tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34952281.post3713505563720949997..comments2024-03-27T03:28:24.204-07:00Comments on Peromyscus: Music in crisis part 99Lyle Hopwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17498505748509787968noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34952281.post-56109979367147568252010-07-31T09:43:32.961-07:002010-07-31T09:43:32.961-07:00I think that came across as more about Jack White ...I think that came across as more about Jack White and less about the record industry in general than I intended. <br />And also, I didn't say passion was archaic - I think passion is essential. <br />I'm not arguing that he doesn't sell records. I'm just saying that record sales, CD sales and even iTunes are tiny compared with what went before, and I don't think he'd argue with me there. It's not all about him, in fact. I just used him as a convenient example because I've read so much of what he's said. There are other rockers out there trying new business models but I don't keep tabs on them or their relative successes.<br />Sea of Cowards <a href="http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3iec86729e87e7d194a111a8b9bac37dd0" rel="nofollow"> was expected to debut in the Billboard top ten </a> with around 45,000 sales. <br />It did so, coming in nicely at #5 - a top hit. It debuted one spot higher than Horehound, which came in at #6. But <a href="http://rock.about.com/b/2010/05/20/dead-weather-hit-no-5-on-billboard-album-chart-with-sea-of-cowards.htm" rel="nofollow"> Horehound sold more copies to get to that spot than Sea of Cowards </a> (51,000 rather than 45,000). <br />One very good reason for that is <a href="http://www.metalinsider.net/gloom-and-doom/album-sales-at-their-lowest-in-soundscan-history" rel="nofollow">May 2010 saw the lowest number of records sold</a> since records were kept, if you see what I mean. "The total of 4,984,000 albums stands in stark comparison to late December 2000, when there was a one week sales total of 45.4 million. Even last year, the week ending May 31, 2009 showed album sales of 5.76 million." Even with these types of sales to compete against,, SoC only spent seven weeks in the chart; Horehound endured a whole ten weeks. <br />May was the month when <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/music/news/e3i424ad23a01d5797d55429dadf338b7be" rel="nofollow">Justin Bieber got to #1 by selling 60,000 records</a> - an unusually low number, and the second lowest number for a #1 album in Soundscan's history. <br />45,000, 51,000 and 60,000 are very small numbers in one sense of the word and very large numbers in another. Every band who has pressed 500 copies of their vinyl single and sold them over the course of a tour wishes they could get to selling 40,000 in a week, and almost all of them never do. But compared with the days of multi-platinum albums, it's kind of small.Lyle Hopwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17498505748509787968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34952281.post-75097910132338814632010-07-31T04:48:30.948-07:002010-07-31T04:48:30.948-07:00And yet his buggy whip seems to be making money fo...And yet his buggy whip seems to be making money for him and showing little sign of becoming obsolete. "<i>But the public admires passion, they’re drawn to people who do it for the right reasons...</i>" His passion may be archaic, but it's passion nonetheless and touches a nerve with a lot of people who've never given up on the horse'n'buggy, or who're now deciding that it's cool or 'retro' to travel old style.<br /><br />"<i>Quote all the SoundScan statistics you want. Then call Eric Garland at BigChampagne. Illegal trading of files far outstrips physical sales, to the point where the latter are essentially irrelevant.</i>" <br /><br />Just how do they track illegal trading of files to know how it ranks? I'm not disputing the statement, just wondering how they arrive at such statistics. This is old, but interesting in light of Eric Garland being referred to as an authority: <br />http://www.thedavidlawrenceshow.com/bursting_bigchampagnes_bubble_002299.htmlKaliDurgahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13218716336939570814noreply@blogger.com