S. Samuel
Rap mogul Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail will easily topple its competition a week from today with sales projections up to 525,000 copies.
Based on one-day estimates, Young Hov will leave other new releases from artists like Ciara and Donnell Jones in the dust.
YOUR NEW RELEASES: Well, there’s Jay-Z and everyone else this week. Magna Carta Holy Grail’s chart-topping first week should best the bows of his previous three releases, Watch The Throne (436k), Blueprint 3 (476k) and American Gangster (425k). Looks like Samsung’s marketing campaign is paying off for everyone. Here are this week’s key debuts: Jay-Z (Roc Nation) 475-525k Ciara (Epic) 55-65k Skylar Gray (KidinaKorner/Interscope) 15-18k Donell Jones (eOne) 10-12k As of this writing Magna Carta remains the #1 album on the iTunes chart in its “explicit” form, while the “clean” version occupies the #5 spot. Lead single “Holy Grail” featuring Justin Timberlake is #2 on the singles chart, while “Tom Ford” (an early fave among hip-hop heads) has bounced to #13. (7/10p) (HITS Daily Double)
This week, Hov received a platinum plaque for his latest solo release.
After hitting a million Samsung devices with his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, Jay-Z was certified platinum today by the R.I.A.A. and Billboard. The album dropped officially on July 4th on Samsung and hit stores today, the same day that Jay got his plaque. Not bad Hov, not bad. The album is well worth the certification, and the marketing plan behind it was pure genius. Congrats to Jay-Z, Roc Nation, and everyone involved! (Stupid Dope)
Industry sources have predicted the album will sell well over 300,000 copies.
Even though Jay-Z began giving away a million copies of his new album “Magna Carta Holy Grail” on July 4, the set is still bound for a big week once it goes on sale July 9. Industry sources suggest it might sell 350,000 – 400,000 by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, July 14. “Magna Carta’s” first-week sales forecast is based partly on how well the title is performing with pre-orders through digital retailers. It became available to pre-order via iTunes on July 4. (Billboard)
The project would need to sell more than 476,000 copies in order to beat his 2009 The Blueprint 3‘s opening week numbers.
In turn, the album is seemingly a lock for No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart next week. It would mark Jay-Z’s 13th chart-topper, extending his record as the solo artist with the most No. 1 albums in history. (Only the Beatles, with 19 No. 1s, have more leaders.) “Magna Carta’s” retail release date comes five days after it became available for free to some Samsung photo and tablet users. Jay-Z’s last solo studio album, 2009’s “The Blueprint 3,” opened at No. 1 with 476,000 sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. He returned to the top slot in 2011 with the collaborative album “Watch the Throne” (with Kanye West). It started at No. 1 with 436,000. (Billboard)
