Frank Ocean who electrified the web and music world with his pronouncement that his first love was a man rocked the charts for a number two debut on the Billboard 200. The much buzzed-about R&B singer/songwriter’s 1st studio set, “Channel Orange” sold 131,000 in its first week — mostly from the iTunes Store. There were also about 3,000 physical CDs sold as well.
The set was exclusively released via iTunes on July 10 — a week before its advertised street date of July 17. After it dropped digitally, physical retailers were instructed by Ocean’s Def Jam to start selling the CD version as soon as it arrives in stores. In turn, many brick-and-mortar retailers had the album on its shelves over the weekend.
Billboard Magazine also pointed out the following: “Ocean’s debut surpasses Usher’s recent first-week with “Looking 4 Myself” (128,000) and almost matches the figure Chris Brown launched with “Fortune” a week ago (135,000). Ocean’s bow is thus rather stunning. Consider how his album — with comparably little promotion compared to Brown and Usher and basically only available at iTunes — sold about as well as two superstars with multiple hit radio singles and wall-to-wall promotion. ”
Kudos to Frank and check out this BBC interview with Frank.
