Week 30

[doctorwho]

I read this article on atu2 that was featured in The Sunday Times, and saw this statement:

"The tour is designed to support No Line on the Horizon, U2's latest album, which is not selling as well as previous releases. Since going on sale in March, the album has sold 991,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a company that tracks sales data.

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band's previous album, released in 2004, racked up sales of 10m."

It's amazing how the media can twist a fact. The article mentions the US sales of NLOTH, and compares them to the WORLDWIDE sales of HTDAAB. How ridiculous.

That is bad. It's giving the impression that NLOTH has sold 1/10 as many copies.

All reports I've seen actually have HTDAAB as closer to 9M, not 10M, worldwide (I think we fans want 10M). And, as we all know, HTDAAB sold about 3.1M in the U.S.

Plus, a simple scan of SoundScan data should have revealed that only about 8 or 9 albums this year have crossed 1M, with NONE hitting 2M.

In other words, bad reporting - what a shock. It really does make me wonder if ANYTHING in print or on TV is accurate.

That said, numbers are numbers and indeed NLOTH is not selling as well as past releases. It's just unfortunate that this "author" didn't also write that no other album is selling as well either. For example, I think Eminem's latest is only around 1.4M (can anyone confirm?). This is a far cry from his past releases.

 

[hey you]

nloth this week

usa 69(83) increases sold
italy 48(44)
holland 45(40)
spain 71(61)
rep.czech 43(27)
bel va 65(59)
bel wa 55(43)


after other updates

also
canada 91(27)
uk 193(128)
denmark 12(out top40)
france 43(39)
poland 36(28)

 

[rollingbob]

That Canada drop is shockingly bad, down 67 spots to a new low of #91 in 1 week. & just after the gigs there too. Unbelievable. & worse than the recent record UK one (40-91, but which had the 17 Beatles albums).

 

[rollingbob]

In Denmark, how the heck can it go from #7 to out the top 40 to straight back in at #12?! Crazy, got to have been a mistake there.

Regardless, it means No Line actually rises up 2 spots on Euro Top 100 albums from #75 to #73. 1st rise for 7 wks :


15-1-1-1-1-1-1-2 (1m IFPI-Q1 '09)-3-4-5-5-6-10-11-15-17-18-20-15-12-11-14-8-8-12-13-17-36-75-73 (31 wks)

 

[u2search]

I don't know about the drop but the rise is easy: 2 shows went on sale and both were almost immideately sold out. That must have generated a lot of publicity.