Not being funny, but who's fault is that?

Hers and her management, I'm aware of that. It seems that a lot was just taken for granted. I now absolutely believe that whilst Guy is good for her finances, he is not the best manager for her. She needs to re-evaluate his role after this era. She had a co-female manager alongside him too didn't she? But she sacked her but I never knew why.

The UK is a market you cannot neglect promotion in. When was the last time prior to the Brit Awards that Madge promoted her music in the UK? 2005? Oh and she did that Radio 1 gig in 2008 but honestly that really wasn't a big deal. I remember her doing Parkinson, Children in Need, those club gigs for COADF and look how well that era turned out. When you don't do proper promotion for 10 years, of course the general public are going to turn their backs on you. Look at Britney.

She should have released the album fall 2014 and done Children in Need again, X Factor (oh and don't give me that she doesn't promote on "shows like that" BS. She did Fame Academy France back in 2005!), Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton, radio interviews, etc.. Her team's promo tactics have been atrocious lately.

I don't think she can be blamed for lack of promo. She has promoted endlessly these past few weeks - more so than she did for both Hard Candy and MDNA put together. She did two high profile live performances, tons of magazine interviews, telly interviews all over Europe, multiple web interviews... She's really pulled the stops out for this. The think is, so many countries want a piece of her, and she is only one person

Her Jonathan Ross interview would probably have been better going out last Saturday, but I doubt she has any control over that.

It's a shame it's not performing better. The lack of a big hit single has really affected it, but again, that's absolutely out of hands. I'm sure that if she'd have released Living for Love 5 years ago it would have been a massive smash. It's a shame.

I think it's a case of "too little, too late". She should have been doing Confessions-style promo for Hard Candy and MDNA.

I don't know why she just stopped promoting her work after 2005. There was a period from 1998-2005 where she did a ton of promotion and it was great. She even did CD:UK back then!

The interesting thing is though, that in the US you can only buy the Super Deluxe on back order and there is a 3 week delay. People are also complaining that stores are simply not being supplied with stock of the album. Here's a post from MadonnaTribe:

Well, it would be because she's severely under shipped and sabotaged by Interscope who care nothing about the album sales since they get next to no money from it. It's hard to buy what isn't available, and many people are holding out for the super deluxe, which isn't available in physical stores in most places or back ordered for 1-3 weeks on Amazon now. Only fans are going to buy more than 1 copy of an album at best.

This is why I said not to take the #1 for granted. It's sad for her because she deserved better. It's not because people don't want the album. It's not available.

I have to say her attitude to promo around MDNA was terrible. I was so frustrated as a fan. I seem to recall a statement released by Guy (her manager) saying something like 'The Tour is the promotion'.

I went to the tour and really enjoyed it, but it was ruined slightly because nobody knew the songs... why did nobody know the songs... because nobody bought the album... Silly mare.

I'm not sure about the Super Deluxe issues though. That only seems to be an issue in a few countries. I think it's just a genuine case of misjudging the demand.

Hmm I read about that. I guess either they don't care or they thought she would sell so poorly they understocked it. Really negligent on their part. She should have never left Warner. She could have released 3 minutes of just silence and it would have gone #1 with them.

I saw the MDNA tour and enjoyed it too but I distinctly remember everyone sitting down during the MDNA songs (besides the opening). I saw it an arena and I kid you not, entire rows of seats got up to use the restroom during "Masterpiece".

I'm hoping this tour is more hits-oriented like Re-Invention was. I've got my tickets so we'll see how it goes. I hope the setlist is decent.

It is a very confusing album release for casual buyers though. There will be people who genuinely want to buy the album, and many mums would probably like to get it for Mother's Day, after all if you're a mum in your 40's and 50's then Madonna isn't going to be someone you're unfamiliar with, but the image with her with wires on her face was widely used as the album promo since December. So, if they're going out searching for that image on an album and see another, looking like an image from the 80's, you might not realise it's the same record so may avoid buying it. It is silly to use that as an official image and then change it.

I have been hearing stories of stock issues in the US, my cousin who lives in Virginia and is a huge M fan emailed me the other day asking me to buy the super deluxe for her because she couldn't wait to get it any longer, so I sent it out yesterday super fast delivery lol, she should have it by early next week.

Maybe she just doesn't like the promoting aspect of it anymore...something she may have got bored with.

You know, I don't always agree with you, but you have made some pretty thought provoking posts today. It is obvious why Hard Candy didn't get much promo, it was basically Madonna fulfilling her Warner contract by delivering the record. Job done. With MDNA, she was in new territory. With the digital age in full swing she attempted to use the available technology to her advantage. But her managements lack of research, particularly regarding the UK discounting of the free L4L downloads from the official charts, was ill conceived. I'm not sure what has gone wrong with Rebel Heart. The sales should be higher. No doubt about that but something is going wrong. People clearly want the album but are not buying it. Why? I also think you have a point that she may be bored with the promotion side of things. After all, in the US she's an official billionaire so it's not as if she needs the money. I think, in reality, she is just at the "fulfilling my contract" stage of her career. She is contracted for one more album and then I think she'll just do what the hell she likes, with who the hell she likes and when the hell she likes.

