R&B star Beyoncé’s latest self-titled album surpassed one million copies sold worldwide in six days on Wednesday and set a record for iTunes, Apple Inc. and Columbia Records said.
Beyoncé, the fifth solo studio album from the singer, which was unexpectedly released in the early hours of December 13 without any prior fanfare, contains 14 new songs and 17 videos. It swiftly topped the iTunes album charts across the world.
The album also debuted at the top of the weekly Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, with 617,000 copies sold in the US by the week ending December 15, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.
Her latest album has outperformed some of this year’s other most-anticipated new releases, selling more copies than albums from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Britney Spears
The deluxe digital album, available on iTunes, can only be purchased as a complete set of songs and videos, and retails for $15.99 at the US store. A physical version will be made available for sale in time for the holidays.
The surprise release of the album caps a year in which the 32-year-old Beyoncé made a carefully choreographed return to music after taking time out to give birth to her first child, daughter Blue Ivy, with rapper husband Jay Z. Both Blue Ivy and Jay Z feature as collaborators on the new album and appear in accom-panying music videos.
Releasing an album without any prior fanfare or publicity is rare, especially for one of the top players in the music industry. But Beyoncé’s success does not necessarily mean other artistes will be able to copy her stealth release strategy.
The singer has numerous factors in her favour, including a loyal online fan base of more than 53 million Facebook fans, 13 million Twitter followers and eight million Instagram fans, and a year performing in the spotlight that has created buzz for an album release.
Beyoncé kicked off the year performing at US President Barack Obama’s second inaugur-ation in January, headlined the Super Bowl half-time show in February and launched her Mrs Carter Show world tour in April.
Her latest album has outperformed some of this year’s other most-anticipated new releases, selling more copies than albums from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Britney Spears.
Currently, the year’s top-selling album is Justin Timberlake’s first part of The 20/20 Experience, which was released in March with 968,000 copies sold in its opening week and has topped 2.3 million sales in the US to date.
Nielsen SoundScan compiles sales in the week ending Sunday, meaning that Beyoncé’s new album only showed three days of sales.