{"id":1078,"date":"2008-01-18T12:03:30","date_gmt":"2008-01-18T20:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2008\/01\/18\/sales-week-ending-11308\/"},"modified":"2008-01-18T12:03:30","modified_gmt":"2008-01-18T20:03:30","slug":"sales-week-ending-11308","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/18\/sales-week-ending-11308\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales-Week Ending-1\/13\/08"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Alicia Keys "As I Am"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 70,267
Percentage change: -38%
Weeks on: 9
Cume: 2,725,935<\/p>\n

That’s a FUCK of a lot of records.<\/p>\n

Credit Clive Davis.\u00c2\u00a0 An expertly orchestrated media campaign for a lovable entertainer that built for almost a year and crested in the fourth quarter, just when sales are hottest.<\/p>\n

Clive’s always got one hot one.\u00c2\u00a0 And then they fade…<\/p>\n

What I want to see is if Alicia crosses the picket line if the WGA strike isn’t settled\/NARAS doesn’t get a waiver for the Grammys.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to see if she’s got more cred, more backbone than Justin Timberlake, who apologized after Nipplegate, like he didn’t know what was going on.<\/p>\n

I’d be stunned if JT doesn’t cross the picket line, he can’t do what’s right.\u00c2\u00a0 But I believe Alicia will stay out.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope she stays out.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s more important, hyping a momentary record or giving the middle finger to the man?\u00c2\u00a0 The man in this case being the entertainment companies who want to say the future is the Net, but that the writers shouldn’t get their cut.<\/p>\n

But maybe, in light of the directors making a deal, the writers will now too and it will all be academic.<\/p>\n

2. Radiohead "In Rainbows"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 68,784
Percentage change: -44%
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 199,949<\/p>\n

I’m coming to hate Radiohead.\u00c2\u00a0 Not for their music, but for their business policies.<\/p>\n

So they do the tip jar thing, and then they say it wasn’t a real release, it was just a way to deal with leaks, that it was just an ad for the CD.<\/p>\n

Don’t ask me about the idiots buying this online (and they are idiots, the same ones you’re marketing to a year into a project, casual fans\/inactive music buyers who are just getting the word when true fans are burned out and yearning for new material), at this point we can say the CD is a dud.\u00c2\u00a0 Last time around they sold 300,000 the first week out.\u00c2\u00a0 This drop far exceeds that in the marketplace in general.\u00c2\u00a0 Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of self-satisfied, smirking fucks.\u00c2\u00a0 (E-mail me…I DARE YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 Like I CARE!)<\/p>\n

3. "Juno"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 67,507
Percentage change: +78%
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 142,696<\/p>\n

Isn’t it interesting that all these album sales are for a SMALL MOVIE!<\/p>\n

People don’t want the soundtrack of the big movie, hyped ad infinitum for a year.\u00c2\u00a0 They can’t own that, not emotionally.\u00c2\u00a0 But people believe "Juno" was made just for them, it’s PERSONAL!\u00c2\u00a0 They want the soundtrack as a badge of identity, as a souvenir!\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is the way we used to sell bands.\u00c2\u00a0 The works of which are inherently cheaper to make and market than a movie.<\/p>\n

This is a bunt turned into a homer.\u00c2\u00a0 This is beacon for the music business.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, maybe young ‘uns (the target audience for "Juno", and the only people who go to the movies anyway, needing to leave the house to get high and make out) will line up for the Kinks reunion tour!<\/p>\n

At least they get to hear Bowie’s classic Mott The Hoople tune, "All The Young Dudes".<\/p>\n

As for Cat Power…\u00c2\u00a0 What is it, do all the male reviewers want to fuck her?\u00c2\u00a0 She’s not THAT good.\u00c2\u00a0 A SECOND album of covers?\u00c2\u00a0 She’s desperate (and not that good a songwriter…)<\/p>\n

4. Mary J. Blige "Growing Pains"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 63,876
Percentage change: -28%
Weeks on: 4
Cume: 988,396<\/p>\n

Interesting album title for someone implicated in a steroids scandal:<\/p>\n

\n

Prominent Entertainers Cited in Steroids Inquiry<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Mary J. Blige named in steroid report<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

5. Taylor Swift<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 34,544
Percentage change: -26%
Weeks on: 64
Cume: 2,324,545<\/p>\n

Incredible music business crossover story or an incredible case of overexposure, playing to the mainstream instead of staying home and placating the people who pay her bills, the country fans?<\/p>\n

You decide.<\/p>\n

Ah, I can’t help but weigh in.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m going with the latter.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s talented, but shit, give it a rest already.<\/p>\n

