Suffice it to say, Miley Cyrus’ latest studio album does not need to be tamed in its sales battle with Eminem’s “Recovery.”
Based on preliminary sales data on Hits Daily Double, “Can’t be Tamed” is tracking for only 115-125,000 units moved, a considerable decline from previous LP “Breakout,” which eclipsed 370,000 first-week sales in 2008. Since “Breakout,” Cyrus has had mega-hit singles with “The Climb” and “Party in the USA” and thus entered the market with more musical clout than for any of her previous releases, amplifying the disappointment of “Can’t be Tamed”‘s weak opening.
While “Can’t be Tamed” supporters might point to the fact that the album is outpacing opening sales for 2009 “Time of our Lives,” the latter was a Wal-Mart/iTunes exclusive EP that was only available for a few days prior to its first chart appearance, featured a unique marketing strategy and experienced a lengthy trajectory unlikely to be rivaled by Miley’s latest album. Week two of “Time of our Lives,” for instance, produced 154,000 sales–a significant increase from week one and a number that “Can’t be Tamed” will not rival next week.
Worse for Miley is the fact that despite her progress in developing a real-world musical presence and efforts to distance herself from “Hannah Montana” and the Disney empire, the opening week sales for “Can’t be Tamed” will barely top the 108,000 for “Here We Go Again,” a very by-the-books album released by fellow “Disney Diva” Demi Lovato last year.
Other albums experiencing the competitive wrath of Eminem’s “Recovery” (estimated to sell 590-615,000 copies this week) include Ozzy Osbourne’s “Scream” (Hits Daily Double Forecast: 65-70,000), The Roots’ “How I Got Over” (HDD Forecast: 35-40,000), Keith Sweat’s “Ridin’ Solo” (20-25,000) and Jaron & The Long Road to Love’s “Getting Dressed in the Dark” (18-21,000).