U2 to be topped by One Direction!

[Mrs. Garrison]

I'm starting to get on in years, so I have no idea who or what a "One Direction" is supposed to be. Another term for "bowel movement" perhaps?

So I went to the bathroom this morning to take a one direction but unfortunately for me there was a traffic jam on the back roads so we were stuck in traffic for 45 minutes before we could finally pass. Luckily we didn't run out of gas...

 

[Steve_Bono]

Good for them - records are meant to be broken and U2 isn't done yet Touring is where the money is made these days in most cases.

U2 tickets will be at least 50 percent more expensive the next tour, they are just as interested in making money as One Direction anybody that says differently is living in a dream world.

Thankfully U2 is still making music that is appealing to the ear as well but they certainly aren't going to turn their nose up making a profit out of it either.

By the way Rihanna already has more "certified" album sales then U2 by approximately 14 million and shes only been recording music since 2005.

List of best-selling music artists - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's absolute rubbish. Go to www.riaa.com. Riahanna is not even in the top selling 250 artist when it comes to album sales in the United States. U2 on the other hand is is at #21 with over 50 million albums sold in the United States.

I checked further and found that Rihanna has only sold 7.5 million copies in the United States. She has five albums that have sold 1 million, one album that has sold 500,000 and one album that sold 2 million.

U2's first four albums, Boy, October, War, and the Unforgettable Fire have outsold what Rihanna has done to date.

 

[Yahweh]

You are right I double checked the numbers on RIAA, guess one should not trust Wikipedia as far as truth even though they said they used RIAA to get the results. As far as touring however U2 will milk every cent they can out of the fanbase before they retire, whether by design or not, they may talk about staying relevant but they also like to be the "biggest" band in the world as well.

Unfortunately many of the people that go to a band of U2s age aren't going for the new material, unlike the sentiment that Numb had People do want to hear the same old thing forever as a general rule.

I hope U2 can make an excellent album but it certainly is not going to be what makes them money at this stage.

People that want to see this tour should be saving their pennies especially with Live Nation pretty much having full control over what the band does now in a commercial sense. As much as I though Paul Maguinness was a penny pincher, Live Nation will be worse.

 

[Rob33]

That's absolute rubbish. Go to www.riaa.com. Riahanna is not even in the top selling 250 artist when it comes to album sales in the United States. U2 on the other hand is is at #21 with over 50 million albums sold in the United States.

I checked further and found that Rihanna has only sold 7.5 million copies in the United States. She has five albums that have sold 1 million, one album that has sold 500,000 and one album that sold 2 million.

U2's first four albums, Boy, October, War, and the Unforgettable Fire have outsold what Rihanna has done to date.

where do you see this information on that site?

 

[Steve_Bono]

You are right I double checked the numbers on RIAA, guess one should not trust Wikipedia as far as truth even though they said they used RIAA to get the results. As far as touring however U2 will milk every cent they can out of the fanbase before they retire, whether by design or not, they may talk about staying relevant but they also like to be the "biggest" band in the world as well.

Unfortunately many of the people that go to a band of U2s age aren't going for the new material, unlike the sentiment that Numb had People do want to hear the same old thing forever as a general rule.

I hope U2 can make an excellent album but it certainly is not going to be what makes them money at this stage.

People that want to see this tour should be saving their pennies especially with Live Nation pretty much having full control over what the band does now in a commercial sense. As much as I though Paul Maguinness was a penny pincher, Live Nation will be worse.

U2 has always been interested in making money from day 1. They price their tickets based on their market value just like nearly every other artist in the industry or any U2 fan trying to sell their home. There is nothing wrong with that because at the end of the day, if your not willing to make what you are worth, then the ticket scalpers will have a field day.

Demand determines price. Less popular little indie bands might be able to play a club charging 10 dollars or 20 dollars, but that's because that is their value in the market. Its not because they are some type of social do gooder artist or anything like that, although they may pretend to be.

 

[Steve_Bono]

where do you see this information on that site?

Go to www.riaa.com

Once there click on Gold & Platinum in the top right

Then click on Top Tallies

Then click "Top Artist Albums" on the top lift. That will give you list of all the artist who have sold at least 10 million albums in the United States. You will notice that Rihanna is not on there because she is at 7.5 million sales.

You can also go back to the Gold & Platinum database and look up Rihanna's individual album sales. Be sure to also click on Advance search and mark "albums only" under the format section.

 

[Galeongirl]

I think they're talking worldwide sales here.... you're talking United States. That's a vast difference.

 

[Steve_Bono]

I think they're talking worldwide sales here.... you're talking United States. That's a vast difference.

Well, 70% of the world market for music is in North America and Europe. Rihanna is a bigger name inside the USA than she is outside the USA, so with just 7.5 million in sales, her global total will be larger, but not at the rates their suggesting. According to the www.ifpi.org database, Rihanna has 7 million albums sold in Europe. So at best, her worldwide total is going to be about 20 million albums. That's pretty far south of the over 150 million albums that U2 have sold.

 

[Rob33]

So where can the official numbers be found for worldwide album sales for artists over the course of their career?

I was shocked to see that, according to that site, Van Halen ranks above U2.

 

[Yahweh]

Apparently the list I originally quoted also includes single sales and downloads as well

. The claimed sales figures and the total certified sales figures (for each country) within the provided sources include sales of albums, singles, compilation-albums, music videos as well as downloads of singles and full-length albums.

