{"id":2258,"date":"2009-09-18T07:21:15","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T15:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2258"},"modified":"2009-09-18T07:21:15","modified_gmt":"2009-09-18T15:21:15","slug":"sales-week-ending-91309","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/18\/sales-week-ending-91309\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales-Week Ending 9\/13\/09"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Jay-Z "Blueprint 3"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 475,670
Debut<\/p>\n

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

But still not as many as the boy bands sold at their peak almost a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Sure, piracy is a factor, but it’s a fallacy to believe it’s the major factor.\u00c2\u00a0 When ‘N Sync was selling two million albums in a week, they were all over MTV and most homes did not have a high speed Internet connection.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only was it difficult to steal music, you also didn’t spend time updating your Facebook page, watching YouTube or viewing Hulu.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, you can go directly where you want online.\u00c2\u00a0 You can check out a zillion bands.\u00c2\u00a0 And when someone says to check out a new video, you think they’re Michael J. Fox, suddenly jetted into the future from the last century.<\/p>\n

What changed in the music business was the loss of a center, the disappearance of the monoculture.\u00c2\u00a0 You just can’t get critical mass.<\/p>\n

2. Miley Cyrus\u00c2\u00a0 "Time Of Our Lives EP"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 119,989
Weeks on: 3
Percentage change: -22
Cume: 335,473<\/p>\n

It sucks growing up.\u00c2\u00a0 Just ask Shirley Temple.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re cute, you’re adored and then you sprout zits and want to date and you’re suddenly out of favor.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, not having lived a real life, you have nothing to say.\u00c2\u00a0 So, your manufactured career starts taking a dive.<\/p>\n

Have you been following the story of paperless ticketing on her tour?\u00c2\u00a0 Last time around, moms were bitching they couldn’t get a seat.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, seats have gone begging.\u00c2\u00a0 Proving that a lot of ticket hysteria is just that, no different from real estate or the stock market.\u00c2\u00a0 Speculators buy product hoping to pawn it off on someone else.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, suddenly, the market collapses.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s a broker.\u00c2\u00a0 Add in the brokers themselves, and the pre-sales and the holdbacks, and it appeared that you just couldn’t get a ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 But it turns out you can.<\/p>\n

Miley Cyrus was a guinea pig for Ticketmaster.\u00c2\u00a0 Her career has been hurt immeasurably.\u00c2\u00a0 But paperless ticketing is the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Nine Inch Nails literally put the name of every ticket holder for their Wiltern show on the ticket itself.\u00c2\u00a0 And IDs were checked on the way in.\u00c2\u00a0 Sold out instantly to the fan club, you could bring one friend, and everybody was happy.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless the fans can get good tickets at a fair price this business is screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about repeat business.\u00c2\u00a0 Career acts treating their customers well.<\/p>\n

3. The Beatles "Abbey Road"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 88,736
Debut<\/p>\n

If I could only buy one, this would not be it.\u00c2\u00a0 Love the second side suite, but it’s their darker, more exploratory stuff that truly resonates.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, individual Beatle albums also hold down positions 5, 7, 8, 10, 16, 18, 19, 20, 24, 28, 31, 34 & 45.<\/p>\n

We can bitch and say remastered CDs should have been released earlier.\u00c2\u00a0 Or that there should have been a Blu-Ray component.\u00c2\u00a0 And that the tracks should be available online.\u00c2\u00a0 All true, but missing the point.<\/p>\n

This is the outlier story.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to know why the Beatles are still selling, almost half a century on, read Malcolm Gladwell’s book<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 The story of the band is one of the best parts of "Outliers"<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 But the bottom line is the band practiced.\u00c2\u00a0 Hard.\u00c2\u00a0 They got really fucking good.<\/p>\n

And after reading "Outliers", be sure to pick up Daniel Coyle’s "Talent Code"<\/a>, which states that all practice is not alike.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you’re challenging yourself, repeating difficult processes again and again, you will make little progress, you’ll never get to the destination.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, you can ski every day on the greens, the baby slopes, and you’ll never challenge Bode Miller.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you stick to the blacks, ski the same run again and again every day until you master it, you’re on your way to becoming a true expert.<\/p>\n

The reason the Beatles are selling is not because of nostalgia, but because their music is so fucking good!<\/p>\n

