If there was any doubt, it is now confirmed that this is Frank Ocean's moment.
The fasting-rising local bowed at No. 2 on this week's U.S. pop chart, selling a smashing 131,000 copies of his debut, "Channel Orange," according to Nielsen SoundScan. Most impressive, however, is that almost all of those sales were in the form of digital downloads, as "Channel Orange" was made available first as an iTunes exclusive.
With essentially just one retailer offering the album, Ocean almost outsold last week's No. 1 and media obsession Chris Brown. The latter's "Fortune" bowed with 135,000 copies sold. Billboard, which maintains the U.S. pop chart, noted that about 3,000 physical copies of "Channel Orange" were sold, as traditional retailers, excluding Target, began selling the album once shipments were received.
Retail exclusives have long angered competing outlets, and Target refused to carry Ocean's debut on the grounds that iTunes was given a head start. Once the album was made widely available Tuesday, Amazon began selling a download of the album for $2.99, a heavy discount from iTunes' standard $9.99 price point.
The Amazon sale price will raise numerous questions on next's week chart. Billboard recently instituted a chart policy that states that any album sold for less than $3.49 does not count as a sale for chart purposes, but only if the album is priced lower than $3.49 in its first four weeks. Therefore, exactly how many copies of Def Jam's "Channel Orange" are sold this week may be something of a mystery, as SoundScan won't be including Ocean's digital sales from Amazon.
Yet if Ocean's album were made more widely available, there's a good chance he could have had the No. 1 album this week. Instead, it's country outfit the Zac Brown Band that lands at No. 1 with "Uncaged," an effort that sold 234,000 copies. That gives Zac Brown Band its second No. 1 album, as 2010's "You Get What You Give" also landed at No. 1.
Brown's "Fortune" slips to No. 4 after selling just short of 45,000 copies. In two weeks, "Fortune" has sold about 180,000 copies. Justin Bieber's "Believe" holds at No. 3, adding an additional 45,000 copies to its tally, good for 604,000 overall.
Beyond the top 10, some other notable debuts include Hank Williams Jr.'s "Old School New Rules" (No. 12, 25,000 copies), P.O.D.'s "Murdered Love" (No. 17, 16,000 copies), Aesop Rock's "Skelethon" (No. 21, 14,000 copies) and the Dirty Projectors' "Swing Lo Magellan" (No. 22, about 75 copies less than Aesop Rock's effort).
The top-selling digital track this week is Katy Perry's "Wide Awake," which scoots up from No. 2 to No. 1, having sold 205,000 downloads this week. Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" slips to No. 2, selling an additional 203,000 downloads, now having tallied more than 4.5 million overall.
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