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Was DJ Khaled robbed the No. 1 spot? 100,000 ‘bundle deals’ later we investigate
DJ Khaled is big mad at Billboard — monster lawsuit mad.
According to Page Six, the Father of Asahd artist felt some type of way after he felt the Billboard Chart robbed him of the No. 1 spot. Just last week it was reported that the legendary producer threw a tantrum because his album didn’t debut at the top of the charts.
One source indicated that Khaled “stormed into Epic with an entourage.” Another claimed that “he was furious,” and that “there was some nasty stuff said.” Still, the “father of positivity” might be in the right.
Tyler, the Creator’s IGOR album debuted at the No. 1 spot ahead of Father of Asahd with 165,000 and 137,000 albums sold respectively. But Billboard discounted one aspect of Khaled’s record sales, 100,000+ “bundle deal” album downloads.
If you haven’t peeped, the “bundle deal” has become some type of norm, better yet a trend. We all see our favorite recording artists and their labels pair album downloads with fly merch or concert tickets.
For sure, it’s a “finesse,” but in this age who cares downloads are downloads and if any of us happen to get a pair of concert tickets with an album download we would think it’s well deserved.
Taylor Swift is doing it with her new album and Travis Scott did it last year with his album “AstroWorld.” In fact, Tyler, the Creator’s album-bundle figures were included in his total which inadvertently rocketed his album to the No. 1 spot.
So, why wasn’t Khaled’s 100,000+ energy drink album bundle streams included? In an NYT article written by Ben Sisario, extensive digging found that Billboard was wary of Shop.com and Market America’s actions.
It seemed as if the e-commerce site and its corporate parent, pushed unauthorized bulk sales of Khaled’s energy drink album-bundle.
Although Khaled may feel cheated it is good to know that Billboard is at least trying to play watchdog.
Deanna Brown, the president of the Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, a division of Valence Media told the NYT, that Billboard plans to tighten the rules on merchandise bundling.
Still, the people over at Roc Nation felt blindsided. Desiree Perez, Roc Nation’s chief operating officer threw shade to the album bundling practice in a statement:
“We dispute their decision on behalf of DJ Khaled and, frankly, every artist who is forced to navigate bundling an album download with an inexpensive item that still effectively represents their brand. It’s confusing and demeaning to the art.”
She added,
“We’re obviously not fans of bundling, nor should anyone who cares about artists making music. But our hands are being forced by Billboard’s desperate, last-ditch effort to keep streaming from eliminating what’s left of music downloads.”
Whatever happens, a new system definitely needs to be put into place for all artists to feel that there is still a chance to make it to the No. 1 spot, authentically. Only time will tell, we guess.
For now, just pray that Khaled keeps his cool under all this chart nonsense. We need him to focus on passing the torch down to his son. After all who else could be a better father to Asahd.
