previous album and bundle it with that, like Gaga did with "The Fame Monster".

Their whole attitude towards albums comes across as quite disposable and the fans pick up on that and treat it that way too.

Clearly she is a singles artist. She has had great success there, and why should people buy those songs twice just for some crappy filler?

That pretty much sums it up. Her fans are young they listen to her on the radio and buy her singles. The other thread asking if country is popular? Well country fans BUY albums.

[Edited 11/30/11 14:24pm]

She should just stick with releasing singles.No more albums.Every year,she could go into the studio and record about 6 or 7 singles and release a new one every two months.Problem solved.Not everybody can be an 'album artist'.

Militant said:

People latch on to her and Katy as they are two of the most popular artists but it happens to most artists in the pop sphere at the moment. I read about an artist who had a #1 on the Billboard not too long back, and he pushed less than 20k albums in the first week, and around 10k the second week, after that it disappeared completely from the album charts.

But with regards to Rihanna, I do think she might push a few more albums if she simply stopped releasing so much product. I haven't heard the new album but chances are they could have trimmed the fat, boiled it down to the best 6-8 songs, released it as an EP but also done a deluxe version of the previous album and bundle it with that, like Gaga did with "The Fame Monster".

Their whole attitude towards albums comes across as quite disposable and the fans pick up on that and treat it that way too.

That initially was the plan but she chose to release a completely new album instead. Definitely a move that didn't work in her favor.

Why do album sales still mean so much?

Especially on a Prince board where so many of his fans have championed the idea that album sales don't necessarily reflect the quality of the recorded material.

There may be another conversation to be had here: how does Rihanna and her team continue to produce and imagery that makes people want to dance and sing and just have a good time year after year?

And before anyone begins talking about how influenced she is by her team, let's keep things a little more real - she's got a big part to do with her package. Her vocal tone is fascinating and absolutely unique in that oversaturated market of sound alike singers. Her image is unique and she's got a pretty fearless attitude.

Let's hope that as she grows into a young lady, she finds more and more interesting things to sing about. I hope she continues to put out albums that are full of songs that I can dance to and sing along with forever! Kinda like I hope Prince continues to write songs that I can get down with!

Peace,

Jaydeep10000

http://www.myspace.com/thechocolateinvasion- check out my tunes!

http://emathipation.blogspot.com - check out my mathematics blog!

jayARDAHB said:

Why do album sales still mean so much?

Especially on a Prince board where so many of his fans have championed the idea that album sales don't necessarily reflect the quality of the recorded material.

There may be another conversation to be had here: how does Rihanna and her team continue to produce and imagery that makes people want to dance and sing and just have a good time year after year?

And before anyone begins talking about how influenced she is by her team, let's keep things a little more real - she's got a big part to do with her package. Her vocal tone is fascinating and absolutely unique in that oversaturated market of sound alike singers. Her image is unique and she's got a pretty fearless attitude.

Let's hope that as she grows into a young lady, she finds more and more interesting things to sing about. I hope she continues to put out albums that are full of songs that I can dance to and sing along with forever! Kinda like I hope Prince continues to write songs that I can get down with!

Peace,

Jaydeep10000

http://www.myspace.com/thechocolateinvasion- check out my tunes!

http://emathipation.blogspot.com - check out my mathematics blog!

Thing is that people generally dont like her at all, so kick her while she is down is the motto i think, but she isnt down, the idea of sales is dead and buried, people keep holding on to this thing that something is gonna sell like it did 20 years ago when so many other media forms didnt even exist, face it ADELE, NORAH JONES and some others over the last decade are flukes, that is not the normal, an album selling 20 million worldwide, isnt going to happen much anymore, did anyone know that QUEEN's "MADE IN HEAVEN" sold 21 million worldwide, thats more than Adele has sold or GAGA or BEYONCE etc..and that album was barely gold in the states, but no one knew that back in 1995 when it came out. SALES are over, lets face it, Rihanna can sell 300,000 week one or two weeks and thats slow, but if Janet or Prince debuted with sales of 150,000 and at number one we would be like OMFG the 80's are back and the golden age of selling, shit peeps let the shit go already, im really tired of the constant Rihanna threads, the hate on her is actually making me like her just to be against the fucking grain.

Riri has only sold 10 million albums worldwide. But she's sold 70 million singles worldwide. If she's not a singles artist, who is?

aardvark15 said:

Riri has only sold 10 million albums worldwide. But she's sold 70 million singles worldwide. If she's not a singles artist, who is?

the two things used to go hand in hand and thats what people cannot grasp, the fact that that type of selling doesnt happen anymore basically. Norah Jones has sold more albums worldwide than Beyonce, and yet Norah has basically only had one or two major hit singles, Katy, Rihanna, Kesha, Flo-rida, etc...are singles artists plain and simple, they still sell some albums and are well known artists, but its alot different than say Michael Jackson or Billy Joel having 7-8 singles from an album and the album still selling miliions and millions worldwide and in the usa. That day and age is long gone, its the same reason why these artists are not really big tour draws for the most part, Elton JOhn can never have another album and still sell out shows in every market of the planet, Rihanna cant sell out a place like MSG which is a major market, despite having tons of albums and hits.

aardvark15 said:

Riri has only sold 10 million albums worldwide. But she's sold 70 million singles worldwide. If she's not a singles artist, who is?

