{"id":682,"date":"2007-02-08T09:21:36","date_gmt":"2007-02-08T17:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/02\/08\/sales-week-ending-2407\/"},"modified":"2007-02-08T09:21:36","modified_gmt":"2007-02-08T17:21:36","slug":"sales-week-ending-2407","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/08\/sales-week-ending-2407\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales-Week Ending-2\/4\/07"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Norah Jones "Not Too Late"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 405,031
Debut<\/p>\n

Snorah.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got no problem with her.\u00c2\u00a0 Other than the fact that EMI is pinning their hopes on her, that the media is making her release such a story.<\/p>\n

Norah Jones did not expect to become an instant star.\u00c2\u00a0 And she hasn’t acted like a star, and I approve of this greatly.\u00c2\u00a0 But the machine, they’ve trumped up her marginal talents to the point she’s become hatable, and that’s unfortunate.<\/p>\n

Snorah is a marginal artist.\u00c2\u00a0 Who made the cocktail album of the year a few annums back.\u00c2\u00a0 When you’re the artist of the year, you can never repeat your success.\u00c2\u00a0 Because that year is PAST!<\/p>\n

We knew it was all over when she toured to far from sold-out business.<\/p>\n

We know she’s not gonna sell tonnage this time because she wrote the songs, and it was her voice and smooth arrangements that sold the initial record, and her songwriting talents are…marginal.<\/p>\n

That’s what’s wrong with the record business.\u00c2\u00a0 They burn something out in search of profits.<\/p>\n

An act like Norah Jones should have an album a year, should be given a chance to develop, to maybe become a great writer\/artist.\u00c2\u00a0 But the pressure of the hype makes the public turn away before you’re fully grown.<\/p>\n

Like I said, I’ve got no problem with Norah, but the machine stinks.<\/p>\n

2. Katharine McPhee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 115,761<\/p>\n

Not everybody watched "American Idol", not everybody gives a shit.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, if you didn’t watch the show you’ve got NO IDEA who she is.<\/p>\n

And with 30 million tuning in a week, this is piss poor.<\/p>\n

Put it in the terms of merch, how much per head.<\/p>\n

And this is number two.\u00c2\u00a0 With this poor number.\u00c2\u00a0 Wow is the CD business in trouble.<\/p>\n

3. Daughtry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 76,883
Cume: 1,449,760<\/p>\n

A hit single.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, he followed his muse.<\/p>\n

But the hit single business, Top Forty radio, is a sideshow few pay attention to.<\/p>\n

And one other question, is every "American Idol" album EPONYMOUS??<\/p>\n

4. Celtic Woman "New Journey"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 70,968
Debut<\/p>\n

All I want to know is what Bill Russell has to say about this.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe Bob Cousy.<\/p>\n

My research tells me this is a PBS-fueled phenomenon.<\/p>\n

All I can say is I’d rather listen to AMERICAN WOMAN.\u00c2\u00a0 And fuck any of the chicks who go to a Randy Bachman gig.<\/p>\n

8. Shins "Wincing The Night Away"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 53,470
Cume: 172,439<\/p>\n

Come on, is this really that big a story?<\/p>\n

Indie band plays SNL.\u00c2\u00a0 All its fans go out and buy the record.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t even go platinum.<\/p>\n

This is long tail business, this ain’t mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 For, if it was, with THAT amount of hype, and it was DEAFENING if you’re paying attention to music at all, this record would already be gold, at least at 400,000.<\/p>\n

In the old days, the public would take a risk on a heavily-hyped project.\u00c2\u00a0 Now people are weary of the hype.\u00c2\u00a0 The media is complicit with the labels, it’s a symbiotic relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll give you access for airtime.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s entertainment.\u00c2\u00a0 And when music blew up, it wasn’t entertainment, it was LIFE!<\/p>\n

10. 2007 Grammy Nominees<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 47,545
Cume: 125,097<\/p>\n

With this number, you can expect the Grammy ratings to be in the toilet once again.<\/p>\n

Oh, they’ll be boosted by Gen-X’ers tuning in to see the Police reunion, but the coveted youngsters, they won’t even record it.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll just tune in the juicy parts on YouTube before NARAS and the other copyright-holders have the clips taken down.<\/p>\n

