Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP did not get off to the brilliant start her previous album, Born This Way had. In fact, it barely topped the Billboard 200 chart in its first week, squeaking by Eminem’s Marshal Mathers LP 2.
Billboard reported that ARTPOP sold 258,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. While it is her second No. 1 alum and the third-biggest sales week for a female artist in 2013, it is a huge drop from the 1.1 million copies Born This Way sold in its first week in 2011. Even though Born This Way had the advantage of an Amazon sale, ARPOP’s drop was huge.
ARTPOP sold 149,000 downloads, making up 57 percent of its sales total.
As Entertainment Weekly notes, ARTPOP also failed to get a significant boost from Gaga’s Saturday Night Live appearance. The album was behind Eminem and One Direction on iTunes’ album chart and the singles “Do What U Want” and “Gypsy” are at No. 14 and No. 72 respectively.
The album barely beat MM LP 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart. In its second week, that album sold 210,000, down 73 percent from its huge debut.
The Now 48 compilation came in at No. 3 with 114,000 copies, while Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas from the Duck Dynasty cast came in fourth with 66,000.
The rest of the top 10 includes: Katy Perry’s PRISM (46,000); Kelly Clarkson’s Wrapped in Red (42,000); The Beatles’ On Air: Live at the BBC Volume 2 (37,000); Jhene Aiko’s Sail Out (34,000); Drake’s Nothing is the Same (33,000); and Lorde’s Pure Heroine (32,000).
Eminem’s “The Monster” leads the Digital Songs chart with 243,000 downloads.
image: Amazon