Gunsnhalen said:

To be fair both these album are going to drop in the next week. I know Lionel's album is going to go LOW next week. So he should enjoy this number 1 while he can

Madonna will fall off quick to, but hey i don't think that's bad, 8 number 1 albums is great. And even though i disagree with ASG about the top 10 thing... i agree a lot of promotion & the superbowl helped the single get top 10.

Bit i doubt any of the other singles while reach top 40, hell I see a lot of gay clubs playing Girl gone wild but have not heard it once on radio

Lionels album has much greater long term potential and is still riding high on itunes and the 2nd week drop of shouldnt be as bad as mdna

Tuskegee has alot of potential if the country audience accepts it. Country fans still buy actual disc, more so than most other genre fans. Plus there are alot of major country shakers and movers and legit country cred on that disc. Lionel could stage a major lil comeback. The whole disc is a very smart move.

[Edited 4/4/12 21:31pm]

PRESSED

asg said:

lastdecember said:

I dont think we can compare the promo that Prince was doing in 2004 to Madonna's now. I mean im a huge Prince fan more than Madonna, i mean i love the man, but, i cant deny that he was everywhere he needed to be for Musicology, and there were alot of people that didnt even know they were getting a cd with the ticket, Madonna has it known, Prince fans knew, but the average person jumping back on the Prince wagon could care less. NOW the almost 2 million real sales Prince did was a testament to his takeover, he had it all over the place, it was 1984 for him all over except now he was accesible, in 1984 he didnt really talk. He had it all timed right,as he even said, the Hall of Fame show stealing, the grammy show stealing, the vh1 webster hall show, when MTV was relevant, leno and ellen when they were relevant to sales, Madonna's superbowl appearance sparked nothing but maybe some catalog interest, football fans could care less about her. Plus the performance was 3 months before the album, Prince's stuff was 3 minutes before. PLUS Prince had a major up his ass to do Promo, SONY was not letting him coast, like Jive did with Rave, LIVE NATION for Madonna is not a label, its a strong entertainment push and adverstising and tour funder but it has no music sense whatsoever, HAD Prince been pushing Musicology on NPG records and distributed on Redline, like Rainbow Children, he would have seen numbers like Rainbow Children pulled in 140,000 after a year.

so from 140k to 2 million just shows how much distortion this kinda promotion creats. not only for prince but also madonna and it in effect cheapens the charts. The pre-orders for mdna from first weekend of the superbowl were 50k and the mdna was on the front page of itunes for the last 7 weeks too with a count down clock all paid advertisement.

The rules have changed now too u have to opt in for the promotion but to make this a success madonna gave away 22 vip pit tix to each of her concerts if u opted in and each person was allowed 8 cd per person. All this of course is causing all the distortion.

The second week of mdna is lookin very bleak and it will likely not even be in the top 10 and the promotion will likely only add 200k but the real over all sales r looking not to exceed 400k in total.

Just creates alot of distortion in the first week and steals the #1 and after that is a bust.

prince had no business being top 5 for 7 months and madonna has no right being #1

[Edited 4/4/12 18:37pm]

But as its been said no one is going to be talking about this album in a month, its like that with ALL artists that have been around, i mean is anyone talking about the springsteen album, i mean that dried up already, Prince albums arent even talked about anymore except here. But you can apply that pretty much to any artist who has been around, mainly because there is no MUSIC business anymore, where albums are discussed and singles etc...its all BS and nonsense now. Madonna has been sliding in sales since MUSIC, from 3 to 2 mil to platnum to gold and now this one, so i dont really see anything shocking. If this album goes gold is pretty interesting for an album with no singles at all, kind of like 3121 for Prince. As for iTUnes ads, i dont consider them any form of publicity, mainly because though they are half or more of sales, they still are a huge drop from what sales were. I mean Norah Jones was being plugged on the front page but that album will do maybe 100K.

to me the charts have been cheapened since Beyonce and Mariah had the 49cent single war, now its 3.99 mp3 albums or in some cases 99cents, sure they took it away now, but there are still these 3, 5 dollar deals at amazon etc..so i dont put stock in the charts, until they start counting sales from an artists official site/indie stuff then the charts might be somewhat valid again

Yeah Lionel!

lastdecember said:

asg said:

so from 140k to 2 million just shows how much distortion this kinda promotion creats. not only for prince but also madonna and it in effect cheapens the charts. The pre-orders for mdna from first weekend of the superbowl were 50k and the mdna was on the front page of itunes for the last 7 weeks too with a count down clock all paid advertisement.

