HOLLYWOOD, CA (RUSHPRNEWS) 6/19/08 — Hip Hop legend, NAS, was once quoted as saying “Hip Hop is dead”…well that doesn’t quite seem to be the case, as New Orleans rapper, Lil Wayne, proved last week by selling over a million copies of his latest album “Lil Wayne’s Carter III”.

On its first day of release, official sales figures hit 423,000 units – other established artists with recent album releases have barely met those figures in their first week. It is the first Hip Hop album to top 1 million, since 2005 when 50 Cent released “The Massacre”. And has been the most talked about Hip Hop project since last year’s Kanye West vs. 50 Cent album release battle, where Kanye was declared the winner with sales of 957,000 to 50 Cent’s, still respectful - 691,000 copies.

And it isn’t just the Hip Hop genre receiving some positive sales, the band – Coldplay – just released their new album –Viva La Vida, with first day sales of 316,000 – and is projected, by Billboard, to sell up to 750,000 by the end of the 1st week. So there is hope, if you release the right album, at the right time, the industry could make a recovery.

 

Lil Wayne’s success does not stop there, he has also sold 2.14million downloads of his single, “Lollipop”, and can currently claim to have the Top selling ringtone of the year so far, with 2 million, as reported by Nielsen Soundscan.

 

He has used an interesting marketing technique, according to Vibe Editor, Danyel Smith. Lil Wayne’s album was leaked on the Internet 2 weeks early, and in the past he has constantly given away his music, increasing his fan base in the process.

 

Billboard charts director, Geoff Mayfield, said retailers showed confidence, when they ordered shipments of around 1.8 million copies, which is much higher than usual. The album sales mostly came from retail chains, and digital sales were at 9.9%.

The album boosted up overall record sales for the week by 23%. The figures are refreshing, for an industry that is still suffering, with music sales down 11% on last year.

The current state of the economy, and increased costs for the average consumer, has meant there is less disposable income overall, so people are looking for alternatives to actually paying for music – which leads to an increase in illegal downloads.

 

 

 

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