This is a fantastic opening, and follows Lady Antebellum's 481k debut last week. Sales are down only 5% versus last year - album sales appear to be bottoming out as digital sales begin to make up for losses at physical formats.

SADE MAKES IT A HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FOR BIZ
Jaheim, Josh Turner Also Set to Debut Next Week

February 10, 2010

Sade’s been away for a while, but her fans are still out there.

The reclusive pop-soul songstress returns with Soldier of Love, her first Epic album in 10 years, since 2000’s Lovers Rock, and sixth overall in a career that began in 1984 with Diamond Life.

According to one-day sales reports from those retailers not up to their necks in snow, the album will debut at #1 next week with a total somewhere between 400-425k, with bad weather back east and Valentine’s weekend shopping the two variables.

The week’s other top debut looks like Atlantic R&B crooner Jaheim, whose Another Round, the follow-up to 2007’s gold-certified The Makings of a Man, appears set to go over the 100k mark, and could do as well as 110k.

MCA Nashville country-rocker Josh Turner is angling for a strong, 60-65k debut for his latest effort, Haywire.

ForeFront Christian act tobyMac is on target for 40-50k, maybe more, with the religious market the big (pardon the pun) X factor.

RCA/RMG’s Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds collaboration, Live in Las Vegas, is on track for between 35-40k.

Big Machine’s soundtrack to the all-star movie Valentine’s Day opening this Friday, features a new Taylor Swift single and could be a wild card, with 20-25k forecasted, the same total expected for Sire’s Finland rockers HIM, whose aptly titled Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice, Chapters 1-13, arrives just in time for that very special someone who likes some Scandanavian metal with their chocolates.

The market was up 3% vs. last week, down 8% vs. same week last year and down 5% year to date. You may now return to watching an exciting curling match at this year’s Winter Olympics, where maybe perhaps they can import some snow across the border from Washington, DC.

Sade 400-425k
Jaheim 100-110k
Josh Turner 60-65k
tobyMac 40-50k
Dave Matthews/Tim Reyonlds 35-40k
Valentine's Day 20-25k
HIM 20-25k

Hey, cut and paste that to the Sade Sticky: http://prince.org/msg/8/329810

Its so funny that after one day they can tell you what its gonna sell, and yet people "swear" these numbers are not known from orders and shit, whatever. But also Billboard is smoking the pipe in saying that "digital" sales are making up losses , they are kidding with that right?

But props to Sade 25 years later still going, love when the old DESTROYS the young
[Edited 2/10/10 15:59pm]

How come we don't have a Sade sticky?

Good for her.These shows not letting her talk though

ernestsewell said:

I did it.

lastdecember said:

Digital sales are increasing, physical sales are decreasing, so you do the math. The 10-20% year-to-year decreases that have devastated the industry are not being seen this year.

VoicesCarry said:

The digital sales are up because retail is pulling things out of the stores, so that rise is not because all of a sudden people are buying music that never did, plus this year is 40 days in so thats a non issue. Plus when 75 % own ipods,mp3 devices and below 5% of those people say the music on them was purchased legally, thats a math that needs to be looked at more.

Its like saying the sale of cassettes were dropping in the late 90's and cd sales went up....well...you killed the format off people will still make a change, but what no one is getting, is that the loss overall is NOT made up, Digital has not even come close to picking up the slack
[Edited 2/10/10 16:41pm]

lastdecember said:

Point is: The album market is showing signs of bottoming out this year. As digital sales continue to increase in market share, the trend will slowly be reversed.

VoicesCarry said:

But like i said its not an equal replacement, and it never will be, Digital sales may go up (though $$ wise they are a loss) because most of this rise is 99cent sales or should i say 1.29 (that will go up again). So a bottom out may be a positive but its not because the replacement (which is digital) is not making that impact that the cd did, there are too many drawbacks, but like i said if you eliminate the cd 100%(and this will happen for new releases its on the table already at majors) of course your sales will go up, and the cd loss will bottom out.


But again this is about Props to SADE, not a dead industry.
[Edited 2/10/10 16:50pm]

I just bought the CD and I am sooooo happy to see her back on top! I wish these younger singers would see that you don't need to try to be all things to all people and shove yourself down everyone's throat in order to sell!! Aaliyah seemed to be the only one of the younger singers to look to Sade as a role model (she said this in one of her last interviews), but I wish more would "get it."

400K is excellent!! Bravo, Sade!!

The Sade album, IMHO, is an event album and not just because of the long amount of time between releases. They (yes, I know it's a band, not just the lead singer of the same name) have always done well and not only retain their audience, but likely win over new converts (I bought "Best Of Sade" in between it's initial release and "Lover's Rock" debut). The industry needs more acts like that, but the problem is that very few artists have that kind of momentum to keep turning out hits. Ke$ha might have a nice debut and possibly a strong selling first album. but she isn't saving the industry. I'm very happy for Sade and I'm glad there is hope for the music business.

