{"id":3446,"date":"2010-10-22T07:18:07","date_gmt":"2010-10-22T15:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3446"},"modified":"2010-10-22T07:18:07","modified_gmt":"2010-10-22T15:18:07","slug":"sales-week-ending-101710","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/22\/sales-week-ending-101710\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales-Week Ending 10\/17\/10"},"content":{"rendered":"

2. Darius Rucker "Charleston, SC 1966"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 100,745<\/p>\n

And they said Hootie was done.<\/p>\n

Make it in the country world and they stand by you, unlike in the pop world.<\/p>\n

But also credit hard work by Darius, good management by McGhee, et al, and songs…they may not be the best, they may not be perfect, but at least you can sing along!<\/p>\n

3. Big Time Rush<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 66,588
Debut<\/p>\n

Once upon a time I knew every record on the chart.<\/p>\n

I was clueless when it came to this.<\/p>\n

But the Wikipedia tells me it’s a Nickelodeon TV show.<\/p>\n

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where I look to the Wikipedia for music explanations?\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be a tour of the radio dial would be enough.<\/p>\n

6. Kenny Chesney "Hemingway’s Whiskey"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 39,932
Percentage change: -39
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 288,655<\/p>\n

This album is boring.\u00c2\u00a0 When is Kenny Chesney gonna rock again?<\/p>\n

See Darius Rucker above.\u00c2\u00a0 Kenny is coasting on his past reputation.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not even another "Never Wanted Nothing More" on this record, never mind "I Go Back".<\/p>\n

Kenny’s got to thank his lucky stars country fans are not as up to speed in stealing music as pop fans.<\/p>\n

7. Sufjan Stevens "Age Of Adz"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 36,113
Debut<\/p>\n

Whew!<\/p>\n

Don’t expect it to sell much next week, but Sufjan’s got fans and they all came out.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the new music business.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about hype, it’s about the tribe, with its ear to the ground, knowing that Sufjan’s got a new album.<\/p>\n

11. Linkin Park "A Thousand Suns"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 28,133
Percentage change: -23
Weeks on: 5
Cume: 417,656<\/p>\n

Brand names mean something.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite a lackluster debut, people know and still remember Linkin Park and want more.<\/p>\n

18. Maroon 5 "Hands All Over"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 19,995
Percentage change: -18
Weeks on: 4
Cume: 226,824<\/p>\n

James Diener is charming.<\/p>\n

But he’s a publicity whore.<\/p>\n

If he’s so fucking great, if Octone is such a brand new paradigm, both of which I doubt, why isn’t this album in the Top 5?<\/p>\n

Because it’s a pop band and in pop you’re only as good as your last hit.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying Octone won’t find a track to promote further down the line, never count out Mutt Lange, but can we stop hearing what a genius Diener is?\u00c2\u00a0 About Maroon 5 and K’naan and Coke and…<\/p>\n

Make me puke.<\/p>\n

19. Santana "Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 18,741
Percentage change: -3
Weeks on: 4
Cume: 134,130<\/p>\n

I’m stunned that the record is doing this well.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s been excoriated in the press.\u00c2\u00a0 As for listening to it, why should I, when every review says it’s the exact same arrangements as the originals?<\/p>\n

Used to be best sellers were about creativity.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how you built cred and a career.<\/p>\n

But in a world where it’s almost impossible to get a toehold, brand names are king.<\/p>\n

But there will be new brand names.\u00c2\u00a0 Who build over time.<\/p>\n

That’s the story here.\u00c2\u00a0 The anemic sales of these brand names.<\/p>\n

This is not where the action is.\u00c2\u00a0 The action is live.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s online.\u00c2\u00a0 Expect the SoundScan chart to get flushed away, like feces in a toilet, not too long from now.\u00c2\u00a0 It just doesn’t matter anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 And neither does Big Champagne’s Ultimate Chart, because no one believes it’s the ultimate.<\/p>\n

If Big Champagne wanted to win, they’d pull a page from Tim Westergren’s book, get the public behind them. Right now, no one cares.<\/p>\n

27. John Legend "Wake Up!"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 14,679
Percentage change: -21
Weeks on: 4
Cume: 127,155<\/p>\n

John Legend, Alicia Keys, can’t anybody go by their real name?<\/p>\n

Legend’s a likable guy.\u00c2\u00a0 But if John Cougar can become John Mellencamp, can’t John Legend become John Stephens?<\/p>\n

30. Eric Clapton "Clapton"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 13,268
Percentage change: -33
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 80,496<\/p>\n

Boring.<\/p>\n

48. Black Keys "Brothers"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 8,427
Percentage change: -3
Weeks on: 22
Cume: 332,095<\/p>\n

This album has sustained.\u00c2\u00a0 Credit Q Prime, credit radio airplay, credit a public that’s embraced them as being credible.<\/p>\n

In other words, without massive mainstream publicity, somehow hard core fans of music, people who are really passionate listeners, have found out about and embraced this band.<\/p>\n

70. David Archuletta "Other Side Of Down"<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 6,237
Percentage change: -74
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 30,463<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

And if you think the new crew is gonna breathe life into "American Idol", you’re expecting Rick Springfield and Bobby Sherman to have more hits.<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

LIVE GIGS<\/span><\/p>\n

Rush<\/span><\/p>\n

9\/14 TD Garden, Boston<\/p>\n

11,331 sold, 95% of house
Gross: $948,003<\/p>\n

No mainstream press, not appealing to everybody, just a core, which loves this band to death.<\/p>\n

And it’s not only Boston.\u00c2\u00a0 They did 12,403 for $870,118 at Verizon in Irvine the month before and even 11,053 for $687,691 in PITTSBURGH two days later.\u00c2\u00a0 With more acts like this, Live Nation would be profitable.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Brad Paisley and Toby Keith do in excess of half a million a night.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, their albums are just an advertisement for the tour.<\/p>\n

Avett Brothers<\/span><\/p>\n

10\/1\/10 Nokia, L.A.
3,453 sold, 90% of house
Gross: $123,264<\/p>\n

You’ve got to see ’em live.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what everybody says.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, their Rick Rubin-produced album did not break them through.<\/p>\n

Bottom line…\u00c2\u00a0 Most people in America have no idea who the Avett Brothers are.\u00c2\u00a0 But hard core music fans do. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel every year, they just build on their cumulative efforts.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe one day they’ll be a household word, just maybe.\u00c2\u00a0 But if not, they’ll still be able to make more than a living and continue to work.\u00c2\u00a0 The Top Forty\/SoundScan wonders?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, tickets were $25-$41.00<\/p>\n

Widespread Panic<\/span><\/p>\n

10\/1\/10 St. Augustine, FL
3,110 sold, 79% of house
Gross: $112,924<\/p>\n

Can’t sell an album.<\/p>\n

But have no problem selling tickets.<\/p>\n

Pooh-pooh jam bands.\u00c2\u00a0 But at least it’s MUSIC!<\/p>\n

You can make a lot more money on the road than you can selling recorded music.\u00c2\u00a0 And just because you sell recorded music, that doesn’t mean you can sell tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 Better to create a tribe that will buy tickets than covet an impulse buyer who will click and download your track.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t take much effort to buy a track, but even though you can buy a ticket online, it’s a schlep to the venue, but real fans put up with the hassle for the music!<\/p>\n

In other words, our future is live-based.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if P2P was killed, we can see from above that it’s the brand names that sell, it’s hard to establish a new brand.\u00c2\u00a0 And so expensive to do it the old way.\u00c2\u00a0 Better to start small, building fans in clubs than trying to convince radio programmers and journalists to expose you to a vast, but ever-shrinking audience much of which just doesn’t care about you.<\/p>\n

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

2. Darius Rucker "Charleston, SC 1966" Sales this week: 100,745 And they said Hootie was done. Make it in the country world and they stand by you, unlike in the pop world. But also credit hard work by Darius, good management by McGhee, et al, and songs…they may not be the best, they may not […]<\/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-3446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-TA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446","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=3446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3447,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions\/3447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}