Yesterday, Black Twitter went bonkers upon learning that Brooklyn rapper Troy Ave’s new album, Major Without A Deal, sold a meager 30 physical copies its first week. However, the sales numbers were skewed and Troy Ave himself took to Twitter to maintain that he’s still getting paid.
According to Billboard, Troy’s debut was rushed out to coincide with his perform at Hot 97’s Summer Jam last weekend. Because of this the album was only officially released digitally.
Nevertheless, a few local record stores sold the physical album early.
So what’s really going on with these Troy Ave reports? Major Without a Deal, released on the independent label BSB Records through a distribution deal with EMPIRE Distribution, did sell 4,000 copies in the week ending June 7, according to Nielsen Music, but the album was released as a digital-only title in its first week. The album was first released exclusively through digital retailers on Friday, June 5, and thus only had three days of sales supporting its initial sales week. (Most albums are released on Tuesday, and thus earn six days of sales in their debut chart week.)
Further, the physical version of Major Without a Deal was not released until Tuesday, June 9 — two days after the most recent tracking week ended. Any CD copies of the album that were sold in the week ending June 7 (it was indeed a negligible figure) were CDs sold by retailers who ignored the physical CD’s street date, and opted to sell the CD early. These sales are often referred to as “street date violation” sales.
So you have to wait until next week to properly judge if Troy Ave is resonating with fans, and their disposable income, the way he claims.
Nevertheless, Black Twitter was too busy clowning that 30 albums sold figure to really care about actual facts.
