Beyonce sales update

THE BEY UPDATE: The Beyoncé sneak attack on iTunes has become the music biz story of the holidays, with some hailing this setup-free release as a game-changing new strategy. In any case, the stealth release of the "visual album" as an iTunes exclusive, with no individual tracks for sale and no Spotify to bastardize sales, powered Beyoncé past the 500k mark on Saturday, its second full day of availability, with 600k or more clearly in sight by the time the sales week ends and Apple’s window of exclusivity ends tonight. Needless to say, the album will easily debut at #1. Thus, Beyoncé has electrified what was looking like a rather dull Christmas-release season, lighting up social media and inspiring breathless coverage by every major TV network, as the superstar creates her own publicity and reaches her audience through word of mouth—still the most powerful of all sales tools. Kudos to Team Columbia and Team Beyoncé on what may end up being the most talked-about musical event of 2013. The label expects to have the physical album in stores by this Friday. (12/15a)