I am starting to wonder how Mariah Carey sold 50,000 copies of her “Caution” album in its first week.
That’s because in its second week, “Caution” sold just 5,692 copies according to BuzzAngle and hitsdailydouble.com.
These numbers include streaming, which was minimal.
It’s a 159% drop from week 1 to week 2.
Even worse: “Caution” was beaten slightly by Mariah’s Christmas album, which ranked a few notches higher on the chart that combines streaming with CD sales and downloads.
“Caution” fell totally off the CD-and-download top 50. It’s just gone.
This news certainly must be frustrating for Mariah, but she’s in good company. Barbra Streisand, Cher, and Paul McCartney have all struggled to keep sales going on new records after the first couple of weeks. But the “Caution” story is worse than all of those.
According to hitsdailydouble, “Caution” sold about evenly 2,600 copies CD/downloads, and 2,600 from streaming.
It’s not like Mariah didn’t work it. She did the TV shows, made appearances, etc. But even she knows by now that her bread and butter is touring and live performance. Record sales for legacy artists are simply nil.
