Wilco defies experts as `Foxtrot' gallops

Though the album was rejected by one major label as uncommercial, Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" defied record-industry expectations by selling 55,573 copies in its first week and debuting at No. 13 on the Billboard album chart--by far exceeding the band's past sales achievements.

The numbers released Wednesday by Soundscan, which monitors retail sales, flew in the face of mainstream record-industry thinking, which held that Wilco could not significantly expand its audience without commercial radio airplay and that it would hurt its sales by making its music widely available on the Internet. Wilco's last previous album, "Summerteeth," sold 19,000 copies in its first week of release in 1999 and cracked the top 80 of the Billboard chart.

Last summer, Reprise Records let Wilco walk away from its record deal because executives said "Foxtrot," an experimental pop album, lacked an obvious hit single and therefore wouldn't sell. The band began Net-streaming the album on its Web site, allowing listeners to preview songs for free.

Rather than hurting the band's sales, the strategy appears to have only built anticipation for the official release.

Full story at Chicago Tribune

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