NEWS
Travis Scott is poised for major first-week sales figures with his latest album Utopia.
According to HITS Daily Double, the project is on pace to earn at least 350 million streams in its first seven days, which equates to around 245,000 to 275,000 SEA (streaming equivalent albums) units.
However, that figure doesn’t include pure album sales, which industry insiders believe could surpass 200,000. Scott has been hawking physical copies of Utopia on his website with various merch and zine bundle packages, as well as five different album covers for fans to choose from.
In May, Billboard updated its eligibility rules by restoring some formats of merch bundle sales when calculating chart positions. Under the new rules, artists may only sell two different “fan bundle” variations, which must come with a physical copy of the album and a piece of merch.
Utopia‘s total figure could exceed half a million sales and possibly top the first-week tally for his last album, Astroworld, which debuted with 538,000 album-equivalent units in 2018.
Astroworld, which comfortably cruised to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, had the second-larges sales week that year behind only Drake‘s Scorpion, which notched a staggering 732,000 first-week units.
While Utopia‘s final first-week sales won’t be unveiled for another week, the album has already been making a huge splash on streaming services. According to Chart Data, it earned over 128 million first-day streams on Spotify, making it the biggest debut of 2023 and fifth largest of all time.
In doing so, Travis Scott has joined Drake, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar and XXXTENTACION as the only rappers to earn over 100 million streams in a single day in Spotify history.
Released on Friday (July 28), Utopia clocks in at 19 tracks and boasts A-list appearances from the likes of Drake, Future, Beyoncé, Playboi Carti, The Weeknd, 21 Savage, Young Thug, SZA, Kid Cudi, Bad Bunny and Westside Gunn.
Astroworld was similarly stacked with big-name guests in 2018, with Frank Ocean, Drake, Swae Lee, Juice WRLD, Quavo, TakeOff, Kid Cudi, The Weeknd, 21 Savage and Gunna among the star-studded supporting cast.
Utopia was set to be unveiled during a special concert at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt on Friday, but the show was canceled just two days before.
The decision came after pushback from the Egyptian General Syndicate for Musical Professions, who had expressed concern over La Flame’s “strange rituals” that they claimed went against the country’s cultural values and traditions.
“Since the General Syndicate is part of the fabric of this beloved country it is keen on its stability and refuses to tamper with societal values and Egyptian and Arab customs,” the organization said in a statement earlier this month.
“Based on research and documented information about strange rituals at Travis’s concerts that are inconsistent with our authentic societal values and traditions, the Board of Directors has decided to cancel the license issued to hold this type of concert that contradicts the cultural identity of the Egyptian people.”
Lizzo has made it clear that she never abandoned her album Love in Real Life.
The “Juice” artist recently responded to rumors that the project had been cancelled after fans expected it to arrive last year. Rather than putting out the album at the time, Lizzo instead released the mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling in June.
During a new conversation with Billboard, the “Truth Hurts” singer explained that the album itself was never scrapped and is still the same body of work she plans to release on June 5 under its new title, B**ch.
“I think the biggest misconception about my album is that I shelved Love in Real Life when I didn't,” she said. “(B**ch) is technically the same album. I just changed the name. The music is the same.”
Lizzo shared that the main difference between the earlier version of the project and the upcoming release was taking away the original title track, which eventually led to the album being renamed.
“When you change the name of something, it changes its destiny,” the singer explained. “Like, when I went from Melissa to Lizzo, it changed my destiny.”
“When this album went from Love in Real Life to Bch, it changed the trajectory of its past,” she continued. “I do think that I feel like I can express myself the way that I want to express myself right now through Bch. I think Love in Real Life was really sombre and a little bit more introspective, and I think B**ch is a little bit more empowered and self actualised and bold.”
Before the newly titled album arrives, Lizzo has already released the singles B**ch and Don’t Make Me Love U.
The artist had previously spoken about stepping away from Love in Real Life during an earlier interview with Vulture, saying the project “just wasn't what I was feeling right now”.
She also mentioned that much of the album had originally been written back in 2022.
“By 2025, I've changed, the world has changed so much, and so much has happened,” she said. “I was like, ‘I need to do s**t differently, and I don't know what it is, but I'm going to just start following my instincts.’”