The rules have changed now too u have to opt in for the promotion but to make this a success madonna gave away 22 vip pit tix to each of her concerts if u opted in and each person was allowed 8 cd per person. All this of course is causing all the distortion.

The second week of mdna is lookin very bleak and it will likely not even be in the top 10 and the promotion will likely only add 200k but the real over all sales r looking not to exceed 400k in total.

Just creates alot of distortion in the first week and steals the #1 and after that is a bust.

prince had no business being top 5 for 7 months and madonna has no right being #1

[Edited 4/4/12 18:37pm]

But as its been said no one is going to be talking about this album in a month, its like that with ALL artists that have been around, i mean is anyone talking about the springsteen album, i mean that dried up already, Prince albums arent even talked about anymore except here. But you can apply that pretty much to any artist who has been around, mainly because there is no MUSIC business anymore, where albums are discussed and singles etc...its all BS and nonsense now. Madonna has been sliding in sales since MUSIC, from 3 to 2 mil to platnum to gold and now this one, so i dont really see anything shocking. If this album goes gold is pretty interesting for an album with no singles at all, kind of like 3121 for Prince. As for iTUnes ads, i dont consider them any form of publicity, mainly because though they are half or more of sales, they still are a huge drop from what sales were. I mean Norah Jones was being plugged on the front page but that album will do maybe 100K.

to me the charts have been cheapened since Beyonce and Mariah had the 49cent single war, now its 3.99 mp3 albums or in some cases 99cents, sure they took it away now, but there are still these 3, 5 dollar deals at amazon etc..so i dont put stock in the charts, until they start counting sales from an artists official site/indie stuff then the charts might be somewhat valid again

The problem with lack of success is more to with the artist themselves they need to rentlessly promote the album beyound just the first week and atleast for 2months after release. look at lmfao they have been at it day in aday out and finally tasting success if lionel continues promting it for another 2 months u might have the mini success santana had at least within country

music sold thru artist sites is counted

I´ve been checking out Tuskegee on YT and like I expected; I hate country Lionel.

Sorry cowboys and people in the US but here in Europe Country is strange to our ears. I compared it with our Schlagers-tadition from Belgium/Holland/Germany but maybe that´s a bridge to far. No disrespect here, I know Dolly, Johnny Cash and others made some fine country tunes but Lionel and country....NO WAY! Imagine Stevie or others doing this,strange!

http://www.billboard...006670752.story

Editor's Note: What Role Did Bundling and Exclusives Play in Madonna and Justin Bieber's Big Debuts?

April 04, 2012
By Bill Werde (@bwerde), New York

Madonna has the no. 1 album on this week's Billboard 200. She sold 359,000 copies of MDNA compared to Lionel Richie's Tuskegee, which opens with a really impressive 199k first week. But many of Madonna's sales came through a bundle option, in which fans who purchased tickets for her upcoming tour received a code that could be redeemed for either a physical CD or a digital download of the album.

There are plenty of people crying foul on both fronts. Those people should probably calm down. Both examples offer a glimpse into the complicated, largely experimental and ever-changing world of marketing, distributing and monetizing new releases in today's marketplace.

Of Madonna's 359,000 sold, trusted sources tell Billboard that somewhere in the area of 185,000 came from the bundle/redemption code. Sacre bleu, you say, doing math: 359 - 180 = 179. Mr. Richie's 199,000 is the true king-making total this week!

But that's completely ridiculous. With all respect deserved and paid to the beloved songs of Mr. Richie, think about two important points. One: Madonna fans who redeemed that code are not receiving the album for free. The price of Madonna's album was bundled into the ticket purchase. I can understand why there's confusion about this. Even the CEO of Ticketmaster tweeted that fans buying tickets got "a free copy of MDNA." (The March 30 tweet has since been taken down). Such is the less-than-fully-transparent nature of bundling.

