Sicko Mode

How did Travis Scott notch the number one single in America this week, despite the fact that it’s been on the radio since August? How does he keep the album it’s on at the top of the Billboard 200 all these weeks later, in the age of streaming and infinite new music drops?

He found a way. Here’s Kiana Fitzgerald writing at Complex:

Back in August, ASTROWORLD debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, where it stayed for two weeks. Travis’ launch back up to No. 1 can be attributed to a new way of gaming the system—or, to put it more delicately, playing along with the industry in a way that nets more wins than losses. One way of doing that was by selling highly coveted merch, which came bundled with copies of the album. Travis did so with his initial album release in August, and then again last week. According to BillboardASTROWORLD, which has been in the Top 10 for the entirety of its 17 weeks on the chart, shot back up to the top spot because of a Cyber Monday merch deal made available through Travis’ website: “Each of the items—including a keychain, hats, T-shirts, hoodies and so forth—came bundled with a digital copy of the ASTROWORLDalbum.”

This method of selling albums with merch had been called into question by Nicki Minaj, who complained live on Queen Radio in late August that Travis wasn’t playing fair. “What we not gon’ do is have this Auto-Tune man coming up here selling fucking sweaters and telling y’all he sold a half-a-million fucking albums, ‘cause he didn’t,” she said. Instead of countering Minaj, though, Travis kept his head down and kept it pushing, right into the biggest year of his career (despite the fact that he’s only been actively selling and promoting material related to ASTROWORLD for a little over four months).

from How Travis Scott Played the Long Game—And Won (Complex)

Josh here – The music is the message. The store helps him get his message out, and none of the fans are being forced to buy his merchandise at gunpoint. And if Nicki thinks it’s cheating, then definitely don’t tell her about the Beatles and their Apple Corps side hustle 50 years ago.

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