Playboi Carti is raising eyebrows with his skepticism over the predicted first-week sales of his latest album, “Music.” Despite the album’s huge success on streaming platforms, Carti seems unhappy with the projections based solely on streams and not including physical sales.
The Atlanta rapper’s third album was expected to earn 250,000 equivalent units in its opening week, securing a top spot on the Billboard 200 chart. However, the projection, which only considers streaming numbers, leaves Carti puzzled. “IT IS ODD,” he responded to a social media user pointing out the lack of physical copies in sales calculations.
The shift in sales tracking rules by Billboard and Luminate could be behind Carti’s concerns. Recently, the charts introduced a new system to curb attempts to artificially boost numbers using bots. Under these rules, album purchases direct from artists or their online stores must be redeemed to be chart eligible, and a verification process is required. Furthermore, albums need to be sold for at least $7.99 to be counted.
Music, streaming exclusively for now, made an impressive debut with 139.3 million global streams on Spotify within its first day, marking the year’s biggest debut and the seventh largest ever. Notably, it outperformed well-known artists like Drake and Kendrick Lamar, achieving more single-day streams than their recent releases.
Despite the enormous streaming success, the exclusion of physical sales in the early tracking seems to bother Playboi Carti, especially considering that physical editions were available for pre-order on his website. This shift could significantly affect overall performance and perhaps alter the artistic strategies moving forward.
Meanwhile, Billboard’s updated rules aim to limit the impact of deluxe versions and bundles often used to boost sales. Starting in April, only four versions per album will count toward sales numbers, which might influence how artists release their music in the future.
It’s clear that Playboi Carti’s concern isn’t just about numbers—it’s about the changing landscape of music consumption and how artists adapt to it. Yet, with such a significant streaming milestone under his belt, Carti’s new album “Music” is already making waves, regardless of these challenges.
