BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 20: Cardi B attends 2019 ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards at the … [+]
Cardi B is looking to collect another big hit on the Billboard charts only a short time after sending a recent release to the weekly tallies. The rapper has employed a tried-and-true tactic that may make her brand new tune a commercial success right out of the gate.
On Friday (March 15), Cardi released her new single “Enough (Miami).” The track has been performing fairly well since it dropped, but she’s not taking any chances.
Currently, nine different versions of “Enough (Miami)” appear inside the top 40 on iTunes in the U.S. About half of those are new to the platform’s ranking of the bestselling tunes in America, as they were only released a short time ago.
It’s common these days for major artists to release many different versions of a new single, typically in the first few days after the original arrives. Singers, bands, and rappers may dole out five, 10, or sometimes 15 or more takes in an effort to inflate the title’s total sales sum. Billboard lumps all versions of a track into one entity, so providing many cuts for superfans to buy is a solid marketing strategy.
The bestselling version of “Enough (Miami)” at the moment is the original. At the time of publishing, that cut slips slightly to No. 3, though it’s been selling for several days now.
Various other versions of “Enough (Miami)” are also dotted throughout the iTunes ranking, with all of them being–at least for the moment–top 40 hits. “Enough (Miami)” is now selling in sped-up, slowed-down, instrumental, a cappella, and clean and explicit takes.
Cardi is hoping that “Enough (Miami)” will become an even bigger hit than her current win. This week, “Like What (Freestyle)” debuts on a number of Billboard charts. It opens at No. 38 on the Hot 100, which is a somewhat lowly launch, but its performance on sales rankings is more impressive.
“Like What (Freestyle)” currently sits at No. 3 on the Digital Song Sales chart. It earns the loftiest start of the frame, as it racked up 11,535 copies sold in its first tracking period. That’s also enough for the cut to debut at No. 1 on the Rap Digital Song Sales chart, bringing Cardi back to the summit.