As the concert business rebounded in 2011, touring remained the biggest source of income for the top earners in the U.S. music business. Billboard’s sixth annual Money Makers ranking includes veteran road warriors U2, Kenny Chesney and Bon Jovi, as well as other artists emerging in recent years as A-list arena headliners, from Taylor Swift to Lady Gaga. But not all of the 40 artists on the Money Makers list relied heavily, if at all, on touring income.
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Billboard projects that Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” will debut with first-week sales of at least 1.15 million units, far outpacing earlier projections, thanks to explosive sales at Amazon, which priced the album at 99 cents for two days this week.
According to sources, “Born This Way,” scanned 330,000 units at Amazon on Monday, even though the unprecedented traffic derailed the Amazon servers. While the Amazon experience left some consumers in a sour mood, the news on the technical glitch helped heighten awareness about the album (not that Interscope and Lady Gaga needed any help.
As a make-good for customers who experienced difficulty in downloading “Born This Way” on Monday, May 23, the merchant priced the album again at 99 cents on Thursday (May 26). Industry sources told Billboard.biz that the second-day availability of 99-cent prices generated approximately 110,000 scans, nearly all of which were the 99-cent version.
But even without a second day of 99-cent pricing, “Born This Way” was on its way to a million-unit debut week, sources told Billboard. On the first day alone, the album moved at least 500,000 units, with sources saying that first day sales at
iTunes totaled 104,000 units;
Best Buy, 45,000 units;
Target, 35,000 units
&
Starbucks, 10,000 units.
GWOP MAGAZINE 