That old town road is looking mighty lonesome this morning.
Lil Nas X’s first official album, called “Montero” after his own first name, is a massive sales dud.
This comes as a surprise because Lil Nas had hits with the title track and “Industry Baby.” He made big splashes with gay-friendly videos. His overall demeanor is a cheery young guy who made a lot of money with his first single, “Old Town Road,” and then went over the top as a Little Richard for the 2021 crowd.
But singles and YouTube videos are one thing, albums are another. “Montero” has sold only 28,000 paid downloads. With streaming equivalent sales, he’s up to 228,000 total copies after two and a half weeks. That’s underwhelming indeed.
The singles are the story: “Industry Baby” has 1.1 million in sales, almost all from streaming. “Montero” the single and “That’s What I Want” come in at around 250,000 apiece.
Still, Lil Nas X has cemented his brand, and he’s certainly well known. Now he just has to straighten out how to proceed forward to keep his audience and not totally offend the mainstream.
