Understanding Rihanna’s Slow Album Sales

[billyworld99]

Rihanna’s ‘Talk That Talk’ entered the Billboard 200 at #3 this week and it became her sixth consecutive album to miss the top spot on the tally. However, what really baffled her fans were the relatively slow sales of the project, despite the record being preceded by its widely successful lead single, ‘We Found Love’.

With sales barely exceeding 197K copies, ‘Talk That Talk’ actually sold 10K copies less than Rihanna’s previous album, ‘Loud’. So what exactly is the reason for the slow start of the record? Well, while there may have been many possible causes, the main reason for the slow chart start lies with Rihanna’s US fans themselves.
Rihanna is the quintessential Pop star of the 21st century, appealing to the masses of the dominant iTunes generation – the 16 to 25 age bracket – who require striking visuals and simplistic hooks to stimulate their interest. Yet, although she has thus far enjoyed incredible success on the singles charts because of her ability to satisfy their demands, Rihanna’s team has overlooked a crucial fact – the children of this digital era typically do not buy albums on a large scale.
Regardless of how well her songs perform on iTunes and radio, Rihanna’s fans are generally not interested in buying complete albums. Reflecting on the trend of her past sales confirms this point as her top-selling release – 2007′s ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ – has sold only 2.7 million copies in the US to date and none of her other albums have surpassed the 2 million mark.
On the other hand, Adele, for instance, has generated massive sales with her ’21′ LP, which has already topped 4.6 million copies in US sales after only 9 months – more than three times to total of Rihanna’s ‘Loud’. Yet, why is Adele, who only has two #1 singles, rarely moves anything except her mouth during her shows and simply sits on a stool in a her videos, outpacing Rihanna? The answer is once again found with the audience in question.
Adele is an Adult Contemporary artist and her target market arguably represents the larget album-buying audience in the US. As such, although she may not always score hit singles – the successes of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and ‘Someone like You’ were truly unusual – with the right material and promotion, Adele is guaranteed to have a huge advantage on the album charts.
So how has Rihanna managed to sell albums at all? Similar to her close friend Katy Perry, she has to perform near excessive promotion and issue a wave of singles with the intent that those members of her fanbase who aren’t just looking for a new ringtone would buy her records. Of course, special discounts and bonus content, such as posters, pictures and video packages, also help her cause.
Hence, Rihanna’s greatest strength on the singles charts is ironically her downfall on the album tallies. The very fans that guarantee her dominance of the digital singles charts and force her song titles onto the list of Twitter’s trending topics will do almost anything except buy her albums.
Ultimately, Rihanna may enjoy slow sales that eventually result in long term success but as was the case with her ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’, ‘Rated R’ and ‘Loud’ projects, Rihanna’s team will have to launch a much larger promotional campaign than her Adult Contemporary counterparts and issue a flurry of singles just to keep her ‘Talk That Talk’ album on the charts. Rihanna may lead her fans to ‘Talk That Talk’ on iTunes but she can’t always make them click ‘purchase’.
Hot Topic: Understanding Rihanna’s Slow Album Sales :: The Lava Lizard

 

[Travis]

Why would her fans be baffled? Why would anyone be? This is the norm for ALL Rihanna albums. She's never sold albums and never will. She's a singles artist only. And I use the term artist very lightly.