Playboi Carti does not appear happy with the predicted first-week sales of his new album Music, despite it making a huge splash on streaming services.
Carti’s third LP, which finally arrived last week after much delays and anticipation, is projected to earn 250,000 equivalent units in its first week, according to HITS Daily Double.
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This figure, which will see the Atlanta rapper comfortably top the Billboard 200, is derived entirely from streams and does not include any physical sales of the project — which were made available as pre-orders on his website months in advance.
Seemingly annoyed that physical copies were not included in the early tracking, Carti agreed with a social media user that it is “odd.”
IT IS ODD https://t.co/IUbtM4Q3St
— . (@playboicarti) March 17, 2025
Shortly before his tweet, Chart Data reported that Billboard and Luminate have introduced new rules on how sales are counted towards chart performance.
The tweaks are intended to combat bots being used to boost numbers which will affect Carti’s first-week numbers.
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Billboard now insists that any album purchased from an artist directly, their label’s online store or any other web shop must now be redeemed to be chart eligible, with a verification process also in place.
Additionally, any direct-to-consumer website reporting incorrect data three times within a 12 month period will be suspended from being chart eligible for 90 days.
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Albums must also retail for a minimum $7.99 to count on the chart, regardless of the format.
Beginning in April, Billboard will also limit the amount of deluxe versions that will count towards chart sales to four. This counteracts a rising trend in recent years of artists releasing bundles and multiple exclusive editions to boost fan purchases.
Despite Playboi Carti’s skepticism, Music has made a huge initial impression on streaming platforms, racking up 139.3 million global streams on Spotify in its first day.
The 30-track album boasts the biggest debut of 2025 so far and the seventh largest of all time, eclipsing Hip Hop heavyweights like Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott.
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With that figure, Music has more single-day streams than Drizzy’s Scorpion (132 million), La Flame’s Utopia (128 million) and Kendrick’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (100 million).
The project has also surpassed the 6 God’s For All the Dogs and his joint album with 21 Savage, Her Loss, as well Kanye West‘s Donda.
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The only artists with bigger debuts on Spotify are Drake with Certified Lover Boy, Taylor Swift with three different albums and Bad Bunny with two of his projects.