8. Eagles "Long Road Out Of Eden"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 28,664
Percentage change: -20%
Weeks on: 11
Cume: 2,672,732<\/p>\n

Now if it were thirty years ago, this album’s title track would be an FM staple…and you’d be INTO IT!<\/p>\n

Instead, you’re sitting at home with your self-satisfied smirk (listening to "In Rainbows"!), saying the Eagles SUCK!<\/p>\n

If being able to write and perform singable songs, that touch people’s hearts and make them think, means you’re terrible, then I LOVE SHIT!<\/p>\n

This album is not "Hotel California".\u00c2\u00a0 Henley himself goes on record that this it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 But the title track is an Eagles classic.\u00c2\u00a0 And the fact that no one who doesn’t own this best-selling album has heard it shows you that the mainstream paradigm is DEAD!<\/p>\n

If you’re a Radiohead fan you DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN to the Eagles.\u00c2\u00a0 And vice versa.<\/p>\n

But this sales figure is testimony to the fact that there are a lot more Eagles fans than Radiohead fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that there’s anything wrong with Radiohead’s music, not everything great sells prodigiously.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that there’s almost no cross-pollination, we’re not listening to the same radio stations or the watching the same TV shows.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to get people’s attention, especially for something new.<\/p>\n

9. Garth Brooks "Ultimate Hits"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 28,312
Percentage change: -27%
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 1,400,985<\/p>\n

Although I don’t love Garth, I respect him.\u00c2\u00a0 But this competitive streak is sticking in my craw.\u00c2\u00a0 How many shows do you have to do at Staples Garth?\u00c2\u00a0 Are you into setting records, or helping fire victims?\u00c2\u00a0 I think you’re interested in the latter, but I think you truly NEED to be number one, you need to be in the spotlight.\u00c2\u00a0 Just admit it.\u00c2\u00a0 Say the retirement is done and come back.\u00c2\u00a0 Worked for Michael Jordan…the first time anyway.<\/p>\n

Take over Celine’s building at Caesars.\u00c2\u00a0 Move your kids to Vegas.\u00c2\u00a0 Where there’s a will, there’s a way.\u00c2\u00a0 And you obviously have the will…<\/p>\n

13. "Alvin & The Chipmunks"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 26,919
Percentage change: -17%
Weeks on: 6
Cume: 197,319<\/p>\n

I didn’t think it was the same group, I figured it was impostors, just a bunch of young rodents filling the legendary shoes.\u00c2\u00a0 But I downloaded the original "Witch Doctor" to compare, and they always sounded a bit fake…harmonized, pitch-corrected in the studio.<\/p>\n

If you’re having a party, if you’re playing Seth Rogen in "Knocked Up", fire up your P2P program and download some of the group’s covers.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen to "Funkytown".\u00c2\u00a0 YOU’LL CRACK THE FUCK UP!<\/p>\n

25. Robert Plant\/Alison Krauss "Raising Sand"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 20,082
Percentage change: -10%
Weeks on: 12
Cume: 689,414<\/p>\n

I’m not sure who’s selling this, Robert or Alison, or as Big Brother & the Holding Company would say, a combination of the two.\u00c2\u00a0 But one’s thing for sure, baby boomers are hungry for music and will PAY FOR IT!<\/p>\n

This is about the music, not the fame, not the obvious marketing tie-ins, not the endorsements.\u00c2\u00a0 And the public is REACTING!<\/p>\n

33. Jay-Z "American Gangster"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 17,307
Percentage change: -27%
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 928,311<\/p>\n

You didn’t fall for that ridiculous Jay-Z to Apple rumor, did you?<\/p>\n

Why in the HELL should Steve Jobs go into the music production business?\u00c2\u00a0 Where’s the upside in selling tracks for a buck when you can get people slowing your online store to a crawl to buy $1,799 MacBook Airs!<\/p>\n

You just don’t get it.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not enough money in music, not compared to TECHNOLOGY!\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why the creative industries are fucked in D.C.\u00c2\u00a0 There aren’t enough dollars involved, not when their interests are opposite hardware\/software\/tech\/electronics companies.<\/p>\n

35. Britney Spears "Blackout"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 16,507
Percentage change: -20%
Weeks on: 11
Cume: 694,234<\/p>\n

For all of those of you out there who believe all publicity is good publicity…<\/p>\n

Britney’s behavior might be selling something, but it’s not RECORDS!<\/p>\n

50. Jordin Sparks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 12,416
Percentage change: -30%
Weeks on: 8
Cume: 436,768<\/p>\n

