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Phillip Phillips at the Billboard Music Awards. (AP Photo)

Or having a massive hit like “Home” handed to you as a lead single?

Phillip Phillips found out over the past week.

His sophomore album, “Behind the Light,” landed at number seven on the Billboard 200 today. According to the site, it sold 41,000 copies in its first week.

Those numbers would thrill lots of artists, but they don’t stack up very well to Phillips’ 2012 debut album, which landed at number four in its first week on the Billboard 200. And, more importantly, sold 169,000 copies — more than four times as many as “Behind the Light.”

Part of the reason is that “Raging Fire” — a great lead single — hasn’t caught on the way “Home” did.

The song surged from 88 to 70 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart this week, a jump likely fueled by Phillips’ performance on the American Idol Season 13 finale.

Before that, it has been on the decline after peaking at number 58 on the chart.

In a recent interview with Billboard, Phillip described his new album as “so much more mature” than his first. More personal, too; he had a hand in writing every song while a quarter of the tracks on his debut were written by others.

“It’s a little more on the rock side, which is me and how I represent it when I play live,” Phillip said.