Justin Timberlake’s ’20/20 Experience’ Album Punches In At Number One

Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience debuted at number on the Billboard 200 album chart and broke records as the fastest selling record of 2013 so far.

Although it fell short of the one million expected, it did shift 968,000 copies in its first week.

Released on March 19, this is the third album from Timberlake and his second number one album in the US.

In 2006, FutureSex/LoveSounds hit the number one spot Billboard’s 200 chart with sales of 684,000. His first album Justified bowed at number two in 2002 with 439,000 copies in its first sales week.

The 20/20 Experience is the third-biggest debut for a solo male singer ever in the US, sitting behind Confessions by Usher and Garth Brooks’ Double Live.

Billboard reports the album’s sales as the 19th-largest week for a record since SoundScan started tracking data in 1991. Ironically, the best-selling week ever occurred when ‘N Sync punched a 2.42 million debut with No Strings Attached in 2000.

Timberlake’s figures are particularly impressive as Lil Wayne is the only artist previous to sell as many albums in one week when he released Tha Carter III in 2008 with 940,000 copies sold in week one. Taylor Swift’s 2012 album Red debuted with 1.2 million copies in its first week.

In addition, Apple’s iTunes Store reports 20/20 as the best seller for the week in digital sales. Retail giant Target — who are stocking an exclusive edition of the album with two bonus songs “Dress On” and “Body Count” — promoted the album heavily through television commercials, airing the first TV spot during Timberlake’s Grammy performance on February 10.

The 20/20 Experience also had the second-biggest opening week for an album on Spotify, with 7.7 million streams in the US.

Further pre-release promotion saw iTunes exclusively stream 20/20 on March 11, and, in the run-up to the album’s release, Timberlake hosted and performed on NBC’s Saturday Night Live and took up residency for a week on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

This week The 20/20 Experience vaulted to the number one album spot in the UK, unseating David Bowie’s decade long comeback album The Next Day.

Coming off a nearly seven year hiatus and with the highly anticipated Legends of the Summer stadium tour with Jay-Z still to come, this is the comeback of a master.

Do you have The 20/20 Experience yet? And if so, what’s your replay track?

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE " Strawberry Bubblegum " Live…by UnderProject