{"id":2820,"date":"2010-04-13T07:24:09","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T15:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2820"},"modified":"2010-04-13T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T15:24:09","slug":"sales-week-ending-4410","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/13\/sales-week-ending-4410\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales-Week Ending 4\/4\/10"},"content":{"rendered":"

5. Lady Antebellum\u00c2\u00a0 "Need You Now"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 86,616
Percentage change: +11
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 1,647,332<\/p>\n

Could end up outselling GaGa.\u00c2\u00a0 Definitely could have a longer career.<\/p>\n

In other words, tradition triumphs over fad.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like Nickelback plays meat and potatoes rock and sells forever, tonnage, Lady Antebellum sings songs, that you can not only sing along with, but play on the guitar.<\/p>\n

You can quote rap.\u00c2\u00a0 You can wear heavy metal clothing.\u00c2\u00a0 But songs you can sing build outside the radio, outside home play.\u00c2\u00a0 Friends sing them together.\u00c2\u00a0 They know the lyrics.<\/p>\n

I don’t think this act is incredible.\u00c2\u00a0 And although the woman is cute, the guys are dorky, so I don’t think it’s all about sex appeal.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, this is a harbinger that the public is ready for melody.<\/p>\n

If you want to chase a fad, clone this, forget the Top Forty rappers and one hit wonders.\u00c2\u00a0 Come on, how long a career do you really think Ke$ha is going to have?\u00c2\u00a0 And Justin Bieber better make his money now, before his voice changes.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not even as good as the Backstreet Boys, he’s crap like New Kids On The Block.<\/p>\n

19. Zac Brown Band "Foundation"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 25,451
Percentage change: +3
Weeks on: 72
Cume: 1,781,509<\/p>\n

People are still discovering Zac.\u00c2\u00a0 In the last century, he would have been all over television and the public would have already rendered an opinion.\u00c2\u00a0 Now most people are still unaware who he is.\u00c2\u00a0 Upside is gargantuan, especially when you’ve got a good album and a good live act.\u00c2\u00a0 This is an interesting conundrum.\u00c2\u00a0 On one hand, it’s best not to release another album for years, until everybody knows who Zac is and this one plays out.\u00c2\u00a0 Because a new album will negatively impact this one and it’s going to have to be extremely good, with hits, to keep up the momentum.<\/p>\n

43. Train "Save Me San Francisco"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 12,526
Percentage change: +15
Weeks on: 23
Cume: 219,471<\/p>\n

Have a hit song and…people don’t want the album, only the track.\u00c2\u00a0 People only want the album if your act has an identity, it stands for something.<\/p>\n

If there’s another hit from this album people will still only want the hit.<\/p>\n

No one believes if there’s a hit on an album, even two or three, that the rest of the record is any good.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for the younger generation, really younger generation, which hasn’t realized that albums are a few good tracks at best, and filler.\u00c2\u00a0 So, ironically, it’s kiddie acts like Miley Cyrus who sell albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Or really old acts appealing to baby boomers who don’t have any hits and don’t move much product anyway.<\/p>\n

115. White Stripes "Under Great White Northern Lights"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 5,431
Percentage change: -39
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 43,473<\/p>\n

Who needs a live album when we’ve got YouTube (and BitTorrent and RapidShare).<\/p>\n

Furthermore, with so many side projects the act is now Jack White, not the White Stripes.\u00c2\u00a0 His old act with Meg has lost momentum.<\/p>\n

137. 30 Seconds To Mars "This Is War"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 4,275
Percentage change: +38
Weeks on: 17
Cume: 194,783<\/p>\n

It never pays to fight with a major label.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you lose precious time.\u00c2\u00a0 They can’t let you walk, can’t set precedent, otherwise all their other acts will want this option.\u00c2\u00a0 So, they’ll let you ruin your career to prove a point.\u00c2\u00a0 30 Seconds To Mars lost momentum.\u00c2\u00a0 They needed to make the best of a bad situation.\u00c2\u00a0 Or go totally rogue.\u00c2\u00a0 Release the album to the Net and go on tour anyway.<\/p>\n

