The first U. S. shipment of Michael Jackson's posthumous album, "Michael," will be 900,000 according to retail sources. Sony is projecting first-week CD sales of 340,000 and digital album sales of 60,000. Those numbers are similar to debut-week sales of Jackson's album "This Is It," though that album had the marketing strength of a major motion picuture behind it.

Second week projections for "Michael," are set at 280,000 units, while digital sales are expected to slip from its debut week percentage of 15% to 8%. However, both of those percentages are better than the digital sales garnered by "This Is It" in its first week when the format accounted for only 5.6% of total sales.

Many music merchants say the controversy surrounding the single "Breaking News" should fuel awareness and interest in the album.

"I think people will come out to buy the album, especially with the controversy," Edge Entertainment Distribution music buyer Danny Cohen says.

The debate over song quality and vocal authenticity will likely be a moot point by Nov. 15, when the Jackson website is scheduled to debut "Hold My Hand," which features Akon. That first commercially available single from "Michael" will be made available for sale that same day at digital stores like iTunes.

Some merchants worry that the quality of the first song streamed from Jackson's site may not inspire consumers to rush out and buy the whole album on street date. One merchant described "Breaking News" as "an interesting choice to sell an album." However, many merchants say that Sony sales representatives have told them the single was chosen more because of the lyrical content as a way to herald the news about the upcoming album.