After a series of delays, Alicia Keys finally unleashed her sixth album ‘HERE’ yesterday.
It’s been a rocky road for the former chart-force. Indeed, despite routinely rocking the album tally with previous efforts, recent times have seen her struggle to jump start this campaign.
“Lead” single ‘In Common’ failed to chart on the Hot 100 earlier this year and a proper follow-up has yet to materialise; the latter being surprising given that the song has been relegated to an international bonus track on ‘HERE.’
Still, on the merit of her name, Keys has remained in the spotlight – appearing as a coach on ‘The Voice’ and booking a number of promotional spots.
How has all of this impacted the performance of the LP?
Find out below…
According to Hits Daily Double, ‘HERE’ is poised to open within the top ten of the Billboard 200 with:
38,000-43,000 [Sales + Streaming]
[Pure sales: 33-38k]
Though by no means plentiful, such numbers were enough to secure certain projects the top spot on the chart this year. However, unfortunately for Keys, new releases this week from the likes of Bon Jovi and The Chainsmokers are currently on-course to sell more. She’s actually battling it out with the NOW Music compilation, which is forecast to sell 30-34k. Although, that set is ineligible to chart.
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Whichever way it’s diced or sliced, this is not a good look.
It’s tricky to see how the LP can remain a steady seller or become a slow-burning success either, given today’s “on to the next” consumer mentality.
The one caveat is that ‘HERE’ has been greeted with generally favorable reviews; a fact which could bode well for its chances in next year’s award season.
Other than that, those sales are a nightmare.
It begs several questions:
Did she spend too long away? Is it the music? Or something else?
There has to be an explanation for why an artist able to debut with 742k in ’07 and 419k in ’09 is selling such paltry numbers this go round. Scarier still is that even when factoring in the downward trend of sales industry wide, this is still far too quick a drop from the 159k she sold in 2012 with ‘Girl On Fire’ – a number that at the time was seen as a huge dip.
Again, what went wrong?
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Omg. What is going on with the world today. One of my biggest faves. She gotta get back to the vibes that she had beginning of her career.
Just that all tracks on her album are wavk and not catchy like the precedent albums
She Needs to Stop that her No Make Up issue
The album is actually a banger. It kinda put you in the mind of A seat at the table. The reason for the low sales is because streaming figures are so lowly credited. If they received a larger credit on the tally, artist like her would be smashing reigning.
her sales prediction is tragic.
such a talent…. if the rumors are true, now I know why people are saying Jay-Z’s company buying Beyonce albums. lol
Alicia was a monster in term of sales
LOL.
With this kind of trend in music industry, I’m sure people will say Britney is smarter by doing Vegas residency.
At least Britney is a trendsetter and pop innovator. More artists will begging for residency to earn multi-million dollars.
Britney is neither a trendsetter or pop innovator. Be quiet.
Wow, she fell from grace pretty hard and quickly. It’s truly interesting how a hit can save an album, so to speak.
She’s 15 years into her career. Quickly? Sit down.
There’s always that one person that will always have your heart…and your album sales.????
Lame ???
Ooooooh….and your trifflin azzz momma. Shytty puss bytch.
I didn’t even get the joke, so welp to that
I’m so sad. She and Usher were the two biggest R&B artists from the last decade and they’ve fallen off HARD popularity-wise. I think the album is nice so far though.
Alicia is okay with her 15 Grammys
She doesn’t need any pity
Her 15 Grammy’s are truly an amazing accomplishment however who wants to live in the past. It is important to remember those feats and pat yourself on the back for that however you always want to strive to be bigger and better to fall off like that even after a long career is never easy to take it. I hope that she bounces back doing other things but we will see.
Black artist don’t sell records. Unless youre beyonce. Hell, even Rihanna had to do a Samsung deal to insure she’d move units but if you look at pure album sales she did Alicia numbers too. maybe less. Plus, when you get to a certain level in your career as an artist. Sales are not important. Its really about producing a body of work that you are proud of making.
White artists are flopping just the same. Shut up.
White artists are out here doing numbers. Don’t be fooled. Wake up h**
No one not named Adele is selling records. Look at Gaga.
She said BLACK artist fool.
Gaga sold 100,000 copies. That’s unheard of these days for most black artists.
@dreazy
And for most white artists as wel
It’s not that she has fallen off. It’s the industry. She has no hit single, no promo, & her album kinda was just released. She should have promoted the crap out of it. R&b radio isn’t supporting r&b. It’ll be great if a few of her singles start to catch on…… Contemporary r&b ain’t playing these r&b artists & it’s awful..
I just wanted to pick your brain and ask you why do you think Frank Ocean was able to sell so many without a hit single what do you think the difference is?
First Usher and now her. smh. Although I will say the album didn’t really captivate me. She tried her best to not stretch her words in this album though.
She’s an artist of great caliber. She should be able to easily move near six figures. We get the industry thing. But she’s a huge artist. Her promo just seems to be lacking….
No surprise, just like Usher, the album was pushed back for so long to the point no one cared and then it just drops out of nowhere. I promise you the GP don’t know this album is out. Somewhere along the way these artists lost the connection to their fans. Gotta factor in that these people have kids and family now. They can’t do 99 morning shows like they did last decade. Plus are there any music video shows anymore? Most won’t cross that 10 year mark, some are put right before the 20 year mark. Artists come, artists go. Some have enough albums to have the ability to tour for the rest of their life.
The problem is:she doesn’t have a hit single to push her sales…plus I feel she took a long break that poeple felt she is no longer coming back.plus she allowed her happiness in marriage affect her music.so sad ryt now…Alicia Keys 38k? This is like a dream to me…
It is really unbelievable tbh smh….
There are several reasons why Alicia’s new album failed:
1. SHE’S NO LONGER THE TOP PRIORITY AT HER LABEL: When Alicia debuted, Clive Davis was still an industry titan and had the power to ensure that her face and music was everywhere. Clive is no longer as powerful as he once was nor is he the head of her record label anymore. Alicia is just another artist at RCA, a label with no interest in investing in their artists. They ate expecting her to sell based on her name and social media efforts.
2.SHE DID NOT CATER TO MAINSTREAM URBAN RADIO THIS TIME AND POP RADIO IS NO LONGER INTERESTED: Alicia would have fared better with a huge urban single but unfortunately none of her songs released so far fit in at urban radio right now. Pop radio is about trends and her new music is not trendy enough.
3. HER NEW IMAGE IS NOT YOUTHFUL: The young music buyers aren’t interested in an artist who looks and dresses like their mom. She needs to glam it up a bit and make the girls adore her beauty again.
4. SHE’S BORING: Her new music has no personality and neither does she in most of her interviews
5. HER VOICE IS SHOT: She was never the best singer but her voice is not as compelling as it once was.
Girl, I didn’t know it was possible to hit that many bulls-eyes one after another. Bravo.
Lmao at “that many bullseyes”….no lies told. Musichead you better preach that love reading peopmles comments who know what their talking about.I will say however I thought in common was very trendy and current im still shocked that didnt catch on…Not feeling the no makeup thing …it’s commendable but girl if yoi dont throw that conceal on and give me GLAM. ANYWHO,the album is a SNOOZEFEAST THO…hell can we get an “unthinkable” bop at least?!Something? Her last album was more fun than this one. the ONLY song that is cute on this album is “she dont care.”Alicia you may be “Here” but unfortunately we don’t care. Back to the drawing board.
You wrote a long paragraph about why alicia is flopping yet you stan for brandy who hasnt been relevant since bill clinton was in office
Every Brandy era at least had a single chart on the Hot 100 and she didn’t have a non-certified album until 14 years after her debut. You may be seated.
Anyways, Alicia has sold millions, can play piano, and has like 14,15 grammys. She definitely left her mark.
Deadass this analysis hit every mark!
Can’t say I’m surprised and didn’t see this coming. THE whole Era wasn’t consisted at all. I couldn’t tell if it was starting or buzz singles… I respect her message but the approach this round took a hard turn … smh… I bet she’ll say she doesn’t care about sells but she has a core and I thought her last album sales reflected that more…. …
At this point I’m not really sure who is to blame for the sales decline you have artists like drake, beyonce, Adele etc… pushing out platinum albums like it’s nothing yet their equally talented counterparts and industry vets Alicia and usher barley getting gold? Like wtf is going on! Regardless these are RnB icons and even if they went through sales decline it should never get to 30,000 plus copies that’s just ridiculous.
And there you have it – as mentioned above – Drake, Adele and Beyoncé are label PRIORITIES – they command whole teams and a machine that leaves no promotional stone uncovered. You can’t not know when those titans release, they’re everywhere!
Alicia and Usher are just label artists – who they record company don’t wanna invest Drake sized promo budgets in – because Radio is not interested and the promo outlets that existed before have now evolved into YouTube and Spotify. You still need to spend to make the public aware you have a product coming out or they won’t even stream/watch it. And that’s the problem their promo game doesn’t have the reach required to alert all the existing fans let alone attract new ones.
At this point in her career, it’s not even sad, she had a long run of commercial success.
I agree. An amazing run for someone who has stayed 100% R&B. Not only album sales but also several long-running #1 hits (R&B at that) throughout the years. Hard to achieve.
what the f*** I was honestly expecting around 120K?? I understand she didn’t have any hits with this one but is it because she took too much time off? Did she really lose a majority of her fan base because the drama surrounding her marriage to Swiss Beats? Maybe a combination of both and other things? I’m honestly shocked. Mainly because I thought she had a decent and secure fanbase regardless of whatever happened a decent amount would still buy her music
“The Chainsmokers: 9 – 12K (Pure Sales)”.
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Well… Well… Well…
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I understand that it’s an ‘EP’ but with several new songs that are alleged to be on it, including their current #1 smash-hit, I expected at least double or perhaps triple that figure.
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As for Alicia Keys, these numbers are expected as much as it hurts to say that. It’s a shame considering she used to be such a grand album seller but there are three things to look to here:
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1) Her new album has been void of any good, standalone, commercial songs and what she has released thus far hasn’t connected well with the public (Justice for “In Common”).
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2) Her style of R&B/Urban-oriented Adult-Contemporary music simply isnt selling today at all.
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3) She hasn’t strongly adapted into the streaming era so even her SPS figures are relatively low and will remain as such.
And I believe an EP is not that expensive
She’s just not that popular as she was ten years ago. People have moved on to the latest trends and artists that’s just how the industry works.
The music is not that good and seems forced. She needs a new team of writers because she seems to be out of or recycling ideas. Also I think much of her fan base has moved on.
This is unfortunate especially since this is some of her best work.
Many people haven’t even given this album a chance because they were turned off by past performances or something about her personality rubs them the wrong way, somebody told me she was “fake deep”. I don’t get it honestly, she’s a beautiful spirit and the makes great music.
I think nothing went wrong. She was just eager to show a body of work to the world and just let art speak for itself. She has a lot of respect form the industry and the GP. At this point she is allowed to experiment and not take sales seriously.
Well, at least Tove Lo flopped harder on arrival. I’m completely done with that inbred girl.
Welp the album is not good at all and she took too long to release it so no one is interested in her bland boring music anymore
Well if Gaga did 170k with tones of promo it was kind of expected Alicia would flop mega hard. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was a fan. I wouldn’t even know her album was out.
So tired of people trying to discredit Lady Gaga. Alicia has done a lot of promo too if you think Gaga did it, apply same logic for everybody. Difference is Alicia started doing it months before the release and kept delaying it. It had proven to not be smart. Gaga did great against all odds.
Tragic she’s done
But the flop print stalled at 680k though trashnika been done her buzz died a long time ago
Alicia won’t even see 300k ?
Should of sold your album for 3.99 sis
The Grape juice isn’t being shady against Alicia keys who is on The Voice which averages 13 mil viewers a week, but when Britney released the critically acclaimed Glory which she promoted on the vma’s, today show, carpool y’all said 88k pure sales was bad! Biased much?
Britney did 111k within first week and 20 years into her career. Such a living legend. 🙂
I’m not surprised. Alicia’s a true artist and this is what’s dying today. Some of your faves y’all stan for rely heavily on features/gimmicks to sell and would flop the same way if they stay true to themselves. The industry is all about selling gimmicks and dumbing down one’s artistry. She put out a real, authentic record as she always does, but R&B is dead. Another big reason is bitter BW still not over the “homewrecker” tea. Y’all be so quick to bring down this woman is sickening.
Interesting because she’s #1 at the moment.
I said it before and I’ll say it again. ITunes is only ONE store. That charts means nothing.
I luv Akeys but that album is horrible i cant even listen to it i tried because i am a fan but got dam them songs are wack as f*** sorry Akeys i feel like she is losing the touch she had! I feel like she should be up there with king b
No one really sells these days, unless your Taylor swift Adele Beyoncé .
It’s crazy because Alicia along with Britney and Usher were Bey’s biggest rivals a decade ago. Now Bey is being compared to Adele, Taylor, Drake, Rihanna, and Ariana who aren’t even part of her generation and who all were in middle school when Bey was slaying charts 15 years ago. Meanwhile Alicia, Usher, and Britney are unfortunately flopping.
This isn’t shade at all; it’s just crazy to see how times have changed and Bey is still up there.
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These numbers are expected in today’s climate especially for a r&b album. Alicia has had a long successfull career and is still making music she loves so I doubt she cares. It would’ve dis better with more promo.
Yet Beyoncé has yet to get a smash hit since single ladies or hit number one this decade
@jesse But yet she’s ouselling those who have multiple number ones?? Answer that Bitchhh!
but Lemonade is only 2M++ worldwide sales.
That’s just not that impressive.
Compare to Adele’s 25 which is currently 14M++ worldwide. 🙂
Beyonce still far to catch up…. and her selling trend is downward compare to Beyonce self-titled album. hehe
@Patricia I see your math skills are lacking. Beyoncé is selling at a faster rate with LEMONADE than she did with self titled! Self titled is almost three years old. LEMONADE has only been out 5 and a half months and is already at 2.5 million worldwide? So where is this downward trend you speak of? Y’all dumbasses kill me trying to jump on the ADELE bandwagon, to try and shade the QUEEN! News flash. ADELE OUTSOLD EVERYONE INCLUDING YOUR FAVE!! What u have to say about that?
Another album selling more than “Jackie 19k” lol.
Sadly it has just become the norm. That´s why any album selling over 100k copies first week is good numbers at the moment. Like no doubt. R&B just doesn´t sell either. It´s a miracle (I give her credit for that) that she has stayed so successful for so long staying 100% R&B her whole career. But this go round, she didn´t have any hit for the first time in her career. It was to be expected. Like I said, to me it is not a flop cause it is the norm now. As long as she keeps being so talented, we´ll have to forget sales. She´s done more than enough in that regard anyway.
It’s not about her not being popular. She is. She doesn’t have a hit. This album wasn’t gassed up. It’s a quality album. Just because your album doesn’t sale as much, doesn’t mean that it’s not of great quality. She needed a hit. Even with streaming, she needed a bonafide hit. But she’ll keep promoting. This may become steady..
More white artists are succeeding as opposed to their Blk counterparts..
I feel bad for my black artists ?. 30k is absolutely ridiculous especially for Alicia Keys. Brandy, Usher, Alicia some of RnBs finest are all plummeting commercially. Sad
The problem here with this new AK album is that there was no hits to piggyback this album off of. Also when she let her original production team go she lost her mojo. On another note her relationship with Swizz Beatz killed her career point blank period.
From Sam’s write-up, up top: “It’s tricky to see how the LP can remain a steady seller or become a slow-burning success either, given today’s “on to the next” consumer mentality.”
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Excepting the fact that album sales dying, the era we live in makes slow-burning success impossible. When an artist releases product, the public INSTANTLY gives a verdict on ALL of the tracks. The slow sales for Alicia’s album and the fact that none of the titles are taking off says it all.
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The quote above from Sam also brings home my theory that it no longer makes sense for most artists to release albums. Singles are the future.
It’s 2016. No ones checking for Alicia keys anymore and that’s no shade. She had a LONG successful career. Most artists do not maintain consistent success after 5-7 years but Alicia made it to 15.
She got tangled up with a married man that’s what happened
People are checking for her. Lots of times it has nothing to do with the artist. Rather, the label, promo & radio. That makes a huge difference.. Contemporary radio might just we’ll switch over to Hiphop stations. They are ridiculous. It’s the music industry. Not r&b. There are plenty of great r&b albums….
Her success has nothing to do with Swiss. The gp doesn’t care about that.
Ever since Alicia got tangled up with Swizz her career, her looks, her personality has gone downhill.She just lost that spark. Him being married didn’t help her image at all. She lost a lot of women fans
She’s not a pop artist or a hip hop artist. That’s what went wrong. R&B just doesn’t sell anymore, unless your name is Frank Ocean.
And the music that Abel is making is not r&b it’s pop so don’t try it with Abel.
i cant wait until this happens to beyonce the meltdowns would be catastrophic.
When it does she’ll have been the business for well over 20 years! No one will be that upset after that kind of longevity all she’s accomplished!
Well I love how she didn’t follow any mainstream/urban trends, she actually made real music and didn’t jump on the trap and b thing like Usher.
