Chapter 459 First Week Album Sales

Link's fourth album was leaked by hackers before its official release, losing nearly ten million dollars.

After this news was reported by many media in the United States, it caused a heated discussion in the United States and even the world.

Before August, there had been many cases of hackers stealing bank customer information and stealing celebrity accounts to publish news and other news around the world, which attracted the attention of countries around the world.

Two of the hacking incidents are related to the music industry.

In early July, diva Beyonce's new album "4" was also leaked before its release.

At the end of July, Lady Gaga's fan website in the UK was also hacked, and more than 100,000 fan information was stolen.

This week, the new album of music superstar Link was leaked by hackers again, causing tens of millions of losses.

A series of major events combined to make people panic, as well as anger and resentment.

If it is said that hacker organizations steal bank customer information for profit, stealing politicians' social accounts is to vent dissatisfaction, and stealing celebrities' social accounts to post news is fun.

And they stole the singer's album and leaked it to the Internet in advance. Apart from messing around and cracking down on the singers' creative enthusiasm, it made no sense.

For a while, from the president of the United States and members of the two congresses to the ordinary people, they were all unhappy with the hacker group.

New York State Senator Julia Salazar said at a public event on the same day that the Internet should not be an extrajudicial place. She proposed to compare hacker organizations with terrorist organizations and asked the legislature to enact relevant laws to restrain these people and not let them continue to mess around.

This proposal was supported by many netizens. Within three days, 125,000 people petitioned the official White House website to ask the judicial department to severely punish hacker organizations such as Swagsec.

To this end, White House spokesperson Sally Sandra said at a press conference that day：

After receiving a report from Link Music Company, the Manhattan police in New York have begun to track down the Swagsec hacker organization. It is understood that this is a hacker organization active in Cambodia. The CIA has also launched an operation to conduct a cross-border investigation into the organization.

link Music posted a tweet on its official account. Users who participate in downloading the free album are requested not to spread the music source of the album at will after listening to the song, so as to avoid causing greater losses to musicians. For individuals and organizations that use free music sources for profit, the company will pursue relevant responsibilities.

The official account of the iTunes Music Store also tweeted in support of Link Music's decision and said it would cooperate with relevant investigations.

Pop superstar Britney Spears also reposted a tweet, apologizing to Link and Link's fans, saying that she will keep her personal account safe in the future, and wish Link a big sale of her new album.

In this messy situation, Link's fourth album "Love Is Gone" was released simultaneously in 48 countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia.

In the first week, 1.537 million copies were sold in the United States.

Number one on the Billboard album chart.

It is worse than the first week of the third album "The Woman I Love" with 1.747 million copies, but it is also the first album in the United States this year to sell more than 1.5 million copies in the first week, and it is also the 19th album to exceed one million sales in the first week since Nielsen counted album sales in the United States in 1991.

At the same time, it also surpassed the 1.322 million copies of Eminem's fourth album "The Eminem Show" released in 2002, ranking seventh on the total album weekly sales history list.

Taylor's third album "Last Kiss" ranked sixth with 1.59 million copies, and Link's "The Woman I Love" ranked fourth.

All 20 songs from the album also reached the top 100 of the "Billboard" singles chart in the first week.

What makes Link fans even more excited is that nine songs in the top 10 of the Billboard singles chart come from this album.

"That Girl" still topped the singles chart, followed by "Say Something" by Link and Taylor Swift, "Love is Gone", "Let Her go", "Sorry", "Let Me Down Slowly", "Late night melancholy", "No promises", "Remember Me" and other songs followed closely.

Link also became the first singer in music history to have nine songs in the top 10 of the Billboard singles chart at the same time. It also broke the record of the top five set by the Beatles in 1964, and Link directly won the top eight.

The ninth-ranked song is the single "Someone That I Used to Know" by Australian male singer Gotye and New Zealand female singer Kimbra.

This song was released on July 10 and topped the singles chart for three consecutive weeks. It sold 4.5 million copies in the United States in the first month. It is also a great love song.

Of the remaining eleven songs on the album "Love Is Gone", ten songs ranked in the top 50, and only one song written by Link himself ranked 94th, which made him very ashamed.

