"To tell you the truth, even the mighty Jay Z can't sell a million albums in the opening week, either, anymore, which is probably why he bundled his record with an electronic device manufacturer," says Casey Rae, interim executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, a research and advocacy nonprofit for musicians, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

The Groupon deal is more so a sign of labels trying to adapt and get with the times, and to try new ways of reaching as wide of an audience as possible. Sure, real fans may have already bought the album on iTunes or maybe even bought a physical copy from Target (or, you know, illegally downloaded it), but what about the listener who is kind of on the fence, or lives in an area where there may not be access to high-quality broadband?

Deal sites like Groupon do an excellent job of persuading its subscribers to buy packages that they may normally not think to on their own: "Sure, a weekend rafting trip sounds great"; "Oh man, a $25 coupon for $50 at this Italian restaurant I've never been to near me. Why not?" By placing an album package among the random array of other attractive deals, major labels may be able to sell units to people who normally wouldn't feel encouraged to purchase it on their own accord. And by bundling older catalog items with new releases, it's also a way for labels to clear out back stock.

"If they move some at a loss, it's not going to be a problem as long as they've enticed people to buy something that maybe isn't as exciting in this marketplace, which is a physical item," says Rae.

And if it so happens to boost total sales, that's another perk. SoundScan has not yet commented on whether sales of albums on Groupon count toward the album's total SoundScan sales, but Groupon says that it's up to the labels to report what's categorized as "non-traditional" sales. They send a verification of the sales by zip code to the labels, who'll then report it SoundScan. But even if they decide to include it in the count, SoundScan tells BuzzFeed that it would be very hard for the amount sold on Groupon to really make a dent on its overall sales numbers.

These deals are also set up much further in advance than many may realize, says a source who used to work at Groupon and wishes to remain anonymous. "Groupon has a really long lead time; they can't just run a business because someone called them that morning," the source says. "So usually, artists look at Groupon as part of a 360 marketing campaign, where they're looking at advertising online, and they'll probably do some print and radio. It's not really any different than mapping out all the other vehicles you would use in a marketing campaign."

"Whether it reeks of desperation or not really depends on marketing and perception," Rae says. But he adds that because we live in the hyper-aware internet age where news and rumors spread like wildfire, you really only have a limited opportunity to manage that perception. It takes just one person to make a snarky joke on Twitter before the rest of the internet is laughing along with them into the echo chamber.