U2Man
ONE love, blood, life
was it the americans or the europeans that didnt buy pop, for instance?
and where did u2 pick up steam again with atyclb?
etc.
and where did u2 pick up steam again with atyclb?
etc.
did certain u2 albums do better/worse than usual in different places of the world?
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Re: did certain u2 albums do better/worse than usual in different places of the world?
ATYCLB sold well in all markets around the world. There was not anyone market leading the charge.
For POP, sales were down in all markets, but it was the US market where the drop in sales was the strongest.
U2Man said:
ATYCLB sold well in all markets around the world. There was not anyone market leading the charge.
For POP, sales were down in all markets, but it was the US market where the drop in sales was the strongest.
The Disciple
New Yorker
U218 really had a hard time breaking the market in Antarctica...
BigMacPhisto
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In fact, at last estimate, Baby's sales in the US represented nearly half of its worldwide sales if I remember correctly. Something like it sold 8 Million in the US and 18 Million worldwide, whereas U2's albums traditionally get about 1/3 of their sales from the US.
ChargedVT
Refugee
I don't think Achtung Baby has sold 18 million copies...
There has been a bit of discussion over the year about the two figures for this album in the USA. Whilst it was certified for eight million, current Soundscan figure is approx 5.5 million. So people have been arguing about whether or not Soundscan accounted for all the sales etc....
From my own calculations it's sold approx 7.5 million OUTSIDE the USA, compared to AYTCLB 7 million and HTDAAB 6 million. The Best Of 1980-1990 trounces all these though with 10 million sold outside the USA!
What we need is for the record company to release up to date figures on the album sales figures, like what happened in 1997 before Pop was released. Regardless of what these figures say when they are released there will always be people disputing them though!
There has been a bit of discussion over the year about the two figures for this album in the USA. Whilst it was certified for eight million, current Soundscan figure is approx 5.5 million. So people have been arguing about whether or not Soundscan accounted for all the sales etc....
From my own calculations it's sold approx 7.5 million OUTSIDE the USA, compared to AYTCLB 7 million and HTDAAB 6 million. The Best Of 1980-1990 trounces all these though with 10 million sold outside the USA!
What we need is for the record company to release up to date figures on the album sales figures, like what happened in 1997 before Pop was released. Regardless of what these figures say when they are released there will always be people disputing them though!
ChargedVT said:
Some of the figures released in early 1997 were outdated. For example it said Achtung Baby had sold 9.8 million copies at that point, but it was certified for 8 million copies sold in just the United States in 1997. Way off!
Achtung Baby hit the 10 million mark in December of 1992 when it had sold 4 million copies in the United States. By 1997, it had sold another 4 million copies in just the United States raising the level to a minimum of 14 million by 1997 not including sales since 1992 outside the USA. Being conservative, one would have to say that Achtung Baby was at 16 million by the end of 1997. Since then, sales seem to have tappered off, especially with the release of the Best of 1990-2000 at the end of 2002.
Soundscan only covered 40% of the industry when Achtung Baby was released. In addition, albums sold through discount record clubs have never been covered by soundscan, even today. Even today, Soundscan still does not account for all sales in the United States.
The RIAA does account though for all albums that were shipped and never returned, essentially for the artist, all sold albums for which the artist has received royalties for. When look for total global sales, the shipment figure, especially after the first 2 years of release, is the most accurate figure. Retail sales slow down after the first two years to such a degree that further shipments are nearly identical to actual sales.
ChargedVT
Refugee
Axver said:
Yes Rattle And Hum did sell very well here and it is U2's biggest selling non-greatest hits album here. It is 7x Platinum and has been for years so it must be around the 540,000 copies sold here by now. Best Of 1980-1990 was certified 8x Platinum last year.
U2's sales have always been really good in Australia. Remarkably though, Joshua Tree didn't hit number 1 and is "only" 5x platinum here.
ChargedVT
Refugee
U2girl said:
As a matter of fact, Bomb re-entered the Aussie charts in March last year when the band were supposed to tour, reaching as high as #10 in the week that tour was postponed. It then hung around in the top 20 for another month before dropping out. The Best Of albums also charted in the 20s. Maybe it had something to do with just about every store in Australia selling all the U2 albums for under $15.
When the band actually toured in November, Bomb re-charted again, this time spending two weeks in the 30s. Maybe the reason it didnt chart higher was because this was the week U218 was released and had staggering sales, so the resulting "go-out-and-buy-their-album-after-seeing-concert" thing was directed at that album instead.
cobl04
45:33
Axver said:
Are you serious? Wow! Zooropa, btw, made two end-of-year charts, so it too must have done well.
What about in Ireland? What's the best selling album in their homeland?
Earnie Shavers
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
ChargedVT said:
You're right on all fronts. When U2 were initially meant to be here in March, Universal dominated in store in most of the main chains with U2. Everything everywhere was U2. Heavy promotion on the Bomb and back catalogue. Remember they only pulled out within a week of the concerts due to kick off, so there was no time to reverse that, it was already all out there before they pulled out.
In November, it wasn't quite as strong, and what was there was mainly directed toward U218, which didn't come out till the Australian leg was wrapping up.
Rattle&Hum no doubt was helped by Lovetown. The film actually held the grossing record here for a documentary all the way through till Bowling for Columbine.
Ignoring Best Of's, the top 2 sellers are R&H and ATYCLB. JT is short of those two, but the info I have is only CD sales, so I'd assume with vinyl and even cassettes taking a decent chunk in ye olde 1987, JT would be in that top grouping easily. They're all very close (or assumed to be in the case of JT).
After that it's Achtung/HTDAAB/Zooropa/Pop - in that order. HTDAAB and Zooropa are remarkably close. Achtung is a fair way ahead and Pop is a fair way behind, although the Pop figure still landed it in the Top 20 sales for it's year. Gives you an idea of U2's strength, and also perhaps it gives you an idea of which albums continued to sell. Pop may have done 99% of that in the first 3 weeks just on the strength of being new U2, then suffered the charge of it's reputation since then, which, of course, is criminal.
Overall though there's not a massive difference between the top and bottom. It's not as large as it seems to be globaly.
ChargedVT
Refugee
Earnie Shavers said:
Seems like you have sales figures for these CDs? Are you able to share these or are these confidential as part of your job?
In any case, my estimations of total sales (CDs, tapes, vinyls, everything) for each album are as follows:
Rattle And Hum (been 7xplat for at least 9 years) - 550,000
ATYCLB (4xplat but should have been updated) - 450,000
Joshua Tree (5x plat for a long time) - 410,000
Achtung Baby (cert 5x plat in 1998) - 385,000
HTDAAB - 290,000
Zooropa - About the same as HTDAAB
Pop - 100,000
Obviously about 99% of sales for HTDAAB would have been CDs but for the older albums it would be harder to estimate.
dr. zooeuss
War Child
ChargedVT said:
interesting that atyclb did so much better than bomb- in the us people think of them as very similar albums.
major_panic
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Axver said:
Three words: Van Diemen's Land.
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