While Rihanna’s “American Oxygen” is beginning to gain traction at pop radio, the rhythmic and urban-leaning “Bitch Better Have My Money” is thus far reaching a considerably larger weekly radio audience.
It is also selling considerably more weekly copies.
According to Nielsen Music, “Bitch Better Have My Money” sold an additional 40.2K copies during the tracking week ending May 3 (-14%). Enough to bring the song’s cumulative US sales total to 446.0K, it also tops the weekly “American Oxygen” sales total by a factor of five.
“American Oxygen” drove 8.0K paid downloads during the corresponding tracking week (-27%), which was its third frame of open availability. Following those three tracking weeks, it possesses a cumulative US total of 38.9K.
The fact that the song with more airplay and recognition is selling better should not come as a surprise.
What did surprise observers, however, is the fact that “American Oxygen” did not open with a lofty first week total (it sold 19.9K in its first week, while “BBHMM” and predecessor “FourFiveSeconds” both started with six figure totals). Its current weekly sales pace is also notably light for a superstar’s official single.
