SOI in the charts

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womanfish said:
I don't know if I'd call it expected. Yes they love U2, but you're talking about the US having 5 times the population of France and they may DOUBLE the sales of the U.S.

their 22k figure is only 3 days. So they may sell another 25k next week.
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well i guess there hasn't been masses of promo in the US yet, whereas there was Le Grand Journal spot in France which might have boosted sales too... what always struck me was, in France, people from all generations seem to love U2 (whereas in the UK it seemed to be more of a generation thing in the past) - i don't know if it's the same in the US?
 
#6 in the UK - Not bad though I was hoping they would at least beat Jesse J...

In fairness though, when you see the top 5 you really get an idea of the horrible state of the music industry. When inane, record company marketing department manufactured dross like Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and George Ezra is camped at the top of the album charts for months on end it's hard to see where real talent will ever break through again.
 
ajax said:
#6 in the UK albums chart.
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Pretty decent to be fair, i think judging by the interview on graham norton they knew this wouldn't get to number 1, and really speaking why should it of? The people who wanted it would have downloaded it for free


Sent from my iPad using U2 Interference
 
U2's son gs of Innocence is number 1 in:

lol, George Esra etc. Are insanely talented compared to whats on rhe dutch charts sometimes..
 
womanfish said:
I don't know if I'd call it expected. Yes they love U2, but you're talking about the US having 5 times the population of France and they may DOUBLE the sales of the U.S.

their 22k figure is only 3 days. So they may sell another 25k next week.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link for the 22k in 3 days French figure? I found this link for the chart position, but I don't see the actual number. Thanks! Meilleures ventes d'Albums en France (Top Albums)
 
MrBTH said:
#6 in the UK - Not bad though I was hoping they would at least beat Jesse J...

In fairness though, when you see the top 5 you really get an idea of the horrible state of the music industry. When inane, record company marketing department manufactured dross like Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and George Ezra is camped at the top of the album charts for months on end it's hard to see where real talent will ever break through again.
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Ed Sheeran :yuck:
 
Ive only seen the album onsale in hmv and obviously through amazon in the uk.why is this? I didnt see it in any supermarkets which id have thought is a good chunk of sales. Was it not stocked becasue of the whole itunes deal?
 
MrBTH said:
#6 in the UK - Not bad though I was hoping they would at least beat Jesse J...



In fairness though, when you see the top 5 you really get an idea of the horrible state of the music industry. When inane, record company marketing department manufactured dross like Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and George Ezra is camped at the top of the album charts for months on end it's hard to see where real talent will ever break through again.
Click to expand...


There's no doubt there have been changes, but shit music has always dominated. Have a look at the charts around Achtung in 1991/92. Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, or you'd prefer Michael Bolton and Vanilla Ice?
 
Earnie Shavers said:
There's no doubt there have been changes, but shit music has always dominated. Have a look at the charts around Achtung in 1991/92. Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, or you'd prefer Michael Bolton and Vanilla Ice?
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Yep, crap music has always dominated the charts. The biggest difference by far nowadays is that it takes far fewer album sales to be in the top 10 than it used to.
 
domo-kun said:
lol, George Esra etc. Are insanely talented compared to whats on the dutch charts sometimes..
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I agree that they are quite talented guys, it's just I find the music they are releasing to be rather calculated and lacking in real personality. Ed Sheeran's "X" - 3 out of 12 songs actually written solely by him. Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour" - 2 out of 10... Songs written by committee to meet the current trends and they really sound like it. I'm not sure if Ezra's album is the same but he's definitely on that post - Mumford & Sons lightweight folky bandwagon which I just find so calculated and boring.

They definitely beat the hell out of Vanilla Ice and Michael bolton though LOL... Point taken!
 
U2's son gs of Innocence is number 1 in:

MrBTH said:
I agree that they are quite talented guys, it's just I find the music they are releasing to be rather calculated and lacking in real personality. Ed Sheeran's "X" - 3 out of 12 songs actually written solely by him. Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour" - 2 out of 10... Songs written by committee to meet the current trends and they really sound like it. I'm not sure if Ezra's album is the same but he's definitely on that post - Mumford & Sons lightweight folky bandwagon which I just find so calculated and boring.

They definitely beat the hell out of Vanilla Ice and Michael bolton though LOL... Point taken!
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I understand your point much better now, and i agree!

Its just like many music artists these days just check out whats hot , get a team of producers on it ..

and then make a good/bad/terrible replica of it. Its hard to find artist with a real sense of own identity in between all the BS. Its true. Nice post :up:
 
Salome said:
That's it, no tour in the US.
75 dates in both The Netherlands and France
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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. :yes:
 
dan_smee said:
Apart from the US result, this will have exceeded all of their expectations.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
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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.
 
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?
 
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.
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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.
 
phommel said:
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
I am confused. is SOI available on iTunes right now? if so is it still available for free or is it actually for sale?
 
Popmartijn said:
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.
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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
 
Native_Son said:
I am confused. is SOI available on iTunes right now? if so is it still available for free or is it actually for sale?
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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.
 
Native_Son said:
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
Click to expand...

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.
 
Popmartijn said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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
 
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