laurarichardson said:

CynicKill said:

>

And yet Spotify has a net worth of 8.4 billion dollars!

Exactly, I will never understand the mindset that thinks the distrubutor of the music should make more than the creator.

...Sorry Spotify isn't the distributor - that's the Internet!! Thank the people who put satellites in space and fiber optic cable under the sea!! Amongst others.....

Shawy89 said:

I Decided by Big Sean, currently the #1 album on Billboard 200, sold 151,000 in album-equivalent units, and 65,000 in pure album sales.

iTunes is dead

Physical sales are BEYOND dead

Everyone is using Spotify or Apple Music or Tidal to stream music.

But just look at the numbers, they're so demeaning and tragic. What the fuck is this? By summer I assure you that will have <10K sellers in Top 10.

[Edited 2/18/17 1:06am]

The more troubling thing is that 65,000 bought Big Sean.

It depends on the artist. Some older artists who debut at number 1 all of their sales are physical and not that streaming nonsense, which to me should not be a sale no matter what the equation is. But i recall in November the latest Bon Jovi debuted at Number one with 129,000 sold and 128,000 sold physically, full length release.

What are "album equivalent units"? Anyone?

Who is Big Sean?

midnightmover said:

What are "album equivalent units"? Anyone?

>

Without doing too much research, it's not a sale at all.

They count so many STREAMS of an album/song as a sale.

Can you believe that?

thesoulbrother said:

Who is Big Sean?

Hey! Remember how Adele smashed *NSync's record of 2.416 million copies in one week IN 2000, by selling 2.433 million copies in FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER 2015?

I wish the industry would figure out that unless you are 2 Live Crew or N.W.A. circa 1989, explicit language albums are NOT a fast ticket to sales.

Don't even get me started on the album version of "Starboy" by The Weeknd.

Cinny said:

Shawy89 said:

When 70% of the nation identifies as Christian, explicit content makes a huge difference in sales potential.

Or maybe its just nothing good came out that week and this was the "best" thing there was for people/his fans to buy. I personally have no clue who he is, heard the name but in Rap at this point i have heard all the Big's and Lil's etc...and its really just "tired" at this point, there is very little New stuff coming out this point in the genre that is "run out and get it".

domainator2010 said:

laurarichardson said:

Exactly, I will never understand the mindset that thinks the distrubutor of the music should make more than the creator.

...Sorry Spotify isn't the distributor - that's the Internet!! Thank the people who put satellites in space and fiber optic cable under the sea!! Amongst others.....

Spitify, Ample Musics, Giggle Plus, and the like services ARE the distributors. They aggregate the music people want to hear from the recording artists and their agents, and distribute it to the people who pay buckets and buckets of money at US$10 or whatever currency/month for their service.

>

The distribution services are delivered through the infrastructure of the Internet--the technological platform for these services. We all pay to support this infrastructure through government taxes and the requisite subscription to a Web browser.

>

These streaming distributors collect the majority of profits of the music industry in this setup. They pay pennies to artists, get craploads of cash from convenience-seeking consumers, collect more cash from advertisers, and pay a bit to recording industry labels and independent artists for licensing fees in order to make billions from charmed consumers. It is brilliant for them!

>

It is what is happening now, and in the meanwhile as a result, album sales have plummeted. The recording industry may not be able to keep up with the market demand to generate more novel content to feed the streaming services. The musicians and their dealmaking record companies need cash to support their endeavors, and they're not getting very much in support from the streaming services. Streamers, to the contrary, invest little in order to collect so much profit in their music distribution scheme.

>

The time may come when novel content becomes scarce on streaming services, shrinking to little more than the Top 100 Hits of yore for them to broadcast. The industry and sustaining artists will have been tapped out--with low profit gained from their work eliminating any margin of profit for them to survive and thrive. The idea may sound fantastic today, but the beginning signs have already appeared in the form of low album sales. Next thing to observe will be how many people are making new albums--are those numbers dropping, too? Once the market potential for streaming has been realized, and the profit margins for providers are left blowing in the wind, in order to hear new interesting music, people will have to go down to the club and pay their money to the bands to hear something new played to them live and maybe have an opportunity to buy a collection of their work in album form. Streaming will be replaced by clubbing and concert-going--this sounds like a full circle cycle, I guess--getting back and giving back directly to the sources of the sounds we love.

SoulAlive said:

laurarichardson said:

--I did not say they should be more they should be paid what is fair. A penny is not fair to anyone. Less revenue also means the pool of talent is going to get worst since people cannot afford to be in the industry. The industry cannot afford A&R. Plenty of articles about this problem with the data to back up stiuation. I am also glad you don't give a shit about Prince's stituation because he only worked hard his whole life on his music and did not deserve to make a dime off it and should have never donated one dime to anyone to himself.

Regarding Prince,I pointed out that he was an extremely wealthy man who was paid lots of money for his hard work.Remember his 1992 recording contract where he would get a $10 million advance per album? Or what about when Clive Davis (Arista) gave him a whopping $11 million to release one album (Rave)? Or what about the more recent one-off deals when Prince got a huge pay check before the CDs were even released? You're trying to act like Prince was this poor,struggling,hard-working artist who was constantly ripped off by the music business....lol....it's just simply not true.

Don't forget that for every project, prior to any realized paydate, dude had to pay his own production costs for studio function, taxes like everyone (or the rich) and pay to his bands and staff--not cheap! And prior to the point where he would demand more equitable partnerships from the usual busniess characters, he was getting ripped, just like the thousands of other musicians playing the usual business games. He earned those profits he made by getting busy and being smart by handling his own business.

MotownSubdivision said:

Cinny said:

Hey! Remember how Adele smashed *NSync's record of 2.416 million copies in one week IN 2000, by selling 2.433 million copies in FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER 2015?

I wish the industry would figure out that unless you are 2 Live Crew or N.W.A. circa 1989, explicit language albums are NOT a fast ticket to sales.

Don't even get me started on the album version of "Starboy" by The Weeknd.

Never thought of it that way. You'd think with how society is now it wouldn't really matter that much.

Wholesome material is a major selling point. And we all know Adele curses in her every day talk, but it doesn't dirty up her lyrics.

Thanks to streaming, sales don't matter unless, of course, if you're selling music on Bandcamp. That's where I chiefly go to support artists.

Identity said:

Thanks to streaming, sales don't matter unless, of course, if you're selling music on Bandcamp. That's where I chiefly go to support artists.

Good--will bookmark.

Cinny said:

Hey! Remember how Adele smashed *NSync's record of 2.416 million copies in one week IN 2000, by selling 2.433 million copies in FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER 2015?

I wish the industry would figure out that unless you are 2 Live Crew or N.W.A. circa 1989, explicit language albums are NOT a fast ticket to sales.

Don't even get me started on the album version of "Starboy" by The Weeknd.

I'm sorry but Adele and Taylor Swift is overrated. If both wasn't their complexions the sales would be different. And if you all that think both can sing then TLC, Ashanti, Beyonce, Lauryn Hill, and others are GREA