Billboard: Chris Brown's Royalty does 184k (162k pure album sales)

[Insensitive]

I understand that too, but why would a label sign a talent and try to cut corners trying to promote them. Of course they not gonna sell, with that method. I mean we seen what record label can do when they want a certain talent to be successful. Prime example is Rihanna. Def Jam forced fed us that non singing broad and wanted to make sure she would be everywhere. Imagaine if the roles were reversed with Tiarra Marie

Why ? Because there is a high turnover
rate for these artists.
They cut corners wherever they can.
You can't sing ? Auto tune.
Can't do a solid take ? We'll just chop together the best ones.
You can't play an instrument, write lyrics etc. ? That's fine we'll bring in someone else to do it. We'll recoup later when you get practically no money from these songs.

Can't record an album to save your life ? That's fine, we'll cut 4 to 5 hot songs, push those and drop your 11 to 12 song album under the radar where it'll sell appropriately.

Some people will sell in spite of the lack of promo (Gary Clark Jr., D'angelo ) as examples but most won't sell that much especially if they're in a certain lane.

 

[The Fire]

I dont buy it. everyone knew this album would tank, no promo, no radio singles... his record label and management clearly bought the albums to maintain his standing as a 'relevant' artist.

I dont blame them actually.. smart move

nikka nobody does that shyt anymore
there's no money in the rap game Chris brown has done the best numbers for a black artist since meek dropped all the way in June

 

[JustCKing]

Good question. That is actually why they know want artists who already have done the groundwork and got
some type of fanbase and then lock em in and all like they discovered them (see Kendrick Lamar/TDE & the list goes on). That
way too they dont have to spend alot of that cheese on development (which seems non-existent now), marketing etc.

@ bolded, Agree, but dont know what it is. Stuff like management or a particular deal that an artist has matters to the label in that sense.

I mean i remember when Rihanna first came out 2005/06 - nobody cared about her music. Then
around 2007/08 when her image changed and her relationship with Chris Brown came all of a sudden everybody were fans.

I just think it depends on the demographic a label is tryna reach with an artist matters alot too in those cases & how they're able to market
them. As you see, Rihanna basically sells that old Madonna shtick - selling a sexy image, a pseudo female rockstar image & whatnot.

I've never liked Rihanna like that, but people cared about her music. "Pon De Replay" was a huge hit for her in '05. It was initially shopped to Christina Milian, but she turned it down. That song is what drew the line between her and Teairra Mari. Def Jam was pumping out Rihanna albums like every 6-8 months and all of them returned huge hits. Def Jam developed Rihanna. The image change didn't really happen until after Chris Brown. Good Girl Gone Bad was supposed to be her shedding her good girl image, but nothing really changed except the hair. That was more of a transition. 2009's Rated R was the one where she changed and Jay Z's "Run This Town" was pretty much the introduction. Good Girl Gone Bad is when she became inescapable. It was hit after hit.

 

[Pop123]

If it wasn't for the xmas bump, he'd a probably did like 85k