But by that time everybody who really cares will have already viewed them.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they will already have been texted, IM’ed, oldsters will even E-MAIL!\u00c2\u00a0 And by Monday afternoon, when the old farts get their removal requests into YouTube, if that soon, it will already be old news.<\/p>\n

The cycle is faster than ever.\u00c2\u00a0 But the memories last FOREVER!<\/p>\n

14. Nickelback "All The Right Reasons"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 40,418
Cume: 4,832,709<\/p>\n

Selling for all the right reasons.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the music has changes, you can sing along to it, it’s what the public WANTS!<\/p>\n

Young drinkers want the beat-influenced stuff, to try and get laid in the club.\u00c2\u00a0 Most music fans want something with melody, and Nickelback has more melody than ANY hip-hop album.<\/p>\n

So you hate the lead singer.\u00c2\u00a0 So the music is second-rate.\u00c2\u00a0 Compared to most of the stuff on this chart, Nickelback is GENIUS!\u00c2\u00a0 Because rather than try to appear hip, and with it, they’re playing it straight down the middle, giving people what they want.<\/p>\n

17. Corinne Bailey Rae<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 38,992
Cume: 949,976<\/p>\n

All the Oprah in the world won’t make Corinne Bailey Rae a credible artist.\u00c2\u00a0 This is Snorah, just a few years later with a TON more hype (remember how they DIDN’T hype the Snorah debut, just let it find its own market?)<\/p>\n

If you’re putting your records on, if you don’t have an iPod, if you’re listening to this second-rate dreck, you’re the kind of person who listened to Top Forty radio in the seventies, because AOR was too dangerous.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re a softie with no direction home who listens to what others say, who’s got no self-respect, who doesn’t realize life is a battle and shit like this won’t help you win the war.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing WRONG with this, it’s just that it’s Snorah-lite, and is built on hype.<\/p>\n

Like she’s gonna mature into the new Bonnie Raitt.\u00c2\u00a0 RIGHT!<\/p>\n

19. Nelly Furtado "Loose"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 35,309
Cume: 1,307,676<\/p>\n

Was it worth selling out for THIS?\u00c2\u00a0 To go barely beyond platinum?<\/p>\n

Nelly Furtado was a unique artist.\u00c2\u00a0 In some people’s eyes, a VISIONARY!\u00c2\u00a0 (Well, not mine.)\u00c2\u00a0 But after her second record got lost when her label essentially closed up shop, she decided to play it safe.\u00c2\u00a0 Wow, work with Timbaland, THAT’S creative!<\/p>\n

Now she’s just like everybody else.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s flavor of the month.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s got no fans.\u00c2\u00a0 She will live and die on hit singles.\u00c2\u00a0 Her hip audience has abandoned her.<\/p>\n

If you pull shit like this you don’t get it.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck the Top Forty radio sales, THIS CHART, it’s about the Web, and credibility and FANS!<\/p>\n

Nelly has no fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Just young people who bought this album who won’t even know where it is in two years or so.<\/p>\n

29. Gwen Stefani "Sweet Escape"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 26,256
Cume: 814,898<\/p>\n

Maybe she should have worked with TIMBALAND!<\/p>\n

Or maybe she did.\u00c2\u00a0 But who’s paying attention anymore?<\/p>\n

Do you remember the press barrage?<\/p>\n

Calling Jimmy Iovine, your paradigm has expired!<\/p>\n

33. Josh Groban "Awake"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 24,750
Cume: 1,418,811<\/p>\n

I sat next to the dude at a party.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like to tell you my heart raced.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was like sitting with an uncomfortable nephew who should be away at college.<\/p>\n

Michael Buble, Josh Groban.\u00c2\u00a0 It plays to a specialized market.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got no problem with it.\u00c2\u00a0 Just don’t TELL ME ABOUT IT, don’t make me LISTEN TO IT!<\/p>\n

Then again, I saw Buble perform in Toronto, and he was a lot more riveting than all the alternative acts the musos parade as the next big thing.<\/p>\n

35. Beatles "Love"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 24,081
Cume: 1,258,541<\/p>\n

Mashups were a NOVELTY, whose time passed, shit, almost TWO YEARS AGO!<\/p>\n

Even DANGER MOUSE moved on!<\/p>\n

How fucked up is it that Gnarls Barkley can outsell the BEATLES!<\/p>\n

But "Crazy" had everything this album did not.\u00c2\u00a0 "Crazy" was not calculated, not perfectly recorded, it was magic captured in a bottle.\u00c2\u00a0 The painstakingly concocted "Love" was so sterile as to be impenetrable.<\/p>\n

