"Mermaid" cast album sells swimmingly

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - The Little Mermaid" may take place under the sea, but it's certainly keeping well afloat.

The latest incarnation of the 1989 animated film is a Broadway show featuring the original score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, plus 10 new songs by Menken and Glenn Slater.

The original Broadway cast recording of the show enters the Billboard 200 this week at No. 26, selling 20,000 copies and grabbing the highest debut, highest position and biggest debut sales week for a cast album since "Rent" premiered at No. 19 in 1996. ("Rent" sold 43,000 in its debut.)

The success of the "Mermaid" cast album rests on a strategy of extensive promotion that began in summer 2007, when the stage show did a tryout in Denver, and continued through its Broadway previews and official opening in January to the album's February 26 release.

"Bringing ("Mermaid") to Broadway gave us a whole new opportunity to promote the music, and the franchise in general," Walt Disney Records senior vice president of marketing Damon Whiteside said.

For starters, the album was available for pre-order at Amazon and in theater lobbies, where patrons could fill out a form that guaranteed they would receive a collectible "picture disc" featuring a picture of Ariel on their copy of the CD.

In addition, promotional collector cards that offered a free download of the song "She's in Love," a new number for the Broadway show, were available at such places as theater lobbies and concierge desks at New York hotels.

A Web site listed on the card took users to a Disney-created portal with the option to purchase the whole album and "Mermaid" content for mobile devices, as well as behind-the-scenes videos of the cast recording the CD.

Theatergoers who bought tickets for any Disney show on Broadway -- such as "The Lion King" or "Mary Poppins" -- through Ticketmaster received one of the download cards inside the envelope when their tickets were mailed to them. Ticketmaster also paired with iTunes to e-mail consumers about the availability of the free song.