Lady Gaga‘s ARTPOP dropped 81% in sales for its second week and fell to number 7 from first place. The album sold 50,154 copies, down from first week of almost 260K. ARTPOP will be written about one day as a huge marketing failure, unique in every way. After a long, much ballyhooed build up the finished product simply fizzled.
Lady Gaga– Stefani Germanotta– will learn a lesson about hubris from this experience. Maybe. She directed the entire campaign, went against the advice of others, and wound up losing a ton of money ($25 million seems severe, but lots) for herself and for Universal Music.
This means ARTPOP has sold just 300,000 copies in two weeks. Where are all her fans and ‘monsters’? They certainly didn’t like what they heard. But as I said before, ARTPOP was a gigantic misfire. Gaga tried to shove the art world down the throats of the fans. They didn’t want it, and they were confused by it. What had they related to was Gaga as champion of the underdog, the gay kid, the bullied kid, etc. Jeff Koons was not in their realm.
The flop album may yet affect more things, like a tour. It will be interesting to see if she can sell tickets to concerts with music no one bought. The best solution is get back with producer RedOne, add some songs to an ARTPOP 2.0, and try and revive the CD. It’s been done. But Gaga will have to listen to someone other than herself.
PS Eminem retook the number 1 spot with his Marshall Mathers LP 2. He sold 127.000 copies, about two and a half times as many as Gaga.
MORE MUSIC! DOWNLOAD JULIA FORDHAM ‘S WHITE CHRISTMAS— All Proceeds from iTunes to aid for the Phillipines. Julia writes: Here’s our lovely and funny video starring the scene stealing, stunning and hilarious actress Jennifer Coolidge. Currently starring in the CBS sitcom “2 Broke Girls” (and much loved for her superb turn as Stifler’s Mom in the movie American Pie & and for her characters in the Christopher Guest movies), Judith and I were thrilled and delighted when Jennifer showed up at our video shoot for “White Christmas” and worked her Voluptuous Goddess Charm on our Producer / Arranger / Pianist Grant Mitchell.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/white-christmas-single/id763801738
