SOI in the charts

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Concerning the proposed discount digital sales, Billboard now only counts albums that sell above a certain price point. I think it's $5. They got really annoyed when Amazon was selling the Gaga album for like .99 or whatever and then changed the rules.

This was the best method of release for U2. They likely earned more money in the long-run thanks to the amount Apple paid them and exposed millions to their music. The record labels/stores are the ones getting screwed though...no doubt in my mind that this release will end up having been "over-printed" and that there will be way more CDs and vinyl than actual demand.
 
I agree, except, after I thought about it, it makes a lot of sense.

U2 had a MUCH shorter pre-order time than these other artists who release in a more traditional way.

They had pre-orders going for at least a month or more, and I think SOI, was around 2 weeks or so.

So when there is that much pre-order time, they will inevitably have a larger decline in the second week, and as such, U2 had a smaller decline because of less pre-order time.

I mean, I think Taylor Swift has had like 2 months of pre-order time. So while she's "setting the record" for having 3 releases open with over a million units, it really is kinda bullshit.

I mean, when N'sync and Eminem and people were opening with first week sales of over a million, it was on sales that happened THAT week. Not accumulated over 2 months.

I actually expected a less than normal % decline as since the album was free there is less of a need for people to rush out and buy it straight away. Also whereas they usually do promo the week before release, this time they only started the promo after the release (i.e. they did not do any promo whilst the album was free on iTunes).

I too think that 300k would have been achieved with a 'traditional' release. I know they had a hit single and more radio play, but Coldplay opened with about 300k and I think U2 would have matched that.

Not to forget that HTDAAB nearly debuted with 1M copied. (845,000)
 
Everything about this post is wrong.

With streaming becoming the new thing, album charts like this will probably cease to exist (as we know them) within a couple years.
Gold and Platinum will mean nothing and things will most likely be charted on streams, youtube views, downloads, facebook and webpage hits, etc...

I think the band knows this and unlike the really stupid comments by Iggy Pop, they are succeeding in having people hear their music, and that in the end is what seems to be important to them.
Iggy can sell his 20,000 albums this next time and then sit and wonder if HIS is a flop?? or maybe the landscape has shifted so dramatically that the term flop, only applies to the old method of charting things.

It could be that in 5-10 years time, physical sales have shrunk so low that they are no longer available and paid/legal downloads have fallen to the point that illegal downloads outnumber them 100 or even 1000 to 1.

In which case maybe iTunes and the others will resort to paying artists upfront and 'giving away' all music for free (instead making money from some sort of advertising). This could lead to a new chart format altogether and in 20 years time, SOI could be placed in the all time album chart ahead of the Joshua Tree with 30-40M copies 'sold'. Maybe an album would even overtake thriller at 70 odd million and be considered as the biggest 'selling' album of all time.

... only time will tell.
 
It could be that in 5-10 years time, physical sales have shrunk so low that they are no longer available and paid/legal downloads have fallen to the point that illegal downloads outnumber them 100 or even 1000 to 1.

In which case maybe iTunes and the others will resort to paying artists upfront and 'giving away' all music for free (instead making money from some sort of advertising). This could lead to a new chart format altogether and in 20 years time, SOI could be placed in the all time album chart ahead of the Joshua Tree with 30-40M copies 'sold'. Maybe an album would even overtake thriller at 70 odd million and be considered as the biggest 'selling' album of all time.

... only time will tell.

Yes it will be very interesting how things will change. One thing I think is always interesting is that all your staple "classic" albums really have had their sales boosted by format changes over the years.

Pink Floyd, zeppelin, Beatles, Michael Jackson the list goes on and on. And it includes U2

I know that I owned about 500 cassettes before cd's came out and I bought probably half of those again.
I know I've owned 3 Joshua trees and now may buy the remastered version!!
So I truly believe Achtung was sold to more people than JT, because I would say most people have purchased JT a couple times.
I also did with Achtung since I was late to the CD game. :)

But now, it's really shifting fast to a new generation maybe not "owning" anything but just being able to stream anything at any time.

Anyway, just rambling.

Oh - forgot - the minimum price for an album to be counted is $3.49.
 
SOI is at number 25 on the Billboard charts in the US this week.


25 U2 SONGS OF INNOCENCE 10,763 -62% 28,122 39,584

10,763 sold this week
39,584 sold in total
62% drop(which is about right but not too bad)


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I think the U.S. Promotional push will coincide with the holiday season (3rd week November into December).

Especially if they announce the tour in November as has been mentioned, they will essentially be promoting the tour but also get a holiday sales boost as well.

I imagine they have some "tricks" up their sleeves.

My guess:

GMA(Good Morning America)
Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel
SNL
Radio station interviews

All of this should coincide with the "official"release ( whatever that means these days) of Every Breaking Wave.


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I think the U.S. Promotional push will coincide with the holiday season (3rd week November into December).

Especially if they announce the tour in November as has been mentioned, they will essentially be promoting the tour but also get a holiday sales boost as well.

I imagine they have some "tricks" up their sleeves.

