Jack White has scored a US No.1 album thanks to the bundling of new release Boarding House Reach with concert tickets.
The former White Stripes star’s new record debuted at the top of the Billboard Top 200, with 121,000 of 124,000 units shifted via traditional album sales.
Only Justin Timberlake’s new album has sold more copies in its first week this year than Boarding House Reach.
Sales were bolstered by a link between the record and White’s forthcoming tour, which begins in Detroit later this month.
As noted by ABC Radio: “Redeeming the album included in your ticket purchase counts as one sale.”
Bundling has been used in the past by Metallica and Bon Jovi. The latter’s 2016 album This House is Not for Sale fell from No.1 to No.43 in the charts in its second week of sales.
The promotion is clearly a positive for the artists themselves, but some believe it falsifies the album charts.
“This is the way that people are getting albums in their hands,” David Bakula, a senior analyst at Nielsen told the New York Times last year.
“If I’m going to a Bon Jovi show, I may or may not go out and buy a copy. But if you offer one to me wrapped in the price of my ticket, then yes – absolutely, I want it.”
Image: Teresa Sedó
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