U2's No Line on the Horizon sold 484,000 units during its first week in the US, according to Nielsen Soundscan, easily enough for a number one. That falls within an initial projection of between 400,000 and 500,000 units, offered by Digital Music News after canvassing retail analysts early last week. The result also falls far short of an 840,000 first-week posted by the previous U2 release, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but actually beats earlier releases.
The result on Horizon was largely expected, based on the typically pace-setting first day at retail. Sources from within Interscope and Universal Music Group pointed to internal disappointment over the result, based on the often outsized sales that mega-superstars can generate.
Despite a broader slide in aggregate album sales, a number of mega-artists have recently scored serious first-weeks. That includes Lil Wayne (Tha Carter III, 1.0 million first-week), Kanye West (Graduation, 957,000), Coldplay (Viva la Vida, 721,000), AC/DC (Black Ice, 784,000), and even Metallica, whose Death Magnetic sold 490,000 during a truncated half-week.
The list also includes Mariah Carey, whose E=MC2 recently scored 463,000 first-week units, the highest-ever for the diva. Others have been closer to earth, including Madonna (Hard Candy, 280,000), Usher (Here I Stand, 433,000), Guns N' Roses (Chinese Democracy, 261,000), and even Kanye, whose latest - the somewhat experimental 808s & Heartbreak - scored 450,000 in its first week.
Most of those releases were leaked, some far in advance of the official street date. That raises the question of what the actual sales impact of a full-album leak is, though the answer is difficult to accurately determine. In the case of U2, the album started leaking February 18th across BitTorrent and other channels. According to data from BigChampagne, complete album downloads on BitTorrent reached 431,725 ahead of the official in-store.
Then, the action ramped upward. After the release - and the considerable promotional juice that came with it - BitTorrent downloads surged, reaching 752,367 by March 8th. That raised the per-day average considerably, and reflects a marketing machine that created ripples across both paid and unpaid channels.
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