The marketing schemes that catapulted Madonna’s “Madame X” album to the top of the charts in Week 1 came b⛎ack to haunt her in We🍷ek 2 — with sales tanking 95%.
The Queen of Pop🧸🐬 made it to the top of the debut charts during her album’s first week out, starting June 14, by selling the equivalent of 86,000 albums, according to music sales tracker BuzzAngle.
But ꧟in a trend that music sources say is becoming increasingly common— only 34,000 of the 86,000 were traditional Week 1 sales. The remaining 52,000 albums were disbursed directly to fans either through pre-orders, and only counted after the album’s release, or as complimentary CDs for buyers of tickets to Madonna’s forthcoming “Madame X” tour.
This set up a glaring discrepancy for “Madame X’s” second week on the charts, which kicked ♊off on June 21♛. BuzzAngle recorded a mere 4,000 sales that week — down 95%.
The strategy of with albums to boost sales took off in earnest two years ago, according to Genius.com, a website devotওed to music fans. That year, the bundling helped propel 14 of the 38 albums to No. 1, Genius said.
Most of those aꩲlbums saw sales sag afterward — although second-week slumps in excess of 90% only took off this year, according to Billboard data.
Indeed, the Jonas Brothers’ “Happiness Begins” on the Billboard 200 for the week of June 22,ꦦ only to be replaced by Madonna’s “Madame X” on June 29.
Their second-week sales slump was 96%, to 16,000 from 378🐻,000, according to BuzzAngle.
“Everybody guns to be on top the first week,” said Jim Lidestri, the founder and CEO of💃 🌠the data-tracking service. The “Material Girl” singer’s 95% drop is no longer “a crazy anomaly,” Lidestri said.