Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 186 First Week Results

 “Hey, Link, can you win?”

Dino asked on the phone from New York.

Link stood in the aisle of the Los Angeles Public Library, talking on the phone as he walked: "This is selling albums, not a boxing match. I can't be sure how many albums will be sold in the first week until the results come out. You want to Place a bet?"

 “Yes, I’m going to put down some pocket money.”

 “Okay, how was Mario’s game?”

“Of course I won. The first opponent was a stepping stone I specially arranged for him. Mario only needed three rounds to KO the opponent and win.”

Dino said.

Link thought of Mickey Ward in "The Fighter", who was originally a stepping stone fighter.

“Mario has a mental problem. He gets arrogant easily after winning. If you want to train him, find some powerful opponents for him and hit him more, and he may become even more powerful.”

"It seems like this, okay, I will find him a strong opponent in the next game."

Dino smiled.

Link smiled lightly, handed the phone to Anna, and walked to the square in front of the library.

 “Link!”

Seeing him appear, thousands of fans in the square shouted loudly.

Today is the first day of the release of the second album. The California regional album distribution company held an album press conference here to expand publicity.

At the press conference, Link sang "KeepOnMovin'" and "Rainbow" from his second album on stage, and also invited Joaquin Phoenix to the stage to sing the hit song "Believer".

Joaquin Phoenix once said that he likes this song very much, especially the line ‘Pain! Youmademea, youmademeabeliever, believer’, so Link specially invited him to be the guest singer at the press conference.

When Joaquin Phoenix was singing, he held the microphone tightly with both hands and had a ferocious expression on his face. He was so devoted that he almost beat the original singer.

 The response from the fans in the audience was also extremely enthusiastic with thunderous applause.

 After the concert, Link was arranged by the publisher to sign autographs for fans in the lobby on the second floor of the library.

On the first day, he signed 8,600 albums at the public library, which did not break the original record. The main reason was that the concert was delayed by two hours and the employees of the distribution company had to get off work on time.

The second album "Go Forward" sold 54,000 copies in record stores in various states in the United States on the first day, and sold 88,000 online digital albums, with total sales of 142,000 copies.

 Only 84,000 copies less than the top album on the Billboard album sales chart last week, "BLACKsummers'night". It's off to a very good start and has a good chance of winning the top spot on the weekly album chart.

 But considering that Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3" is about to be released publicly, he and the publishing team cannot slack off for the time being.

The next day, he attended two more book signings at the Los Angeles Central Subway Station and the Municipal Music Hall, and gave away 13,500 signed albums. There is no doubt that he was in the news again, and the fast shooter Link returned to the world.

In the following days, he held more than ten album signing events in major cities in the United States, including New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, Charleston and other cities. He also invited Taylor, Lana, Singers such as Wiz, Mars, Little Bobby, Selena, Snoop Dogg, etc. came to support.

When he returned to New York for a book signing, Eminem even took the initiative to call him, hoping to attend his book signing.

After meeting, Eminem explained to him what happened with "Forever" last time. During that time, he was retreating in a music studio. Only after he came out did he learn that Lil Wayne had released a single in advance. He himself was not interested in competing for the charts.

Link has heard some rumors. He heard that Eminem and Lil Wayne had a fight. It was Jay-Z who intervened to stop the fight.

　　For this matter, he will not blame Eminem, because the two sides are competing for the rankings, and it will not hurt him if he loses.

At the book signing in New York, Link and Eminem sang "Lighters" together, and the response was very good. The first week album sales results and ranking data were also released.

"How many?"

In the Las Vegas hotel, Link and members of the publicity team looked at Ms. Mandy who slowly walked in with documents and asked.

Ms. Mandy’s face was sullen, making it hard to tell whether she was unhappy or deliberately pretending to be unhappy to make everyone happy.

 Ms. Mandy opened the folder and took a look at everyone, ""KeepOnMovin'" sold 427,000 copies in the first week in the United States."

 “Yeah!”

"marvelous!"

The on-site staff jumped up with excitement, the sound of popping champagne bottles was popping, and drinks were sprayed everywhere.

Link also smiled softly. Although this result is a little worse than Taylor's second album in the first week, it is much higher than the 97,000 copies of the first album. It is also more than 200,000 copies higher than last week's top spot on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. , the championship should be guaranteed in the first week.

But Ms. Mandy remained sullen and silent. He had a bad premonition, so he took two glasses of champagne and handed them to Ms. Mandy.

 “We didn’t win the championship?”

"Yes, the champion is "The Blueprint 3", with sales of 458,000 copies this week."

 “31,000 more copies than us? He is indeed a veteran singer.”

Link said in admiration.

In fact, he also had a hunch that Jay-Z is a big star in the music industry and one of the richest people in the current music industry. He has deep connections in the music industry. After the release of "The Blueprint 3", many kings, queens, movie kings and queens, and famous hosts have directly and indirectly Help with publicity.

In addition, "The Blueprint 3" is the third part of the "The Blueprint" series. The first two albums have accumulated many fans. Jay-Z Records said in the promotion that this is the last part. Fans who like this series of songs will not miss it.

Faced with such a powerful opponent, the second album "Go Forward" was able to sell more than 400,000 copies, far exceeding the predicted 300,000 copies. This also shows that his promotion strategy of competing in the ring with Jay-Z worked.

 “Mandy, how’s the singles chart going?”

Link asked again while drinking champagne.

"The Black Eyed Peas' "IGotta Feeling" is still No. 1 on the singles chart, Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" is ranked second, Maxwell's "Pretty Wings" is ranked third, and our "Believer" is temporarily ranked fourth. "

Ms Mandy said.

 “The Black Eyed Peas are awesome.”

The Black Eyed Peas released their latest album "TheE.N.D." at the end of May. The first official promotional song "BoomBoomPow" topped the singles chart for ten consecutive weeks. It was later replaced by Jay-Z's "D.O.A." and Link's "Givemereason". end.

ˆThe second single "IGotta Feeling" was released next, and it topped the singles chart for seven consecutive weeks. This week it also strongly suppressed "Empire State of Mind" and "Believer", which is indeed amazing.

 “But there is good news.”

Ms. Mandy showed a dimple similar to Selena's and said with a smile, "'Believer' failed to become the number one single in its first week, but eight songs entered the Hot 100 singles chart, including ThisIsMe, TroubleI'mIn, and KeepOnMovin'. There are two more songs in the top 20 than "The Blueprint 3", which shows that the quality of our album is very high."

 “This is indeed good news, cheers!”

Link took the champagne and clinked it with Ms. Mandy.

 (End of this chapter)