zoocarolina
Refugee
I know I will get hated for saying it, but if U2 were to get on American Idol tonight on the finale and sing Magnificent, that's all it would take to get on top 100 downloads.
Sad but true.
I know I will get hated for saying it, but if U2 were to get on American Idol tonight on the finale and sing Magnificent, that's all it would take to get on top 100 downloads.
Sad but true.
Yeah, it's the new American Bandstand or Ed Sullivan, but only in the sense it's how artists get their new product out there, much like they did on those shows.
I like Jamie Foxx but that new song is not the best...and it's still hovering around the top 100. He got a lot of exposure on AI this year.
I wouldn't care if U2 sang Magnificent tonight...it would be awesome. Those kids need to hear it. And their lives would be better for it
to clarify "underground" as compared to other mainstream u2 albums and not to other artists, ie not as big as say a jt, ab, etc bc i think we all thought it would be at that initial level, but it's still early, I think it will be comparable to htdaab at the end of its run
good points and i think this is exactly what the music industry is worried about and imo singles are pushed too much, should be bait to an album, but I don't think it's happening as much as it used too, probably a reflection on our culture with a short-attention span
Relative to how other albums are selling this year, NLOTH is just as big as Joshua Tree was in 1987 or Achtung Baby was in 1991/1992 at this point. On July 4, 1987, U2 played Paris and Island records had a party before the show celebrating the fact that the Joshua Tree at that point was the biggest selling album worldwide of 1987 6 months into the year. U2 will be able to have the same party this year before their June 30, 2009 Barcelona show, celebrating the fact that "No Line On The Horizon" is the biggest selling album of the year worldwide at the 6 month mark, just like they did back in 1987 with Joshua Tree.
Relative to how other albums are selling this year, NLOTH is just as big as Joshua Tree was in 1987 or Achtung Baby was in 1991/1992 at this point. On July 4, 1987, U2 played Paris and Island records had a party before the show celebrating the fact that the Joshua Tree at that point was the biggest selling album worldwide of 1987 6 months into the year. U2 will be able to have the same party this year before their June 30, 2009 Barcelona show, celebrating the fact that "No Line On The Horizon" is the biggest selling album of the year worldwide at the 6 month mark, just like they did back in 1987 with Joshua Tree.
Singles are pushed too much? One of the major ways that the record industry has run itself into the ground is by expecting people to buy a whole album when they only want one song. This worked OK until Napster came along and people could download just the one song they wanted, but no one is willing to pay $15 dollars to get one song anymore.
Yes, 100K albums is worth 1 million singles, but there's no guarantee that 10% of those 1 million people would buy a whole album when they only want the one song.
Back in the 70's and early 80's I mostly bought 7" singles and only bought albums of bands that I really liked, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that system. If the record companies still put out singles and had a reasonable pricing structure for them, it could still be a profitable business.
Excellent points! Can we all chase it back to illegal downloading then as part of the issue for the decline in album sales and the fact that the record companies moved to slowly to roll out alternatives?
I know I will get hated for saying it, but if U2 were to get on American Idol tonight on the finale and sing Magnificent, that's all it would take to get on top 100 downloads.
touche and I take back my lame attempt at "underground", you have me convinced that this album is doing quite well!
Back in the 70's and early 80's I mostly bought 7" singles and only bought albums of bands that I really liked, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that system. If the record companies still put out singles and had a reasonable pricing structure for them, it could still be a profitable business.
The real thing that is hurting the industry is not the fact that a CD cost $15 dollars, but that people can get the entire CD for free in a number of different ways. By the way, if CD's were still the same price they were in 1989, they would cost $25 to $30 dollars in 2009! Today's CD's at regular prices are dirt cheap compared to the late 80s and early 90s.
Here are the top 10 selling albums worldwide, of 2009, as of last week:
Best Selling Albums in 2009
1. U2 No Line On The Horizon 2.715.000
2. Lady Gaga The Fame 1.836.000
3. Beyoncé I Am... Sasha Fierce 1.565.000
4. Kings Of Leon Only By The Night 1.536.000
5. Soundtrack Twilight 1.535.000
6. Taylor Swift Fearless 1.467.000
7. Bruce Springsteen Working On A Dream 1.422.500
8. Pink Funhouse 1.201.000
9. Nickelback Dark Horse 1.122.000
10. Soundtrack Hannah Montana: The Movie 1.061.000
Notice that the #2 album of the year is nearly 1 million copies BEHIND NLOTH. Less than 7 weeks to go until the 6 month mark as well as U2's first show of 360 in Barcelona. The top 10 above gets updated tomorrow with this past week of sales.
but it is pretty clear that the REAL competition this year has not started yet.
Correct me if I´m wrong but from position 2 to 6, those are albums released in 2008.
I guess we will be in a much better position to assess NLOTH success when numbers for Eminem´s new album are out.
For me, he and Green Day are the first real contenders this year. Initial sales for Green Day´s new album appear underwhelming to say the least.
What other big artists are going to release new material this year?
Ok, thanks for the data. My point was that in order to be fair, we should compare NLOTH with albums released in 2009.
For example, what´s the total for the first 11 weeks of sales of Beyonce´s latest?
Then again, you would say that´s not a fair comparison since she benefited from the Christmas season in 2008 and that´s true.
And also Coldplay´s Viva la vida for this matter.
Those 417,000 copies for 21st century breakdown account for just three days of sales right? Still, those are awful numbers.
This chart just looking at what has been released in 2009 puts the sales success of NLOTH much further ahead than the chart looking at all sales regardless of when the album was released.
2,801,000.
Your also not considering the fact that the market continues to decline and sales in 2009 are down by 20% across the market for all albums compared to 2008. If you succeeded in releasing an album in 2008, you naturally would sell more than if you waited to release it in 2009 because of the market for albums and the general economy which continue to rapidly decline.
Its not accurate to compare and album released in the 2nd quarter of 2008 to one released in the 1st quarter of 2009.
Actually, those are great numbers when you really think about it. After only 3 days, its almost in the top 10 for the best selling albums released in 2009.
Ok so she basically sold the same as U2.
You´re right. Although I heard the market decline is closer to 15%.
Are market conditions so dissimilar between the first and second quarter of the year? This is clearly the case when comparing with the third quarter but not sure about the second one.
Considering the tremendous success of American Idiot I don´t think Green day are too happy with album sales so far. It is still too early to judge though.
No, but were comparing quarters from different years, and in that case they can be very dissimilar. The 1st quarter of 2009 is very different in overall sales from the 2nd quarter of 2008. If Coldplay had released Viva La Vida in March or June of 2009, it would be selling significantly less than it did in 2008.
Fine so come March 2010 NLOTH would need to sell in excess of 6 million copies to match the success of VLV which currently has sold over 7,5 million, nearly exactly a year after its release.
Hope I´m wrong but I highly doubt NLOTH will manage to sell that much.
Fine so come March 2010 NLOTH would need to sell in excess of 6 million copies to match the success of VLV which currently has sold over 7,5 million, nearly exactly a year after its release.
Hope I´m wrong but I highly doubt NLOTH will manage to sell that much.