7 million units, that's very crazy in such little time.

MickyDolenz said:

EmmaMcG said:

She's the current fad. Good voice for the most part (though I've seen some dodgy live performances) but my God her music is boring. If the Rolling Stone reviewer genuinely thinks it's a 5 star album, then I'm glad he or she enjoyed it that much. Though I wouldn't rule out her doing an exclusive interview with RS at some point which might explain why her album got 5 stars. As for why it sells so much, there's a number of reasons for that. Firstly, it's been promoted very well. Like, before it came out, I was reading that this was the most important album of the year. Everyone needs to hear it. Similar to how the new Star Wars is marketed. Its a brand that people buy in to. Which brings me to my second point. A lot of younger people, mostly female, like to fit it with the crowd. So, if a few people haven't been taken in by the expert marketing, there's a good chance several of their friends have. So in order to fit in and feel like they're part of the group, they will subconsciously convince themselves that they also like the product (in this case, the Adele album) and go out and buy it so they can be just like their friends. Then of course, there are people who do genuinely like Adele and her music. And they will be the ones still buying her albums in 5-10 years time when the crowd gravitate towards whatever else the marketing guru's decide will be "in" at the time. Jesus, learning all about this crap and finding out whats in store for me really ruined music for me...

You could say that about so many other artists, but Adele has been around for a few years now. And she got even bigger when she came back. She can't use a model body or big booty to sell her music. She actually has to deliver. I'm not saying that she doesn't have anything else that is marketable. Her image that is loved by so many is the natural, humble, and talented one. She is the safe alternative. She doesn't have to shock you to get your attention. She has balanced it so well. She is safe enough to not make listeners jump off the boat, and talented enough to attract new ones. The worst thing she can do is to bore some of us who demands more.

These young ladies you are talking about are not the ones buying 7 million Adele albums. Most of them are perfectly fine with Spotify. Adele is one of the strongest voices in pop music today, and sing songs that alot of people above 40-50 years old enjoys. These are the ones that still buy physical albums. I'm not one of them though. No matter how talented singer, humble, good etc she is... there's nothing interesting about her. Maybe technically, but not artistically. I had similar feelings about Celine Dion. However, Adele is not as annoying.

kitbradley said:

I can't swear to ever hearing an Adele song. But, I"m still trying to figure out why a British artist is able to receive a 7x Platinum certification in the United States in only a few weeks when most American artists are struggling to even attain a Gold status? With all of the hype surrounding Janet Jackson's latest album, the last time I checked, it has only sold under 200,000 copies in the U.S.???

Yeah. Don't get it either. You have to wonder what is wrong with people? Artists can't sell records for shit anymore, having more pathetic album sales than the other, but then there is some relatively newcomer and people flock out in droves to buy her music. Her music certainly is not better than everyone elses. So what is it? What makes these people buy her albums?

MotownSubdivision said:

tongueinthecrease said:

But of course, it isn't. Good on her. I'll listen elsewhere.

Indeed. What I wonder however is whether or not other acts take note of this and apply this strategy themselves? If enough take this initiative then album sales could very well be on the rise again. It really depends on how much money these acts are willing to put at risk by not subscribing to companies streaming their music.

Well. If someone wants the album for free, it can still be downloaded, so really, I don't see the difference.

Replica said:

PatrickS77 said:

To the people who say her music is boring and don't understand why Adele is selling. Many people don't care about having a lot of different sounds. Country has been popular for decades in the US and there isn't a big variety of sounds on the average country album. Same for many smooth jazz albums or southern soul like Ms. Jody & Mel Waiters. Adult contemporary has always been popular, but in the past there were more AC acts played on Top 40. A lot of the people who primarily listens to AC is not as likely to listen to rap, rock, or dance music, so they're not going to buy that no matter how much its promoted. Look at the singing talent shows which tend to be AC style singing. They were big a while back and there's some still on like The Voice. Susan Boyle, Josh Groban, & Michael Buble are popular, but maybe not on Top 40 radio where hip hop is more played. I think AC is less dependent on fads or having hip sounds and it doesn't change that much. So some of the AC songs don't sound as much like it belongs to a certain time period like disco and new wave. Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life could have been released today by Josh Groban and he could sing over the same exact instrumental track as Debby because it doesn't really sound different than his music.

purplethunder3121 said:

DonRants said:

Honestly I lost all respect for RS years agon when they first called Vanilla Ice the "King of Rap" more than 20 years ago.

But I have to admit I am truly happy for Adele sales. It is great to see a CD moving that well in this time and age. Why do you think people like her so much?

RS sold out in the early 80s when they switched from old fashioned newsprint journalism to the slick pop magazine format. That's when I got rid of my subscription and haven't bothered with it since then.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

PatrickS77 said:

Yeah. Don't get it either. You have to wonder what is wrong with people? Artists can't sell records for shit anymore, having more pathetic album sales than the other, but then there is some relatively newcomer and people flock out in droves to buy her music. Her music certainly is not better than everyone elses. So what is it? What makes these people buy her albums?

maybe it's because she's actually offering.....substance?

As others have pointed out,Adele is not onstage half-naked,shaking her ass and "twerking".I think people have gotten sick and tired of that.She's like a breath of fresh air compared to most of these other pop starlets.She's not into gimmicks,games and distractions.With her,what you see is what you get...a strong voice singing meaningful songs....what a concept,huh? There is nothing "wrong with people" who actually prefer to spend their money on Adele instead of,say,Miley Cyrus.

