Did Flavour’s Thankful Album Really Sell 1 Million In 5 Days?

The word going around this great thursday morning is that Flavour’s suprise release album, Thankful, has already sold 1 million copies. Popular blogger Linda Ikeji put this out today indicating that Obaino Music, the company responsible for marketing the album confirmed the figures to her.

Now the main question, how do we know for sure that this is correct. Do we just take the marketer’s word for it? But really with the population Nigeria has, and the fan base that Flavour clearly has combined with the fact that CDs are about 100-150 per copy, is 1 million records really that difficult to achieve?

The other thing to consider in this debate is that what considers record sales? Shipment to stores, or actual physical sales? And who keeps tabs? What’s the structure in place to track sales and downloads? Are they combined figures? It’s an interesting discussion especially seeing as a few years ago, MI burst on to the scene with the famous 30,000 sold in 30 minutes. Possible?

From what we’ve heard of the album (which features MI, Phyno, Chidinma, Waga and Wande Coal), it’s pretty solid, and the reviews from many have been positive but pulling in a million in 5 days is taking it to higher level.

We grabbed a couple of reactions from twitter on this subject.

Flavour is highly talented but this one million thing is laughable. When its not Pastor Adeboye’s caller tune.
— Ayomide Tayo II (@AOT2) November 20, 2014
1 million copies of Flavour’s album sold. Less than a week. Physical copies. *takes huge pinch of salt* *continues to fry Akara for elves* — Lokogoma James (@ElJefe__) November 20, 2014
So now Flavour lied about album sales? Just say you lack the capacity to believe that a million copies of the album have been sold.
— Oreoluwa Fakorede (@OreFakorede) November 20, 2014
I don’t think it’s impossible or outrageous that Flavour would sell a million copies of his record. However, we need proof. #PlaqueisNotData— Agwu Obinna. (@d_angrymob) November 20, 2014
A million copies of Flavour’s ‘Thankful’ have been sold in less than a week? Gratitude pays.
— Oreoluwa Fakorede (@OreFakorede) November 20, 2014
A million is a lot, a whole lot. Flavour moving that amount in 5 days will be a phenomenon of the rare kind. — Yvonne Nelson Fiance (@Opepwinc_nelson) November 20, 2014
Flavour sells 1 million copies of new album in 5 days…I dont think its possible in Nigeria…Where dem Alaba boys dey? — Abolade Johnson (@Abolade_johnson) November 20, 2014
Few A-list artistes sell a million records in a week in the US. But somehow Flavour managed it here without a music distribution structure — tobi amoo (@tobiamoo) November 20, 2014
If Lagos takes 200k, PH, Onitsha, Enugu, and Owerri take 100k each… Is 1 mil really hard to get to
— Aribaba | Jaguda.com (@aribabaJ) November 20, 2014
We haven’t even talked Abuja, KD, Jos, Illorin, Benin, Calabar… Really… Pushing 1 million CDs out shouldn’t be a huge task at 100-150 — Aribaba | Jaguda.com (@aribabaJ) November 20, 2014