Overseas, "Love Is Gone" also won the album sales chart in 23 countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, with a total overseas sales of 3.72 million copies in the first week.

The total sales volume in the first week was 5.263 million copies.

It also became the second album this year to sell more than 5 million copies in the first week.

The first is Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" released in May. The album sold 1.108 million physical and digital albums in the United States in the first week, and 5.72 million copies in the first week worldwide.

The reason for the big sale of "Born This Way" in the first week is that each digital album only costs US00.99, which is a crazy sale.

For this reason, the official Nielsen Data website had to revise the rules, and albums priced below美元3.99 will not be included in sales.

The digital album of "Love Is Gone" is 19.9 US dollars per copy, almost 20 times that of "Born This Way", and the physical album is 29.9 US dollars, which has also become the most expensive album in the world throughout the year.

It was once again complained by many media that Link really sold the album as a luxury item.

In terms of overseas singles charts, his collaboration with Taylor "Say Something" won the singles charts in 12 countries and regions.

"Love is Gone" won the singles charts in 10 countries and regions, and "That Girl" won the singles charts in 5 countries and regions.

The remaining four songs "Let her go", "Sorry", "Let Me Down Slowly" and "Late night melancholy" also won the singles chart in at least one country.

Judging from these rankings, the songs on this album are very good.

In addition, the media's evaluation of this album is very high.

The British "Guardian" said that since Link released his first album in January 2009, four consecutive albums have been high-level works, and the style, artistry, and interpretation of the fourth album have improved significantly from the first three, indicating that Link is a singer who is still growing.

"The New York Times" gave the album a score of 90, commenting that the songs on the album are all sincere works.

Link broke up with Taylor Swift in April last year, and the matter was well known to the whole people, and it was also the news of the year in 2010.

It is said that Link has been writing songs for his fourth album since then, including "Let her go" and "Sorry", which were all written within a month after the breakup.

It is rare that after becoming a ‘playboy’, Link can still continue his original style, maintain a strong creative passion, and continue to create more than a dozen lovelorn songs. They are also fine works of hurt love songs, which are very powerful.

At the end of the comment, the author added that the reason for the deduction of 10 points is not the problem of the album's songs, but that Link is really a ‘playboy’, and this point is deducted from Link.

"Billboard" magazine used "Stunning" to evaluate the album and gave it a high score of 92.

Steven Copno, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, commented that among the albums released from 2001 to 2011, the quality of this album can also be ranked in the top three, even higher than Link's own third album. All 20 songs from the album entered the top 100 of the singles chart, one is worthy of ten.

Steven Copno finally said in a mocking tone.

After Link broke up with Taylor in April last year, it was rumored in the industry that Link was going to write a lovelorn style album. Many people kept looking forward to it, but then Link immediately decontaminated and became a ‘playboy’ Link, and his emotional experience was so rich that it was a mess.

This has also led many people to doubt whether he can fulfill his promise to write a lovelorn style album and let a playboy write lovelorn songs, just like letting an adult pretend to be tender.

This suspicion continued until before the release of the album, the first promotional single "That Girl" was released. After listening to this song, many people let go of their hearts. It is indeed a lovelorn song with a fresh style and sincere emotions. It is not like pretending to be tender at all.

Later, the new album was released, and all 20 songs entered the top 100 of the singles chart, which was supported and loved by the majority of fans.

Link succeeded and fulfilled his promise.

It also shows that Link has not lost himself in the complex emotional experience, and can still maintain his original intention. This is valuable, and I hope Link can continue to maintain it.

——

The album sold well in the first week and the reputation was good, which also shows that Link's new album has been successful again.

The only regret for fans is that the first week sales of "Love is Gone" did not break the sales record of "The Woman I Love".

The media also believed that "Love is gone" sold 1.53 million copies in the first week, which was not too successful for Link.

First of all, all 20 songs from the album entered the top 100 of the singles chart, and the ranking is better than that of the third album, indicating that the quality and popularity of the album are not worse than that of the third album.

Secondly, Link's influence is greater than last year, and his appeal should be stronger, especially the recent news that he won 7 gold medals at the World Championships, and his starring role in "Captain America" is still the weekly box office champion.

