SOI in the charts

[Salome]

Originally Posted by womanfish

France had better sales than the US. Fairly Insane

That's it, no tour in the US.
75 dates in both The Netherlands and France

[mama cass]

Originally Posted by Salome

75 dates in both The Netherlands and France

cool!

[dan_smee]

Apart from the US result, this will have exceeded all of their expectations.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

[doctorwho]

Originally Posted by Salome

That's it, no tour in the US.
75 dates in both The Netherlands and France

Darn. Well, it will be hell having to go to Paris for multiple shows, but somehow I will find the $$ and the way. I've never been to the Netherlands, so that will be horrid as well. I can't imagine having fine hotels, food and wine every day, along with U2, but some how, I'll survive. It's the least I could do for U2 after they gave us a free album.

[womanfish]

Originally Posted by dan_smee

Apart from the US result, this will have exceeded all of their expectations.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

I would agree. I also think that it was wise of them to hit Europe first with the promo tour. It obviously worked. To debut at number 1 anywhere is pretty impressive given that 26 million people have the album sitting in their library.

And now if they pop over to the U.S. and do a major promo swing, they could see a boost of sales here as well. I would hope they would pair it with a big radio push for EBW, and do it as smartly as possible.

Maybe even better to wait til mid November when people can purchase it on iTunes as well.

[phommel]

Great to see SOI number one in my country! (Netherlands).

What is new in Netherlands for U2 (as far as I know) is that they have been actively promoting the new album last week. Lots of advertisement in the commercial breaks on the main radio stations and many posters about the new album and it's release date on the streets everywhere. They will have to sell many albums to earn these investments back?

[Popmartijn]

Here are the sales figures for U2's #6 debut in the UK. (From Music Week)

That U2 didn't register their 10th number one studio album - and sixth in a row - with Songs Of Innocence is largely their own fault. The album debuts at number six on sales of just 15,998 copies, having been available for more than a month as a free download from iTunes before being released physically and in expanded download form on Monday. Its first week little more than a tenth of the 157,928 copies that last album, No Line On The Horizon sold on its chart-topping debut in 2009. It is also noticeable that Songs Of Innocence's digital sales for last week were a mere 3.57% of its overall tally, less than a tenth of last week's market average for artist albums of 38.52%. Unless Songs Of Innocence rallies, it will be U2's lowest charting studio album in the UK since second album October peaked at number 11 in 1981.

I disagree with the comment that the low sales and position was U2's fault. Having a high debut and sales figure wasn't their aim this time, so you can't be at fault when you don't have it then.
I am a bit surprised by the 16K figure, as that is about 25% less than U2's sales in France.

[Popmartijn]

Originally Posted by phommel

Great to see SOI number one in my country! (Netherlands).

What is new in Netherlands for U2 (as far as I know) is that they have been actively promoting the new album last week. Lots of advertisement in the commercial breaks on the main radio stations and many posters about the new album and it's release date on the streets everywhere. They will have to sell many albums to earn these investments back?

I don't think they'll have to sell many albums to earn these investments back as I think this was already paid for with Apple's money. My theory now is that U2 and their record company (Island/Universal) got at least as much money as U2's record advance is. Wasn't that rumoured to be around 20 million or so? Thus, the Apple move has made U2/Universal already enough money to break even on the album release. With such an advance they'd usually have to sell 4 to 5 million copies worldwide. Some years ago (when U2's current contract was signed) they could move that many units. Nowadays, an artist is already very successful if he/she moves 2-3 million units worldwide. So with the current market conditions U2 would never end in the black, unless they had a superhit on their hands. But now the Apple deal took care of that. All remaining sales is just bonus.

[Native_Son]

I am confused. is SOI available on iTunes right now? if so is it still available for free or is it actually for sale?

[Native_Son]

Originally Posted by Popmartijn

I don't think they'll have to sell many albums to earn these investments back as I think this was already paid for with Apple's money. My theory now is that U2 and their record company (Island/Universal) got at least as much money as U2's record advance is. Wasn't that rumoured to be around 20 million or so? Thus, the Apple move has made U2/Universal already enough money to break even on the album release. With such an advance they'd usually have to sell 4 to 5 million copies worldwide. Some years ago (when U2's current contract was signed) they could move that many units. Nowadays, an artist is already very successful if he/she moves 2-3 million units worldwide. So with the current market conditions U2 would never end in the black, unless they had a superhit on their hands. But now the Apple deal took care of that. All remaining sales is just bonus.

Interesting points there. So was this the only way for U2 / Universal to make money given U2's current/ongoing record deal? As you say, 5M sales is the best anyone can realistically hope to sell these days (with the exception of Adele's album).

In regards the reported $100M from the Apple deal, I still do not understand if this is cash money for Universal/U2 or more likely as seems to have been reported it is the value of advertisement Apple will give to the band?... So Apple will spend $100M promoting SOI.... but whats the use in advertising something which has been given away for free and therefore will not generate any meaningful financial returns! Otherwise are Apple going to spend the money advertising something else for U2, e.g. back catalog, a future album or the upcoming tour? but again, why bother when albums no longer sell and the tour is a guaranteed sell out anyway whether promoted or not? :S

[Popmartijn]

Originally Posted by Native_Son

I am confused. is SOI available on iTunes right now? if so is it still available for free or is it actually for sale?

Is it available for sale. It is not free anymore.
However, the only version of SOI available on iTunes at this moment is just the regular album, not the deluxe version/bonus disc. That one will be released on iTunes on November 18. Though I believe that if you preorder the bonus disc (called Songs Of Innocence +) that you will already have the acoustic songs.

[Popmartijn]

Originally Posted by Native_Son

In regards the reported $100M from the Apple deal, I still do not understand if this is cash money for Universal/U2 or more likely as seems to have been reported it is the value of advertisement Apple will give to the band?... So Apple will spend $100M promoting SOI.... but whats the use in advertising something which has been given away for free and therefore will not generate any meaningful financial returns! Otherwise are Apple going to spend the money advertising something else for U2, e.g. back catalog, a future album or the upcoming tour? but again, why bother when albums no longer sell and the tour is a guaranteed sell out anyway whether promoted or not? :S

The reported $100 million likely covers everything. The cash payment to the band/label and advertising by Apple. This is not only advertising the album, but also other activities that have an iPhone/iTunes tie in. Thus, it included the commercial that was shown these past couple of weeks plus the full music video for The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone), etc.

[womanfish]

Originally Posted by Popmartijn

Is it available for sale. It is not free anymore.
However, the only version of SOI available on iTunes at this moment is just the regular album, not the deluxe version/bonus disc. That one will be released on iTunes on November 18. Though I believe that if you preorder the bonus disc (called Songs Of Innocence +) that you will already have the acoustic songs.

This is incorrect. Songs of Innocence, the proper album with 11 tracks, is NOT for sale on iTunes. And with iTunes being the largest seller of music in the world, that takes it's toll on a bands sales. especially since if you have an iTunes account, you already have the album!! So either way, they are making these sales completely on physical formats, with a tiny amount on digital sales from places like Amazon.

[womanfish]

Originally Posted by Native_Son

I am confused. is SOI available on iTunes right now? if so is it still available for free or is it actually for sale?

No, it is not

[KUEFC09U2]

Love the way the uk press are reporting the low sales but fail to mention how many the others sold


Sent from my iPad using U2 Interference