• According to Forbes, recording artists have surpassed athletes’ influence in the sneaker-reselling marketplace, a market estimated to be valued at over $1bn.

• Kanye West sells 70.9% more sneakers than [former] NBA MVP Steph Curry, and he makes 9.4% more overall sales than LeBron James. Pharrell Williams makes double the amount of celebrity sales than James.

• The demand for hip-hop-affiliated merchandise has skyrocketed.
  

• Bundling merchandise sales with digital downloads of his album catapulted his first week numbers to the second-biggest debut of the year.

• Maybe they’re not traditional album sales, but the fact that fans are willing to spend a ton of money on physical product is a win for the music biz.

Nicki's MyPinkFriday site is selling Queen merchandise that comes with a copy of the album. The official Travis Scott website is presenting LP/ticket bundles. Several of the AstroWorld options are sold out.

Putting out merch along with a new album is practically de rigueur for artists today, but Scott took a unique, hype-driven approach. Every 24 hours, for nine days, the merch on Scott’s website turned over.

In her tweets, Minaj claimed that Scott sold 200,000 pieces of apparel in the first week alone.

Every tie-dye tee, keychain, and pair of pool slides that sold through Scott’s website also came with a digital copy of Astroworld.

Scott moved 205,000 equivalent album units (albums after calculating streams) while Minaj’s album clocked in at 185,000 units, according to Billboard.

Minaj also released merch, designed by Don C, alongside Queen—funnily enough her merch also came with a copy of her album.

• Putting out merch along with a new album is practically de rigueur for artists today, but Scott took a unique, hype-driven approach. Every 24 hours, for nine days, the merch on Scott’s website turned over.

• In her tweets, Minaj claimed that Scott sold 200,000 pieces of apparel in the first week alone.

• Every tie-dye tee, keychain, and pair of pool slides that sold through Scott’s website also came with a digital copy of Astroworld.

• Scott moved 205,000 equivalent album units (albums after calculating streams) while Minaj’s album clocked in at 185,000 units, according to Billboard.

• Minaj also released merch, designed by Don C, alongside Queen—funnily enough her merch also came with a copy of her album.

• Scott’s rollout strategy caused double dipping: people who bought the merch but also listened to the album through streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music, where Astroworld songs were played 167.5 million times.

• Minaj even tweeted that “Billboard says they’ll change the rules because of this.

• He took the merch strategy that artists have turned into a touring goldmine, amped up the hype, and used the spectacle to goose his album sales enough to take the top spot.

• Merch has already helped fill in revenue for artists in an era when album sales have dropped—but Scott found a way to (at least partially) recoup those lost numbers directly.