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London - Most pop stars would be thrilled to hear their album looked set to sell up to five million copies around the world, particularly given how much the music market has shrunk during the last decade or so.
That is the target an executive at Sony Music UK has put on Scottish singer Susan Boyle's second record The Gift, in stores in Britain on Monday and in the United States on Tuesday.
For Boyle, however, it may be a sign that the overnight success she enjoyed following her appearance on the Britain's Got Talent show last year may be difficult to sustain over the longer term.
Her debut, I Dreamed a Dream, was the biggest selling album in the world last year with sales of 8.3 million, partly owing to huge media interest in her first television appearance and subsequent trials and tribulations on the show.
Boyle's rendition of I Dreamed a Dream, from the musical Les Miserables, has been downloaded over 300 million times on the YouTube video sharing site.
Proven fan base
Unit sales of "five million around the world would be absolutely incredible", Dave Shack for Sony Music UK told Billboard recently.
The Gift is being released by Sony in partnership with British music impresario Simon Cowell's Syco Music.
"We're taking nothing for granted," Shack added. "But the conversations we're having with the territories indicate there's a proven fan base out there for Susan Boyle."
According to Billboard, Sony Music Entertainment plans an initial US shipment of 1.2 million units and expects first-week US sales of 300 000 units, less than half the amount her debut sold.
Early reviews of The Gift, which includes Christmas carols and a smattering of pop classics, have been mixed.
"Though her renditions of Away in a Manger et al are pleasant, she renders Lou Reed's Perfect Day and Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah sterile," wrote Hugh Montgomery in The Observer newspaper.
"You don't begrudge Boyle dreaming her dream, but you do wish she, and her svengali (Cowell), could dream bigger."
That is the target an executive at Sony Music UK has put on Scottish singer Susan Boyle's second record The Gift, in stores in Britain on Monday and in the United States on Tuesday.
For Boyle, however, it may be a sign that the overnight success she enjoyed following her appearance on the Britain's Got Talent show last year may be difficult to sustain over the longer term.
Her debut, I Dreamed a Dream, was the biggest selling album in the world last year with sales of 8.3 million, partly owing to huge media interest in her first television appearance and subsequent trials and tribulations on the show.
Boyle's rendition of I Dreamed a Dream, from the musical Les Miserables, has been downloaded over 300 million times on the YouTube video sharing site.
Proven fan base
Unit sales of "five million around the world would be absolutely incredible", Dave Shack for Sony Music UK told Billboard recently.
The Gift is being released by Sony in partnership with British music impresario Simon Cowell's Syco Music.
"We're taking nothing for granted," Shack added. "But the conversations we're having with the territories indicate there's a proven fan base out there for Susan Boyle."
According to Billboard, Sony Music Entertainment plans an initial US shipment of 1.2 million units and expects first-week US sales of 300 000 units, less than half the amount her debut sold.
Early reviews of The Gift, which includes Christmas carols and a smattering of pop classics, have been mixed.
"Though her renditions of Away in a Manger et al are pleasant, she renders Lou Reed's Perfect Day and Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah sterile," wrote Hugh Montgomery in The Observer newspaper.
"You don't begrudge Boyle dreaming her dream, but you do wish she, and her svengali (Cowell), could dream bigger."
