New Michael Jackson Album Projected to Sell 400K in First Week

11:35 AM PST 11/12/2010 by Ed Christman, Billboard

‘Michael’ is due out Dec. 14, first single with Akon ‘Hold My Hand’ dropping Monday.

The initial U.S. shipment of Michael Jackson's Michael, due Dec. 14 on Epic Records, is 900,000, according to retail sources. Sony is projecting first-week CD sales of 340,000 and digital album sales of 60,000. That projection is similar to debut-week sales of Jackson's album This Is It, though that album had the marketing strength of a major motion picuture behind it. This Is It sold 373,000 units in its first week and has sold 1.6 million units since its release in October 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan.