Submitted by: kirkland on Thursday November 18th, 2004 at 12:05 AM EST

Eminem fans have turned out en masse to snap up their rap idol's newest album, propelling it to No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts after just three days in release.

"Encore," the fourth album from the Oscar-winning bad-boy of hip-hop, registered one of the biggest openings of the year by selling just over 700,000 copies in the week ended Nov. 14, according to Nielsen SoundScan data provided on Tuesday by his Interscope Records label.

But while most albums are released on a Tuesday, allowing them to garner six days' worth of sales before the books are closed on Sunday, Interscope released "Encore" four days ahead of schedule last Friday to combat physical and online piracy.

His last album, 2002's "The Eminem Show," which was also moved up on the release schedule, debuted at No. 1 in the United States with 284,500 copies after just one day of official release. As is common with rap albums, both his albums went on sale in many outlets at least a day or two ahead of the official street date.

» Read full story @ Reuters