DIGITAL SALES-Week Ending 5/29/11

102. Steven Tyler "(It) Feels So Good"
Sales this week: 20,502
Percentage change: -35.4
Cume: 128,895

Uh-oh.  Could it be that despite the accolades, Steven Tyler is even worse off than he was before "American Idol"?

I’d posit he is.  Except for a large paycheck.

He was a caricature on TV.  Of a rock star.  He almost appeared to be a Steven Tyler doll.  But that didn’t keep all the prognosticators from fawning over him.

But put these same writers and talking heads in a drug den with Steven and they’d puke and run like hell (just like in the Pink Floyd song!)

In other words, what are you selling?

Steven Tyler and Aerosmith were selling great music and danger.  The band was living close to the flame, on the edge. But now he’s all cuddly, the new Ozzy, and although one Aerosmith tour might go well, the bloom is off the rose.  Who wants to see THAT guy?

Steven Tyler is the real deal.  Be in his presence and you can feel the charisma.  He’s smart.  He makes you tingle, whether a boy or a girl.  But putting him on TV is like…all those has-beens going on "Dancing With The Stars".  It smells of last chance desperation.

Sure, people will watch.

But they shoot horses, don’t they?

Now if Tyler is at the end, wants to cash out and call it a day, that’s his prerogative.  But whatever he was selling has now taken a giant hit.

In other words, do you want to be Tom Waits or Steven Tyler?

You get to choose.  You make career choices every day.  Are you playing for the long haul or just momentary cash and accolades?  Notice that Dave Matthews didn’t play the "Idol" finale.  Sure, a lot of people would see him, but it would cheapen his act.  And those who truly care would be turned off.  Because if you want to play forever, you’ve got to play to the core.

And Aerosmith hasn’t played to the core in a very long time.  Their manager has them on a scorched earth tour, with prices too high and appearances too frequent.  Maybe the rest of the band can bring Tyler back to sanity, can drag him in the right direction, but if you don’t think Tyler’s appearance on "American Idol" hurt him more than helped him, you know nothing about rock and roll.

As for the track not being good enough.  Don’t you get it?  Aerosmith hasn’t released a reasonable cut in eons.  Tyler needed to blow the core away, with a hard-edged romp, a searing ballad that makes you shiver.  It wasn’t about cutting a hit, but showing the core he still had it.

He didn’t do this.

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Right now, Tyler’s track is #114 at the iTunes Store

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Right now, Dave Matthews Band’s "Live At Wrigley Field" is number 13 on the iTunes chart.  What, you didn’t know DMB had a new live album?  It wasn’t made for you, but fans, who flock to this constant stream of authorized live releases. You can’t release too much music for a fan.

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Right now, Adele’s "21" is #1 on the iTunes Chart, eclipsing yesterday’s new release, Eddie Vedder’s "Ukulele Songs". Lady GaGa’s special edition is #3, the regular GaGa edition, without bonus tracks, resides at #11 on the chart.

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Adele’s "Rolling In The Deep" is the number one digital track.  It sold 254,495 copies last week.  For a cume of 3,218,988.

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Lady GaGa sold 662,021 digital albums last week.

Adele sold 38,587 digital albums last week.

Adele has sold 842,349 digital albums.  She has sold 1,974,306 albums total.

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Mumford & Sons has sold 1,487,747 albums since release.  They’re #10 on the chart.

Katy Perry has sold 1,499,973 copies of her album "Teenage Dream" since release, it’s #19 on the chart.

Mumford’s album has been out for 67 weeks.

Katy’s album has been out for 40 weeks.

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Zac Brown’s second Atlantic album, "You Get What You Give", has sold 935,254 copies in 36 weeks, it’s number 23 on the chart.

Zac’s first Atlantic album, "Foundation, has sold 2,621,766 copies in 132 weeks, it’s number 67 on the chart.

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Stevie Nicks’s album has sold 97,379 copies to date.  It sold 9,933 last week.  Guess there’s no "Dancing With The Stars" bounce.  Stevie needs to get down in the trenches with her fans.  She’s got to do what hungry artists do, go on tour and play night after night, tweet, Facebook…  She just doesn’t care enough, she just doesn’t want to work that hard.

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The Cars reunion album has sold 60,020 copies to date.

One can only ask one question…WHY?

Why did they make it?

I hope Ric Ocasek made it for himself.  Because he’s the only one who’s going to hear it.

Doesn’t matter who you are, you’ve got to sell your album today.  And that involves more than going on tour and posting your record to iTunes.  And in order to succeed today, your music has to be as good or better as your work of yore.  To the point when someone hears it they go WOW!  Listening to the new Cars material, one does not say wow, one says…huh.  Sounds like the Cars, so what?

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Tyler The Creator.  65,467 copies sold after 3 weeks, #63 on the chart.  If print hype meant anything, this album would be #1.  But "The New York Times" doesn’t sell records, nor does any other newspaper.  You reach people online.  Through their friends.

Stunningly, Tyler The Creator places not a single track in last week’s Digital Sales chart.

The overhype has not helped here.  Now everybody’s from Missouri, the "Show-Me" state.  Better to uncover this by oneself, and pass along the word.  In other words, all publicity is not good publicity, overhype can negatively impact your project.

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Avenged Sevenfold has sold 535,198 copies of "Nightmare" after 44 weeks.  That’s more albums than Jennifer Lopez will ever sell (156,407 after 4 weeks, #18 on the chart).  That’s almost as many as Chris Brown (582,554 after 10 weeks, #28 on the chart), and I guarantee you most people have no clue who Avenged Sevenfold is, never mind know its music. Avenged Sevenfold has got fans.  Diehard, active ones.

Meanwhile, Arcade Fire’s "Suburbs" has been out one week less than Avenged Sevenfold’s album, and is two numbers higher on the chart, 102 to 104, but has sold only 634,098 copies, despite winning that Grammy for…what was it, "Album Of The Year"?

You think everybody’s paying attention to what you’re doing.

No, they’re paying attention to what’s interesting to them.