None the less Riahanna's single sales and download totals are much larger then her album sales as per RIAA of course this is due to a change in the market these days.

Many people don't buy full albums anymore. The market has been changing since piracy and itunes have been around.

It would be nice to find one source of truth but basically its impossible in the music industry as it hasnt been regulated world wide.

Also many artists including U2 ship more albums to the stores then they can realistically sell which inflates the numbers a bit.

U2s true album certifications in the US comes to 51.5 million - I would anticipate that the real sales totals for U2 as far as album sales are concerned fall between 100-120 million, still an impressive feat by any streach of the imagination.

I am already saving up for the next U2 tour I expect the price to get a decent seat will be 300 dollars or more, if One Direction doesn't get to 1 billion in tour revenue...I am sure U2 will give it a shot.

 

[Steve_Bono]

So where can the official numbers be found for worldwide album sales for artists over the course of their career?

I was shocked to see that, according to that site, Van Halen ranks above U2.

Van Halen does have a few more million in sales than U2 does in the United States. But Van Halen's sales outside the United States are rather small. Since the IFPI started tracking sales in Europe in 1994, Van Halen has never sold enough to qualify for a 1 million sales award.

Global sales have to be estimated as there is no auditing firm like the RIAA for the United States, CRIA for Canada or IFPI for Europe that audits and confirms sales on a global basis.

If you are going to Wikipedia, you'll experience fans writing anything they want in there.

So again, stick with audited confirmed sales. Its not the full global total, but it gives you an good idea.

 

[Steve_Bono]

Also many artists including U2 ship more albums to the stores then they can realistically sell which inflates the numbers a bit.

Retailers naturally order more albums than they can realistically sell in one week, which is why initial shipments are far ahead of initial sales figures. But over the weeks and months that follow, shipments generally come more in line with sales. Retailers don't order albums they don't feel they can sale, and the record company only ships albums to retailers that buy the albums. Then its up to the retailer to sell the album to the public.

In addition, soundscan which tracks sales at retail only tracks 95% of the market, plus back in the 1980s and 1990s, soundscan did not track sales from record clubs. So the shipment total more often in the long run is the true overall sales total. The stores and wear houses in the long run will only be holding on to a few thousand copies of each album in order to handle weekly or monthly sales after the album has dropped off the charts.


An interesting thing about singles today is that they only cost $1 dollar. I purchased my first single a 45 rpm in 1986. It was 3 dollars, about 1/3 the cost of buying the album. In todays dollars, 3 dollars from 1986 would be 6 dollars. So singles back in the 1980s were 6 times more expensive than todays singles once you adjust for inflation. So single sales today are nothing really to brag about. You have to sell 10 singles to equal the sell of one album. So selling 7 million singles is like selling 700,000 albums. More importantly, if a fan will only spend 1 dollar on a single and went spend 10 dollars on an album, they are highly unlikely to spend 50 dollars or 100 dollars to see that artist in concert for 2 hours.

So as before, single sales represent light un-devoted interest. Its the album sales that represent true interest where the artist is able to build a fanbase and attract people to their concerts and to buy their merchandise.


As for One Direction, they are not even close to being able to match U2's record let alone gross a billion. There run of stadium shows is impressive, but as it currently stands, they will gross about $250 million, only about 1/3 of what U2 grossed on 360. They would need to play over 200 shows to beat 360 with the stadium configuration they are using and the ticket prices they are charging.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I wonder what it's like to live in the fantasy world where the only people involved in U2 who are interested in making money are their managers.

Must be nice.

Sent from my android cause iphones are for old people

 

[The_acrobat]

I looked into this on wikipedia. I would've felt like a huge DORK if my wife would've walked in on me looking at a One Direction wikipedia page. I would've preferred she caught me looking at pornography!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_We_Are_Tour_(One_Direction)

ANYWAY... I wonder if they are including the 2013 tour which just ended in November as part of this mega tour that's going to gross $1 billion? Because the 2014 tour in itself surely wouldn't do that. OD seem to be more popular in the UK, about even in the US, are playing more shows in South America (U2 could probably tour in places like Columbia, Peru, Uruguay also), and aren't playing as many in Europe as U2 did.

 

[Steve_Bono]

I looked into this on wikipedia. I would've felt like a huge DORK if my wife would've walked in on me looking at a One Direction wikipedia page. I would've preferred she caught me looking at pornography!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_We_Are_Tour_(One_Direction)

ANYWAY... I wonder if they are including the 2013 tour which just ended in November as part of this mega tour that's going to gross $1 billion? Because the 2014 tour in itself surely wouldn't do that. OD seem to be more popular in the UK, about even in the US, are playing more shows in South America (U2 could probably tour in places like Columbia, Peru, Uruguay also), and aren't playing as many in Europe as U2 did.

Nope. Even if you added in all the shows One Direction has played to date in their career that would only add $150 million to the 65 shows their schedule for next year. So their total career gross at the end of 2014 would be about $400 million. That's still way below 360's $736 million gross and no where near $1 Billion dollars in gross. They would need to add another 100 stadium shows just to reach a career total gross of $800 million and about 150 stadium shows to reach a career gross of $1 Billion dollars.

There has never been a 215 date stadium tour. The most stadium shows ever on a single tour is 128, which was the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge Tour.