‘The X Factor’ USA: Fifth Harmony score top-ranked debut for any former act
To date, “The X Factor” season 2 has produced a pair of acts in Emblem3 and Fifth Harmony that have generated quite a bit of social-media buzz., but at the same time, has that really led to much in the way of record sales? We’ve posted in the past that social media and TV ratings do not necessarily have a huge correlation, since Twitter is international and can very well be misleading.
So as it turns out, Fifth Harmony did at least prove that there is a decent American audience behind them with their first-week sales of their “Better Together” EP. The five-song set sold 28,000 copies in its first week, which is enough for it to be #6 on the Billboard 200 this week. This makes it the top-ranking debut album ever for a contestant on the show, even though there’s not a big library to go on here in between Chris Rene’s “I’m Still Here,” Emblem3’s “Nothing To Lose,” and season 2 champion Tate Stevens’ self-titled set. Emblem3 did technically sell more albums in their first week, but they debuted lower on the chart in #7.
Now is a harder time than ever for a pop act to actually have some sort of best-selling album, as even Katy Perry’s “Prism” debuted to less than 300,000 copies. While that was easily enough for #1, you would imaginethat a follow-up to a history-making album like “Teenage Dream” would at least get half of the sales of an album like Taylor Swift’s “Red.” However, it didn’t even end up selling a third of that. Some acts are just better at selling singles, and Fifth Harmony and Emblem3 may be in this same grouping as Katy and other acts for that reason.
One thing we do believe for now is that the current season of “The X Factor” is not going to come anywhere near producing even these numbers. This current season has featured some of the lowest ratings ever for the show, and we don’t believe that another season is going to happen given all of the money that has been spent hiring judges and trying to make this show work.
Photo: Epic
Nicole
October 31, 2013 @ 2:03 am
So I guess what your saying is 5th Harmony and Emblem3 are at neck at neck in terms of success? The girls ranked higher but the boys sold more.
And yeah…the X Factor this is season is not interesting at all. I’m only watching for Sierra and Alex. I don’t think any of them will be successful after the competition though.