Justin Bieber’s surprise drop, SWAG , had a massive opening. Announced on July 10, and released the next day, the album charted 163,000 units and started out with about 200 million streams. The project started its life at number two behind Travis Scott’s chart-topping JackBoys 2 . While some could say SWAG was a failure because it’s the first time a Bieber album hasn’t started at number one, its impact may outweigh the sales. Bieber has a new sound. And when Bieber releases, people listen.

The release was last-minute, with the announcement dropping just one day before the album’s release. Why? No one knows. While there is speculation that the hasty rollout was to take attention away from Clipse’s album release after the duo’s fallout with Universal Music Group , it doesn’t m

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