A Decade-Old Travis Scott Mixtape Nearly Bucked Sabrina Carpenter
By
Justin Curto ,
who covers music, TV, and celebrity for Vulture
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images, Steve Jennings/FilmMagic
For weeks, Sabrina Carpenter’s album Short n’ Sweet looked like a surefire No. 1. “Espresso” was one of the summer’s defining anthems, “Please Please Please” debuted atop the Hot 100, and release-day single “Taste” arrived with a buzzy video. But those numbers appeared shakier just before Short n’ Sweet’s Friday drop, when Travis Scott announced that he’d be releasing his 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo as an album for the first time ever, on the same day as Carpenter’s. That plan would lead to one of the closest chart battles in years, which ended today with Short n’ Sweet claiming the top spot on the Billboard 200 by fewer than 1,000 album units.
The numbers weren’t as tight at the beginning of the week, when streaming was giving Carpenter an early edge. After Short n’ Sweet’s release day, its songs actually gained traction, and by Tuesday, August 27, Carpenter held the top two spots of the U.S. Spotify chart and half of the total top ten. Since Scott wouldn’t be earning meaningful new streams for Days Before Rodeo — the tape has been available for free on SoundCloud for the past ten years — his numbers would depend on album sales. Early on, forecasters thought he’d outdo Carpenter thanks to a new digital deluxe version and his ravenous fan base. But Hits Daily Double still expected Carpenter to have a 100,000-unit lead from those streams.
As the end of the week neared, though, Scott’s numbers started looking stronger. That led Carpenter — pulling a trick from her friend-mentor Taylor Swift — to drop three new digital editions of Short n’ Sweet across the final two days of tracking, each including a new bonus track. (That was all on top of the nine vinyls, five CDs, and two cassettes she’d been selling.) Scott matched Carpenter with even more digital variants — four “vault” editions that came with digital memorabilia and bonus tracks, along with live and chopped-and-screwed remix editions. Then Carpenter dropped her final Short n’ Sweet(est) edition at 10 p.m. ET on August 29, before Scott landed the last blow in the fight, releasing Vault 4 at 11:30 p.m.
Yet that last variant couldn’t push Scott over the line. He ended the week with “a little over” 361,000 units, per Billboard, just under Carpenter’s winning 362,000. Carpenter, as predicted, won the streaming battle handily, with 176,000 streaming-equivalent units against Scott’s 30,000. But while the rapper sold a whopping 300,000 digital copies, Carpenter only moved 45,000, even after those last-minute variants. Even though he ultimately came in second, it’s clear the extra digital editions helped Scott more than Carpenter.
But don’t mistake Scott’s numbers for a lack of commitment from the new fans Carpenter has welcomed in. Her fans still bought more than 100,000 vinyl copies of Short n’ Sweet, the second-highest vinyl sales week of the year — and the edge that ultimately gave her the top spot. Scott sold Days Before Rodeo on vinyl too, but unlike Short n’ Sweet, his records haven’t been shipped to fans yet, and they won’t count on the charts until they do. (His website currently says “within 2-3 weeks.”) It’s unclear how many vinyls he’s sold, but it wouldn’t have taken many to put him over Carpenter. And they could still be his key to an eventual Days Before Rodeo No. 1. Maybe Scott will even throw off another pop star in the process.
An Old Travis Scott Mixtape Nearly Bucked Sabrina Carpenter
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