Mainstream urban is just trash now, to get a hit there you have to feature f**ktards like young thug and just rap-sing over some generic beat.
They’ll even play the pretentious mainstream pop artist rihanna and the weeknd’s super poppy new songs but not Alicia, Joe, Eric Benet, or other actual r&b artists.
Not to worry though, they will get tons of love from the adult r&b radio stations though, where they actually care about the quality of the music.
The voice don’t help the judges sale records
Sophomore efforts tend to draw more buzz
I don’t think a lot of people even know she has an album out. I did not know until I came on here. Her promo and label team are whack for not getting proper promo out. Alicia should have put out a hit song first before releasing an album. Every artist can have a flop so I’m not sure why it’s a big deal if this is Alicia’s one flop album. She just has to come harder next time and work with her old team that got her hits.
Eventually EVERY artist will decline in popularity and be relegated to either a Legend or Forgettable (Non-impactful) Artist….
Janet Jackson or Jody Whatley?
I also believe that artist need to have a minimum of 10 hit songs during their career to tour off of. AK has accomplished that and will continue to work steadliy (stay booked) even after her popularity has waned. Some acts from the past cant say the same due to minimal talent. Artist such as Fantasia and Stevie Wonder (an example of an legendary artist who play’s instruments) are other prime artist’s that will always work in this fickle industry!
It’s bc the radio is forcing a Beyonce on us that they dnt play real music. It’s a share people dont have a mind of their own. The album is the bomb.com. and yall silly ass Reporters act like yu know wat her sales would be, oh unless it’s rigged. Yall people, the Reporters and everyone who choose to hate can go to hell and be with the one u actually look up to. I see if it aint about getting high, having s**, or banging of how much “money” u “have” then u dnt wanna hear the truth… love ya ak.. major come back. O and dont forget, they do have more music dwn load apps, which is the biggest unfair Problem to date.
The problem was that it had a sloppy roll out. I knew she had an album coming out, but had no idea that it was coming the day it did. The industry needs to quit acting like surprise/spur-of-the-moment/little-notice releases are the way to go. Not everyone can pull off a Beyonce-type roll out. These artists, by and large, need to keep it traditional. Announce the release date 2 months in advance. Put out the first single 4-6 weeks before the album drops, with the first singles music video 2 weeks before that. These spur of the moment releases aren’t perfected. Furthermore, I don’t know why Alicia didn’t wait to the week of Black Friday. Her name is big enough for that.
Those numbers are disappointing! I was expecting 90K pure sales (minimum)! That said, artists like Alicia and Usher have nothing to prove! Alicia has obtained 5 #1 albums and over a dozen hits! of course, Usher is one of the few from his generation to score a diamond album and he managed to top the BB200 4 times himself! These artists have done more than enough to leave a mark in the last 15-20 years of their careers!
Wow
great album, what some people fails to understand is an album moving millions doesn’t mean it’s good, and an album not doing so well doesn’t mean it’s bad. that’s how messed up things is.
Alicia is a rare talent. She is a skilled musician and songwriter. She is a capable singer, philanthropist and a beautiful woman inside and out. Her first album was released 15 years ago and this album was her first release in four years. People really do have short attention spans. Four years is a long time to wait in between releases in today’s social media climate, where it’s on to the next one in the blink of an eye. Alicia also stays pretty lowkey during her off times, so there’s no controversy to sell. It’s been years since the Swizz/Mashonda thing happened, so people really can’t harp on that anymore. Long gone are the days where African American artists could wait years between releases (i.e. Michael, Janet, Anita Baker, Sade, Etc.) and be welcomed back with open arms. Even Maxwell’s latest CD kind of came and went earlier this year, and he was an artist who could wait years in between releases in the past and come back with fire sales. Here is a solid CD, so I hope buyers will discover it and change its sales fate. Maybe Alicia needs to call James Cordon for Carpool Karoke. It seemed to work for Gaga.
I hope it isn’t true, that’s a fall and I love Akeys and love this new album
R&B just not selling period. Alicia did promote this album more than her last two releases. She in a silmalar case as Norah Jones remember she sold 1 million copies in one week now can barely sell 30k. The YOUTH run the industry as far as sales goes. Alicia fan base is grown and not buying albums no more. When they were teenagers them and all there friends would buy albums. Look at J. Cole he sold 375k his last album with no promotion and no big single. Because he connected with the young people with no gimmick. I wish Alicia did sell more tho cause it seems she found a place she comfortable at and music sounds good.