New Rules: Beyonce Bound For No. 1 As Sales Soar Past 400,000

After just 27 hours of being onsale without any pre-release promotion or even knowledge of the existence of the project, Beyonce‘s new self-titled visual album is set to be the biggest debuting album for a female artist in 2013.

 

As reported yesterday, "Beyonce" shifted slightly over 80,000 in the three hours from 9 p.m. PT to midnight on Thursday evening and on Friday sold another 350,000, according to industry sources putting the total at 430,000. With two more days left in the sales tracking week, the title could sell over 600,000 before the buzzer sounds.

The iTunes exclusive “visual” album, retailing for $15.99 contains 14 tracks- not available for a la carte purchases until Dec. 20- and 14 accompanying videos, along with other bonus video content. No set date has been announced for the CD release to physical retailers or of its availability on other digital download sites.

At 430,000, "Beyonce" is already set to become the biggest debuting album by a female artist since Taylor Swift sold an astounding 1.2 million copies of "Red" in the week corresponding to Billboard 200 chart dated Nov 10, 2012. And if predictions in the 600,000 range hold, the set would grant Beyonce the best debut week- and best sales week period- of her career. Her 2006 album "B'day" started with 541,000 in September 2006.
 

Billboard