We have no idea what the record is for the largest percentage decline in sales between one commercial single and its follow-up in the first week of release -- but whatever it is, American Idol 2 winner Ruben Studdard may have just broken it.
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Since 'What If' is Ruben's second commercial single, and since his first single, 'Flying Without Wings', sold 286,000 units in its debut and eventually was certified gold for sales of half a million units, Ruben's unit sales dropped by more than 284,000 between his first single and his second. Looking at it another way, Ruben's second single opened with less than 1% of the sales of his first single -- a decline of over 99%. We expect that few (if any) artists have ever recorded a comparable percentage decline between singles.
By contrast, the drop in unit sales between Clay Aiken's first single ('Bridge Over Troubled Water' / 'This Is The Night', 393,000) and second single ('Solitaire' / 'The Way', 100,500) is even greater than Ruben's unit drop, at 292,500. However, Clay's percentage decline was less than 75%, and the six-figure sales debut for the second single was still enough to make 'Solitaire' a #4 hit overall despite its lack of airplay (and #1 by far in the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Singles Sales charts).
We hope that this shocking sales decline for the "Velvet Teddy Bear" will end when Ruben finally releases some new product … whenever that may be … not just a remix of old product.
