Metallica on Track to Sell 500K in First Week
Monday, September 15, 2008
METALLICA’s new album, Death Magnetic, is on track to sell 500,000 copies in the US in its first, shortened week of release, according to Hits Daily Double. The CD was released worldwide on Friday, September 12, although almost all albums are issued in the US on Tuesdays. The group’s last studio effort, 2003’s St. Anger, was pushed up to a Thursday, June 5 release from its original arrival date of June 10 to combat Internet leaks. The record ended up selling 418,000 copies in that short release window, adding another 363,000 in its first full week on shelves.
(+123 rating, 30 votes)
Good to hear. Its good to see any kind of Metal do this well. This lets me know not everyone thinks thier a gangster.
I’m so sick of rap music and everyone acting, talking and dressing like thier black. When I was in High school, I would say 85% of everyone listend to rap. And my school was 95% White. WTF?
I’m so sick of Shitallica. That’s right, I said it. FUCK Metallica.
Overrated garbage.
Since when can bold fonts be used on here?
dont those 500,000 people know you can get it on the internet for free?
srsly… granted this album is better than st. anger (which isn’t saying much), but i stole that fucking album simply out of spite.
right mc: not into em, but i am glad to see someone that play guitar still sell albums.
The truth of the matter on these sales is, they stacked the deck ahead of time with their ticket presales.
Metallica offered all presales ticket events, for the whole North American tour, to include the bootleg MP3 of your ticketed show (obviously to be provided after the show takes places), and a retail copy of Death Magnetic. Those are still valid record sales and still moved hard retail product, thereby ensuring that all ticket sales including the bonus CD would also count towards the CD “headcount” for first week sales.
My gut would say, congrats for the initial debut numbers, especially when hard retail product music sales are in the shitter. But let’s wait and see what Weeks 2 and 3 look like. Probably still a hotcake, but the number dropoff will be stark.
Rather interesting business plan – almost Gene Simmons-esque…