But let's take a hypothetical for a second: the cost of MDNA wasn't bundled into the ticket price, or that Billboard doesn't count those sales. All 185,000 fans who used the Madonna redemption code were the first in line to buy tickets to her tour. These are her top fans, each of whom were eager to shell out anywhere from $50 to more than $350 for a seat. If no bundle existed, do you really think a large portion of these fans wouldn't have purchased the album? We'll never know for certain, of course. But I think it's a more than safe bet that Madonna has the no. 1 album in the U.S. under any circumstance - joining her deserved no. 1 debuts in at least 17 other countries, according to manager Guy Oseary's tweets.

For context, here are her recent albums' first-week sales, per Nielsen SoundScan:

2008 - Hard Candy - 280K
2005 - Confessions on a Dance Floor - 350K
2003 - American Life - 240K
2000 - Music - 420K
1998 - Ray of Light - 371K

So you can see, given that MDNA has a nice buzz and single going, it's pretty much beyond reason to think that suddenly this album would sell substantially less than any recent one Madonna has released.

That said, let's wait and see what the drop-off is next week on sales of MDNA. Second weeks tend to follow a fairly predictable curve. And while it's far from a perfect science, it's one of the best bullsh-- detectors out there for an inflated first week. Billboard's head of charts Silvio Pietroluongo says that an iconic pop star's album will generally drop anywhere from 65 to 80 percent second week. If MDNA drops a lot more than that, it'll be an indication of the degree of first week inflation caused by bundling.

SoulAlive said:

http://www.billboard...006670752.story

Editor's Note: What Role Did Bundling and Exclusives Play in Madonna and Justin Bieber's Big Debuts?

April 04, 2012
By Bill Werde (@bwerde), New York

Madonna has the no. 1 album on this week's Billboard 200. She sold 359,000 copies of MDNA compared to Lionel Richie's Tuskegee, which opens with a really impressive 199k first week. But many of Madonna's sales came through a bundle option, in which fans who purchased tickets for her upcoming tour received a code that could be redeemed for either a physical CD or a digital download of the album.

There are plenty of people crying foul on both fronts. Those people should probably calm down. Both examples offer a glimpse into the complicated, largely experimental and ever-changing world of marketing, distributing and monetizing new releases in today's marketplace.

Of Madonna's 359,000 sold, trusted sources tell Billboard that somewhere in the area of 185,000 came from the bundle/redemption code. Sacre bleu, you say, doing math: 359 - 180 = 179. Mr. Richie's 199,000 is the true king-making total this week!

But that's completely ridiculous. With all respect deserved and paid to the beloved songs of Mr. Richie, think about two important points. One: Madonna fans who redeemed that code are not receiving the album for free. The price of Madonna's album was bundled into the ticket purchase. I can understand why there's confusion about this. Even the CEO of Ticketmaster tweeted that fans buying tickets got "a free copy of MDNA." (The March 30 tweet has since been taken down). Such is the less-than-fully-transparent nature of bundling.

But let's take a hypothetical for a second: the cost of MDNA wasn't bundled into the ticket price, or that Billboard doesn't count those sales. All 185,000 fans who used the Madonna redemption code were the first in line to buy tickets to her tour. These are her top fans, each of whom were eager to shell out anywhere from $50 to more than $350 for a seat. If no bundle existed, do you really think a large portion of these fans wouldn't have purchased the album? We'll never know for certain, of course. But I think it's a more than safe bet that Madonna has the no. 1 album in the U.S. under any circumstance - joining her deserved no. 1 debuts in at least 17 other countries, according to manager Guy Oseary's tweets.

For context, here are her recent albums' first-week sales, per Nielsen SoundScan:

2008 - Hard Candy - 280K
2005 - Confessions on a Dance Floor - 350K
2003 - American Life - 240K
2000 - Music - 420K
1998 - Ray of Light - 371K

So you can see, given that MDNA has a nice buzz and single going, it's pretty much beyond reason to think that suddenly this album would sell substantially less than any recent one Madonna has released.

