1121. That's the magic figure in terms of sales for a much-hyped debut album. Can you guess who? Give up? Well, it's..it's...it's Serani!
Even with a major marketing push and buzz, including an expensive album launch at the Moka nightclub in New York City tomorrow, Serani's album tanked, failing to register more than a blip on sales charts. The 'No Games' disc played around, and moved a disappointing 1,121 copies in its first week. To date, it has sold 1,123 copies.
What makes the whole thing even more interesting is that the charts don't list Universal Republic as the label, instead RAZ is listed. Emailed questions sent to A & R reps for Universal Republic were not answered at the time of the publication of this article. Plummeting CD sales continue to plague the music industry and reggae/dancehall appears to be struggling even more so in this regard. Reggae artiste Matisyahu outsold Serani, registering 1,852 units of Light on the Epic label, while Sean Paul's Imperial Blaze moved 1,364 units after 12 weeks. Still, No Games is at #3 on the Billboard reggae, and #77 R&B album chart.
Press releases say that Serani dropped his debut album No Games worldwide on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 on the Universal Republic imprint. The album has spawned two commercial hits, "No Games" and "She Loves Me," both which have made a decent showing on radio, with "No Games" becoming a Billboard mainstay.