In an economic environment that's being compared to the Great Depression, U2 are far and away the world's "biggest band". It's just not even close. All Album sales are down...yet U2 have outsold the competition worldwide by 2-1. While the stadium shows are supposedly allowing "lower" ticket prices, I know I had to shell out $550 for two premium seats in Atlanta, and I did not hesitate, despite being VERY MUCH affected by the economic disaster that is 2008/2009/???? So have MILLIONS of other fans around the world, thus all the added shows. Over half the announced shows are SOLD OUT, and many of the remaining tickets on tours are "singles" only in the nosebleeds.
One huge factor in NLOTH's worldwide sales success is that sales outside of the traditional U2 mass markets, the U.S. and the UK, have apparently grown relative to the % of sales this album. The album has faded into the 25-35 range on the UK charts at the moment...yet it just was published today that NLOTH is Number 1 in Europe for the SIXTH straight week! In looking at the International Charts on Billboard, along with the "Charts all over the World" website, NLOTH is presently in the Top 10 in sales in some 20+ countries...and in the Top 5 in nearly half of those countries...with several places still showing the album at #1.
It's quite possible that U2 have not gained many fans in the UK and the US...or that those two countries have the largest populations with access to "free" copies of NLOTH. Outside of those two markets, however, NLOTH is performing incredibly well...perhaps better than ever, I don't know. This tour shows just how far and wide U2's following is, folks, and I personally believe the HUGE disparity between recent ticket sales and album sales is the direct result of illegal downloading. It's just so easy to get U2's music for free...and depressed economic times result in more people taking advantage of that IMHO. My own 10-year old daughter was blasting NLOTH (her favorite song at the moment) from her room just yesterday, and I checked in on her to see how she was streaming it, since I knew the CD was in the car. She was playing it from a website, but before I could tell her not to go to any sites to try to download the album or tracks, she showed me that she already HAD DONE JUST THAT...with all 11 songs plus NLOTH2 on her PC! I asked her where she got these...and she said she learned how to do it at SCHOOL from a friend.
Face it, if it's that freakin easy, it's happening at an even worse rate than the "experts" think (over 1M illegal downloads of NLOTH estimated so far). Today, I'm taking my daughter to a record store where she is going to buy her own copy of NLOTH with her own money. She also told me she has all the songs from NLOTH at her Mom's house on her computer...from some site called "Limewire"?sp? and another she couldn't remember.
Anyway, back to my point. NLOTH is doing incredibly well worldwide. There is no hit single on the radio, either, which makes that more amazing. If Magnificent is the hit that fans and even critics think it will be, the album could be a strong seller worldwide right up until the tour begins in late June. About that tour...hitting many of the largest cities across the world in stadiums is not my personal preference...I like arenas much more. Still, the buzz and subsequent sales bump from the tour could be larger, keeping in mind that this is relative to 2009, not past tours, with each show. Having anywhere from 50,000 - 100,000 in attendance...in some cases for 2 nights...could have a larger effect on sales than hitting a 15,000 seat arena. We've already seen that a sales bump of 5000-10000 units can cause a huge jump in chart position these days. Still, with all the issues going against additional legal sales of NLOTH, getting more sales for the album in 2009 is not a hill...it's a mountain of obstacles.
Somewhere in this rant, however, I meant to show that U2 are NOT the "Rolling Stones" of 2009. They're still U2, and they still are on top of the music world!
when was the last time RS had a best selling (or to be fair, "one of the best selling") album of the year?
