Rihanna’s Slow Album Sales
Written by Trent | Filed under Hot Topic,Rihanna


Rihanna’s ‘Talk That Talk’ entered the Billboard
200 at #3 this week and it became her sixth
consecutive album to miss the top spot on the tally.
However, what really baffled her fans were the
relatively slow sales of the project, despite the record
being preceded by its widely successful lead single,
‘We Found Love’.
With sales barely exceeding 197K copies, ‘Talk That
Talk’ actually sold 10K copies less than Rihanna’s
previous album, ‘Loud’. So what exactly is the
reason for the slow start of the record? Well, while
there may have been many possible causes, the
main reason for the slow chart start lies with
Rihanna’s US fans themselves.
Rihanna is the quintessential Pop star of the 21st
century, appealing to the masses of the dominant
iTunes generation – the 16 to 25 age bracket – who
require striking visuals and simplistic hooks to
stimulate their interest. Yet, although she has thus
far enjoyed incredible success on the singles charts
because of her ability to satisfy their demands,
Rihanna’s team has overlooked a crucial fact – the
children of this digital era typically do not buy
albums on a large scale.
Regardless of how well her songs perform on iTunes
and radio, Rihanna’s fans are generally not interested
in buying complete albums. Reflecting on the trend
of her past sales confirms this point as her top-selling
release – 2007′s ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ – has sold
only 2.7 million copies in the US to date and none of
her other albums have surpassed the 2 million mark.
On the other hand, Adele, for instance, has
generated massive sales with her ’21′ LP, which has
already topped 4.6 million copies in US sales after
only 9 months – more than three times to total of
Rihanna’s ‘Loud’. Yet, why is Adele, who only has two
#1 singles, rarely moves anything except her mouth
during her shows and simply sits on a stool in a her
videos, outpacing Rihanna? The answer is once again
found with the audience in question.
Adele is an Adult Contemporary artist and her target
market arguably represents the larget album-buying
audience in the US. As such, although she may not
always score hit singles – the successes of ‘Rolling
in the Deep’ and ‘Someone like You’ were truly
unusual – with the right material and promotion,
Adele is guaranteed to have a huge advantage on the
album charts.
So how has Rihanna managed to sell albums at all?
Similar to her close friend Katy Perry, she has to
perform near excessive promotion and issue a wave
of singles with the intent that those members of her
fanbase who aren’t just looking for a new ringtone
would buy her records. Of course, special discounts
and bonus content, such as posters, pictures and
video packages, also help her cause.
Hence, Rihanna’s greatest strength on the singles
charts is ironically her downfall on the album tallies.
The very fans that guarantee her dominance of the
digital singles charts and force her song titles onto
the list of Twitter’s trending topics will do almost
anything except buy her albums.
Ultimately, Rihanna may enjoy slow sales that
eventually result in long term success but as was the
case with her ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’, ‘Rated R’ and
‘Loud’ projects, Rihanna’s team will have to launch a
much larger promotional campaign than her Adult
Contemporary counterparts and issue a flurry of
singles just to keep her ‘Talk That Talk’ album on the
charts. Rihanna may lead her fans to ‘Talk That Talk’
on iTunes but she can’t always make them click
‘purchase’.