Ah, the creative American music business. Move up the release date by a day due to Thanksgiving, push out a bunch of buzz-worthy CDs, and call it SUPER TUESDAYMONDAY!
*crickets*
I shouldn’t mock, because I have been waiting for a few of these releases, but it is kind of a joke. Last year’s Super TuesdayMonday was a big ol’ bust. In a week where Kanye West and Guns N Roses were both expected to sell in excess of 500,000 units each, Kanye hit the mid-400K range, while GNR didn’t even break 300,000. Only the top 11 releases hit six figures, where past years would have seen between 15 and 20 titles exceed 100,000 units.
[Side note: how crushing of a blow is the #13 bow of Leona Lewis with Echo?]
Last week saw the top 7 titles exceed 100K, with John Mayer leading the way, and this week should be more, but by how much? Susan Boyle is expected to exceed 500,000, but the next highest title prediction is Adam Lambert’s debut For Your Entertainment with 225,000 units. It is early in the week, and things could still change radically, but it is just not going to be as big a week as the industry is hoping it will be.
Stumble It!
Pop Music Notes 
Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert? I guess the apocalypse really is nigh….
It already came when Cheryl Cole got a #1 album.
Lady GaGa is doing well too. I read Rihanna isn’t selling as strongly as hoped though. Probably because “Russian Roulette” has not become a big hit.
Should be an interesting chart come Tuesday night…
Well perhaps sales aren’t what they used to be at all in the music industry no matter what time of year. It’s weird though that the Boyle is likely to sell nearly as many copies in England!!
Sales clearly are down – look at all the hype and singles sales in the US, yet Lady Cuckoo has yet to top 2 million. It feels like a 5 million selling album stateside but it’s not 😦
Absolutely feel you on the GaGa perception. When I saw it was only at 1.6 million, I was pretty stunned. She will be well over 2 million units by the end of the month between the two releases.
I hear Glammy and GaGa are doing well. GaGa has the #1 album on iTunes (yay to that). But yeah, the record companies are not getting the $$ they used to back in the day.
The record companies only seem to understand how to repackage the oldies these days.
CDs just aren’t selling like they used to, no matter who is putting them out and no matter the content on them. Sad but true. As for Boyle, she definitely appeals to a demographic that would rather buy the physical CD than download it illegally, so I’m not really surprised she’s raking in the numbers. What IS sad is that the young people today won’t have the same passion to support THEIR artists. It’s sad.
No arguments at all, but I think as modes of distribution change, there might be some way to recapture some of the record buying public. First, the record companies need to evolve. Nothing will change until that occurs.