Sunday, September 11, 2011

Lil Wayne's 'Carter IV' Sells 964K, Tops Charts

News Article
SPIN.com
September 7, 2011
Link


Lil Wayne has once again put up big numbers on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The rapper nabbed the No. 1 spot this week for his album Tha Carter IV, selling 964,000 copies, according to Billboard. It's the second-biggest first-week sales for an album this year -- behind Lady Gaga's 1.1 million for Born This Way, but ahead of Jay-Z and Kanye West's 436,000 for Watch the Throne.

Wayne has two previous chart-topping albums, 2008's Tha Carter III and last year's I Am Not a Human Being.


Take into account Gaga's first-week discount pricing, and Wayne's sales figures look even more impressive. According to Billboard, Gaga sold an estimated 440,000 downloads for 99 cents each, during a two-day sale by Amazon's MP3 store. Tha Carter IV's sales of almost a million copies came without such pricing.


On the download front, Wayne can also claim a milestone. Yes, Tha Carter IV's first-week digital sales of 362,000 trail Gaga's 662,000, the year's most. But sources told Billboard that Wayne's album set a new iTunes single-week sales record by a wide margin, moving around 345,000 copies. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that means Wayne dethroned Watch the Throne -- an album that was only available on iTunes for its four days of release. SoundScan does not share retailer-specific numbers.


The debut capped a solid month for hip-hop album sales. Right behind Tha Carter IV was West Coast rapper Game's The R.E.D. Album, which sold nearly 100,000 copies.


In other Wayne-related developments, Detail -- producer of The Carter IV hit "How to Love" -- told MTV News that Enrique Iglesias plans to record a Spanish cover of the song. "Enrique changed a couple of words to make it work for what he does, and it was a great situation," Detail said. "It was a great opportunity for two worlds to come together."

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