My guess:

GMA(Good Morning America)
Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel
SNL
Radio station interviews

All of this should coincide with the "official"release ( whatever that means these days) of Every Breaking Wave.


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Letterman is almost 100% guarantee. Not sure about Kimmel
 
I think the U.S. Promotional push will coincide with the holiday season (3rd week November into December).

Especially if they announce the tour in November as has been mentioned, they will essentially be promoting the tour but also get a holiday sales boost as well.

I imagine they have some "tricks" up their sleeves.

My guess:

GMA(Good Morning America)
Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel
SNL
Radio station interviews

All of this should coincide with the "official"release ( whatever that means these days) of Every Breaking Wave.
I think this is more or less what's going to happen.
 
Letterman is almost 100% guarantee. Not sure about Kimmel


Keep in mind they have a new manger and they are trying more so to reach younger demos. Kimmel has a younger audience than letterman. They might do both but I'm thinking Kimmel is more likely.




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Keep in mind they have a new manger and they are trying more so to reach younger demos. Kimmel has a younger audience than letterman. They might do both but I'm thinking Kimmel is more likely.




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I see your point. You may be right, but they have been a Letterman staple for years now. I think they have mutual respect for eachother.

That said, I think if they went on Fallon (or is it Kimmel?) and did "Mean Tweets" it would be SO good.

Would love to see them do all the shows, including Conan and Craig Ferguson, Seth Meyers, etc...

They have done all sorts of random stuff in Europe, so I hope they continue on here.
 
#1 in Italy for a 2nd week!


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Hey Cosmo, can you find the sales numbers for the first couple weeks for NLOTH for France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and maybe Netherlands and compare them to SOI's performance?

It's pretty amazing that it's even in the same ballpark...
 
Hey Cosmo, can you find the sales numbers for the first couple weeks for NLOTH for France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and maybe Netherlands and compare them to SOI's performance?



It's pretty amazing that it's even in the same ballpark...


I'll see if I can find it. I know I tracked chart positions and sales when available.

Also.....#1 in Portugal for the 2nd week in a row!


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No way does this reach 500,000 in the US unless they end up bundling it with tour tickets or whatever. It'll do strong in regional markets because of the tour (provided it's a tour that hits most of the major metropolitan areas), but those 1500 copies a week are hardly going to add up to much. Hell, at this rate, it will be selling around 500 copies a week by February.
 
25 U2 SONGS OF INNOCENCE 10,763 -62% 28,122 39,584

10,763 sold this week
39,584 sold in total
62% drop(which is about right but not too bad)

Back when "Pop" came out, usually I could estimate sales based on chart positions. For example, the top 10 typically had 100,000K in sales (at times, the 9 and 10 albums were just under that). All albums in the top 20 sold at least 50K copies. All albums in the top 50 sold at least 20K copies! And this wasn't during the holidays, but normal weekly sales.

Now, SOI sells just shy of 11K copies and charts at #25. Years ago, one would need about 45K to hit that spot.

SOI definitely needs a hit song to sell. This would be true regardless of the release. So I hope EBW continues to climb. If it grows, by the time the holidays hit, SOI may see some good sales after all.
 
No way does this reach 500,000 in the US unless they end up bundling it with tour tickets or whatever. It'll do strong in regional markets because of the tour (provided it's a tour that hits most of the major metropolitan areas), but those 1500 copies a week are hardly going to add up to much. Hell, at this rate, it will be selling around 500 copies a week by February.

Yeah, unless they start giving away a free pair of designer sunglasses and a beanie hat with each copy, I can't see it getting anywhere near 500k. Just out of interest, is SOI on course to becoming U2's lowest selling album ever in the US (and the UK for that matter)? I'm pretty sure it's between SOI and October for that title (unless you count Passengers, which wasn't an official U2 album).
 
Yeah, unless they start giving away a free pair of designer sunglasses and a beanie hat with each copy, I can't see it getting anywhere near 500k. Just out of interest, is SOI on course to becoming U2's lowest selling album ever in the US (and the UK for that matter)? I'm pretty sure it's between SOI and October for that title (unless you count Passengers, which wasn't an official U2 album).


While it is far....very far from 500k, the holiday season is upon us and if U2 do their normal promo rounds AND EBW catches fire(there is smoke at the moment but no fire) then it will make a run at 500k.

There is also the possible Grammy push should it get nominated and another push if it wins.

At the moment, 500k looks like a very far fetched target but something tells me it might make a run!

Then again, I'm the ass that predicted 230k opening week sales, so there's that :(


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Double post


Since I don't believe in wasting posts, I will say that Mr.Furley was >>>>>>>Mr.Roper when it came to landlords. He was more attentive to the needs of his tenants.

With that said, Roper was funnier!!
 
Yeah, 500k is out of the question for now. But, asking if its on course to be their lowest selling album ever doesn't really make much sense. I mean, that's kind of obvious when you give away the thing for free that it's going to be the lowest selling album.

That said, the fact that it is selling around 75% of the numbers that NLOTH sold in France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Italy, Brazil, etc... is rather astonishing.

If EBW is a hit and they do a promo tour in the US like they are doing in Europe, it could keep it selling maybe 6 to 8k a week through the holidays.
So maybe in 10 years it might go Gold in the US. But its already gone Gold in all the countries listed above.

