In reply to Brent Christopher.

I agree with Brent above that analyzing pure sales these days is like analyzing a dying technology. Let's be real here. Pure sales has nothing to do with the artists anymore. It is all about the amount of units shipped to stores / ordered by stores and what stores still sell CDs? Target, Best Buy, and Walmart. Well that means labels have to have a special relationship with th retailers for their artists' CDs to make it on the shelves and that often means the label has to offer a steep discount to the store or offer a special Target or Best Buy version of the album. Because of the limited amount of physical CDs available, many older consumers of artists often are not able to find their artists' CD to purchase in the store and as weeks go by those same older consumers are forced to download the album free or buy it from a bootlegger. Thus, more attention to the total sales is most important and less attention on physical CD sales to match the current music technology for consumers.