Wow, great numbers for Sade! Congrats to her. She deserves it.

This album, and its success, cements her place in pop music history, IMHO. She's great, and has led a really remarkable career on her own terms.

I LOVE this Rolling Stone review of the new album:

http://www.rollingstone.c...er_of_love

lastdecember said:

Where did this come from? I don't doubt it, but where did it come from?

I noticed how bad the problem is when I used a Pet Shop Boys song in a lesson and when I asked if anyone was familar with them, a few people sort of nodded and one girl said she had a few of their songs on her Ipod. "West End Girls" and another she couldn't think of. I rattled off their biggest US hits, even mentioning "Where the Streets Have No Name (Can't...)" since I used to hear it on radio often (although overall it only peaked at something like 75 on Billboard). Anyway, she got back to me at some point and said:

Student: "I looked at my Ipod and the other song is "Send Me An Angel".
Me: "That's not their song. It sort of sounds like them and many people credit it to them. Even when I bought their greatest hits when I was a naive fan I was shocked it wasn't there, but it's by a group called Real Life".
Student: "Are you sure?"
Me: "I'm a huge PSB fan and I also own a Real Life CD with that song....it is actually called "Send Me An Angel"

So on and so on. I think even sort of laughed and said "You probably didn't get that from Itunes?" Seemed like a really honest student, but I guess anybody that can find the songs sees no issue with it. I believe I have only two illegal songs on my Ipod. Both songs (which I won't name cause I don't want to encourage this and one is Prince related) not only can't be found on CD, but are very hard to find on vinyl (although at some point I do want to track them down. They are both b-sides (one is an extended mix, actually). Again, I don't encourage it. I think if you can find it and buy it, you should. If not....well, don't complain about low quality and productivity. Sadly, I don't know that people would. I guess it's upsetting that so few people are really passionate about music.

VinnyM27 said:

I actually heard it presented to Steve Jobs when someone told him, that 85% of iPod owners dont use the iPod store and get music illegally, his come back was, "well we are working on it"

Here is one article on this subject
It’s no at all shocking that the majority of music downloaded today are illegal, but numbers released by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) are somewhat worrying.


ZoomAccording to the IFPI report, which represents the music industry worldwide, 95 percent of all music downloaded online is illegal -- that is, obtained without rights from the holders of the property.

“Generating value in an environment where 95 per cent of music downloads are illegal and unpaid for is still the biggest challenge for music companies and their commercial partners,” the IFPI said in a release.

Amidst all the piracy, digital music sales are still up, growing by an estimated 25 percent to $3.7 billion in trade value. The report puts digital platforms at around 20 percent of recorded music sales, up from 15 percent in 2007.

The ability to purchase single tracks rather than a full album is one allure of digital music sales -- a habit that was up 24 percent in 2008. Interestingly enough, full album sales were up 36 percent over the previous year.

"The recorded music industry is reinventing itself and its business models,” said John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of IFPI. “Music companies have changed their whole approach to doing business, reshaped their operations and responded to the dramatic transformation in the way music is distributed and consumed.”

Some music companies that are up with the times get that selling music alone isn’t the only way to make money. “We don’t sell records any more, we act wherever people experience music, from digital and physical formats to all the other ‘touch points’ of the music experience: from being part of the discovery process, to music in games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero or recording and selling music at live events and so on,” said Elio Leoni Sceti, chief executive of EMI Music. “Our role is not to put physical discs on a shelf but to reach consumers wherever they are.”

Greg Turner, creative licensing manager, film and computer games of Universal Music UK echoed that idea. “Games are an increasingly popular way for new acts to reach new audiences. As the games get more sophisticated, the opportunities for in-game advertising, product placement and personalization of the experience will increase. The possibilities are endless.”

Social networking is another avenue now explored by the record labels. “Twenty to thirty percent of MySpace U.S. monthly traffic in 2007 was made up of music destination unique visitors,” said Michael Nash, executive vice president, digital strategy&business development at Warner Music Group.

“Social networks have been terrific for fans looking for bands they know, but far more challenging as a way of finding new bands. We have to help fans find music wherever they are at the moment they want it. If we can do that we will find ways to monetize it,” added Douglas Merrill, president, digital business at EMI Music.

Aside from trying to add value to paid downloads, the music industry is also pushing policing measures to governments and Internet service providers.

"There is a momentous debate going on about the environment on which our business, and all the people working in it, depends,” said Kennedy. “Governments are beginning to accept that, in the debate over ‘free content’ and engaging ISPs in protecting intellectual property rights, doing nothing is not an option if there is to be a future for commercial digital content.”



So basically this points out the illegal content and also a rise in legal downloading but again, the rise, is artificial because the loss of the other format is not being made up.

Psssssttt!!! There's a sticky at the top of the forum http://prince.org/msg/8/329810