161. 50 Cent "Before I Self-Destruct"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 3,647
Percentage change: -1
Weeks on: 20
Cume: 433,113<\/p>\n

Needs to put out new music soon!\u00c2\u00a0 Before we forget about him, before the stink of this stuff stays on his career and truly destroys it.<\/p>\n

Today, you fail in private.\u00c2\u00a0 Only success is public.\u00c2\u00a0 In order for an act of Fitty’s magnitude to succeed, he’s got to interest casual fans.\u00c2\u00a0 And stiffs don’t register on casual fans’ radar screens, only hits.\u00c2\u00a0 So, starting over is really like starting for the first time, because people missed your failure!<\/p>\n

In an era where people just cherry-pick the hits does it matter how much material you release anyway?\u00c2\u00a0 We’re separating the wheat from the chaff. Fitty’s got to harvest some wheat.<\/p>\n

170. Peter Gabriel "Scratch My Back"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 3,406
Percentage change: -22
Weeks on: 5
Cume: 43,012<\/p>\n

He’s become an oldies act.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone you go see live, close your eyes and remember when you were thinner, had hair and were in a different relationship.<\/p>\n

This was completely mishandled.\u00c2\u00a0 Peter had no visibility.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike Jeff Beck, whose new album comes out tomorrow, Gabriel hasn’t been on TV, didn’t appear at the Grammys…and if an oldster wants to sell product he’s got to be visible.<\/p>\n

Gabriel is almost completely invisible.\u00c2\u00a0 Enough fans will support him live, but even those fans don’t want the new album.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it seems like a cheap shot.\u00c2\u00a0 Covers?\u00c2\u00a0 Is that the rule, you’re over sixty and you can no longer record new material?<\/p>\n

Gabriel should have cut one good new track and hyped it to high heaven, licensed it to ESPN, appeared as a commentator, released some new video footage, then when there was a frenzy, put out the album.<\/p>\n

As hard as it is for new acts to break through, old acts don’t automatically get a pass.\u00c2\u00a0 They need to be visible, they’ve got to let their audience know they’ve got a new album.\u00c2\u00a0 And print isn’t enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially when Gabriel kept talking about how the reciprocal album, where the people he covered covered his tracks, never came to fruition.<\/p>\n

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

Sales this week: 3,123
Percentage change: +1
Weeks on: 44
Cume: 1,065,976<\/p>\n

Did anybody who isn’t a fan of Dave even hear this album?<\/p>\n

These sales show how large Dave’s cult truly is.\u00c2\u00a0 Built on a live show and a couple of hit tracks when video still mattered and a band without beats could get mainstream exposure.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, the new DMB will grow slower and take longer to reach critical mass.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless they’re really damn good and college students spread the word.\u00c2\u00a0 The word of mouth at colleges travels at light speed!<\/p>\n

197. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts "Greatest Hits"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 2,831
Percentage change: -14
Weeks on: 4
Cume: 14,090<\/p>\n

Who thought a Runaways movie was a good idea?\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t care about the Runaways when they were together, why should we care now.\u00c2\u00a0 And "Cherry Bomb" has aged worse than "Afternoon Delight".<\/p>\n

In order to get us to see anything but an action picture, the film has got to be good.\u00c2\u00a0 And no one said this flick was great.<\/p>\n

Joan Jett was a middling artist with one huge track.\u00c2\u00a0 Neither hatable or lovable, she’s just part of the endless eighties miasma.<\/p>\n

This album was supposed to sell after the movie hit.<\/p>\n

Now, there might be a video aftermath.\u00c2\u00a0 But I wouldn’t count on it being too big.<\/p>\n

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

5. Lady Antebellum\u00c2\u00a0 "Need You Now" Sales this week: 86,616Percentage change: +11Weeks on: 10Cume: 1,647,332 Could end up outselling GaGa.\u00c2\u00a0 Definitely could have a longer career. In other words, tradition triumphs over fad.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like Nickelback plays meat and potatoes rock and sells forever, tonnage, Lady Antebellum sings songs, that you can not only sing […]<\/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-2820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Ju","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820","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=2820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2821,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions\/2821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}