That said, let's wait and see what the drop-off is next week on sales of MDNA. Second weeks tend to follow a fairly predictable curve. And while it's far from a perfect science, it's one of the best bullsh-- detectors out there for an inflated first week. Billboard's head of charts Silvio Pietroluongo says that an iconic pop star's album will generally drop anywhere from 65 to 80 percent second week. If MDNA drops a lot more than that, it'll be an indication of the degree of first week inflation caused by bundling.

Lionel #1, Madonna #2? According to Billboard's editor: that's completely ridiculous.

But hey, facts, logic and reality will never get in the way of folks who love to bash Madonna.

Lionel should sue billboard I am sure madonna would have sued if she was robbed of a #1

NoVideo said:

SoulAlive said:

http://www.billboard...006670752.story

Editor's Note: What Role Did Bundling and Exclusives Play in Madonna and Justin Bieber's Big Debuts?

April 04, 2012
By Bill Werde (@bwerde), New York

Madonna has the no. 1 album on this week's Billboard 200. She sold 359,000 copies of MDNA compared to Lionel Richie's Tuskegee, which opens with a really impressive 199k first week. But many of Madonna's sales came through a bundle option, in which fans who purchased tickets for her upcoming tour received a code that could be redeemed for either a physical CD or a digital download of the album.

There are plenty of people crying foul on both fronts. Those people should probably calm down. Both examples offer a glimpse into the complicated, largely experimental and ever-changing world of marketing, distributing and monetizing new releases in today's marketplace.

Of Madonna's 359,000 sold, trusted sources tell Billboard that somewhere in the area of 185,000 came from the bundle/redemption code. Sacre bleu, you say, doing math: 359 - 180 = 179. Mr. Richie's 199,000 is the true king-making total this week!

But that's completely ridiculous. With all respect deserved and paid to the beloved songs of Mr. Richie, think about two important points. One: Madonna fans who redeemed that code are not receiving the album for free. The price of Madonna's album was bundled into the ticket purchase. I can understand why there's confusion about this. Even the CEO of Ticketmaster tweeted that fans buying tickets got "a free copy of MDNA." (The March 30 tweet has since been taken down). Such is the less-than-fully-transparent nature of bundling.

But let's take a hypothetical for a second: the cost of MDNA wasn't bundled into the ticket price, or that Billboard doesn't count those sales. All 185,000 fans who used the Madonna redemption code were the first in line to buy tickets to her tour. These are her top fans, each of whom were eager to shell out anywhere from $50 to more than $350 for a seat. If no bundle existed, do you really think a large portion of these fans wouldn't have purchased the album? We'll never know for certain, of course. But I think it's a more than safe bet that Madonna has the no. 1 album in the U.S. under any circumstance - joining her deserved no. 1 debuts in at least 17 other countries, according to manager Guy Oseary's tweets.

For context, here are her recent albums' first-week sales, per Nielsen SoundScan:

2008 - Hard Candy - 280K
2005 - Confessions on a Dance Floor - 350K
2003 - American Life - 240K
2000 - Music - 420K
1998 - Ray of Light - 371K

So you can see, given that MDNA has a nice buzz and single going, it's pretty much beyond reason to think that suddenly this album would sell substantially less than any recent one Madonna has released.

That said, let's wait and see what the drop-off is next week on sales of MDNA. Second weeks tend to follow a fairly predictable curve. And while it's far from a perfect science, it's one of the best bullsh-- detectors out there for an inflated first week. Billboard's head of charts Silvio Pietroluongo says that an iconic pop star's album will generally drop anywhere from 65 to 80 percent second week. If MDNA drops a lot more than that, it'll be an indication of the degree of first week inflation caused by bundling.

Lionel #1, Madonna #2? According to Billboard's editor: that's completely ridiculous.

But hey, facts, logic and reality will never get in the way of folks who love to bash Madonna.

It's just common sense,isn't it? These are diehard fans who would have bought the album anyway,even without the "bundle deal".A new Madonna album will always sell around 300k in the first week (U.S.).

NoVideo said:

Lionel #1, Madonna #2? According to Billboard's editor: that's completely ridiculous.

But hey, facts, logic and reality will never get in the way of folks who love to bash Madonna.

Its not about madonna when prince did it i considered it as a joke there is something called fairness that madonna stans dont know about.

