After witnessing her self-titled visual album, which received no prior promotion, move a whopping 617,000 copies in its first three days of release, the music industry obviously learned to never underestimate the power of the Beyonce brand.
Or so one governed by common sense would have thought.
While key music publications like Hits Daily Double and Billboard both correctly predicted “Beyonce” would spend a second week atop the Billboard 200 sales chart, they did so on the basis of inaccurate sales forecasts.
Those initial forecasts, which ranged from 250-280,000, were exceedingly pessimistic.
In their updated reports Monday, both confirmed that the new Beyonce album moved in significant excess of 300,000 copies last week. Billboard now projects a final count of at least 340,000, while Hits Daily Double is eyeing a total of at least 375,000.
With 617,000 sales already confirmed, either total would put “Beyonce” within striking distance of the million mark.
Regarding the source of the inaccuracy, Hits Daily Double’s report implies that last week’s numbers inadequately reflected the album’s presence at physical retailers. According to that publication, more than 100,000 physical copies of “Beyonce” were purchased from retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
