jick
Refugee
POP was a moderate commercial failure in the US for U2 standards at 1.3 million copies. But POP was released on March and immediately followed by a tour the very next month. It did not have the benefit of holiday sales (Thanksgiving and Christmas), neither did it have time for a second single or lead time to hype up the tour.
HTDAAB made full use of a pre-holidays marketing blitz and was released on the perfect time to maximize sales during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. Therefore, I think U2 maximized all the possible sales they could get with HTDAAB during this period.
So what if we turn the tables - what if POP was released on November `96 to take advantage of the holiday push, how much would it have sold and would people still call it a commercial failure in the US? And what if HTDAAB was released on March of this year with tour to follow immediately on April - would it still be well-accepted in America?
Try to think what would have been the sales of the two albums if they were released on those respective dates.
Personally, I think POP would have sold just a shade above 2 million when all was said and done while HTDAAB would be just a shade below 3 million by the end of the tour. I think in the music biz, timing is everything and POP was a victim of bad timing while HTDAAB had perfect timing.
Cheers,
J
HTDAAB made full use of a pre-holidays marketing blitz and was released on the perfect time to maximize sales during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. Therefore, I think U2 maximized all the possible sales they could get with HTDAAB during this period.
So what if we turn the tables - what if POP was released on November `96 to take advantage of the holiday push, how much would it have sold and would people still call it a commercial failure in the US? And what if HTDAAB was released on March of this year with tour to follow immediately on April - would it still be well-accepted in America?
Try to think what would have been the sales of the two albums if they were released on those respective dates.
Personally, I think POP would have sold just a shade above 2 million when all was said and done while HTDAAB would be just a shade below 3 million by the end of the tour. I think in the music biz, timing is everything and POP was a victim of bad timing while HTDAAB had perfect timing.
Cheers,
J