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Short of Little Mix making 7-8k sales out of nowhere tomorrow, this is Kylie’s to lose.

I’ve switched up who I think will win several times here, but I’m holding firm with Kylie taking it, although by a slim margin. Supposedly she has signed vinyls on the way and a couple of larger promo slots still to go which I think will *just* edge Little Mix out. Amazing figures for both artists though, they should be so happy.

It’s so close. Little Mix should make their gains in streaming but I imagine Kylie will in pure sales too. I could see this coming down to very slim margins.

I think Little Mix’s streams will be their advantage and Kylie’s sales and bundles (with signed vinyl still to come apparently) for her diehards will be hers. It’s definitely going to be a close one I think. Regardless, both labels win since these albums are looking to be two of the biggest openers of the year.

It’s a big release for them - their first on their new label away from Simon. I imagine it would be a big deal to them to scoop it and that’s why they’re going the extra mile this time. How it will pan out will be hard to tell until the midweeks start to come in.

Kylie as of yet hasn’t really done a great deal of promotion. Little Mix seem super hungry for it at the minute, but that might change come release week when Kylie is everywhere. The radio deal to promote the album she has with the Bauer group (Magic, Kiss FM etc) might help too. There’s nothing desperate in shifting albums - that’s the idea.

I don’t think music stores really make much difference to sales anymore - the same for this myth of supermarket mums buying albums on release week. It’ll probably come down to how effective their promo is as well as incentive purchases for their fanbases such as signed copies and new bundles. Little Mix seem to want it more at the minute.

It’s not fair to compare the two since Kylie has been going for much longer. Little Mix have outlasted so many girl bands and are still going strong with a dedicated fanbase behind them, even after the split from Simon which could have been their end. And if it is a numbers game, they’ve sold 50 million records which is an amazing feat considering how long they’ve been going. We don’t need to knock one down to build up the other. They’re both great artists.

If the preorders are that close I definitely don’t think Kylie stands zero chance, and certainly not a 20k discrepancy. Also she announced her album much earlier so it’s not really on her to move around the record, which is a desperate move. I’m sure she’s not fussed about the possibility of coming in at #2 or less. If Little Mix come in at #1 it’s because they wanted it more and have worked bloody hard to sell the album, so good on them.

While this is true, Kylie licenses the music she owns via her company to BMG, who are effectively her label. She’s not an independent artist but rather a label artist with her own licensing agreement and the ownership of her material. It’s really no different to Beyonce with Parkwood for example. It’s in BMG’s best interests for her to succeed because they’re making profit off of it, and they pushed Golden and Step Back in Time to huge heights. That’s why Roisin signed a similar subcontracting deal with them and had the biggest sales she has to date because BMG put her in the right places (Graham Norton etc.) Kylie will for sure be promoting hard come release week but I’m sure Little Mix will be doing the same, so it’s still difficult to tell where things will end up. Website sales are also much harder to establish than iTunes/Amazon etc, and you just know additional formats are going to pop up for both artists. I could see it being a neck and neck battle all week.

I think as of now Little Mix would probably take it, but Kylie is usually everywhere in release week and as we saw with Golden, doubled her sales from the start to the end of the week. Combined with her loyal fanbase and the Glastonbury effect I think she might take it all said and done, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Little Mix do it either since they’re really fighting for it.