People want the singles today, because they’re all that’s worth listening to.\u00c2\u00a0 The Beatles gave up imaging forty years ago, they released an album with a white cover. They gave up singles years before that, with "Rubber Soul".\u00c2\u00a0 It’s almost like we’re going in reverse, like Mark Mothersbaugh and Devo were seers.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of exploring and growing, we’re stripping away absolutely everything to get the lowest common denominator that appeals to the mass.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the mass used to come to you, now the product has been homogenized not to offend, to grab you right away.\u00c2\u00a0 But this milk shake ultimately makes you sick, and once you’ve recovered, you’ve forgotten it, you’ve moved on.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas we still want the Beatles today.<\/p>\n

They sang well, they wrote songs with hooks and they even took chances.\u00c2\u00a0 Is it any wonder they’re the biggest band of all time?<\/p>\n

4. Whitney Houston "I Look To You"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 87,990
Weeks on: 2
Percentage change: -71
Cume: 398,893<\/p>\n

Notice how no one talks about the music?<\/p>\n

Whitney can’t come back because she’s not ready.\u00c2\u00a0 But she never will be.\u00c2\u00a0 Because we want to believe she’s the Whitney of old, and she was never that bright, sunny, vanilla person ever, that was a media myth.\u00c2\u00a0 In the Internet age, there are no myths.\u00c2\u00a0 If Whitney’s not still on drugs, she sure acts like she is.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be a really hard core fan to care.\u00c2\u00a0 And there are just not that many out there.<\/p>\n

13. Black Eyed Peas "E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies)"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 43,522
Weeks on: 14
Percentage change: +29
Cume: 1,071,135<\/p>\n

The 1910 Fruitgum Company of today.<\/p>\n

15. Kings Of Leon "Only By The Night"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 39,713
Weeks on: 51
Percentage change: -11
Cume: 1,312,055<\/p>\n

The great rock hope.\u00c2\u00a0 Doing it the old-fashioned way.\u00c2\u00a0 Breaking through after a slew of albums, peaking a year in, when those not in the know are finally catching on.<\/p>\n

Sad thing is we used to have a bunch of Kings Of Leon.\u00c2\u00a0 Developing acts that ground it out on the road, who were not about image, but music.\u00c2\u00a0 Alas, today no one wants to work that hard.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the label’s been bitching to me for almost a decade that it’s unfair that KOL were not yet stars.\u00c2\u00a0 But they hung in there long enough to find their moment.\u00c2\u00a0 And isn’t it interesting they broke in the U.K. first.\u00c2\u00a0 In the U.K. they’re still excited about music, adventurous, here we’re more concerned with our mobile phones.<\/p>\n

17. Taylor Swift "Fearless"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 33,213
Weeks on: 44
Percentage change: -6
Cume: 3,822,444<\/p>\n

It’s the songs, stupid.<\/p>\n

She’s been writing forever.\u00c2\u00a0 She got it right.<\/p>\n

Don’t tell me about the adolescent themes, her thin voice, the music is catchy and contains elements of truth.\u00c2\u00a0 That formula never goes out of style.<\/p>\n

And the music business never changes.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re going to put out a special edition of this album for Christmas, just to make some extra dollars, screwing fans in the process?\u00c2\u00a0 I thought Taylor Swift was about fans first.\u00c2\u00a0 If every additional track is not available individually on iTunes, expect that legion of fans to cry foul.\u00c2\u00a0 And unlike nitwits from the past, Taylor Swift can’t say it wasn’t her fault, that she was ignorant.\u00c2\u00a0 You see despite her girlish image, Taylor Swift is damn smart.\u00c2\u00a0 How else do you think she became so successful?<\/p>\n

21. Colbie Caillat "Breakthrough"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 30,088
Weeks on: 3
Percentage change: -36
Cume: 183,108<\/p>\n

The aural equivalent of jug wine.\u00c2\u00a0 Nondescript.\u00c2\u00a0 To title her album this is to beg the question if she knows what the word means.<\/p>\n

Will live and die by the singles.<\/p>\n

And since in today’s day and time they release the strongest single first, and you haven’t heard it, you can continue to live in a Colbie-free zone, you can move about the country freely…just stay out of cocktail lounges!<\/p>\n

23. Phish "Joy"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 29,122
Debut<\/p>\n

Actually got some good reviews.<\/p>\n

But Phishheads don’t care about reviews.<\/p>\n

This is the modern music business.\u00c2\u00a0 So close to the business of thirty five years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Have such dedicated fans that they’ll buy your next release without hearing it first.\u00c2\u00a0 And worry only about these fans.<\/p>\n

48. Darius Rucker "Learn To Live"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 13,684
Weeks on: 52
Percentage change: -16
Cume: 931,263<\/p>\n