In this case, the first week sales of "Love is gone" should be higher than that of the third album. It is expected that the first week sales should be more than 1.8 million copies, but the result is only 1.53 million copies.

The media believes that hackers leaked the album's audio source in advance, which was the main reason for the album's first week sales‘failure’.

Counting the 358,000 digital albums leaked in advance, it is almost close to 1.9 million.

The second reason is that Link has shifted the focus of his activities to Hollywood, his activities in the music industry have decreased, and his influence on fans has decreased.

In addition, in terms of publicity planning, the tricks are obviously much less than last year.

The media believes that it is also very challenging for "Love is Gone" to surpass the sales of "The Woman I Love" in the United States.

“Cheers！”

“Cheers！”

In a club in New York, little Kunas, bragging daddy and Jay-Z had a glass of champagne.

“Sean, Ryan, are those hackers hired by you?”

Jay-z asked with a sip of champagne.

“Haha, no, it has nothing to do with me.”

The bragging father smiled haha, grinned and said, "No matter who did it, as long as it can affect the sales of Link's new album, it's a thing to celebrate, isn't it?"”

“That's right!Link's album sales failed. This is the best news I have heard this year and it is very worthy of celebration.”

Little Kunas said happily.

Jay-Z nodded. Although the audio source of his wife Beyonce's new album was also leaked by hackers, he was also on the victim's side, but he heard that the first week sales of Link's new album failed to meet expectations. This is undoubtedly good news for him. .

Since Link stepped into rap in 2009 and made their East Coast rap disgraced, there hasn't been a day when he didn't want to see Link unlucky.

The leak of the audio source directly caused Link to lose tens of millions of dollars. This is even more great news, which made them breathe a sigh of relief.

“Jess, when are you and Kanye's new album going to be released?”

Little Kunas asked.

“September 12th.”

Jay-Z said.

His new album "Watch The Throne", which he collaborated with Kanye West, is also currently in the promotion period.

The album was completed in May and was originally scheduled to be released in early August, but it was heard that Link's new album was also scheduled to be released at that time.

Considering that Link is too famous, his distribution department suggested that he and Kanye delay or advance the release.

If it is advanced to July, it will collide with Beyonce's album. There is nothing they can do, they can only choose to delay it unhappily.

But because of Link, the release of the new albums of the two rap kings, him and Kanye, was delayed, which was a big insult to him and Kanye.

He also thought about not delaying it until August, and then having another album chart battle with Link.

It's just that considering that Link's third album sold as many as 5.5 million copies in North America and 36 million copies worldwide throughout the year, according to this momentum, the first week sales of the fourth album will not be less than 1 million copies.

Neither he, Kanye nor the company had much confidence in getting one million sales in the first week.

In the end, after careful consideration, I gave up taking risks and delayed the release until September.

After the first week of sales of "Love is gone" was released, he was also secretly fortunate. Fortunately, he didn't take the risk to adjust. If it does happen, the possibility of failure is extremely high.

“Jess, this album is a collaboration between you and Kanye. Do you have any hope of competing with Link on the annual sales chart?”

Little Kunas asked.

Jay-Z shook his head, it was difficult.

The company estimates that the U.S. sales of this album will not be higher than "The Blueprint 3", about 1.3 million, which is also their expectation.

Link's new album sold 1.53 million copies in the first week.

There is no comparison at all.

“Link has too many titles and has a lot of influence in the United States. In addition, he is good at hype and has a bonus of "Captain America". According to the current situation, the sales of his album in North America have a great chance to exceed 4 million copies. This number.It's hard to surpass.”

Jay-Z bared his white teeth, his face full of envy and jealousy.

“This bastard, how could he be so powerful.”

Little Kunas smashed the table angrily.

Link, this bastard, is not only the king of the music scene, but also won the WBA Super Champion golden belt not long ago.

His new movie "American Team" has grossed nearly 400 million U.S. dollars at the global box office. The media said that his salary in this movie exceeded 20 million U.S. dollars, and his company earned nearly 100 million U.S. dollars on the "Bridesmaid" project.

What's even more annoying is that this bastard is still trading stocks and is worth more than three billion.

Old Tompkins, who used to be a little picky about Link, now only looks forward to Link and Ivanka getting married early and giving birth to a big fat boy.

Thank you!

Thinking of this, little Kunas was crazy with jealousy. He suddenly looked at his bragging father, “You have been sending women to Link since last year, and you want to use this trick to plant him. Why hasn't there been any movement yet?"”

"Ugh!Little Epstein and I have repeatedly sent it many times, but it's useless. One is that Link is very vigilant and won't take a look at strange girls no matter how beautiful they are.

Second, there are too many beautiful women around him, and it is difficult to find a better one to send him. The key point is that we found that Link is only interested in female celebrities. The more famous he is, the more interested he is, and he is not interested in ordinary beauties.”

The bragging father said helplessly.

“Only like famous women?The more famous, the better?”

Little Kunas thought of Link's girlfriends, whether they were from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Japan and South Korea, they seemed to be famous actresses.

"Damn it, this bastard is too picky.”

“That's right, like him, do you want to find a big star to give him to play with?It's not realistic. Link is too high in the entertainment industry, and ordinary actresses will not agree to help us frame Link.”

Jay-Z sighed.

Little Kunas frowned, “This matter is really difficult, but don't give up too early. Find the right person slowly. You can increase the price if necessary. Maybe there are popular actresses who are willing to help us deal with Link."”

Jay-Z and the bragging father nodded, thinking that this is also good. Although this matter is more difficult to do, it is better than nothing.

——

After the release of "Love is gone", Link also flew around in major cities in the United States in the first week as before, holding signings, signing more than 8,000 copies a day.

In the second week, he continued to fly to major cities in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and other places to hold signings, signing more than 5,000 times a day, and the scene was still hot.

There is also good news this week.

The digital audio source of the album was leaked by hackers before, and it was downloaded 358,000 times for free on the iTunes platform.

With the recent media criticism of hacker organizations, the people are very disgusted and angry with hacker organizations, which has also led some iTunes users who participated in free digital albums to actively delete their original resources in the near future and choose to re-purchase online.

These people will also delete free audio sources and re-purchase videos of genuine digital albums online, calling on others to do the same, respect and maintain the singer's creation, unite to resist hacker organizations, and never be an accomplice of hacker organizations.

This approach has also attracted the support of many fans, as well as praise from many media posts.

According to information from the iTunes Music Store, after the release of the genuine digital album "Love is gone", 28% of users who downloaded the free audio source chose to buy it again in the first week, and this week this proportion increased to 56%.

In other words, of the 358,000 people who downloaded free audio sources, nearly 180,000 chose to pay for the purchase.

This is indeed good news.

To this end, Link and Link Music announced another donation of US118 million to the International Red Cross, the Link Charitable Foundation, and the American Recording Industry Association Anti-piracy organization.

Originally, the song "see you again" would generate millions of dollars in charitable donations every year, but now it has donated another 10 million. This initiative has also attracted praise from fans and the media.

This matter was decided by Link and Ivanka. He is young, worth billions, and a global idol. It is also a good thing for him to have the title of a charity star.

Link spent a busy week, and sales were released in the second week.

"Love is gone" sold 1.035 million copies in the United States in the second week. This figure was down 30% from the first week. It was the first solo album in the European and American music scene to sell more than 1 million copies in two consecutive weeks. This is a new record.

The overseas sales performance was also good, with 3.857 million copies, a slight increase from last week.

The main reason is that the number of countries and regions issued overseas this week has expanded from 48 to 102.

It also includes the China region. This album sold 516,000 copies in the first week in the Mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It is also the highest-selling English album in the first week in the past ten years.

In order to thank the Huaxia fans, Link specially flew to the Huaxia area to hold a number of signings.

When promoting the album, he will also take time to participate in the promotional activities of "Captain America" and use the movie to promote the album.

The film was released on July 22. By the end of August, the North American box office reached 241 million US dollars, the global box office was 210 million, and the global box office successfully exceeded 450 million. It also surpassed "Thor" and became the highest-grossing movie of the same type this year.

The album's big sales and the movie's big sales made Link the hottest public figure in the world's entertainment industry for a while.

(End of this chapter)