Tuesday, October 12, 2021
As the Adele buzz increases in volume, handicappers are placing wildly varying guesses on how big the follow-up to the ginormous 25 (see total-activity chart below) could be in a radically changed, streaming-powered marketplace. Her past commercial triumphs were driven by sales of physical product and digital downloads (1.5m+ on the last LP), which have significantly diminished in importance during the last six years. But no one doubts that Adele will be everywhere this fall, given the size of her fanbase and the hyper-focus she’s received since “Hello” popped up in that NFL commercial two weeks ago.