I've noticed something about Hip Hop and R&B artists' (mainly) when they promote every album after their first album. They don't promote the album they promote themselves. You as a fan/supporter are no longer buying the music you're buying the artist, the image, the character designed for you to love and believe in. Music sells the first album and the artist sells every album after that. I can just imagine how the conversation goes, the label exec says to the artist and A&R you just sold 2 million records on your first album they love "you" (not the music) so this album we're not going to hire the best producers or songwriters all we need is a good first single and they're going to buy the album 4 million times this time. Sadly it doesn't work that way but you can count on half the sales to return but by the 3rd album you're irrelevant and they just signed someone new so you spend the rest of your career reviving it.
LET MUSIC SELL MUSIC NOT PEOPLE.