A Hootie record.\u00c2\u00a0 Serviceable songs delivered in a heartfelt manner.\u00c2\u00a0 This still works in country, but not in pop.\u00c2\u00a0 In pop you’ve got to dress up like an alien, use computers and have beats that would level a cyclops.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s the country artists who have careers, who people want to see on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you still think country is twang, you haven’t listened in eons.<\/p>\n

54. Dave Matthews Band "Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 13,294
Weeks on: 15
Percentage change: +19
Cume: 869,166<\/p>\n

A stellar number.\u00c2\u00a0 For an album that is far from the band’s finest (check out "Before These Crowded Streets").\u00c2\u00a0 There was no hit single, but there’s a ton of fans.\u00c2\u00a0 You may call DMB jam band music, I’d call it the best exponent of the modern music business.<\/p>\n

64. John Fogerty "Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 10,580
Weeks on: 2
Percentage change: -50
Cume: 31,874<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Why spend all that time making an album when no one cares?<\/p>\n

How about cutting ten tracks in two days with Don Was and releasing one a week.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe doing covers until you get one right, that blows up.<\/p>\n

This is so old school as to be laughable.\u00c2\u00a0 Living legend spends months, years, creating an album that his PR team gets ink about in traditional media and his audience just doesn’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 Just play the CCR hits John!<\/p>\n

If you’ve got an exclusive with Wal-Mart or Target, if you’ve got a revenue-generating event, sell those albums one way and count your cash.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you want to further your career, fuck the album, release the singles, court the hard core fans, and look for the lucky accident.<\/p>\n


71. Black Crowes "Before The Frost…Until The Freeze"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 9,308
Weeks on: 2
Percentage change: -71
Cume: 41,829<\/p>\n

This band has got an imaging problem.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody thinks Chris Robinson is a dick.\u00c2\u00a0 So no matter what music the band makes, most people ignore it.<\/p>\n

This guy needs an autobiography, wherein he tells the true story of his marriage to Kate Hudson and reveals some inner torture\/pain.<\/p>\n

Then, the band should come back via a single at a time.\u00c2\u00a0 Going on the road as the opening act for any credible act who’ll have them.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the DMB would be a good one.\u00c2\u00a0 Right now the Crowes function in their own backwater, and that’s not fair, they’re better than that.<\/p>\n

78. Green Day "21st Century Breakdown"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 8,457
Weeks on: 18
Percentage change: -5
Cume: 791,574<\/p>\n

They should have worked with Rob Cavallo.<\/p>\n

Butch Vig gave them cred, but not a sound palatable to the masses.\u00c2\u00a0 Fine if the band doesn’t care, but methinks they do.<\/p>\n

Unlike Glen Ballard, Rob Cavallo has the ability to make you sound commercial without the appearance of selling out.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s important!<\/p>\n


85. Sugarland "Live On The Inside"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 8,092
Weeks on: 6
Percentage change: -26
Cume: 153,578<\/p>\n

A disaster.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially considering their previous studio album, "Love On The Inside", resides higher on the chart, at number 59, even after 60 weeks, and has sold a cumulative 1,809,502 copies.<\/p>\n

The band has fewer fans than it thinks.<\/p>\n

People love the singles, not the band.\u00c2\u00a0 And the band is hard to love, the two principals seem to have spent years in mugging class.<\/p>\n

Also, the live album is dead.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially when you can catch all your favorite acts live on YouTube.<\/p>\n

Give the live album away free with the ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 Coldplay had this right.<\/p>\n

99. Journey "Greatest Hits"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 6,691
Weeks on: 121
Percentage change: -6
Cume: 1,246,141<\/p>\n

Don’t stop believin’!<\/p>\n

Just like Letterman was killed by one appearance on the Oscars, one appearance on the "Sopranos" legitimized Journey.<\/p>\n

It had nothing to do with the fans, only to do with the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Enough years had passed and with arena rock dead, with all the reasons to hate Journey far in the past, you could admit that you truly loved some of their songs.<\/p>\n

I love "Lights".\u00c2\u00a0 And "Wheel In The Sky".<\/p>\n

112. U2 "No Line On The Horizon"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 5,833
Weeks on: 28
Percentage change: +20
Cume: 997,255<\/p>\n

It’s not even platinum!<\/p>\n

This could not have been handled any worse.\u00c2\u00a0 Expectations were through the stratosphere, then the band went on every awards show known to man trying to convince us "Get On Your Boots" was cool.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 It sucked.\u00c2\u00a0 Who wanted the album after that?<\/p>\n

