14 DAY TRIAL // Beyonce's 5th studio album came as a complete surprise to everyone when it was released quietly on Friday morning exclusively on iTunes. With 14 tracks and 17 videos all fresh and ready for release, you'd think that such a big name like Beyonce would announce it well in advance in order to get the hype up. But “Queen B” decided to break the rules and it's paid off.
Billboad reports that Beyonce's latest self-entitled release is doing very well after its first weekend, having already sold 550,000 copies in the US alone by Saturday night, with a possible 600,000 by the end of the weekend.
Normally, albums are released on Tuesdays, giving them 6 days to make as many sales as possible, but it seems Beyonce knew that the album would be fairing well since she decided to drop it on a Friday.
To date, this is her most successful release, since her last album, “4,” opened with 310,000 copies sold and her third one “I Am… Sasha Fierce” from 2008 moved 482,000 copies.
The first songs from the album have already begun to receive airplay, and it seems that the most promoted are her duet with Jay Z “Drunk in Love,” billed as having a more urban sound, and “Blow,” which has a more pop sound to it.
Experts in the industry now think that it was the very quiet release that actually helped sales, since fans found out through social media channels and news spread like wildfire. Also, the fact that the album was exclusive on iTunes may have helped full-album purchases.
Beyonce said this was a “visual album,” which is why she recorded a video for every track and even some bonus features, claiming that for her, music is also a visual experience. Presenting the product as a whole, probably spurred fans into purchasing the entire album and thus ensuring that Beyonce debuts at no.1 in the charts this week.