Its true, look around, theres no where to go to promote your record anymore. Recent releases by Hilary Duff,Jennifer Lopez,Joss Stone and upcoming releases from Amerie, seem to be getting the UK and European push. I started seeing this trend about 2 years ago when PCD toured the UK before even coming to the states. On recent tours of the UK Hilary Duff played a total of 8 different UK shows, is it me or do they have tons of shows where you can go to do promo and we have none? Jennifer Lopez did the same, then hit Spain, Italy, came to the USA for 2 days of Promo and now is back in London. Now Amerie is over in the UK playing shows like CDUK, Paul o Grady and others and some live concerts too, then she heads to Japan, with no plans of a release here in the states. I think its time to face it, the artists realize that the overseas markets are more loyal as far as fanbases, and there is more avenues to go to there, and of course its more lucrative. Here the promo avenue has nothing to do with your music.

That has always been the case. Tina Turner could tour Europe tomorrow and concerts would be sold out. It's nothing new, but maybe younger artists are just figuring this out. Look at Anastacia. She's an American artist who can't get a hit here to save her life and she's huge elsewhere.

menace said:

Exactly, i think we tend to think that the US is the market that it was and that you have to be here to be relevant. I mean look at GIRLS ALOUD, the uk's biggest pop-girl band has become the Biggest selling Reality-show artists, topping Any American Idol winners by a 3-1 margin, and Girls Aloud have never been issued in the US officially. This also happend recently with RB artist MYA who before xmas released a single "AYO" the song did nothing here, barely getting any RB play and yet went top 10 in Germany?? A market that she hadnt even been in before. And of course my favorite band a-Ha which almost every person here in america thought they were dead, have released 10 albums and sold 70 million records and singles worldwide, but havent had a CD in America (domestically) since 1993.

There's so much activity going on overseas and absolutely nothing eventful happening with the US market, so it's not really a suprise. Not to mention album sales are drastically low.

Madonna's last album sold 7.5 million internationally, 1.5 million of those sales being from the US.

America doesn't move the numbers it use to and the radio stations only play what they think we want to hear instead of allowing it's audiences decide.

it's no wonder Hilary took her Europop to it's birthplace and ignored the American market.

Europeans are better music fans

well that i totally agree with, as long as i can get the music on import i really dont mind. So many of my top artists are huge overseas, much more than they will ever be here, it reminds of how things were in the 80's, though the scene was HUGE here, i remember every week my brother buying tons of imports.

menace said:

her concerts sold out in the US too. it's her albums that don't sell her.


but as is the case with all of the artists named, they're making music that Europeans are more interested in than Americans, so why is this a surprise to anyone? or indicative of the US not being a solid market? it's just not a solid market for those acts.

Dayspring said:

I just look at the PATHETIC sales on the billboard chart to see that it's not a solid market.

jayaredee said:

80,000 in one week in the US for what is considered a flop album here is often what an album sells in one European country during its entire lifespan and is considered a hit over there. So it's relative.

Dayspring said:

True to a certain extent, the UK pays more though, and when you look at how many people buy music here and figure the %'s the US is not the market it once was, its that simple. In terms of generating revenue its just not happening. Artists now need to focus more overseas than here, now the artists mentioned, most of them are not even UK artists. Hilary duff is selling more records overseas than here by a godd margin, so far she has sold 200,000 here of her new one, she passed that over a week ago in most markets overseas. So its really an issue that artists have caught on that sales are down, regardless of who you are, and they have gotten off their asses and starting promoting overseas because there are more avenues to promote over there, America isnt the Holy Grail anymore, maybe back when the Beatles came over it was, but those days are long gone.

MikeMatronik said:

.....and they love synths!

TonyVanDam said:

Yeah its not a slight to the US market, its just the way it is. America is very "soundbyte" type market, quick artist turnover and thats it, but im seeing more and more artists that want to actually have a catalog of work focus their attention on selling overseas. Jesus even Rihanna who is considered a big mainstream seller over here , toured the UK and her third cd this summer is coming out there first, and she is doing all the promo there, so its just a conscious effort to sell overseas due to the market being what it is, plus theres nowhere to promote anything here.

TonyVanDam said:

when you're doing euro-disco, a style that is not popular in the US, it makes sense that it's going to sell well in Europe.

Dayspring said:

I think I will consider in buying my music from Europe more often (via Amazon.co.uk).

I think age is a huge issue to, along with taste. What is marketed here is 15-20 year olds, scan over the chart here and the average age you will see is about 20-22 which usually means the listener is probably ten years younger most of the time. That is not the way to market, kids are not loyal and what they like today they hate tomorrow. Madonna,Prince,etc are artists well into their 40's and thats not what kids want to see, so where as back in the 80's, u could have a chart that would have Debbie gibson (teenager) and Aretha Franklin all competing, now you wont get that. Just look at last years biggest album, (which if it didnt come out, the industry would have collapsed here) High School Musical, the average age of Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale (who were the cast) were 19-21, so that shows you were the market is here. Its not so much sound, its marketing and AGE.

Dayspring said:

But the Arctic Monkeys have sold that volume in the UK alone in one day.....

SquirrelMeat said:

sure, and they're a british act

I hate that so many awesome acts are touring more in Europe that in the US these days...Especially in smaller scale shows!

I was trying to find some good live shows to hit since vacations coming, and I swear, nearly everyone I wanna see is overseas, too expensive, or not touring

Scissor Sisters



They are a group that are too good for shitty americans to enjoy

MikeMatronik said:

Unlike The Village People, Scissor Sisters aren't macho enough for the red states to accept. ( @ red states) And it's a damn shame because Jake can hit those Princely high notes too.

You know why they are called red states don't you? That's the color of their necks.

MikeMatronik said:

But they are British, so.....