A few days ago, in the post “The Curious Incident of the Kid Rock album that sold 1.7 million copies,” we looked at Atlantic’s experiment yanking artists off iTunes, on the theory that allowing folks to buy the songs they wanted online was cannibalizing CD sales.

This quixotic plan may or may not have worked with Rock, whose retro songs aren’t exactly the talk of the internet. But another figure of the company’s plan is British hip-hop artist Estelle. How’s that working? Reports the BBC:

British R&B star Estelle has seen her single American Boy plummet down the US chart after her latest album, Shine, was taken off iTunes in the States.

Record label Warner made the move to force fans to buy the whole album, not just individual songs, reports said.

American Boy, featuring Kanye West, was UK number one for a month in March.

It was in the iTunes top 10 in the US before its removal. It was also at 11 on the official Billboard singles chart—but has now dropped to number 37.

(Emphasis added.) The drop makes sense; the Billboard chart takes digital sales into account. This, however, might make the company more concerned:

Meanwhile, Shine, which is nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in the UK, has dropped to number 159 on the Billboard album rundown.

The album has spent 17 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 38.

The story doesn’t say it, but the Estelle song is of course available all over the web for free, as this Elbo.ws search attests. Why the company would eliminate an income stream on a rising artist and drive her fans into the MP3 blogs is a mystery.