S. Samuel
R&B singer Ne-Yo has admitted to being upset by the first-week sales of his new solo album, Libra Scale, and considered what factor could have contributed to moderate results.
Ne-Yo believes the premature leaking of unreleased music may have hurt his overall sales.
“I was a little disturbed by my first week numbers, but a lot of things went into that first week number,” Ne-Yo explained in an interview. “The album getting leaked a month in advance definitely had something to do with it. That was another situation where I jumped on my soapbox [Twitter] and let the world know how I felt about that. You know it’s the world we live in today, it’s the game. You either play the game or you get out. I’m not gonna let the ignorance of some stop me from doing what I feel like I was put on this earth to do.” (CW Detroit Gossip Girls)
In early October, Ne-Yo resorted to Twitter to express his anger toward music hackers.
“ALL HACKERS DIE SLOW!! It’s stealing plain and simple! There’s places where they cut people’s hands off for less! Y’all SUCK!!!!!,” he tweeted Friday (October 1) evening.
“My apologies y’all. Try to stay positive but these hackers really make me wanna stab somebody!!! (Not for real, but you get my point..) MAD!”
“To be clear, twitter hackers don’t effect me. I’m talking about hackers leaking more than half my d*mn album!! It’s STEALING. D*mn shame…”
“I work my a** off when it comes to my music! Blood, sweat and tears, I pride myself on it! Only for somebody to hack in and steal it!?!” (Ne-Yo’s Twitter)
Last June, Ne-Yo spoke to SOHH about hackers leaking music out early.
“Man, I just feel like people don’t have patience anymore,” Ne-Yo told SOHH. “Where’s the class and integrity that came with music back in the day? You listen to it before it’s supposed to be listened to and then you don’t like it but you didn’t even give it a chance to get done. That’s like eating a meal before it’s finished cooking. Of course you’re not gonna like it, it wasn’t finished yet. I just feel like if people wait for the actual album to come out so that they can catch the full effect of the joint, then music might be in better shape if you ask me. It’s sad, the loops that we literally gotta jump through to keep the music safe before it’s time for it to come out, it’s really, really sad that it’s come to that. But I mean, it is what it is, I’m one man.” (SOHH)
After debuting on the sales chart last week at No. 9 with 112,500 copies, Ne-Yo’s latest solo effort has dropped out of the Top 30.
R&B singer Ne-Yo’s Libra Scale took a hit falling 25 positions to No. 34 with 31,500. With two weeks knocked out, the singer’s latest album has sold 144,000 records. (SOHH Sales Wrap)
Check out Ne-Yo’s interview down below:
neyo from 100 productionz on Vimeo.
