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Despite what you may think, it’s not necessarily a sign of desperation. SOURCE

Twitter was having a laugh last week when news surfaced that Ciara’s latest album was on sale for $13.99 in a two-CD bundle.

Her new self-titled album dropped only three weeks ago but is already on the deal site, being sold in a package with a “best of” album of her other hits.

It may be odd to see a new album being packaged and dished out in a deal like this so close to its initial release. In Ciara’s case, people are speculating that it’s an attempt to get Ciara’s numbers up fast. Ciara sold 59,000 in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and 90,000 copies total thus far — which is a totally respectable number for an R&B album! But the singer was being met with pity and embarrassment on social media because of the seemingly desperate attempt to sell more albums.

But how desperate is it, really?

But how desperate is it, really?

“To tell you the truth, even the mighty Jay Z can’t sell a million albums in the opening week, either, anymore, which is probably why he bundled his record with an electronic device manufacturer,” says Casey Rae, interim executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, a research and advocacy nonprofit for musicians, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

The Groupon deal is more so a sign of labels trying to adapt and get with the times, and to try new ways of reaching as wide of an audience as possible. Sure, real fans may have already bought the album on iTunes or maybe even bought a physical copy from Target (or, you know, illegally downloaded it), but what about the listener who is kind of on the fence, or lives in an area where there may not be access to high-quality broadband?

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