ARTFLOP: Why Lady Gaga feels 'betrayed' over album release

LADY GAGA's fourth album ARTPOP is not a bad album, the critics say, but it is not great either. More importantly, sales have been – by Gaga's lofty standards, at least – dismal. And the fallout is becoming increasingly acrimonious.

In a posting on her LittleMonsters website, the pop star claims she was "betrayed" by her inner-circle. Her comments were inspired by the delayed release of the video clip for the single Do What U Want, but appear to apply to the ARTPOP project as a whole.

"Those who have betrayed me gravely mismanaged my time and health and left me on my own to damage control any problems that ensued as a result," Lady Gaga wrote. "Millions of dollars are not enough for some people. They want billions. Then they need trillions. I was not enough for some people. They wanted more."

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Cynics began calling Gaga's ambitious album ARTFLOP late last year after sales plummeted by 82 per cent in the second week of its release. Entertainment website The Wrap points out that during its first week her third album, Born This Way "sold more than three-and-a-half times ARTPOP's first two weeks combined".

Lady Gaga may have tweeted that ARTPOP has sold 1.2 million copies worldwide, but industry experts say the real figure is closer to 600,000. That's still a lot of albums, but Born This Way sold more than 850,000 units in the UK alone.

In recent days, Lady Gaga was forced to defend herself against a report by Examiner.com that her label, Interscope, had lost much of the $25m-$30m it spent on launch and marketing of ARTPOP and several record company employees have been laid-off as a result. The Examiner.com story has been deleted, but the negative buzz surrounding the album persists.

Some commentators believe the singer's claim that she has been "betrayed" is aimed at her former manager Troy Carter. The pair parted ways in November, just days before the launch of ARTPOP.

Carter's departure came just two months after Gaga was sued by her former assistant Jennifer O'Neill. She claimed that she racked up more than 7,000 hours of unpaid overtime because she was required to be at the star's beck and call 24 hours a day.

The dispute between O'Neill and Gaga was settled out of court, but it seems the Artpop debacle will run for some time.