Lately her album sales have been doing badly and her singles have been flopping migtyly and this is just one act of desparation.

She thought mdna wont even go gold she had to scheme the system somehow.

Yes her last album did 280k first week with a hit from timerlake

this without a hit wasnt supposed to do much more then 200k

her star has fallen

[Edited 4/5/12 6:46am]

asg said:

NoVideo said:

Lionel #1, Madonna #2? According to Billboard's editor: that's completely ridiculous.

But hey, facts, logic and reality will never get in the way of folks who love to bash Madonna.

Its not about madonna when prince did it i considered it as a joke there is something called fairness that madonna stans dont know about.

Lately her album sales have been doing badly and her singles have been flopping migtyly and this is just one act of desparation.

She thought mdna wont even go gold she had to scheme the system somehow

Tom Petty and Bon Jovi used this same strategy with their recent albums.Why weren't you attacking them?

asg said:

NoVideo said:

Lionel #1, Madonna #2? According to Billboard's editor: that's completely ridiculous.

But hey, facts, logic and reality will never get in the way of folks who love to bash Madonna.

Its not about madonna when prince did it i considered it as a joke there is something called fairness that madonna stans dont know about.

Lately her album sales have been doing badly and her singles have been flopping migtyly and this is just one act of desparation.

She thought mdna wont even go gold she had to scheme the system somehow

Billboard magazine: "That's completely ridiculous"

Nothing more needs be said. If you don't comprehend that Madonna's fans who bought concert tickets would have bought the CD anyway, there's nothing more really to say. Believe what you want.

NoVideo said:

asg said:

Its not about madonna when prince did it i considered it as a joke there is something called fairness that madonna stans dont know about.

Lately her album sales have been doing badly and her singles have been flopping migtyly and this is just one act of desparation.

She thought mdna wont even go gold she had to scheme the system somehow

Billboard magazine: "That's completely ridiculous"

Nothing more needs be said. If you don't comprehend that Madonna's fans who bought concert tickets would have bought the CD anyway, there's nothing more really to say. Believe what you want.

why did u think when prince did this?

NoVideo said:

asg said:

Its not about madonna when prince did it i considered it as a joke there is something called fairness that madonna stans dont know about.

Lately her album sales have been doing badly and her singles have been flopping migtyly and this is just one act of desparation.

She thought mdna wont even go gold she had to scheme the system somehow

Billboard magazine: "That's completely ridiculous"

Nothing more needs be said. If you don't comprehend that Madonna's fans who bought concert tickets would have bought the CD anyway, there's nothing more really to say. Believe what you want.

He doesn't get it.Madonna's last four albums debuted at Number One.Why would MDNA be any different?

...

[Edited 4/5/12 6:50am]

SoulAlive said:

NoVideo said:

Billboard magazine: "That's completely ridiculous"

Nothing more needs be said. If you don't comprehend that Madonna's fans who bought concert tickets would have bought the CD anyway, there's nothing more really to say. Believe what you want.

He doesn't get it.Madonna's last four albums debuted at Number One.Why would MDNA be any different?

...

[Edited 4/5/12 6:50am]

Her sales have been falling off and this album had 2 flop singles of course the album did worse then the last one suddenly its one of her biggest hits? do u get it? do u have any education?

asg said:

Gunsnhalen said:

To be fair both these album are going to drop in the next week. I know Lionel's album is going to go LOW next week. So he should enjoy this number 1 while he can

Madonna will fall off quick to, but hey i don't think that's bad, 8 number 1 albums is great. And even though i disagree with ASG about the top 10 thing... i agree a lot of promotion & the superbowl helped the single get top 10.

Bit i doubt any of the other singles while reach top 40, hell I see a lot of gay clubs playing Girl gone wild but have not heard it once on radio

Lionels album has much greater long term potential and is still riding high on itunes and the 2nd week drop of shouldnt be as bad as mdna

Record sales aren't important anymore.The real money comes from touring.At the end of the year,when Madonna is counting the millions she will make from the tour,will she care about how many copies MDNA sold?

asg said:

SoulAlive said:

He doesn't get it.Madonna's last four albums debuted at Number One.Why would MDNA be any different?

