MERGED--> 2nd Week Sales...Ugh... + Billboard reports in...U2 #2

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Seems like the most important thing for this album is to sell consistently. It's nice that it got to #1 its first week, but it'll be better if it stays in the top 10-15 for a couple of months rather than falling off quickly. It has the momentum to outsell ATYCLB if it sticks.
 
The tour will have to support the album, and it should...

* wonders how long before this thread is moved to Peeling Off Those Dollar Bills *
 
The reason why this thread wasn't posted in this forum is because it's the WRONG forum for it!

We have an entire forum dedicated to chart/sales news. You'll find the numbers discussed ad nauseum there - including all the news you mentioned. This thread should be closed or moved to the proper forum.
 
U2 rocks. Album sales up or down. The less people like them the better. I'm tired of talking to people who only like the last album and don't care for the earlier stuff.

Sorry, just want to interact with TRUE fans.

hehehe!
 
As the Doc said, more information is in the Peeling Off Those Dollar Bills forum. But for those who do not dare to go in there, here are the main points.
- Yes, the 66% is a big drop, but there are several logical reasons for it
- For most albums, their first week is the week with the highest sales. Almost all albums have a (big) drop after the first week. ATYCLB sold 59% less in its second week.
- The week before Thanksgiving is a huge week in sales (maybe only the week before Christmas is higher sales wise). After Thanksgiving, almost all albums drop as total sales are lower than with Thanksgiving.

Add this up and you can explain the behaviour of HTDAAB. It depends on the coming weeks (especially after Christmas) to have a true indication how the album will perform.

C ya!

Marty
 
Amazing. Album sales were huge, bigger than any other U2 album in at least a decade; it opened at #1 during the most competitive time of the year for new releases and some still aren't happy.
 
wolfwill23 said:
Bash me if you want but U2 marketed this album the way Hollywood markets a shitty film, big advertising to recoup as much as possible on opening weekend because word of mouth will ultimately kill the film.

The huge marketing campaign and the 66% drop is consistent with the way Hollywood pushes crap.

With MTV and VH1 no longer playing video's essentially, the marketing campaign with Apple was necessary, but a bandaid compared to having your entire video played every hour on MTV like video's used to be played over a decade ago.
 
Miggy D said:
Wow, I had no idea Achtung Baby sold so poorly right out of the gate, especially since U2 was technically the biggest band in the world at the time. Even though The Fly was experimental, commercial radio ate it up with a large spoon...and AB was the first proper U2 album in over 4 years. The fact that it sold under 350,000 copies blows my mind.

-Miggy D

Achtung Baby's total for its debut week back in November 1991 was 295,000 copies sold. BUT and a big BUT, Soundscan only tracked 40% of stores and other retail outlets at that time. Soundscan first started in June 1991.

Achtung Baby's first week total was roughly 740,000 copies once the extrapolation is done.

By June 1993, Soundscan was recording 75% of all sales in the USA. By 1995 it was at 85%.

Today, Soundscan records well over 95% of all sales in the USA.
 
Bottom line, HTDAAB with 840,000 copies sold this week and 288,000 copies sold the second week, is U2's FASTEST selling album in the USA EVER!

This album has sold more than either Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby did during their first two weeks in the USA.

Worldwide, this album has topped the charts in 34 different countries around the world which is reportedly the record now! The album sold over 2 million copies worldwide in its first week and has already shipped over 6 million copies worldwide!

This album is on track to be one of the 20 largest selling albums of the decade and potentially one of the 10 largest, worldwide.

When it comes to U2 the corporation, business has never been better.
 
teebee said:

sad, but totally spot on. Getting a number #1 is the key driver now, so you market the hell out of it and you pick a release date that won't compete with other best-sellers.

A release date that won't compete with other bestsellers? Is Eminem not a bestseller? Everyone was worried U2 wouldn't outsell Eminem to get the top spot, but they did and comfortably too. No pleasing some people....
 
Hey Sting2, Marty and doctorwho,

As statistic-freaks you probably know how much the album selled in other countries? I'm wondering how many copies were sold in the European countries the first weeks...

grtz, Pascal. (HTDAAB still at number 1 here in the Netherlands, third week)
 
phommel said:
Hey Sting2, Marty and doctorwho,

As statistic-freaks you probably know how much the album selled in other countries? I'm wondering how many copies were sold in the European countries the first weeks...

Unfortunately, sales data is very difficult to get from the European countries, only from the UK some information is known. Look for that in some of the other threads in this forum.

grtz, Pascal. (HTDAAB still at number 1 here in the Netherlands, third week)

Is it? Because I heard that the new album by Anouk went to #1, making U2's reign at the top only 2 weeks.

C ya!

Marty
 
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