thegreatdivine

2y

My point still stands. He doesn't get 4 weeks at #1 without those $5 vinyls.

Utopia is available with three different track lists: a standard 18-song edition through all major digital retailers (including the iTunes Store and Amazon), a 19-song set at digital retail and streamers (which includes the song “Meltdown,” featuring Drake), and a 19-song version available on CD, vinyl and a “First Edition” digital album sold through Scott’s webstore (that includes the song “Aye” with Lil Uzi Vert). All of the standard digital retail release’s 18 songs are on both 19-song expanded versions. The “First Edition” digital album was released at the end of the tracking week, in the closing hours of Aug. 3, and sold for just $4.99. The “First Edition” variant sold exceptionally well, due to fan speculation as to the set’s track list, which was not advertised by Scott’s webstore.

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Utopia’s sales were also enhanced by its availability across five CD variants (each with a different cover), five vinyl LP variants (with different covers and color vinyl), 15 deluxe boxed sets – each containing a piece of branded clothing and a copy of the album on CD or vinyl, six zine/CD deluxe editions (where a copy of the CD is housed inside a magazine-like package branded to the album), and two Fan Pack offers in which customers could choose to purchase a copy of the CD or vinyl LP with a piece of branded merchandise for a discounted price. Initially, the assorted CD and vinyl album cover art was not displayed to customers on Scott’s webstore. When fans placed orders, they selected one of five covers, not knowing what the final design would look like. Eventually, closer to street date, the cover art for all variants was revealed.

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All physical formats of the album are exclusively sold through Scott’s official webstore. It has not been announced when, or if, any of the physical versions of the album will be released wide to any other retailers.

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Scott drove customers to his webstore during Utopia’s pre-order campaign and during its first-week thanks to frequent new merchandise releases. Alongside merch drops, the webstore promoted discounted pricing on the Utopia album – going as low as $4.99 for its digital album.

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In total, Utopia sold 252,000 copies in its first week. Of that sum, digital downloads comprise 111,000 (with 79% of that sum from the “First Edition” variant), CD sales comprise 63,000 (80% of that figure were CDs housed in boxed sets and zine packages) and vinyl sales comprise 79,000 (30.5% were vinyl housed in boxed sets). Of the album’s 252,000 sold across all formats (digital download, CD and vinyl), deluxe boxed sets and zine packages combined to sell 30% of that figure (about 75,000 of 252,000).

It matters a whole lot when you're discounting with the sole purpose of boosting your numbers. He didn't do any of that "for the fans" because countless fans complained that they never got the vinyls they paid for. He f***ed up the orders and their deliveries. All he needed was for the sales to count towards his chart weeks.

TheFader

2y

You said it would debut with much lower numbers without the discount. That is incorrect.

TheFader

2y

Delays / shipping issues happen all the time in the vinyl world. This isn’t an issue exclusive to Travis.

His motivation is irrelevant. For the consumer, there is nothing wrong with a premium product being massively discounted. More higher profile artists should offer their vinyl at a significantly reduced price like that.

thegreatdivine

2y

Yes, but my overall point still stands: he used the $5 vinyls to boost the chart position of his album and keep it steady because the album couldn't do that off streaming and once he ran out of vinyls to discount, the album promptly dropped till it fell out of the top 10 and it is yet to return to that region of the charts.

TheFader

2y

Sure, but it’s kind of a moot point when the album is still at #44 and hasn’t left the chart since it came out. Last week it was at #26.

“Your only is only in the Top 45 of the Billboard 200 a year after it released!”

Also, it’s already within the Top 30 most streamed rap albums of all time on Spotify

thegreatdivine

2y

It's not a moot point. If the album was as successful as Astroworld, it's very likely those vinyls never get sold for $5 a pop (vinyls cost a lot to make and Travis selling them at that price means the label takes a loss that he'll have to pay for somehow via his own pockets. The trade-off being that his album gets to keep putting up big numbers until they run out and he/the album appears to be bigger/more successful than it actually is). It's all perception games. There's a reason they made that discount from the second week and continued till the vinyls ran out and it wasn't "for the fans." Stop being disingenuous. That was done to keep the album afloat because it's US streaming numbers weren't great.

These are just some of the gimmicks artists engage in to make themselves look good publicly. There's nothing inherently wrong with it but don't act like it's done for anyone else but themselves. That's like saying artists who exploited the use of bundles did that for the fans. No, they didn't. They saw a chance to give their albums bigger debuts and hence make them appear more commercially viable to their labels/to their fans/to the general public and they took it.

It's like what Taylor Swift is doing now. Only a clown would suggest she's putting out dozens of versions of her album "for the fans." She's doing so to keep her album at #1 for as long as possible and she's only doing that because the album can't remain at that position organically anymore without her resorting to those lengths. If her album was organically averaging 250k units per week at week 12, you wouldn't be seeing her pumping out all these versions to keep it at #1. That's my point.

TheFader

2y

Except, what Taylor is doing isn’t benefiting or helping the fans in any way. She’s selling them 100 versions of the same album at full price.

There may have been Travis fans who were unable to afford a new vinyl at $50 plus shipping, but with the $5 discount, they can easily get one for themselves.

No matter which way you try to frame it, there is nothing wrong with discounting.

The intent is irrelevant when both sides win.

Travis gets his numbers and the fans get physical albums of their favorite artist at an affordable price.

You keep talking about the streaming numbers but by all accounts the album has been a massive success. It’s obviously not as successful as Astroworld, but it’s still a success nonetheless

martian master

2y

Not sure how accurate this is

And its only SEA. He does have pure sales (digital, I dont think his physicals ship first week)

For ref, MTBMB did 162K SEA (279K total)

Yapper

2y

he bout to do Vultures 1 numbers with a whole machine behind him?

martian master

2y

200K+ for Em is great for where he at in his career
And 140-200K would still be okay/decent

And Kanye doing 150K with a collab album that had a mid week release (was pulled) is outstanding for him and TY$

Kanye last solo did 309K (2021) with a mid week release, hes been ahead of Em (279K in 2020)

Yapper

2y

put kanye on interscope and he doing 250k at least

martian master

2y

Not sure how accurate this is

And its only SEA. He does have pure sales (digital, I dont think his physicals ship first week)

For ref, MTBMB did 162K SEA (279K total)

thewitchszn

2y

And what songs did Nicki have in the top 10? Of course she did better first week Nicki has a huge loyal fanbase. Even Meg’s album charted longer but yall wanna focus on first week sales over everything

thegreatdivine

2y

No, it wasn't. Travis sold $5 vinyls for the album's first 4 weeks to boost its numbers. Take that away and it debuts with much lower numbers and spends fewer weeks at #1. The proof is in the pudding because its streaming numbers weren't great and once he ran out of vinyls to sell, the album promptly fell out of the top 10 and has never returned.

thegreatdivine

2y

Billboard 200 top 10 this week:

thegreatdivine

2y

Billboard 200 top 10 this week:

thegreatdivine

2y

Fair enough.