Bundles don't count anymore actually thats why the past 6 months every artists sales have gone down

There is way less padding now

When KOD came out, Cole was selling autographed vinyls on his website that didn't ship out for about 2 years. Billboard counted those sales back then because the rules were different.

Cole didn't drop any merch or physicals for this album

I can agree with that , but again does that have the legs of some of his previous , clearly more focused singles (no role models, power trip etc)

We will see when all the other rappers not named Drake and Kendrick drop WITHOUT bundles

That and the complete lack of understanding when it comes to cd sales vs streaming sales is pretty laughable

And when that does happen what I said will remain the same

Really wonder what numbers Trab will do w/o bundles

That’s exactly what my mind went to. He should be a good measurement

I agree with your criteria. Spot on but I always struggle with what is the measurement of an artist’s commercial success (is it a certain number of number 1 albums? Number of gold/play plaques?) and what is the measurement for their recognition (respect from OGs? Tours? Social media?) because I see so many artists that fit this mold but are nowhere considered comparable to “the big 3”.

Can see him doing 270k-300k tbh

if these singles trav dropping keep flopping and he gotta rely on drake for a stimmy and he still sell less than cole fw, ktt wont recover

I’m not the biggest Cole fan as I used to be and I feel like “pride is the devil” is similar to “deja vu” but with streaming not sure it’ll have the success of “power trip” or “no role models” because when those dropped, I felt like ppl did focus on buying as well as streaming where now it’s mostly a streaming thing. I could be wrong

about 50k were just from me

They did drop merch and vinyls at thefalloffera.com but I guess bundles are no longer being counted towards sales

I feel that bruh. I just feel like all things considered (no bundles, no traditional singles so to say) and then couple that with the idea that this album was literally just a flex on his skills as an emcee , not particularly his skills churning out a hit..300k is SOLID.

They still count. They just need to be shipped the week of. So in 4 weeks the physicals will count for his sales then

Ah i didn't notice

Those vinyls dont count because they dont ship until august i believe

They'll get counted when they ship

It’s solid for sure, can’t hate on that. I get the bundles not being a thing and that impacted the sales but it makes me think, maybe ppl have cooled off on Cole since his last drop.

travis has insane hype machine behind him, they'll come up with a good gimmick to inflate his opening week. i'm way more interested in how his album performs in the longer run

I agree with you that there isn’t a clearly defined commercial success measuring stick to solidify someone in the top tier. I know this is vague but I’d like to think all three would fall in line with whatever “it” would be. I think it’s just a lot more obvious than people try to make it I’d say it’s pretty clear in my eyes. People should be discussing the next top tier group because Kendrick, Drake, and J Cole have already solidified their positions for their era

But you gotta look at middle child, the interlude doing GREAT numbers since the last drop. He is right on track streaming wise. S***, I personally bought physicals of each Cole album up until this one my damn self. That’s a major difference I think with his fan base. He usually eats well in pure sales

pandemic happened people are still unemployed and I doubt they would waste they money on an album or a streaming service

His pure sales are down by like 50k lol

Niggas just don't buy albums anymore

I think the current “big 3” will hold on for a few more years but I can see Lil Baby as a candidate for the next “big 3”, not sure about anyone else