Yeah Rihanna will never be an albums artist, she's not deep like that.

lastdecember said:

aardvark15 said:

Riri has only sold 10 million albums worldwide. But she's sold 70 million singles worldwide. If she's not a singles artist, who is?

That day and age is long gone, its the same reason why these artists are not really big tour draws for the most part, Elton JOhn can never have another album and still sell out shows in every market of the planet, Rihanna cant sell out a place like MSG which is a major market, despite having tons of albums and hits.

Hey lastdecember...

I agree with everything you've shared except for one thing here: the draw as a live act.

Rihanna, while her records don't sell huge numbers, she can tour anywhere in the world and sell it out right now. Her singles have been connecting with people really hard for several years now. She's been playing live shows that have been selling out everywhere for a couple of years now!

But the hate for this 23 year old girl is unreal here - these are the same fans of Vanity 6 and Appolonia both of whom couldn't sing a lick if their lives depended on it. At least Rihanna's got an interesting tone and skills as a singer.

J

I've seen her tour figures and except for some tour spots a few years ago, she actually does well overall as far as tour grossing goes.

We're just not that into you!

I believe she will get a number one album one day lol. She need to work with kanye more...

It's just not as simple as saying that Adele is selling because she is an AC artist. There are tons of AC artist that will never sell the way that she is selling. She is the Norah Jones of 2011.

PurpleCharm said:

It's just not as simple as saying that Adele is selling because she is an AC artist. There are tons of AC artist that will never sell the way that she is selling. She is the Norah Jones of 2011.

Though Adele is not a "new artist" technically, people forget she won that award two years ago. Norah on the other hand was a new artist.

It is true that mostly young girls like her, especially from what I've seen, and it's not too uncommon for people to know singles but not know album names that often, even though I saw the opposite happen when Lady Gaga's new one came out.

She's a singles artist. People like the songs enough to download them off of Itunes, but they can't take her seriously enough to buy the whole album.

alphastreet said:

It is true that mostly young girls like her, especially from what I've seen, and it's not too uncommon for people to know singles but not know album names that often, even though I saw the opposite happen when Lady Gaga's new one came out.

Thanks for the insight?!?!?!

Her newest record is not for young girls - the songs are about human sexuality and emotion, which by no means am I saying is a new point of discussion, but done in a way that little girls wouldn't understand or need to understand.

The record is made by a young lady who is without a doubt becoming aware of who she is as a woman, a powerful woman and a woman who is allowed to have a sexuality without having to feel a sense of shame.

More than anything - the grooves on this new disc are undeniable!

smoothcriminal12 said:

She's a singles artist. People like the songs enough to download them off of Itunes, but they can't take her seriously enough to buy the whole album.

Rihanna fans, some of them, even said that most of the times it's the singles, not the albums, that hit the most. But I'm sure some folks love her albums like that. It's all a personal choice after all.

jayARDAHB said:

alphastreet said:

It is true that mostly young girls like her, especially from what I've seen, and it's not too uncommon for people to know singles but not know album names that often, even though I saw the opposite happen when Lady Gaga's new one came out.

Thanks for the insight?!?!?!

Her newest record is not for young girls - the songs are about human sexuality and emotion, which by no means am I saying is a new point of discussion, but done in a way that little girls wouldn't understand or need to understand.

The record is made by a young lady who is without a doubt becoming aware of who she is as a woman, a powerful woman and a woman who is allowed to have a sexuality without having to feel a sense of shame.

More than anything - the grooves on this new disc are undeniable!

It's not that deep.

Timmy84 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

She's a singles artist. People like the songs enough to download them off of Itunes, but they can't take her seriously enough to buy the whole album.

Rihanna fans, some of them, even said that most of the times it's the singles, not the albums, that hit the most. But I'm sure some folks love her albums like that. It's all a personal choice after all.

Well there you have it.

What amazes me is how she became a star in the first case. Her voice and music are weak and is she black or white, if she is black she needs to be more proud and at least sound blacker. She nearly looks white. Her music is formulaic and generic. Still shes miles ahead of Disney pop and shit hop.

Adorecream said:

if she is black she needs to be more proud and at least sound blacker. She nearly looks white. Her music is formulaic and generic. Still shes miles ahead of Disney pop and shit hop.

jayARDAHB said: