But after three surprise releases in a row, the subversive strategy has become a tired shtick. With Kamikaze-and, to a lesser extent, Music to Be Murdered By-Eminem used the element of surprise to dominate the news and social media for 24 to 48 hours before any negative reviews could emerge. The most likely explanation for Music to Be Murdered By - Side B’s underwhelming performance is that casual listeners simply have no interest in or desire for a new Eminem album-especially not a surprise album. MORE FROM FORBES Eminem's 'Music To Be Murdered By' Has Now Sold Over 1 Million Units In The U.S. the World 2 (which contained 14 new songs), topped the chart the following week with 247,000 units. In March, Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake topped the Billboard 200 with 288,000 units its “deluxe edition,” Lil Uzi Vert vs.
(See again Swift’s Evermore.) But there is still precedent for deluxe-edition albums, particularly rap albums, performing similarly well to their original versions.
Of course, it’s natural for a deluxe edition of an album to sell less than its original version, as it is for an album released shortly after its predecessor. Meanwhile, the Music to Be Murdered By - Side B deluxe red vinyl could take up to nine months to ship, according to the rapper’s website, which means Billboard may not count those sales for a long time. Additionally, physical albums or singles bundled with digital downloads can no longer be reported as digital sales, and the physical product must be shipped before it can be counted toward the charts. (For proof of the new rules’ impact, look no further than Swift’s Evermore, which just debuted with 329,000 units versus Folklore’s 846,000.) Eminem, who is a holdover from the CD era and who continues to dominate in physical sales, can no longer capitalize off album/merch bundles, which juiced the sales of his last two albums. MORE FROM FORBES Taylor Swift's 'Evermore' Headed For Another Massive Debut Atop Billboard 200 By Bryan RolliĮminem will also suffer under Billboard’s updated merchandise and ticket bundle rules, which no longer count albums bundled with merchandise or concert tickets into the album or song charts unless they are promoted as an add-on to those purchases. 1 on the global Spotify chart with 7.268 million streams and the U.S. 4 on the global chart with 5.773 million streams. The figures look even worse when compared to other chart-toppers like Swift, whose “Willow” debuted at No. Spotify chart in January with 2.573 million streams and No. By comparison, Music to Be Murdered By’s “Godzilla” debuted at No. “Gnat” was the highest-debuting track on the global Spotify chart on Friday, reaching No. For starters, the album’s early streaming performance has been, frankly, abysmal. The reasons for Music to Be Murdered By - Side B’s lackluster projected debut are manifold. The album is on track to move 70,000-80,000 equivalent units, with 25,000-30,000 coming from pure sales. 3 on the Billboard 200 behind Taylor Swift’s Evermore (which will spend a second week atop the chart) and Paul McCartney’s new McCartney III, according to HITS Daily Double. The collection is projected to debut at No. With Music to Be Murdered By - Side B, it looks like Eminem’s winning streak will finally come to an end. 1 on the Billboard 200, making Eminem the only artist in history to launch 10 consecutive albums atop the chart. It has proven a historically lucrative business strategy: Music to Be Murdered By debuted at No.
His albums continued to sell like hotcakes, and he and his fans-the original “stans”-created a successful, self-perpetuating cycle that consisted of releasing a chart-topping album, receiving tons of negative reviews for said album, then releasing another chart-topping album on which Eminem unleashed a torrent of disses at the critics who trashed his last chart-topping album. Despite being largely savaged by critics, Eminem had no incentive to change his approach.