If Simon Cowell had any balls, when the "American Idol" competition ended last year, after Jordin Sparks was coronated, he should have stood up and said she wasn’t good enough, and refused to put out her record.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like in court, when the judge grants summary judgment.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not enough evidence to support the case, no matter what.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not enough talent for Jordin Sparks to break through.<\/p>\n

You wonder why people hate the music business?\u00c2\u00a0 Because it believes it can make ANYONE a star.\u00c2\u00a0 (Oh, and there are those lawsuits and overpriced CDs and Ticketmaster fees and…)<\/p>\n

84. James Taylor "One Man Band"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 7,858
Percentage change: -30%
Weeks on: 9
Cume: 356,536<\/p>\n

How many times can you sell the same damn songs?<\/p>\n

To the point where people no longer have to buy them.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if they’re jammed down their throat at Starbucks.\u00c2\u00a0 (But he does do one of my personal favorites, "Chili Dog"!)<\/p>\n

People want to hear the same damn songs again and again live, but not on DISC (or file or however you want to sell them).<\/p>\n

This is an Instant Live project, sell the live album of the show people were at, not the same damn songs again to the general public.<\/p>\n

I could keep going down the chart, you could keep e-mailing me, castigating me, DON’T I HAVE ANYTHING POSITIVE TO SAY!<\/p>\n

Yes, the mainstream is a hollow rotting corpse and your time is finally here.\u00c2\u00a0 You always hated what everybody else was listening to.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, YOU CAN AVOID IT!\u00c2\u00a0 You can just wallow in your own private Idaho.\u00c2\u00a0 And ignore everything else.<\/p>\n

The only problem is everybody else is ignoring YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 And you were always waiting for Sonic Youth and other sophomoric, unlistenable alternative acts to become ubiquitous.\u00c2\u00a0 And now that can’t happen.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’re PISSED ABOUT IT!<\/p>\n

You wanted your revenge.\u00c2\u00a0 You wanted to gather with Skolnick and the rest of the nerds and triumph.\u00c2\u00a0 But now they’ve changed the rules of the game.\u00c2\u00a0 No, they’ve abolished the game.\u00c2\u00a0 And you can’t give everybody their comeuppance.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re happy listening to "Umbrella" and you never have to hear it.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t get to tell somebody to flip the station, because they’re not listening to radio in the car anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 The music you hate is not blaring out of the speakers at sporting events, they’re playing thirty year old classic rock.\u00c2\u00a0 All those ignorant fucks listening to crap…you’re not even swimming in the same pool!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the fat cats, the ignoramuses like Doug Morris, just think if they could get everybody to stop stealing, then they’d be back to the glory days.\u00c2\u00a0 But how to explain the lack of airplay for the Eagles?\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind that the album is straight to Wal-Mart in the U.S. and the major labels are cut out.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t break records on the radio, then what?\u00c2\u00a0 What if people AREN’T LISTENING TO THE RADIO?\u00c2\u00a0 What if MTV played no music?\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S REALITY!<\/p>\n

The game has changed.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to make a ton of money, quickly, sell your local VC on a social networking site.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, MySpace’s numbers have fallen from their peak.<\/p>\n

The ball keeps moving.\u00c2\u00a0 The record business wanted to control it, keep it in eyesight.\u00c2\u00a0 But the public holds the ball, always has.<\/p>\n

Music will be cheaper in the future.\u00c2\u00a0 More people will own more of it.\u00c2\u00a0 If someone tells you about a record, if so inclined, you’ll be able to hear it instantly on the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 Will the label get paid for this?\u00c2\u00a0 If it’s smart.<\/p>\n

But will the label steer?\u00c2\u00a0 Not the majors.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at the touring industry.\u00c2\u00a0 It used to live on the scraps of the major labels’ efforts.\u00c2\u00a0 Now LiveNation’s stock keeps tanking because not only did the company make a ridiculous deal with Madonna, Wall Street has woken up to the fact that there are no superstars in the making.<\/p>\n

Sales last week were off 10% from the corresponding week LAST YEAR!\u00c2\u00a0 And last year was a SHIT YEAR!\u00c2\u00a0 Tower Records didn’t just close.\u00c2\u00a0 What caused this sudden drop?<\/p>\n

Maybe lack of great product.\u00c2\u00a0 But more the inability to do saturation marketing on what good product the labels do have.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you can DO the saturation marketing, you just can’t REACH PEOPLE!<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Alicia Keys "As I Am" Sales this week: 70,267Percentage change: -38%Weeks on: 9Cume: 2,725,935 That’s a FUCK of a lot of records. Credit Clive Davis.\u00c2\u00a0 An expertly orchestrated media campaign for a lovable entertainer that built for almost a year and crested in the fourth quarter, just when sales are hottest. Clive’s always got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-ho","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}