Michael’s Sales: One-Fifth of Epic’s Total

Epic Records expects that sales of Michael Jackson’s music pages—along with the new album coming on December 14—will make up more than one-fifth of this year’s total sales. They expect the album’s sales to be higher than the first three weeks of This Is It last year. It has been estimated that 400,000 copies of this album will be sold in its first week, and since “Michael” coincides with the Christmas shopping rush, such sales projections could be realistic. According to SoundScan data in 2009, 9.5 million units of the King of Pop’s music pages were sold in the United States alone—7% of Sony’s total sales and 41.5% of Epic Records’ total sales. This event increased Sony’s market share in the United States compared to 2009 by 2%, bringing it to 27.9. Also this year, up to November, Michael’s album sales have been 1.8 million units, which is down compared to the previous year and is considered natural. But compared to 2008, when sales were 1.6 million units, it is an increase. It is estimated that with the release of Michael’s album, this year’s sales for the King of Pop will reach 3.2 million copies—equal to 2.7% of Sony’s total sales and 22% of Epic Records’ total sales this year. Source: eMJey / Reuters / SoundScan / Billboard