This is what happens when you lose touch with your audience.<\/p>\n

U2 was playing to the media.\u00c2\u00a0 Their hard core fans were gonna buy a ticket, the rest of the country just didn’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 Hit singles can make them care.\u00c2\u00a0 But if that’s what they were after, they should have worked with Timbaland.<\/p>\n

No one in U2’s camp could sense the change in the weather.\u00c2\u00a0 U2’s only hope was to position itself as being underground.\u00c2\u00a0 It had to be cool to get their record, word had to spread organically.\u00c2\u00a0 I like the album, it’s better than the previous two, but I can’t bring it up in conversation, "No Line On The Horizon" has got a huge stink upon it.<\/p>\n

Time for U2 to stunt.\u00c2\u00a0 Release a whole live concert free on the Net.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t appear on SNL, do a live show on YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 Do something first, that will get people’s heads to turn.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop being desperate, and start being innovative.<\/p>\n

Play a house concert in every town where you do a stadium gig.\u00c2\u00a0 Show up with acoustic instruments and implore all in attendance to record it and upload it to the Web.<\/p>\n

Show up unannounced and open for Kenny Chesney.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the aforementioned DMB.\u00c2\u00a0 Or even the Jonas Brothers.\u00c2\u00a0 Be irreverent.\u00c2\u00a0 Blow our minds.\u00c2\u00a0 Make us care once again.<\/p>\n

119. Rob Thomas "Cradlesong"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 5,419
Weeks on: 11
Percentage change: -11
Cume: 266,443<\/p>\n

The name of the band is MATCHBOX TWENTY!<\/p>\n

Why make it hard for yourself.<\/p>\n

And why play the hit single game?<\/p>\n

You’re talented, go for the long haul.<\/p>\n

132. Chickenfoot<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 4,686
Weeks on: 15
Percentage change: -12
Cume: 311,050<\/p>\n

That’s a staggering number, especially for an independent album.<\/p>\n

Oh, that’s right, they were tied in with Best Buy.<\/p>\n

But someone had to buy it.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t buy Axl’s fake G N’ R!<\/p>\n

This is the Nickelback paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 As Bryan Adams once sang, the kids wanna rock.\u00c2\u00a0 And so do the oldsters.<\/p>\n

137. Cobra Starship "Hot Mess"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 4,519
Weeks on: 5
Percentage change: -22
Cume: 73,656<\/p>\n

What a laugh.\u00c2\u00a0 They sell 1,158,148 singles, but no one wants the album.<\/p>\n

Then again, the single featured Leighton Meester.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t know who that is?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t worry, she’ll be forgotten soon.<\/p>\n

Stunting into oblivion.<\/p>\n

Good stunts make us pay attention to something worthwhile.<\/p>\n

Bad stunts give us a bit of candy that we consume and then forget.<\/p>\n

199. Michael Franti & Spearhead "All Rebel Rockers"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 3,097
Weeks on: 1
Percentage change: +7
Cume: 96,945<\/p>\n

My inbox is filling up with people telling me Michael Franti finally has a hit!<\/p>\n

Well, he’d better not quit his day job, which is being a touring journeyman.\u00c2\u00a0 Hits mean less than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they’re not truly hits.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re single sparks in a world full of fires.<\/p>\n

You must stop trying for world domination.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, stop trying to dominate completely (unless this turns you on sexually!)\u00c2\u00a0 Be thankful anybody is interested, be thrilled people want to pay to see you play.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re no longer a star, you’re a musician.\u00c2\u00a0 Perez Hilton is a star.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone whose movements are cataloged, who is in our faces all the time.\u00c2\u00a0 But although smart, I’ve yet to discern any true creative talent in Mr. Lavendeira’s bones.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, you’ve got to love to play.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’ve got to work to be good enough for others to pay attention.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re lucky, you might get lucky, one of your songs will break through.\u00c2\u00a0 But musicians are now living off the radar.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re itinerant, they’re troubadours.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not sports stars, limited in number, playing for the masses, they’re individuals, who deliver insight into the meaning of life.<\/p>\n

We’re finally back in the garden.<\/p>\n

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

1. Jay-Z "Blueprint 3" Sales this week: 475,670Debut That’s a fuck of a lot of records. But still not as many as the boy bands sold at their peak almost a decade ago. Sure, piracy is a factor, but it’s a fallacy to believe it’s the major factor.\u00c2\u00a0 When ‘N Sync was selling two million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-2258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Aq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258","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=2258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2259,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258\/revisions\/2259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}