Lady Gaga is riding high after the news that her sophomore album Born This Way, soared a staggering 1.1 million copies in its first full week of release in the U.S., becoming the 2nd biggest one week sales for a female singer in history. It's true that this is an amazing feat, especially in 2011, when it's a big deal to sell a million copies of an album in a year, and it's probably safe to say that it will be one of the biggest records to come out in quite some time.
But how big of a deal is it really? A lot of music fans cried foul because of Gaga's relentless promotion schedule, appearing on practically every TV show under the sun, but even more when she teamed with Amazon.com and offered the album at just 99 cents.
Retailers say that Amazon sales accounted for nearly 400,000 of the total copies sold last week, which is a significant chunk of her total sales. Britney Spears fans were especially disgruntled when the rumor started that Gaga might actually break her record for biggest one week sales by a female (Oops...I Did it Again! sold 1.3 million copies in its first week back in 2000)...thank GOD she didn't.
Here's my take - Gaga is the biggest star in the world right now, and this album is a testament to her solid fan base, but let's not kid ourselves. This 99 cent bullsh*t thing was definitely a ploy on her team's part to break records the easy way.
Back in 2000, fans shelled out $18 for a CD, and I know I know, nobody buys albums anymore and the record industry is in limbo, but if Britney sold her record for 99 cents, believe me fans would scoop that up in a heart beat!
So anyhoo, congrats to Gaga, but when you sell 32 million records and celebrate your 12th year in the biz, then give us a call.
(Image courtesy of gabriellesgiffords.blogspot.com)
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