Lady GaGa did her thing over the weekend – she was funny! But, her album ArtPop has not managed quite so well. The album was set to sell roughly 260k in the first week, which is actually pretty good by most standards. But Gaga is not most artists. Her first album sold over a million in the first week. As I recall, they did a lot of pricing trickery to get that to happen, like selling it for .99 cents in some digital spots. Now, here is where the firing goes. Interscope devoted $25 million into the promotion of this album and will not come close to breaking even. They haven’t put this much into an album since Michael Jackson! There are even reports that own up to payola being transacted to push her single “Applause.” About 50 people are reportedly going to be jobless as we move into the holiday season.
