Madonna takes US top slot with biggest sales for 12 years

The official numbers have been announced and Madonna has come out ahead of Lionel Richie on the U.S. Album chart but, whoever is one or two, it was a banner week for both artists.

According to Billboard, MDNA sold 359,000 copies in its first week, the Material Girl's best showing since 2000 when Music sold 420,000. She also moves just one album behind Barbra Streisand for the most number 1's by a female vocalist.

Richie's Tuskegee, a rerecording of many of his best known songs with some of the biggest stars in country music, sold 199,000 copies, his best sales week since Soundscan started keeping track of actual sales in 1991. It's also the highest he's been on the charts since 1986's Dancing on the Ceiling.

Both had their sales totals boosted by transactions outside the normal physical and digital retailers route. Madonna's total increased due to the albums that she gave away to anyone purchasing tickets for her upcoming tour. Only those albums actually accepted by the buyer were counted as sales.

Richie's total increased when he pre-sold 20,000 in a one-hour special on the Home Shopping Network early in March.

The difference between the two is the fact that Richie actually sold his albums for a price, even though it was through a non-traditional means, while Madonna, in effect, gave away her album in promoting the sale of tickets to her tour.

Most likely, not counting the giveaways would not have made the position of the two albums change, but it does raise a question of the inequity in how Billboard counts sales. Recently, the magazine put in a new policy that new product must be priced at $3.95 or higher to count towards the sales total for the publication. This was done to thwart the recent trend by Google Play and Amazon to price albums for as little as 25 cents. It does NOT apply, though, to catalog product, which is how Guns N' Roses Greatest Hits album surged to number 3 last week (both venues had offered it as a loss leader for 25 cents).

So, if Madonna was giving her album away, how does that get by the $3.95 or higher rule? It seems that the rules that are used to calculate sales are a bit arbitrary and and not being applied in an equitable fashion.