Chapter 279: **Chapter 276: First-Day Sales Reveal**
"Hey, Eva, Anna said you wanted to talk to me?"
Through the changing cityscape outside the car window, Link lounged on the couch in the RV, propping his legs up and calling the company's chief steward with another phone.
"Yes, Mr. Casanova, I have good news. Currently, distributors from 38 states have called, saying they expect to sell out all their stock in three days and are requesting a restock. Just three minutes ago, the distributor in New York announced that the first batch of 35,000 records was sold out. Additionally, online album sales have reached 52,000 copies, topping the charts on various digital platforms. The details have been posted on Link Music's Twitter account. You might want to check it out if you have time."
Eva's tone was upbeat, indicating she was in a good mood.
Link smiled lightly and asked why she called him Casanova. In English, "Casanova" describes a romantic figure, but adding "Mr." made it sound like a jab.
Eva didn't explain, only mentioning another matter. Link Music was facing difficulties with the album promotion. The marketing department's plan wasn't innovative enough to influence mainstream opinion, leaving her dissatisfied.
Eva asked if Link had any promotion strategies since he was a master of hype.
Link sighed. Since his debut, he had only participated in a few promotional stunts, many of which were forced upon him. He wasn't keen on hype, but now even Eva thought he was good at it, which was hard for him to refute.
"Don't you have any ideas? The third album's sales are currently doing well. The distribution department predicts first-week sales will be around 800,000 copies. With better promotion, there's a significant chance it could exceed one million copies.
Think about it, Mr. Beck. One million copies in the first week is a stunning number and a huge honor in your career. Don't you want to achieve that?"
Eva used a persuasive tone, trying to tempt him.
Link, having built up some immunity to her charm, joked about her being a commercial elite and the 28th best female CEO under forty, wondering if she didn't have a better idea.
In the March issue of Business Weekly's '40 Under 40 Female CEOs' list for 2009, Eva's name appeared, praised for her beauty and talent.
"No, I'm the president. My job is to choose talent to work for me, not to create problems for myself. If I have to do this myself, what are the people in the company for?"
Eva spoke with a hint of the domineering CEO persona.
"Alright, I have a somewhat immature idea."
Link shared his strategy.
Eva listened for a while and asked in surprise, "What kind of brain do you have to come up with such a bizarre operation?"
"Last time on Rodeo Drive, I saw a beautiful woman fall and her designer cosmetics spilled out. Taylor said those things were worth over $100,000. I thought it might be a good idea to use something like that for promoting our album. What do you think?"
"That sounds interesting. We can give it a try. Await my good news."
Eva hung up directly without saying goodbye.
Link shook his head, picked up another phone, and noticed he hadn't received any calls or texts from Taylor. Realizing she was probably done with the recording studio, he called her.
Taylor answered quickly and asked why he was calling at this time.
Link asked if she had listened to the album and what she thought.
"It's great. How did you come up with these songs?"
Taylor inquired.
"Of course, it's because of you. You're my muse. Seeing you inspires me."
"Really? Why can't I write a song when I'm with you, but you can write so many great songs when we're together? Are you dating me just to write songs?"
"Why would you think that? Don't forget, you taught me how to write songs."
"Hmph! I couldn't have trained such a talented student. Every song is so good. How am I supposed to record a new album?"
Taylor's tone was a bit sour.
"Ha! You're so talented, having started writing songs at ten and already written thousands of songs. Surely you can write even better songs than my album, right?"
"Of course. I'll never lose to you. Hurry back. I want to hear you sing live."
"OK! Wait for me in the bedroom."
"Perverted!"
Link shrugged and hung up the phone.
On the first day of the release of *The Woman I Love*, 82,000 digital albums were sold online, while offline physical sales, according to data from distributors in 42 states, reached 186,000 copies.
Adding these numbers gives a total of 268,000 copies, with eight states still to report, indicating that first-day sales exceeded 260,000 copies.
This means *The Woman I Love* sold over 260,000 copies on its first day across the US, surpassing last week's chart-topper *My World 2.0* by over 10,000 copies.
When Link Music announced the first-day figures via a tweet, it caused a huge stir in the music industry. Major online media outlets quickly picked up the story.
Initially, many were skeptical. According to these numbers, Link's third album had a high chance of surpassing one million copies in its first week. Singers who achieve first-week sales of one million copies are usually top-tier stars.
How could a new artist, just over a year into their career, achieve this?
Moreover, the album was extremely expensive, with one copy priced at the equivalent of two regular albums. Thus, with a base of 260,000 copies, the first-day sales would exceed 500,000 copies.
This was astonishing.
Even top stars like MJ, the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Beyoncé couldn't achieve such numbers.
But Link had.
Many speculated that Link Music might be inflating the numbers.
With the rise of the internet, online sales are included in total sales, providing an easy platform for data manipulation, leading to distorted figures.
For instance, Justin Timberlake's albums faced scrutiny for potential data falsification last year, but his team didn't mind these claims, as inflating data was seen as a promotional strategy within commercial rules.
Thus, Link's data might also be fabricated.
However, this suspicion only lasted for less than two hours. Link Music updated *The Woman I Love*'s first-day sales figures. Online sales remained at 82,000 copies, but total sales across 50 states increased to 224,000 copies.
The total sales reached 306,000 copies.
Link Music also published a ranking of sales performances by state.
New York topped the list with 54,000 copies sold on the first day. California came in second with 42,000 copies, and Florida remarkably entered third with 31,000 copies. Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington D.C. followed in fourth, fifth, and sixth places.
With this data released, many skeptics fell silent. Although online sales data could be manipulated, distributor data was harder to fake.
Distributors are neutral entities and don't belong to any specific record company. They wouldn't help a record company sell unsellable stock.
Distributors pay taxes based on their sales figures, making data falsification self-defeating.
Would Link Music fabricate the sales data?
Unlikely!
Distributors wouldn't tolerate such practices.
So, with 224,000 offline sales for Link's third album, and an online-to-offline ratio of 3:1 or 4:1, 82,000 online sales were a reasonable figure.
After the doubts faded, discussions on why the album was such a hit became lively.
Some believed Link's fame and large fanbase contributed to the sales. He was a world champion boxer, movie star, top singer, with over 20 million Twitter followers. Even if only one out of a hundred bought a copy, it would result in over 20,000 copies sold.
Others thought the album's high quality was the key. The first single *All of Me* was classic, and other singles like *Legends Never Die* and *See You Again* were also high-quality tracks.
Fans believed in Link's work, so they were enthusiastic about supporting his third album.
However, more people thought the album's success was due to its quality. With 18 tracks, none were filler. Each song had the potential to hit the charts.
Fans even argued over which song on the album was the best, with support divided among many tracks.
The quality of the songs made it surprising if they didn't sell well.
Especially with endorsements from big stars like Lady Gaga.
Given the situation, selling 300,000 copies on the first day didn't seem too outrageous.
With the release of the first-day data, Link's third album became a huge hit in the music industry, with many media outlets reporting on the news.
Previously, mainstream media had predicted the album's total US sales would be around one million copies. Now, that seemed like a joke.
Many thought Link's third album might not surpass Justin Timberlake's *My World 2.0* for the week. That too now seemed laughable.
On the second day of *The Woman I Love*'s release, online sales dropped to 75,000 copies, but offline sales rose to 248,000 copies, bringing the second day's total sales to 323,000 copies.
The two-day cumulative total was 629,000 copies!
(End of Chapter)