Catching up in this thread....
Was Billboard bombarded with emails? I thank everyone who has contacted Billboard.
Was Estate/Sony bombarded with emails? Their statement celebrates being number two? Not one word that addresses their unwise (and lazy) decision to freely distribute 9K Xscape copies?
Agreed. I spoke with my U.S. friend. She said she heard LNFSG on a R/B radio format that she prefers but, did not see what she called "street promotion" for Xscape: billboards, ads on yellow taxi-cabs, mass transit buses, subways, etc.
It is so unfortunate because there is only one opportunity to debut at number one. I do not want to assume that Sony offices outside of U.S. are more adept at securing a number one spot for their artists than Sony office in the U.S. The routine steps to do so are not trade secrets and the rules of official charts are not secrets to these executives either.
If the U.S. is the biggest market that should be the region where Sony does their very best to get their artist the number one spot. It is simple laziness.
There is no need to contact Billboard or the Estate. You can all you want, but it will not change anything. It has been said in here 100 different times now: The 9,000 copies were not purchased. They were given away. Nielson Soundscan (how Billboard collects its data) does not count CDs that are given away, only ones that are actually purchased.
Ticket price had nothing to do with the CD.
The CD was in the gift shop and given away, for free, with any $20 gift shop purchase.
Do I have a source for this? No. To me, it is just common sense because a similar tactic
did work for Madonna. I do not believe there is any conspiracy here, or any double standards. I think it was just a goof on Sony's part. I think they were probably thinking more about promoting the CD than chart numbers. Had they been thinking about getting the CD on the charts, they would have charged people for it.
/soapbox.
That being said, Tygger, I do agree with you that, with the US being the largest market, they should have put more into promoting the album here. They did a lot, do no get me wrong, and I think they did a great job with what they did. But like you said, no Billboards, no ads (other than occasionally one popping up in Times Square), no street promotion whatsoever. Mainly just some TV spots and the rest was word-of-mouth advertising.
