(photo: blackbluedog.com)

Beyonce shocked the world two weeks ago when she released a brand new self titles album exclusively to iTunes. The album, now in general release, is number one again and it’s pacing to close out the year as one of the top albums of the year despite only being released for two weeks.

The former front woman of Destiny’s Child, and wife to rap mogul Jay-Z, has created controversy amongst retailers as well. Target and Amazon have decided not to carry the hard copy of the surprise album because Beyonce went with an iTunes exclusive for the first week. But neither retailer refusing to stock the CD have slowed the Beyonce train.

The album, which dropped on iTunes December 13th sold about 1 million copies in it’s first week. Business Insider reports that during the same week the album was downloaded illegally 240,000 times with 55,000 of those coming the first day the album was available.

Beyonce is a rather hot artist when it comes to illegal downloads. The singer’s albums (outside of those with Destiny’s Child) have been illegally downloaded 2,023,845 times according to DigitalMusicNews. With just the new album alone Beyonce has lost over $3.8 million dollars in illegal pirated sales. Many in the music industry would suggest that it’s not necessarily as bad as it seems. It has to be assumed that many of those who illegally downloaded the album would not have paid for it if illegal download sources weren’t available.

Most artists these days take illegal downloads into consideration when budgeting for a new major release. Some artists feel that the illegal downloads can actually help build a band or artists image and brand. These days artists are reliant on ticket sales, merchandise sales and other non-traditional revenue streams.

Of course none of this is really hurting Beyonce, she is reportedly worth $300 million. Together with her husband Jay-Z, the couple topped Forbes “Highest Earning Celebrity Couples” list, earning $95 million this year.