Thursday, March 28, 2024

Mariah Carey’s “Glitter” Mystery Continues: Album Was Number 1 All Week on iTunes But Only Sold 4,737 Copies

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The mystery of Mariah Carey’s 2001 album continues.

“Glitter” suddenly rose to number 1 on iTunes this week out of nowhere, with no re-release or promotion. The album, a failure in 2001, just re-appeared. It’s not even available for streaming, isn’t on Spotify, and almost no copies of it exist.

According to BuzzAngle and hitsdailydouble, “Glitter” sold just over 4,000 copies. It finished at number 36 for the week.

Just to spell this out: the actual number 1 album for the week, Kane Brown’s “Experiment,” sold 106,775 copies including streaming. All week on iTunes, “Glitter” was positioned higher than “Experiment.”

Even now, “Glitter” is at number 13 on iTunes. Meanwhile, Mariah’s actual new album, “Caution,” is number 4. It’s her first first hit album since 2009.

But how did “Glitter” become a hit just on iTunes– especially when it wasn’t really selling? Why is still now a fake hit on iTunes?

One theory is that somehow iTunes has been gamed and is doing nothing about it. Something similar happened a couple of weeks ago with Chinese pop star Kris Wu. Suddenly, ten of his singles swamped the iTunes singles chart. His album jumped up the albums chart. No one knew what was going on. Billboard and Nielsen are still trying to figure this out. But very quickly, Kris Wu dropped off the charts and life went back to normal.

Carey’s fans think something magical happened. Carey may, too. But the whole “Glitter” issue has somehow been faked. In time, it will be figured out.

Meantime, The Beatles sold 61,000 copies of their new White Album box set. That number included 10,000 streams. That’s a real sale.

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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