...

[Edited 4/5/12 6:50am]

Her sales have been falling off and this album had 2 flop singles of course the album did worse then the last one suddenly its one of her biggest hits? do u get it? do u have any education?

Yeah,it's a "flop album" that is Number 1 in 50 different countries What a flop,huh?

asg said:

Lionel should sue billboard I am sure madonna would have sued if she was robbed of a #1

You're insane I don't think Lionel or Madonna are obsessed with this like YOU are!

Prince will do the same thing, just you watch. Linking a vault box set with tickets would be wise.

SoulAlive said:

asg said:

Her sales have been falling off and this album had 2 flop singles of course the album did worse then the last one suddenly its one of her biggest hits? do u get it? do u have any education?

Yeah,it's a "flop album" that is Number 1 in 50 different countries What a flop,huh?

her career is in a free fall here in the us and even in the uk

asg said:

SoulAlive said:

Yeah,it's a "flop album" that is Number 1 in 50 different countries What a flop,huh?

her career is in a free fall here in the us and even in the uk

Lay off the meth.

NoVideo said:

asg said:

her career is in a free fall here in the us and even in the uk

Lay off the meth.

i dont do any drugs but she is a fallen star i dont think if there was no pre-sale form superbowl her total would be less then 150k even prince did much better will a much smaller marketing budget ppl have give up on her and this just reeks of desparation.

the scheme will only lead to big first week but the sales r going to drop like a rock now.

The standard sencond week drop off is 65-70% maybe less coz of easter her drop is going to be one of the worst ever seen

[Edited 4/5/12 7:22am]

asg said:

NoVideo said:

Lay off the meth.

i dont do any drugs but she is a fallen star i dont think if there was no pre-sale form superbowl her total would be less then 150k even prince did much better will a much smaller marketing budget ppl have give up on her and this just reeks of desparation.

the scheme will only lead to big first week but the sales r going to drop like a rock now.

The standard sencond week drop off is 65-70% maybe less coz of easter her drop is going to be one of the worst ever seen

[Edited 4/5/12 7:22am]

Everyone is technically "a fallen star", i mean is Bruce Springsteen selling "born in the usa" numbers? Is Prince selling "purple rain" numbers? no Prince isnt even selling "Grafitti Bridge" numbers, point is that all these artists have past their "Glory DAys" they are in their 50's and up, to think that they would still be relevant to sell a million plus albums is not a wise thing, I mean the new Bruce is going to be his lowest selling (studio,new material) in his career almost, and that was a number one record? so what really is the difference?

Congratulations are in order to Lionel and his camp for charting @ number 1.

I dont understand why sell figures is such a big deal to people. Why are people comparing sells to people way over their peak?

Im glad Lionel is receiving some success.

Some people measure success by CD units sold and concert tickets. I don't know how "peaking" relates to how much passion there is for an artist.

asg said:

MADGE’S TWO ON THE AISLE: Madonna’s Interscope album, MDNA, which debuted at #1, racking up a year-best 358k first-week sales, benefited from a Ticketmaster bundling with concert tour tickets that added up to almost half of the total, according to theN.Y. Post. Those additional “sales” were the difference in finishing ahead of Lionel Richie who scored his best first week of theSoundScan era with nearly 200k for his country collaboration, Tuskegee. While SoundScan had made an “opt-in” offer for an album when purchasing a concert ticket mandatory to count “sales” in the wake of a previous Prince promotion, insiders insist that the consumer choosing to use a supplied redemption code satisfied that requirement. Other sources claimed the consumer being offered the option of either a “digital” or “physical” copy was sufficient. An inside source told the Post: “While the public may view it as free, [the album is] actually bundled into the price of the ticket.” (4/4p)

UPdate

FROM BILLBOARD.BIZ

Of Madonna's 359,000 sold, trusted sources tell Billboard that somewhere in the area of 185,000 came from the bundle/redemption

lionel 199k

mdna 174k

[Edited 4/4/12 13:36pm]

[Edited 4/4/12 13:38pm]

Did Madonna do something to you?

Did you call her and didn't she call you back?

Do you know her from highschool, but didn't she want to go out with you?

There must be something to explain this obsession