Yes this must be Mj's lowest debut in the UK...
BUT it has to be said there are reasons for this:
1) Sony should have released it last Xmas when pucblic interest was higher!
2) Sony should NOT have used 'Breaking News' as the album teaser - the song featured vocals that they KNEW were contraversial and it's just not a very good song anyway. BN kicked up a sh!t storm and the general public won't buy an album if they consider it could be fake.
3) Sony should have had the video filmed and ready to go before the single was released for purchase
4) Xmas is the busiest, most competitive time of year so if they didn't have everything in place to make the campaign perfect they should have delayed the album until March next year.
5) The promo compaign for the album has been very limited in some key areas. AFAIK it's barely been advertised in the UK at all (outside London).
I suggested months ago when the Xmas releases were all being announced that if they couldn't get the album ready in time for November then they would delay it until March next year because the chart positions would be significantly better and as a consequence of that the public perception of the album would be better. This would benefit the MJ legacy. I said 'would' because it made the most sense to me, but Sony decided to go ahead with this release when they weren't ready in an effort to 'maximise' profits, rather than caring about chart positions.
So, what will happen now in many territories across the world is that 'Michael' will not reach No.1 and will be labelled a flop by the media. The public will then consider it a flop. This is already beginning to happen, just as I said it would months ago.
IF Sony delayed the album until March, the competition would be much lower and 'Michael' COULD haved reached No.1 in many countries around the world. Not only that but it would hold high chart positions for longer. The chart positions for 'Hold My Hand' would also have been MUCH better than they have been these last few weeks if it was released in February.
The result would be that the same album and the same single would appear to be more successful due to better chart positions. The media would report it as a success, and therefor the public would consider the album to be a success. This would achieve a stronger long term performance on the charts, even with with lower initial sales figures, because the publics perception of the album would be positive. If the music buying public see an album debut at the top of the chart and hang around for ages, they assume it's good and are more likely to buy it. If they see what they consider to be a low debut and if the media then label the album as a flop, they won't buy it. See what I mean?
Sony took a very short sighted view when deciding to release this album in December (IMO) and now they're paying the price.
IMO they will make another terrible mistake (IMO) if they release Monster as the next single. It is not the strongest song on the album. The vocals are being questionned. Why not release something like Hollwood Tonight first? It's catchy and it's real. Unless Sony can put together some spectacular music video and some appearances by 50 Cent to promote it, releasing 'Monster' is not going to perform well. I doubt they will do either of these things because they didn't do it for HMH.
RANT OVER...
