Ne-Yo Nosedives, Hurts Cannibalization Theory.

Ne-Yo's In My Own Words debuted atop the album chart (with sales of over 301,000) and sparked a debate over the merits of witholding a prerelease single in order to improve album sales -- a.k.a. the cannibalization theory.

But a funny thing happened on the way to pick up the debate trophy: Ne-Yo's second week sales dropped 62%, moving only 113,000 units in its second week of release. Big second week drops aren't unusual for urban albums, but 62% is enough to wonder about any marketing strategy. (Did the first week have a goldenboy week that simply couldn't be matched in successive weeks? Or was the second week slide avoidable?)

Any way you slice it, the only way to gauge the effectiveness of a label's pre-release single strategy is to look at total sales (single, album, ringtone) over longer periods -- four and eight weeks are good places to start. One week doesn't tell you much.

Oh, Juvenile's Reality Check debuted at #1 with 174,000 in sales. Matisyahu's Youth debuted at #9, the best opening week for a reggae artist since Soundscan started tracking sales in 1991. David Gilmour's On An Island debuted at #6 with 96,000 sold.

Posted by glenn at March 20, 2006 09:21 AM