Sufjan Stevens's <i>The Age of Adz</i> Hits No. 7 on Billboard Charts

BY Josiah HughesPublished Oct 20, 2010

Earlier this year, Montreal rockers the Arcade Fire debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with their album The Suburbs. It was later revealed that the massive sales were at least partially related to a marketing initiative from Amazon. For Sufjan Stevens’s new album The Age of Adz, he and his Asthmatic Kitty label revealed that they wouldn't devalue the album with a low digital price. Despite those Adz odds, they've still rolled in at No. 7 on the charts in the U.S. this week.

Now Billboard reports that, since Adz came out, Stevens has had his best selling week so far, moving 36,000 units and resulting in that No. 7 spot. The digital sale of the record on Amazon was still relatively low, with a price of $6.99 for all 11 tracks, but that's still a markup from the Arcade Fire's $3.99 value. UPDATE: In Canada, the album sold 2,429 copies last week, taking the No. 2 spot on the Top Alternative Albums chart and No. 13 on the Top 200 chart, according to numbers from Nielsen Soundscan Canada.


 Speaking with the Village Voice, Asthmatic Kitty representative Michael Kaufmann recently clarified that they didn't mean to criticize Amazon's policies to begin with.

“What we wanted to do was provide choices,” he said of the label's mass email. “And in the process we thought it would be an interesting opportunity to give food for thought on the perceived worth (or value) of an album. But that discussion should have taken place in a different context. The intent was certainly not to criticize of Amazon's approach... Again, what we intended as a cursory thought of the email became the main focus of its criticism.”

Lil Wayne's I Am Not a Human Being is the current No. 1 on the chart, having moved 125,000 units in the last week.

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