So I have been listening to my girlfriend's copy of Adele's 25 and also just observing what is going on marketing wise.

Here are my observations:

The Music

1) Classic Soul Music. My favorite song right now is "River Lea". Felt like real music being played by real musicaians and sung by a real singer. Good solid songwriting. Good songs.

2) Honest songs. Open about her failings and insecurities. Someone you could drown your sorrows in. Like an Oprah who sings.

3) Still optimistic and positive.

4) After listening to Adele, I tried listening to Ellie Goulding. I couldn't do it. The auto-tuned processed voice. The electronic instruments. It felt really fake after listening to Adele. Plus the typical pop themes to the lyrics felt light weight and meaningless. I actually had to let Adele get out of my head before I could give it a chance.

Marketing

1) Adele is being sold largely as a voice and a face. She doesn't dance and not being slim, glossy magazines covers focus instead on her face which has been made up to be classically beautiful. They have done to here exactly what they have done to Katy Perry with Make-up and maybe even cosmetic surgery. Not saying it is surgery..don't start...it may just be weight loss which has given her, her current look.

2) The persona she is being marketed as is, she could be your best friend, assuming she is being marketed to young girls. She is nice, not the pop tart biyotch who would steal your boyfriend.

3) Very good counter-culture marketing. So many young pop singers being marketed to show as much skin as possible, be explicit etc. Adele wholesomeness is a welcome relief from all the nonsense. It also appeals to the older more mature crowd. She is the anti-Miley Circus..eh.. Cyrus

SoulAlive said:

As others have pointed out, Adele is not onstage half-naked, shaking her ass and "twerking". I think people have gotten sick and tired of that.

I don't think that's it at all. The people who are more likely to listen to those kinds of acts tend to be younger and don't generally buy albums in the first place. They are more likely to download music for free because they didn't grow up buying CDs. They have an Ipod or something and you don't need a product for that. Or they just watch the video on Youtube. You'll see that Nicki Minaj, Psy, Rihanna, Fetty Wap, etc. get hundreds of millions of views. If people were tired of it, they sure wouldn't get those numbers.

^^they may get a huge number of Youtube views,but are they selling 7 million copies of an album? I think Adele is appealing to fans of those artists,too (in addition to the older crowd you suggested).

It's worth noting that the biggest-selling single of the 70s was "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone.Proves that,even in the sex-and-drug-culture of the 70s,people still appreciate a good ballad of substance.

SoulAlive said:

^^they may get a huge number of Youtube views, but are they selling 7 million copies of an album? I think Adele is appealing to fans of those artists,too (in addition to the older crowd you suggested).

But why would they buy a CD if they have nothing to play it on? An Ipod or phone doesn't need a CD, tape, or record to work. To buy a download, you need a credit card and teens don't usually have credit, so they download it for free. The audio and/or the video from Youtube can be downloaded if the person has the program to do so. There's people who upload entire albums and now there's the "topic channels" by the record labels which has the songs individually from albums in better sound quality than some of the fan uploads. If they can watch the video as many times as they want, there's no real reason to buy the album. That's probably why Billboard counts the Youtube views now on the Hot 100. I don't even think it's the price of the CDs as the average price of a video game is around $70 and a pair of Jordans are at least $150. Buy many people have the video game console and a game can be rented, unlike a CD although I think they had CD rentals in Australia in the 1990s.

[Edited 12/30/15 22:14pm]

2freaky4church1 said:

I don't know if I go for that. You know my thoughts on Hello. The album is good, but that good? Not Sign O The Times good.

Without the risk of taking your thread off-topic, my respond is better off as its own thread.

But I will say this much: As excellent as Adele is, I think its totally f*** up that there are other soulful black AND white female artists whom in their prime had never sold albums no where close as fast as Adele is right now.

TonyVanDam said:

2freaky4church1 said:

I don't know if I go for that. You know my thoughts on Hello. The album is good, but that good? Not Sign O The Times good.

Without the risk of taking your thread off-topic, my respond is better off as its own thread.

But I will say this much: As excellent as Adele is, I think its totally f*** up that there are other soulful black AND white female artists whom in their prime had never sold albums no where close as fast as Adele is right now.

Yes, her sales are just beyond my understanding

214 said:

And i like her hits and couple of her songs, but it's too much

No its not too much. The record industry badly needs her right now. An artist who can move so many units. I felt the days of CD sales were over..she gives hope.

kitbradley said:

thedoorkeeper said:

kitbradley said:

With all of the hype surrounding Janet Jackson's latest album, the last time I checked, it has only sold under 200,000 copies in the U.S.???

Adele went on talk shows and performed. I don't recall Janet doing that. Adele gave interviews to magazines. I don't recall Janet giving any interviews. Adele promoted her cd. Janet not so much.

Beyonce released a surprise album with zero promotion and it was downloaded a million times in like 5 minutes without people having any idea what it sounded like. So the success of an album does not always mean having to promote it in the media. Sometimes, and I know this is generally the exception to the rule, name recognition is enough to sell an album. If your fanbase is large enough, then you are pretty much guaranteed some degree of success. I don't believe non-Beyonce fans rushed to download her album. I know I didn't and never will.

ilo said:

I think Adele causes her relationships to fail in order to be a whingy bastard on the next record.

Oh, you are kidding right?

Since Adele can spit some rhymes (at 10:15) is she still boring?

All I Ask got a big boost on itunes in a lot of countries after that hilarious Carpool karoke video. It should be a single after When We Were Young, I don't want Send My Love.



All I Ask

iTunes: