Despite Short Sales Week, Metallica's "Death Magnetic" Expected to Sell 500K

Metallica's Death Magnetic is on pace to sell about 500,000 copies in the U.S. despite its release late in the week last Friday. Globally, the album is already dominating charts, with one report saying Death Magnetic sold more albums in Norway in one day than U2's last album sold in a week. Here in the states, Death Magnetic's sales numbers were perhaps aided on Friday by emo clothing store Hot Topic, who were selling the album for only $5 on its release day. The half-million copies sold falls within the range of the first week sales for previous Metallica albums. The band's Load in 1996 enjoyed the best debut, selling 680,000 in its first week. Death Magnetic will likely improve on the numbers of the band's last album, as St. Anger only sold about 363,000 in a similarly-shortened week.

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Song Stories

“My President”

Young Jeezy | 2008

Young Jeezy teams up with Nas on this track, in which he compare his own success with the idea of an African-American winning the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2008 presidential election. "When I pulled up in my car, that s--- was unbelievable to people in my neighborhood because they were like, 'We grew up with him. How the hell did he accomplish this?'" he told Rolling Stone. "I feel like it was the same way with Obama. I grew up all this time, but I've never seen a black man this close to running this country."

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