Album Sales Continue to Crash

September 11 was a cheerless day for the music industry. Billboard Magazine reports album sales fell nine percent from that time last year.

But, Universal Music Group can put on their party hats. And so can Kanye West. That is, once he removes his tasseled cap and flings it aloft because the hip-hop highflier’s third album “Graduation” sold 957,000 copies the week of its release (Nielsen SoundScan).

And that’s not all. The release ended an ongoing feud between West and rapper 50 Cent. For months, the artists clashed over whose album would take the top of the charts. In fact, West outsold 50 Cent by an epic 266,000 copies.

That margin is only 121,000 copies less than the No. 3 release, Kenny Chesney’s “Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates.” (Given that title, it’s no surprise why.)

The New York Times' Kalefa Sanneh reports:

"It’s the best opening of Mr. West’s career. (His debut, ‘The College Dropout’ sold 441,000 copies in a week; the follow-up ‘Late Registration,’ sold 860,000.) And it’s the worst opening of 50 Cent’s career. (His major-label debut, ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’,’ sold 872,000 copies, a record for a debut album; the follow-up, ‘The Massacre,’ sold 1.1 million copies.)"

Sanneh speculates the feud was merely a marketing scheme intended to increase album sales. This isn’t surprising, seeing as both West and 50 Cent belong to labels owned by Universal.

In 50 Cent’s defense, he’s sold 2,663,000 albums in total first week sales. That’s 405,000 more than West. Also, West has yet to break a million for one record in a week, compared to 50 Cent’s 1.1 million copies.

But this will all change as both artists continue to sell records. And, at the end of the day, the label is the real winner anyways. But how long will the win last? The nine percent loss in overall album sales packs a hard-hitting blow: the industry is wasting away while snarling artists waste their time…well, snarling. So keep fighting, boys. Because when the industry’s dead and gone –
nothing will remain to sneer about.