Serani Off to a Slow Start with Album Sales

Serani

When Mavado earlier this year sold just over 2,000 copies of his album in the first week... there were critics who were saying that he should have sold more with the volume of investment and the popularity of the artiste. Serani has sold just over 1,000 copies of his album since its release last week, leaving the organizers to scratch their heads wondering whats happening. The investment was there, time energy and interest as well as popularity of the artiste was also there. At least judging by rotations on popular radio stations in the United States namely Hot 97fm, the number of views on his youtube videos and the frequent nominations for awards, one would expect a little more than just over a thousand album sold in the first week.
Comparatively speaking this is a far cry from the 8 albums sold by Vybz Kartel in its first week of release. This is after numerous number one songs in Jamaica. Vybz has gone some seven number ones and counting... the popularity of the artiste and the unpresidented multi entry to the popular billboard charts among others for the track Ramping Shop didnt seem to do a thing for the album.

What would be interesting is to compare the pirated material and the ligitimate purchased tracks from the artiste. This would definatly indicate the kinda of revenue lost by the artiste and production team.. as well as the culture of the people who likes this kind of music.
People will work hard to copy and "free download" .. even though if it would seem to cost them more in real terms (eg downloading virus and data miners along with the tracks)
The people may have the money but they are not willing to pay for something that they can get for "free" or in a format that they want, as ipod and other media players is now dominating the market. The dancehall artiste has made it a bit of a culture with the number of underground tracks not developed for organised distriburion, thus the aboveground tracks are treated in the sameway.