“The Voice” season four winner Danielle Bradbery moved more opening week compilation units than predecessor Cassadee Pope, but the head-to-head sales comparison might not tell the entire story.
According to Hits Daily Double’s data, which usually varies only slightly from the final Billboard report, Bradbery’s season four “Voice” compilation album moved approximately 17,809 units in its debut week. In addition to besting the 11,000 opening-week tally for Pope’s compilation, the digital release will also land significantly higher on the Billboard 200, aided by its release in a less-lucrative sales period.
Released the week before Christmas, Pope’s digital compilation faced significant competition (but also benefited from looser holiday spending) and thus only landed at 125 on the Billboard sales chart. Bradbery’s release, by comparison, should end up in the top twenty.
It, nonetheless, remains unclear what Bradbery’s sales performance says about her commercial appeal in the market or even whether it should be considered a big picture victory over Pope’s debut mark.
Since weekly iTunes single downloads factor into the vote total on “The Voice,” contestants’ fans have motivation to buy each song as it is released. As a result, many of Bradbery’s most passionate fans already owned most–if not all–of the songs on the compilation and had no reason to buy this week.
Moreover, because several of Pope’s songs performed better in their release weeks than Bradbery’s best singles (her cover of Miranda Lambert’s “Over You” was a particularly-dominant seller), it stands to reason that more of Pope’s fans already had the songs they wanted and thus fewer had a reason to buy her season three compilation.
Based on surface assessments, most believe Bradbery is the most commercial–and thus likely to succeed–of the four “Voice” winners. But looking, sounding and even acting the part are not necessarily enough to compensate for bad songs or poor promotion, and it is up to Big Machine Label Group to assume it successfully taps into her potential.