This week, both R. Kelly and August Alsina hit the headlines when they took aim at their respective teams for the handling of their current albums.
The veteran and the newcomer released their projects – ‘The Buffet’ and ‘This Thing Called Life’ – yesterday. And following their very public comments, all eyes are on how said LP’s are set to perform in the marketplace.
Wonder no more though, because the first sales projections are in. Without further ado…
Per Hits Daily Double, Alsina is set to bow with 30,000-35,000 – a figure insiders say may rise to 40,000 when factoring in streaming. [Remember 1000 plays via on-demand services now equates to one unit “sold” and impacts chart positions.]
As for Kelly, ‘The Buffet’ is on-course to debut with physical sales of 28,000-33,000 and between 32k-37k when factoring in streaming.
[For what it’s worth, Kelly’s latest album – 2013’s ‘Black Panties’ premiered to first week US sales of 113,000. While Alsina’s 2014 debut ‘Testimony’ launched with 67,000]
The figures make for a riveting read and are quite literally open to a number of interpretations.
Because, one could level the argument that they aren’t “bad” per se given that they are quite consistent with the sales of most acts in the R&B arena. Hence, any perceived notion of “poor performance” is more reflective of the genre at large (which directly plugs into what Kelly vented about earlier this week).
Still, with the likes of Tyrese and Jill Scott launching LP’s this year with numbers more than double these, it begs the question of whether Kelly and Alsina’s “problem” lies within the product itself or the industry climate they’ve released in.
Food for thought.