coming soon to YouTube. . .
Over the summer, Billboard and Nielsen Music finally put in place new rules, for banning bundle for album sales. This means, concert tickets and merchandise are officially forbidden from driving up album sales.
It has been used in the past for several major pop artists, as well as a few in rap. One artist in the rap world, who tried to use this method through merch sales for his project, was 6ix9ine.
With plans of a world tour in place, he was looking to use major album sales as a negotiation tactic for 2021. Unfortunately for him, he is set to debut well below original expectations, at only 50K his first week.
This is less than half of Big Sean’s Detroit 2 album, which is slated to do 110K by the weekend. So, many are realizing that core fan bases and real listeners still do matter, if Sean can do those numbers in a limited pandemic climate.
Over the summer, 6ix9ine celebrated his first ever no. 1 single with “TROLLZ,” claiming he was cheated out of his original placement with “GOOBA.”
That single was beaten by Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber’s “Stuck With U” at no. 1; while Doja Cat’s “Say So” with Nicki Minaj came at no. 2. He pointed out the flawed system; but both Billboard and Nielsen Music confirmed that they implemented a new audit to recognize excessive bulk purchasing data on albums.
Beforehand, Grande and Bieber asked fans to purchase four copies of each song, with Doja Cat doing the same for their audiences. That tactic was perfectly legal, which required non-bots to purchase songs on various platforms.
Katy Perry, who is one of the biggest artists in pop, managed to only sell 50,000 last week for her Smile album. So, Tekashi should have had lower expectations, considering the promotional difficulties surrounding his situation.
Many major sites and radio stations declined to do interviews with him. With iHeart Radio (Breakfast Club), Emmis Communications (Hot 97) and Apple Music (Beats 1) allegedly turning the other cheek; he was left with no way to alert the masses. This led to him actually going out of his way to beg for interviews with people like Gillie Da Kid, who turned him down, shocking.
DJ Akademiks, who’s also the unofficial marketing person for promo with Tekashi; was the only rap-related platform 6ix9ine used for the album. Both have been quiet about the entire situation on Instgram.
We do not expect this to affect artists like Drake, Adele, Kendrick Lamar and other elites, who do not rely on bundles for sales.
Since his rant over the weekend, complaining about placement; he hasn’t been seen on any social media platform. This is extremely odd, considering this is the week he should be promoting the project. Look for 6ix9ine to go into further detail later this week, on playlist charts with Apple and Spotify.
6ix9ine "TattleTales" sales projections have been decreased. It’s now expected to sell 50K first week.
Why the 100k decrease? Possibly because of bundles being ineligible … more info to come.
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) September 7, 2020