Kanye’s First Week Sales Projections for ‘Yeezus’ Revealed

By: Amanda Anderson-Niles

With all the hype surrounding Kanye’s upcoming studio album “Yeezus,” most would expect the first week sales to be a monster. On top of all of Kanye’s over the top promotional efforts, the rapper is also staying in the headlines thanks to his very controversial romance with reality star Kim Kardashian. However, those close to Kanye insist he’s very frustrated with the whole process he’s had to endure to put out his upcoming album. In fact, we were even told he got so annoyed with his label turning down his first few album cover ideas that he decided to get even and opted for no cover. And then of course he also reportedly headed back to the studio recently after the label suggested he didn’t have enough commercial friendly tracks, but we’re assuming that didn’t work out too well considering Kanye said at his listening party that he refuses to be pushed to do anything commercial at this point of his career.

Regardless of how frustrating things have been for Kanye and his label, Billboard predicts all of the stress will pay off big if his first week sales projections are accurate. Billboard reports:

While Kanye West’s new album “Yeezus” hasn’t been released yet, sales forecasters in the music industry are buzzing about how much the set could sell in its first week.

Those in the know suggest the album, due out June 18, may sell 500,000 copies in its first week. Readers might wonder: How do said forecasters come up with a projected sales figure — when the album isn’t even on sale yet?

Basically, these skilled sources make it their business to crunch numbers all day long. Sales forecasts, such as this one for “Yeezus,” are based on early orders from retailers, first-week performance of comparable albums, media exposure, radio and YouTube trends for an album’s first single, and so forth. These sources each have their own forecast model, so to speak, that helps generate sales projections.