It’s not like the public didn’t know about this record.\u00c2\u00a0 It just decided it didn’t NEED IT!\u00c2\u00a0 I mean do you want the ghost of Picasso to come into your bedroom in the middle of the night and rearrange your honey into something out of "Demoiselles d’Avignon"?<\/p>\n

To paraphrase that has-been Irish act, there’s nothing better than the real thing baby.<\/p>\n

37. John Mellencamp "Freedom’s Road"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 22,890
Cume: 78,965<\/p>\n

I’ve never seen the Chevy ad, because I DON’T WATCH TELEVISION!<\/p>\n

Look at the ratings.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you think everybody’s seen this spot?\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, are you following advertising?\u00c2\u00a0 Companies are going to the Web, where the Google model has them only paying for people who are INTERESTED in the product.<\/p>\n

Mellencamp says he had to do it.<\/p>\n

I say bullshit.<\/p>\n

He says Tom Petty got no recognition.<\/p>\n

I say Petty’s album sucked.<\/p>\n

Mellencamp.\u00c2\u00a0 You should have worked the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than making a deal with the devil, you should have used your site to create a STREET TEAM!\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, fifty year olds don’t know what street teams are, they’re not impervious to their machinations.\u00c2\u00a0 And fifty year olds are still dedicated music fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Empower them, they WANT to help you.\u00c2\u00a0 Make fans, don’t spray your bullets all over.<\/p>\n

Today you don’t speak to the public at large, you speak to YOUR AUDIENCE!<\/p>\n

39. John Mayer "Continuum"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 22,583
Cume: 1,309,041<\/p>\n

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in that this guy is seen as a major artist?<\/p>\n

47. Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah "Some Loud Thunder"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 18,867
Debut<\/p>\n

That’s the power of NPR.<\/p>\n

There’s no buzz here, nobody cares.\u00c2\u00a0 This is third, maybe FOURTH rate indie crap.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a circle jerk for those no longer in school who consider themselves hip.\u00c2\u00a0 This is IRRELEVANT!<\/p>\n

66. Saliva "Blood Stained Love Story"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sales this week: 13,172
Cume: 43,816<\/p>\n

Remember when Saliva were comers?<\/p>\n

This music is too much for the mainstream, it’s not ear-pleasing, but EAR-SPLITTING!<\/p>\n

This makes Zeppelin look like the Carpenters.<\/p>\n

This is fringe, and these sales now reflect this.\u00c2\u00a0 Too much of what’s fringe in rock is sold as mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 NICKELBACK is mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 But to like what they do in the heartland, that doesn’t square with your hipster lifestyle.<\/p>\n

This chart is irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m only doing this analysis because my inbox is filling up with requests.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody wonders if I’ve FORGOTTEN about the chart.<\/p>\n

But the chart no longer makes my dick hard, it doesn’t get me off.<\/p>\n

And based on these numbers, it doesn’t get the mainstream off either.<\/p>\n

People are streaming YouTube videos by the millions.\u00c2\u00a0 But music is a second-rate citizen.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, have all the live tracks come out of the woodwork, get people excited about acts, NO!\u00c2\u00a0 File-trading bad, Top Forty radio and CDs good.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like the industry’s on a mystery cruise.\u00c2\u00a0 And the general public doesn’t care if the ship gets lost at sea.<\/p>\n

Doesn’t ANYBODY get that file-trading isn’t killing the business, but the people IN CHARGE??<\/p>\n

I say fire everybody at the label, at the agency, and put in twentysomethings.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got better values, they know the marketplace better.<\/p>\n

Yes, twentysomethings aren’t about intimidation, but HONESTY!\u00c2\u00a0 They want to make a buck, but they don’t want to RIP YOU OFF!\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s about being a member of the group, and you can’t be one if you mistreat your brethren.<\/p>\n

There’s a TON of great new music out there.\u00c2\u00a0 But the public isn’t hearing it.\u00c2\u00a0 And, those who are fans of music find the landscape IMPENETRABLE!<\/p>\n

This ridiculous state of affairs is not going to go on forever.\u00c2\u00a0 An MTV is going to rise from the ashes and rule.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, I don’t mean music video, but rather an entity that utilizes the new distribution platform to deliver something exciting to the public, that those presently in charge just don’t get, just don’t understand.<\/p>\n

