Check out what Billboard had to say in their article, "Diddy Scores First No. 1 Album In Nine Years":
"Diddy scores his first No. 1 album on The Billboard 200 since 1997 this week with "Press Play." ..."Press Play" sold 170,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the lowest first-week sum of Diddy's solo career."
That means it only takes selling 170K copies to hit #1 these days. Back in '97 it took Diddy selling 561K to hit #1. Now he hits #1 again with his lowest sales out of the gate ever? That, my friend, is a scary commentary on the state of record sales today.
No wonder artists are turning to touring as their most profitable opportunity. They get a higher percentage of the revenue on both ticket sales and merch sold at the booths than they ever would on record sales. AND they often get guarantees up front from promoters.
While I mourn the state of the record industry, I'm not the least bit sad about the touring industry kicking its @$$. I wholeheartedly believe that an artist proves their worth when they're performing in front of a live audience, without the safety net of countless producers with pitch-shifters and Pro Tools to clean up what they don't want us to hear.
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