New ‘Visual Album’ from Beyoncé Shatters iTunes Sales Records

Singer Beyoncé made headlines last week with the unannounced release of a self-titled iTunes-exclusive album. The album may have had no advanced publicity, but Apple quickly highlighted it in the company’s iTunes and iOS Music stores, as well as on its website. That extra promotion, coupled with Beyoncé’s popularity, has propelled the album to record-setting sales.

Apple announced early Monday that BEYONCÉ, as the album’s title is stylized, shattered records to become the fastest selling album ever on the iTunes Store with worldwide sales of of 828,773 downloads in its first three days of availability. The album also broke U.S. records, with sales of 617,213 in the United States alone.

The self-titled, BEYONCÉ, is the fifth solo studio album from Beyoncé, which was made available exclusively worldwide on the iTunes Store on December 13 by Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records. The self-titled set is the artist’s first visual album. BEYONCÉ is infused with 14 new songs and 17 visually stunning, provocative videos shot around the world from Houston to New York City to Paris, and Sydney to Rio de Janeiro, all before the album’s release. The album represents Beyoncé’s biggest sales week ever.

As of the date of this article, the album is still featured prominently on the iTunes store, occupying every slide in the store’s main feature section. It is available in both clean and explicit versions for $15.99 and is dubbed a “visual album” because every track includes an accompanying music video.