[quahada]

Not entirely. Daft Punk had a big success with free streaming on iTunes a couple weeks before the album was officially for sale.

This got listeners onto iTunes, where Apple put up a pre-sale button. Music industry convention is that pre-sales count towards 1st week sales. The end result is artificially high opening week sales, which further builds the buzz.

I personally think this album helped the reluctant labels signup for iTunes Radio, since labels were able to see free streaming can convert into digital purchases.