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| Born This Way has iTunes and Amazon going "gaga" |
Lady Gaga is on track to have the fast-selling digital album of all time, while two online retail giants duke it over her.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the pop phenom's Born This Way sold in the range of 250,000 to 350,000 copies between Amazon's MP3 store and the dominant iTunes store. Yesterday, Amazon launched a frenzy amongst buyers when they sold the standard edition for an astonishing 99 cents, compared to $11.99 at iTunes. The purchase of the album also came with a free upgrade of 20GB for Amazon's recently launched Cloud Drive.
The shock pricing, which caused Amazon's servers to overload due to demand, was a business strategy called loss leading. Amazon, by lowering the price of the album, took a considerable loss in the hopes that people would flock to the company and stick with them. Amazon, despite selling their songs at a cheaper price than iTunes, doesn't hold a significant market share. iTunes holds at least 90% of all digital music sold. Still, Amazon's very agressive tactics were enough to garner a response. Hits Daily Double reported that iTunes threatened to cease their promotion of Gaga's album in retaliation.
What iTunes did have over Amazon was the very attractive "Complete My Album" feature, where buyers who purchased previous songs from the album can get the full record at a discounted price. Since Gaga released four singles prior to the album's release, fans were able to get the deluxe edition at a potential price of $10.83, compared to $15.99. That edition is sitting at #1 on the iTunes album chart, with the standard edition at #2.
As Apple and Amazon duke it out in the retail department, it's clear who the real winner is; Gaga. If these first day estimates pan out, Gaga will have the fastest selling digital album by a mile. Currently, Coldplay's Viva La Vida holds the title with 288,000 digital copies in its first week. On top of digital sales, her album is reportedly sold out in Wal-marts and Best Buys throughout the country. Hits Daily Double revised their first-week sale predictions to a whopping 900,000 copies, with the possibility she could hit the coveted million mark. Interscope Records, who pulled out ALL of the stops for this album, shipped a staggering 2 million copies to retailers.
If Gaga pulls off 1 million, she will be the first pop artist in years to do so. The last artist to sell 1 million copies was Taylor Swift with her album Speak Now.
To read my review of Born This Way, click here.
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