As noted, she has done lots of promo this time around. Certainly the most for any album since COADF. With MDNA, I think the only pre-album promo she did was the SuperBowl. In fact I can't even remember any TV interviews or performances from the MDNA era at all (were there any?).

Therefore, it's disappointing this time around that she's putting much more effort into promoting the album and the sales are turning out lower.

She did The Graham Norton Show at some point before MDNA was released - I remember her revealing the album title during that interview - but I think the interview was more to promote W.E.

Rebel Heart certainly deserves to do better than MDNA because it's a much stronger album. Maybe it will have more staying power. She has already been really busy promoting this album & that's going to continue with her week-long appearance on Ellen & the iHeart Awards show. Her Jonathan Ross interview airs this weekend. The video for Ghosttown will be shot next week apparently so that will be released in the next few weeks & there'll surely be at least one more song released before the tour starts in August, so she'll be constantly in the news & on people's radar for the rest of 2015.

I don't think it's that she doesn't like it. It was more of a timing thing with the last two albums with how she has to rehearse for her tours, her directing movies and also with HC her going through a divorce.

Today she was on the Howard Stern show, who's a big radio host in the US. It's a almost 90 minute interview.

https://soundcloud.com/madonnarama/m...ch-2015#t=0:04

It's pretty personal. It goes into a lot of depth about her childhood, moving to NYC, her marriages etc. I don't think she could be bored with promotion if she takes an hour and a half to talk about almost everything about her life!

Tomorrow she's on another satellite radio show hosted by Larry Flick which is marketed to the gay community.

I guess it's doesn't really make that much a difference in terms of sales if you don't get radio airplay, but I like when my favorite artists are interviewed. I like hearing how they think about their life and their art. It helps me connect to an album more.

Why would expect the sales to be that much higher? People just don't buy records anymore. It's going to debut at #1 or #2 in the US with over 100,000 copies. I don't think that's too shabby for someone over 30 years into their career.

She seems really engaged in this era, doing a lot of interviews. There's so many that as a fan can hardly keep up! I would hardly say she's just fulfilling her contract. She's seems really into this album and passionate about it.

Clearly the leaks harmed her more than anyone was expecting. Like I said earlier, wasn't MDNA the most illegally downloaded album of 2012 with something like 2 million lost sales? that's a hell of a lot and MDNA didn't even leak like Rebel Heart did.

I also think Madonna needs Warner, Interscope have been pretty much a disaster for her.

However just to make a quick comparison. In 2012 she was at 37k by this point with MDNA with RH she is at 25k so that's only a difference of 12k. Which isn't as drastic when written down. Certainly not as wide gap between MDNA and Rebel Heart has seen in the US anyway.

Another thing to factor in is that 9 songs were also made available before the album release. That's a whole 9 songs they let people download. When Hold Tight, Joan Of Arc and Iconic became available all 3 took the top 3 places on iTunes for a brief period.

Everyone is forgetting that. Its shame all this couldn't be added into the official totals now.

I hope Madonna is #1 this week

I doubt it will now but there is nothing we can do about it. She will get that 12th number 1 album eventually, there is no one else in danger of catching her up but I wanted it to happen sooner rather than later.

Just enjoy the album for what it is. Hopefully she will get a decent boost going into next week after Jonathan Ross has aired.

Just got my tour tickets!!! PHEW. That was much less stressful than I was expecting.

Block 104 which is at the back of the lower tier, and i'm thrilled because I was worried I would only manage to get top tier. I've sat in 104 before for P!nk and it was outstanding.

It goes without saying that these tickets are infinately better than the nosebleed seats I got for MDNA!!

A member of these forums kindly PM'd me an Amazon presale code that they had and I managed to get two amazing tickets in Block A seating. I'm absolutely over the moon! At The 02 as well which is close to me, so no traveling to Manchester or Birmingham. Before I managed to get tickets I was having a look on sites such as Viagogo etc and tickets are already going for a fortune...god knows how much they'll be going for by the time it's the actual concert in December! Thank god I don't have to go buying tickets on those sites and I actually have mine. I was quite impressed with the buying process as well. Everything was very clear and very speedy and you knew what was happening at all times even when you were in a queue. The Beyonce presale was an absolute nightmare. I do wonder though if the reason why this was so easy was perhaps because there wasn't a huge amount of people with presale codes, as you did have to buy the album to actually get one. Anyway, I was impressed and I'm very happy!

Ooooh lucky you! I was really hoping for floor seated/standing tickets, but they were just a little bit too pricey for me at this moment in time. (I'm currently blocking out the two cheaper tickets I went for are £125 each!!)

The booking process was fantastic though. I've never had to do anything like that before, but it was so speedy and glitch free. Shame Ticketmaster don't adopt something similar. The fact I could enter all card details and make my selections and then just sit and wait. Much better!

That f*cking hacker!

I must have gotten the worst seats possible on Tuesday... Block 409

I'm at the front. I don't go to concerts unless i am at the front or at least a few rows behind. The further you are, the less you see. I had a terrible mix up once at a concert where i was right at the back and all i saw for two hours was a dot running around on the stage. Plus there were no screens above so the people at the back could not see what was going on. The worst experience ever.