Hell, GIVE THE MUSIC AWAY!\u00c2\u00a0 And create a chart of what people want.\u00c2\u00a0 Come up with some meaningful statistics.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, slice and dice them.\u00c2\u00a0 If someone’s forty, and is married with two kids, and lives in zip code 90049, WHAT ARE COMPARABLE PEOPLE LISTENING TO?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t make them endure bullshit track after track, like with Pandora or LastFM, just give them a list, allow them to hear the stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got to find some way to TURN THE PUBLIC ON!<\/p>\n

So we know if we get cute people, who everybody wants to fuck, and put them in major media, we can sell SOME records.\u00c2\u00a0 Is that really the only game?\u00c2\u00a0 Is the easiest way out the best way?\u00c2\u00a0 Did you marry your spouse on the first date?<\/p>\n

Life is complicated, it’s about discovery.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not fast food, but something more subtle, something that takes more time.\u00c2\u00a0 It takes a while to fall in love with a track, an act.\u00c2\u00a0 But you’ve GOT TO HEAR IT FIRST!<\/p>\n

The story of MySpace isn’t user-generated content, but that the powers that be DIDN’T CREATE SOMETHING THAT FILLED THE NEED!<\/p>\n

Viacom and its behemoth brethren didn’t create MySpace.\u00c2\u00a0 They just didn’t get it.<\/p>\n

The major labels, the publishers, THEY JUST DON’T GET MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t understand that EVERYTHING is available now.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t understand niche.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t understand trust.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re hard sellers in an era of soft sell.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing better than hearing a great new record.\u00c2\u00a0 But where the fuck are you going to hear it?<\/p>\n

Not KCRW.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t listen to that station.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t want to be associated with those people.\u00c2\u00a0 Those people didn’t get drunk on Monday night in college, they played by the rules so they could afford their big houses and fancy cars.\u00c2\u00a0 The music on that station lives in some bizarre backwater, where everybody strokes each other to say they’re so fucking hip.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, I’d rather go to a NICKELBACK CONCERT!<\/p>\n

Yes, at a Nickelback concert, I don’t have to worry about the fucking baby boomers and Gen X’ers paying $2,000 to a scalper to sit in front of me.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, those people in their fancy clothes, who come late, who talk on their cell phones…who’d want to go to a concert WITH THEM!<\/p>\n

It’s about energy, it’s about feeling.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about calculation, it’s about feeling ALIVE!<\/p>\n

I hung with two fifteen year olds.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t want to talk ANY of the shit on this chart.\u00c2\u00a0 They just wanted to know if I’d seen Steve Jobs’ Macworld presentation, they wanted to talk about the iPhone.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, one plays guitar, the other piano, but all they download is OLD stuff, like "Tommy".<\/p>\n

They know, how come the EXECS don’t know.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, music ruled the world, it was the hippest medium out there.\u00c2\u00a0 Doubt me?\u00c2\u00a0 Fire up a Beatles album, a Pink Floyd record, AC\/DC.\u00c2\u00a0 In the grooves is LIFE!<\/p>\n

There’s no life in "CSI", nor in any of the shitty movies.<\/p>\n

And there’s no life in mainstream music.<\/p>\n

Save me the blowback.\u00c2\u00a0 Music just ain’t cool. And it’s YOUR FAULT!<\/p>\n

\n

Note: Once upon a time this was an industry newsletter.\u00c2\u00a0 So the fault I’m talking about is the EXECS’ fault.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re a fan, if you’re reading just because you love music THAT MUCH, I feel for you.\u00c2\u00a0 When you find something good, e-mail it to ALL your friends.\u00c2\u00a0 But don’t e-mail them more than once a month.\u00c2\u00a0 Establish trust as a guru.\u00c2\u00a0 WE’VE got to take over.\u00c2\u00a0 I know you care just as much as I do.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t want to get paid, we just want something to BELIEVE IN!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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

1. Norah Jones "Not Too Late" Sales this week: 405,031Debut Snorah.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got no problem with her.\u00c2\u00a0 Other than the fact that EMI is pinning their hopes on her, that the media is making her release such a story. Norah Jones did not expect to become an instant star.\u00c2\u00a0 And she hasn’t acted like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-b0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}