I talked about this, briefly, in my "Five Things Bad Boy Needs to Do to Improve it's Online Strategy" write up. But, I'm inspired to tackle it more in depth now, thanks to the fact that people are unable to pre-order Donnie Klang's "Just a Rolling Stone" on iTunes, when it is being released in two days. The two other big releases of the week - New Kids on the Block and Young Jeezy - are both available for pre-order and, I'm guessing, have been for a while.

iTunes is the largest seller of music in the United States. Back in April, it was reported that Apple had surpassed Wal-Mart and, in January of 2008, held 19% of the market. This amounted to the market share of Amazon.com, Target, FYE/Coconuts, Borders and Rhapsody - combined.

In other words, handling business on iTunes is important. This is where Bad Boy is faltering. There are two key areas. The first, and worst, one is how they are working with pre-orders. It has been quite a while - so long that I can't even remember - since a Bad Boy album has been up for pre-order, weeks in advance of it's release.

What has been happening now, for far too long, is that a release gets added a day or two before or worse: the day of release! I can't even begin to imagine the amount of sales they are leaving on the table here. Again, iTunes is the largest seller of music in the U.S. So, when people want to pre-order an album, where do they go? Well, in the U.S., they go to iTunes more than anywhere else.

The internet has changed the way that people buy music. People don't go to the store the day of release, like they used to. Not as much, anyway. They pre-order it and have it delivered to them. When you make them get online the day of, you are losing out.

In doing so, you surrender a tremendous sales opportunity to promote pre-orders on your official websites, MySpaces, etc. You also lose the opportunity to promote an iTunes exclusive in the process. iTunes exclusive for pre-orders = more pre-orders = more sales. To not have albums up in advance for pre-order - at least weeks in advance, more if you can swing it - represents a fundamental break down that has to have been affecting the first week sales of Bad Boy albums.

The second part is tied to how they release singles on iTunes. This was covered in the article I mentioned before. However, the idea is that, if Bad Boy "leaks" a single on MySpace or through a record serving agency, it should be up for sale on iTunes before that happens. Not doing so turns away people who want to spend money, but it can also have an effect on album sales on iTunes.

The proof of this is in the fact that 52% of Lil' Wayne's first week sales for "Tha Carter III" were through iTunes "Complete My Album" feature. Fifty two percent. More than half! Now, some of those people would have still bought the album. But, it would be crazy to assume that they all would have. Sell those singles. Even if you are not sure they will make the album. Then, on the singles that do, offer iTunes customers the ability to complete the album. And then you'll have more sales.

It's not hard to see how, if Bad Boy just made a couple of adjustments in their iTunes and music release strategy, coupled with the promotion of the availability of singles and albums, for pre-order, they would stand to reap a substantial sales gain.

With music sales in the state that they are, it's imperative that the full power of iTunes be harnessed.