From : taken from E! Online News - http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/eo/20000326/en/_n_sync_n_demand_25.html
It's official: 'N Sync is now bigger than the Backstreet Boys. Before you BSB fans start firing off flaming emails, there's actual proof. The newer prefab Florida quintet has accomplished something that eluded the older prefab Florida quintet: 'N Sync's latest, No Strings Attached, became the first album to sell more than one million copies in a single day.
According to the group's label, Jive Records, the boy band tapped out piggy banks nationwide to the tune of 1.1 million in first-day sales Tuesday. And with a negligible drop-off in subsequent days (you can't underestimate the number of Justin-crazed girls out there), label sources estimate first-week figures could triple the one-week record of 1.13 million, set last year by Backstreet's Millennium. (Millennium sold about 500,000 copies on day one.)
To paraphrase JC, Justin, Chris, Joey and Lance, Backstreet can kiss its short-lived sales mark "Bye, Bye, Bye."
In addition to No Strings and Millennium, Garth Brooks' Double Live is the only other album with first-week sales topping one million. It sold 1.08 million in 1998 to eclipse the then-record 950,000 set by Pearl Jam's 1993 release, Vs. The Whitney Houston-powered Bodyguard soundtrack also chalked up one-week sales of one million-plus during the holiday season in 1992.
"We want to prove to people that we're not a flash in the pan," JC tells Reuters. "The second album is about crediblity, really. Anybody can be a one-album group." Right on, JC.
No Strings, a lock to dethrone Santana's Supernatural on the charts next week, is the teenybopper's third album (the second if you don't count their yuletide collection, Home for Christmas) and first on Jive. The 'N Sync-ers made a lawsuit-laden jump from RCA to Jive in December, a move that made 'N Sync and BSB label mates.
And with fan response predictably euphoric ("Oh, my GOD--it is sooo good. I love all the songs on it. JC was right-- there are no songs that I skip over. I am sooo happy that I got it--this is the best CD I have ever heard in my life!!!" reads a typical post in the alt.music.nsync newsgroup) and a sure-to-sell-out world tour kicking off May 9 in Biloxi, Mississippi, No Strings will easily become 'N Sync's third platinum-plus album. The band's self-titled debut sold 10 million and Home for Christmas sold two mil.
source: CdNow
'N Sync members, label and manager stunned by "No Strings" sales phenomenon
Alanis Morissette would have called it "ironic." When the five young men in 'N Sync learned that they had the new No. 1 album in America with No Strings Attached -- a landmark achievement for the group, even considering the RIAA diamond (10 million shipped) status of their 1998 debut -- the guys were mired in promotion duties in Japan, a territory they have yet to crack. The news came via a long-distance phone call from their manager, Johnny Wright. "It was like three o'clock in the morning, and they were up and jumping around, asking for the saki," laughed Wright Wednesday morning, shortly after the SoundScan numbers were released to reveal that No Strings had sold an unfathomable 2.4 million copies its first week in stores, obliterating the previous 1.1 million record set by the Backstreet Boys' Millenium. Although the boys weren't home to fully savor their victory, they received a surprise on-camera champagne toast from the heads of their new label, Jive Records, at the end of an hour-and-a-half stretch of satellite TV interviews. "It was actually a really special moment," said label president Barry Weiss. "These are a wonderful bunch of guys, and they deserve every ounce of success that they're getting right now."
"They're really taking it in stride," said Jive VP of Artist Marketing Janet Kleinbaum. "I think they're overwhelmed, because 2.4 million records is just unbelievable. It takes your breath away."
Both label and management credit the album's blockbuster success to the anticipation built over the two years since 'N Sync released their last album (not counting 1999's Christmas disc), stoked in no small part by the group's highly publicized emancipation from their former management and contract-be-damned defection from RCA to Jive last fall, and a dizzying media blitz (Rosie, SNL, and seemingly every other half hour on MTV).
The floodgates opened on March 21, the day the album went on sale. Weiss estimates that No Strings broke the 1.1 million sales mark the first day. A spokesperson for Tower Records said the 'N Sync sales ranked among the chain's highest first-day sales ever alongside the Millennium and the Beatles' Anthology series, while Musicland senior VP of music merchandising Dick Odette called it the biggest record the store's ever sold.
For those keeping score -- and most industry watchers are -- 'N Sync now seem to be firmly in the lead of their Backstreet rivals. But apart from distinguishing their sound from the Millennium boys, manager Wright is quick to downplay the competitive angle. "This whole thing about who's No. 1, who's No. 2 -- it doesn't really mean that much to them," he said. "The bottom line, when you look at it overall, we're selling comparatively the same amount of records that they were on the first one, and when we go out on tour we're selling the same amount of concert tickets that they're selling. So it's really all about maintaining your popularity and giving your fans that are buying your music what they want. Our biggest concern is not so much trying to beat Backstreet Boys as maintaining the fanbase that we got at the beginning and keeping them with us through the next journey that we're going to make."
That's all well and good, but come October when the Backstreet Boys release their follow-up to Millennium (or when Britney Spears releases her new album in May), Jive will undoubtedly be under the gun to push and market them to the new heights set by 'N Sync. "The yardstick is definitely extended, but you have to keep focused on what you're doing -- you can't keep comparing," said Jive's Kleinbaum. "We know now what the possibilities are. We're not going to compare a Britney Spears record to 'N Sync, or Backstreet Boys. However, 'N Sync has shown us what can be done."
Likewise, notes Weiss, the success of No Strings Attached should send a clear message that Jive can get the job done. "We're going to do everything we can to continue to sell a lot of records."
NSYNC BREAK TICKETMASTER SALES RECORD
It appears as though *NSync is out to shatter every record in the book. On Saturday (March 25), Ticketmaster reported record single-day sales (850,000 tickets sold), driven mostly by 600,000 first-day sales for *NSync's massive tour (allstar, March 22).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, 51 of the group's 52 concert dates sold out in their first day on sale. The sales were no doubt driven by the popularity of the boy band's latest album, No Strings Attached, which moved 2.4 million copies in its first week alone (allstar, March 29).
Ticketmaster processed the record-breaking sales through a combination of its more than 3,400 retail locations, its charge-by-phone lines, and the Internet.
From : www.dotmusic.com
As predicted, 'N Sync has broken the US record for most album sales in one week. The lads creamed their boy band rivals Backstreet Boys by clocking up just over 2.4 million sales for 'No Strings Attached' which more than doubled the record set last May by Backstreet Boys' 'Millennium' which sold 1.13 million albums in week of release. 'No Strings Attached' will debut at pole position on this week's Billboard 200 albums chart and it outsold the No. 2 record, Santana's 'Supernatural', by over two million copies. 'Supernatural' spent six weeks at No 1 and has sold nearly two million copies since Santana's nine-Grammy triumph. Ice Cube comes in at No 3 with 'War & Peace Vol 2 (The Peace Disc)' which also trailed by over two million sales to N'Sync.
*** ANOTHER RECORD BROKEN :*NSYNC's album No Strings Attached has broken yet another record: Second Week Album Sales. This record was previously held for 640,000 copies by the Backsteet Boys. *NSYNC sold 811,000 copies in the second week with a total of 3.2 million copies in 2 weeks!
