Justin Timberlake‘s comeback has easily been the biggest industry story of the year, and rightfully so. The marketing strategy for his return, release and promotion has been nothing short of excellent, and it was surely proven effective with the massive success of the first portion of his third studio album ‘The 20/20 Experience.’ The LP debuted at No. 1 with 968k, and has gone on exceedingly well, currently at 2.2 million units sold.
But, now that the second half ‘2 of 2‘ has officially hit stores this week, everyone is wondering can he do it again. Can Part 2 attract as much attention and drive such high sales. Well, truthfully it honestly doesn’t matter at this point, because the project has performed so well.
That said, according to industry forecasters Timberlake’s ‘The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2‘ is bound for the top of the Billboard 200, with around 350-375,000 copies sold by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, Oct. 6. The expected arrival at No. 1 would give JT two chart-topping albums in a single year. Although, a much lower debut than Part 1, the set has not produced a chart topping single yet, being lead by “Take Back the Night” which peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 last month, and the second single, “TKO,” bowed on the Hot 100 last week at No. 54.
For those wondering why the album was released on Monday instead of Tuesday, we can assume it has everything to do with September 30 being the final day of the eligibility period for the upcoming Grammy Awards.
All together Timberlake is easily the champion of the charts this year, and his strategy to stagger the release of his LP into two-parts instead of a double album was very impressive in our eyes. Have you listened to ‘2 of 2‘ yet? Which release do you like more??
