Album Sales Predictions: Monica Brown flops & Chris Brown thrives...

Chris Brown's new album 'Royalty' is expected to sell 125-135k copies (150-160k including streams) in its first week of release in the US. 

Considering that he has had no hit single off this album, these numbers are very respectable for Breezy. The album isn't very good, but I'm glad it sold well only because he's donating $1 personally from each copy sold between now and Christmas. So let's say he manages to sell 125K, this means he is set to raise $125,000 in one week for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital and Best Buddies. 

Only one single from 'Royalty' has managed to chart on the Hot 100 so far, and that was at a lukewarm #60. It also helps that he released his album during the holidays when people are in their shopping spree spirit, and on top of that he has a very strong fanbase (his last two albums 'Fortune' & 'X' debuted with similar first week numbers). The same can't be said for fellow RCA artist Monica. Her album ‘Code Red’ is predicted to sell a paltry 30-35K (32-37K including streams).

Chris Brown is expected to sell that first week in the UK (so far his album has sold 9K, but he's looking to sell around 25K-30K in the UK). Monica's first week album sales are on par with Tamar Braxton who sold 38K earlier this year. Again, a sign that R&B music has suffered a way bigger decline than any other genre. Horrible numbers, but not shocking. 

Monica's lead single clearly wasn't hit-worthy. She hasn't had a hit from this album, and she took far too long to release the music video. I've expressed time and time again how worried I was about the album, because she didn't release a second single or a video and her promotion was really poor compared to CB's. 

CB performed on several late night shows (Kimmel, Fallon, etc) and released a multitude of videos on a daily basis for the past week. Monica had the better album though, although it wasn't her best by a long shot.