I just keep reminding myself that if I got a free album from any other band except U2, there is absolutely no way I would go out and buy it. So that keeps it in perspective.
 
No way does this reach 500,000 in the US unless they end up bundling it with tour tickets or whatever. It'll do strong in regional markets because of the tour (provided it's a tour that hits most of the major metropolitan areas), but those 1500 copies a week are hardly going to add up to much. Hell, at this rate, it will be selling around 500 copies a week by February.


I do think this would have been crazy. They did it with Tom Petty and with Madonna. It got Petty his first number one album ever.

Can you imagine if U2 gave away an album with a ticket purchase?? They would probably hit over a million on the charts in one week.

Could be an interesting idea to do that with SOE when they swing back for the stadium portion...
 
Yeah, 500k is out of the question for now. But, asking if its on course to be their lowest selling album ever doesn't really make much sense. I mean, that's kind of obvious when you give away the thing for free that it's going to be the lowest selling album.


I just keep reminding myself that if I got a free album from any other band except U2, there is absolutely no way I would go out and buy it. So that keeps it in perspective.

There are several incentives to buying the album on vinyl/CD for a non-fan: a)superior sound quality b)more songs c)different versions of songs. But you would have to really like the album to begin with, of course.
 
There are several incentives to buying the album on vinyl/CD for a non-fan: a)superior sound quality b)more songs c)different versions of songs. But you would have to really like the album to begin with, of course.

I agree there are incentives, and I take back that I wouldn't do it for ANY other band. New Pornographers, Ryan Adams, The National are a few that I would buy the physical release just for sound quality and to give them some sales.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the sales difference in the US and UK as compared to other European countries, and SA, where it is selling very well.

iTunes/apple usage I'm sure is the biggest, but also just buying habits, music preference. The difference is just SO huge that it's still perplexing.
 
There are several incentives to buying the album on vinyl/CD for a non-fan: a)superior sound quality b)more songs c)different versions of songs. But you would have to really like the album to begin with, of course.

I beg to differ... those are incentives to buy the album IF you're already a fan.

If you're only a casual listener, you already have more songs than you really cared for about in the first place.

---

I don't like repeating myself, and it's not my intention to single out Native Son in here (my comment applies to 90% of the posts in this thread), but I needed a post as an example to explain myself better on how I feel reading this otherwise very interesting thread, this is how I keep reading all these posts:


Also whereas they usually do promo the week before release, this time they only started the promo after the release (i.e. they did not do any promo whilst the album was free on iTunes).
Promo? why? why would they promote the album? it was free!

I too think that 300k would have been achieved with a 'traditional' release.
Sure, but not if everybody already have the album for free...

I know they had a hit single and more radio play, but Coldplay opened with about 300k
a single and more radio play? how about not giving away their album for free?

and I think U2 would have matched that.
They already had 20M people to get the album! They already surpassed that!

Not to forget that HTDAAB nearly debuted with 1M copied. (845,000)
But... it wasn't free...

I actually expected a less than normal % decline as since the album was free there is less of a need for people to rush out and buy it straight away.
...what? it was free.. this doesn't make sense... there's less need to rush? and buy it straight away? no, it was free... there's no need to buy it now or never, they already have it! it was free!

101.gif


Sorry, I do believe this thread IT'S REALLY INTERESTING, I love numbers, but I don't understand why somebody would expect that people would (massively) BUY something that they already was given for free. It really blows my mind.
 
U2 - Songs Of Innocence

Croatia: 1
France: 1-1
Netherlands: 1
Czech: 1
Spain: 1
Portugal: 1
Austria: 2
Singapore: 2
Sweden: 2
Ireland: 2
Greece: 2
Germany: 2
Switzerland: 3
UK: 6
Australia: 7
Estonia: 7
USA: 9
Finland: 10
Taiwan [Int.]: 12
Argentina: 14
Japan: 17

Opened #1 in 6 countries.

Alright! :rockon:

THE GOAL IS E...LA....VA.....T I O N !
High, higher than the sun !
 
U2 slips to number 4 on the World Album Charts in it's third week, with sales of 101k.

Not too shabby for a free album. :)
 
Sorry, I do believe this thread IT'S REALLY INTERESTING, I love numbers, but I don't understand why somebody would expect that people would (massively) BUY something that they already was given for free. It really blows my mind.


1-it was free only to iTunes customers, so there is a very large segment of the population that was not given the opportunity to obtain the album.

2-the promos they are doing are to sell albums. Perhaps also to sell tour tickets but to sell albums.

3-if tracking the charting of SOI blows your mind as to your point of "why would people buy something that they were given for free", then why did the album hit number 1 in at least 10 countries and hit the top 10 in nearly every other country it was released( see points 1 & 2)

As far as expecting it to have "massive" sales, you would be correct in that would be a bit crazy being that it was made available to a large portion of people for free, for over a month.

Additionally, it is silly to compare this album with another artist or previous U2 albums because this release was very VERY different but that doesn't mean that some amount of sales are not expected.


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