the industry is dead on it's feet.

Besides industry ears (who don't know shit from shinola), does anyone else really care?

I do not.



Think about it this way.
The population of California is 36,756,666. The Population of NY is 19,490,297.

The top selling record sold 125.000 copies.

It's over people.
I guess they all own a copy of Thriller.


[Edited 3/10/10 10:00am]
[Edited 3/10/10 10:01am]

D.O.A.

I love that P!NK's album is still selling. She's a bad ass.

Marrk said:

U really think so? I don't think it's "dead", but I do think it is not as profitable as it once was. I find it interesting that there are so many country acts that are selling really big, while the a lot of r&b and hip-hop acts are struggling to reach a half-million in sales.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't r&b sales about like this in the 70s through the mid-80s? I don't remember acts like Con Funk Shun, Slave, etc. selling a million records, but they strived for a gold record.

daPrettyman said:

That's true, only because the meat heads running the show in the 80's, decided to eliminate the R&B divisions of their company and they let the "Pop" (white) dept. promote the R&B releases. They had NO clue. This is what started the decline of good R&B music. They where only going for the crossover material. Hence the beginning of Hip Hop!

tricky2 said:

I think we're back to that point (pretty much). Not to mention, most of the "executives" don't really know music. All they know is a "beat".

And when I walk into HMV, those are all the CDs I see out on display.

Talk about discouraging

daPrettyman said:

Cameo is a perfect example. Larry Blackmon made "word up" knowing it had crossover appeal, only because someone at the label was straight up with him. Make a crossover hit record or you're done! He hate that fuckin' song, but he's a genius for pulling that song out of his red jock cup!

I've always said Soul/R&B died in 1984. All you had was crossover songs after that but funny how metal, rock, bubblegum pop and country songs prevailed.
IMO.

I'm not a big hip hop fan, but somehow I feel it saved black music and created steady jobs in the industry.

The total sales on some of them don't look too bad, really. You already know it's something of a slow week when the highest charting new album comes in at number 3 behind stuff that's been out for several weeks.

to my eyes, things over the long-term life of many of these albums look a lot healthier than I expected.

tricky2 said:

I don't necessarily agree with that. I think NJS had such a mass appeal (even before Hip-Hop started getting really big on the pop charts). Then when acts like Hammer, Run DMC, etc. were found to have crossover appeal, then (like from the late 90s to about 4 or 5 years ago), hip-hop became pop and started selling in the multi-millions.

I find it intriguing that acts like Susan Boyle, Lady Antibellum, Darius Rucker, and Michael Buble are selling with pretty big numbers even with the industry being "dead". I just don't buy the "dead" thing. Your core audience for certain genres and artists still manage to sell quite well. Look at Raheem Devaughn and others. They are selling pretty good in their respective genres.

errant said:

me too

daPrettyman said:

Yep, the sales came back to earth because the singles back, this is the new reality.

errant said:

True.

With a few exceptions, that list is dreck and more dreck.

No wonder why the sales are so low...
[Edited 3/10/10 12:51pm]

daPrettyman said:

The simple fact is people who listen to country music are usually middle-aged & don't know how to download music illegally off the internet - wheras most 16 - 30 year olds a.k.a the target market of today's music, know how to illegally download. They just aren't buying CD's!

TheScouser said:

This is true. Market to anyone over 30/40 and your a shoe in for more decent album sales in the US

TheScouser said:

They don't know how and they don't want to

I wouldnt say that its dead.

Look at the total sales for the albums listed.

i counted 16 that have reached atleast platinum certification.

11 others have reached gold certification

tricky2 said:

Im glad you pointed this population equation out to everyone, i mentioned this about a year ago when talking about overseas markets and hhow music is MORE relevant and important there than here and did it by breaking down in terms of the amount that buy here and buy there.

lastdecember said:

mmmm. in a sense. but this is where the biggest population is centered for the music industry. who gives a shit about per capita sales? 300,000 is platinum in Britain, correct? the artist and label would prefer to sell 400,000 in the US and have it considered a flop than have a 1xPlatinum "hit" in Britain.

TheScouser said:

That's not true. I know MANY people that are country music fans and they aren't middle-aged.

The thing is, Country music fans tend to be "mainstream" America. They buy music at the local Walmart and don't necessarily have the latest trends. If they have the latest gadgets, they may not have the latest technology to download anything.

Sure, they may buy mp3 players and computers are in rural homes, but in most rural areas, the technology is not there for them to use broadband internet. Yes, satellite internet is available, but that is expensive compared to internet from a phone or cable company. Not to mention, most satellite data plans only allow you so much bandwidth per day.

You guys must remember, mainstream America is NOT in a city, they are in towns and areas that are small.

errant said:

True to a point but labels here spend millions on marketing and sell 400,000 (if they're lucky) is a huge loss, overseas they do not have to use that kind of money and they make more back on the product, the "bottom line" is that units sold may make for good talk at bars and forums, but labels are more worried about being in the red or black for a release. People dont look at these things at all, they see 75,000 sold and say bomb, flop etc....but if you put minimal $$ in thats a hit, Billboard is meaningless now, the 90's are gone.