The precise reason it took more than ten hours for iTunes to declare Beyonce’s surprise visual album “Beyonce” its top seller remains unclear, but it was evidently not due to lack of sales.
According to Billboard, the unexpected release, which includes fourteen songs and seventeen music videos, moved roughly 80,000 copies in the three hours between its release at 12AM on the East Coast and midnight on the west coast.
Assuming it can retain even a sliver of that sales pace, “Beyonce” will be a strong contender for number one on next week’s Billboard 200 album sales chart. Garth Brooks’ “Blame it All on My Roots,” which was previously expected to claim number one, is tracking for a weekly sum in the 150-160,000 territory.
Owing all of its sales momentum to viral buzz, a successful debut for “Beyonce” would be a huge victory for the notion of social influence and a huge blow to the idea that a traditional promotional campaign is required to move records.
