Is Nickelback's 'Dark Horse' worth $4.00?

November 18, 2008 | 12:04 pm

Before "Chinese Democracy" becomes the great impulse buy of 2008 at Best Buy stores across the country this Sunday, there's room for one more non-Axl Rose-led album to top the U.S. pop charts. Nickelback always had a shot -- after all, that's where the band's 2005 effort "All The Right Reasons" landed.

But perhaps the band doesn't want "American Idol's" David Cook to get any designs on the top spot. Fans can find the digital edition of the act's new album, "Dark Horse," heavily discounted to $3.99 today at Amazon.com.

At 11 tracks, that's about 36 cents per song. While the CD edition still carries a more traditional $9.99 price tag, that's a major first-day discount for one of the biggest rock bands in the world -- one that's built up enough of a fanbase to sell no matter what the price is.

Or have they? Nickelback's "Gotta Be Somebody" is a top-20 hit, but has been slowly tinkling downward since debuting a few weeks ago on the U.S. pop chart at No. 10, largely on the strength of digital sales. This week, the cut rests at No. 19.

And just last week, heartland rockers Hinder finally caught the attention of the mainstream media, but followed up a 2.7-million-selling album with a first-week sales total under 100,000 copies (at 81,000), which was less than the second-week sales of AC/DC's "Black Ice."

But ultimately, isn't such a major first-day discount a dig at the fans who paid 99 cents to have "Gotta Be Somebody" early, considering they could have had the whole collection for $3 more?

--Todd Martens