News has already broken that Lady Gaga's ARTPOP will debut at no. 1 in the U.K. charts, and there's a solid chance it will do the same in the United States. That doesn't mean that the album can be considered a success however. Estimates, which will become officials first week totals on Wednesday, suggest that ARTPOP will sell around 250,000 copies and lose Interscope Records a lot of money in the process (note: Regardless of The Examiner's reported dislike of Gaga, the stats presented in this article are based on numbers from Nielsen Soundscan, a fairly legitimate source).
Estimates given by analysts suggest that the label will lose more than $25 million dollars spent promoting the album. How much of that money went into flying dresses or esteemed artist Jeffrey Koons designing the album cover is unknown, but this much is known: Gaga's last album, 2011's Born This Way, sold 1.1 million copies during its first week, meaning ARTPOP represents a more than 75 percent drop off since the pop star's last debut.
By comparison, Katy Perry debuted with 286,000 copies of Prism sold in week one, and Miley Cyrus moved 272,000 copies of Bangerz. Neither of those were considered significant successes. Gaga isn't near guaranteed the no. 1 spot on this week's Billboard 200 either; Eminem sold nearly 800,000 copies of The Marshall Mathers LP 2 last week, and his follow-up performance could potentially keep Lady Gaga at no. 2.
What does this mean for the Mother Monster in the long run? Hard to tell. The performance of singles from ARTPOP has been disappointing so far, and that may be worth examining for Interscope in the long run. At the very least, fans should expect less extravagant promotion of Gaga's next album. No time-traveling dresses, we're afraid.
