Photo Credit: Complex Music (Instagram)
Gamma is now disputing somewhat underwhelming first-week album sales figures for Ye’s ‘Bully’ on the heels of the cancellation of Wireless Fest. The album struggled to top 150,000 ‘album equivalent’ units despite an ultra-expensive rollout campaign.
Ye, the disgraced artist formerly known as Kanye West, has been pushing for a comeback after his pivot into antisemitism tanked his career. But unsurprisingly, his new album, Bully, isn’t moving units as quickly as the rapper and his label might like.
That’s made all the worse with all the drama surrounding the rapper being booked at London’s Wireless Festival—which was subsequently cancelled after the UK government denied his visa request and lead sponsor Pepsi pulled out.
However, Gamma, Ye’s label and distributor, is now disputing some of the underwhelming first-week sales numbers being reported for the album, which clocked in at 152,000 “album equivalent” units. According to the Apple-backed label and distributor, a Saturday release, rather than the standard Friday, is causing a miscount in units sold.
According to Gamma, a full seven-day count shows numbers closer to 200,000 units, which they posit is enough for a #1 debut, as opposed to the #2 position Billboard says it secured. Gamma also pointed to strong global streaming performance and engagement.
But there were also significant hiccups surrounding the release, including serious metadata issues and artist naming problems that could further complicate things. Other tracks were removed altogether, and their play counts likely were not counted among the final tally.
Billboard’s data shows Bully earning 96,000 streaming units (98.43 million on-demand streams) and 56,000 pure album sales in its first week. Sales were definitely boosted by multiple vinyl variants, deluxe box sets, and signed editions. However, BTS’ comeback album, ARIRANG, secured the top spot with 187,000 units.
All told, 152,000 seems like an accurate count and takes everything into consideration, such as actual albums (including vinyl), downloads, plus “streaming album equivalents.” And that’s pretty weak for an artist of Ye’s former caliber, especially coupled with such a massive advertising budget.
The whole thing puts Ye’s comeback—and Gamma itself—into a precarious position. The much-talked-about startup, heavily financed by Larry Jackson, was meant to be the new blueprint for artist-centric media. But the decision to focus on a Kanye comeback could spell disaster for the media company.
That disaster could trickle down into further fallout for high-profile Gamma backers, including Apple, Eldridge Industries, A24, and Alpha Wave Global. Even though these investors may not have been involved or consulted in the decision to book Kanye West at Wireless Festival, they may still find their brand names somewhat sullied amid the controversy of the noted antisemite’s attempted comeback.
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