New in the Charts Thread
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whobeatle:
The other day, NEW had total world sales of about 288,000 after 21 days. Does anyone have more current worldwide sales totals? NEW, relatively speaking, has been a smashing success, It opened at number three in the USA, the biggest market in the world. It opened in Japan at number 2, and the single * New peaked at number four. Japan is nearly twice the size of the UK, how is number two and the single at number four a failure? McCartney is a victim of his own success, he has 25 post Beatles solo studio albums. Plus over half a dozen live albums, half a dozen classical albums, and about four ambient or electronica albums. Not to mention the 13 Beatles studio albums, lets call it a case of over exposure. Cd sales and downloads are near parity in terms of units sold, but sadly for McCartney, most older fans still prefer to buy the physical cd, so he gets beat out of a lot of sales just because "his audience" doesn't buy many downloads. Plus the vinyl will be at least a month late, maybe that's only gonna be ten thousand units, but he could have used those sales the first two weeks. He's released 13 albums in the 21st century, six of them new studio albums. He is 71, and his team or label totally mucked up the timing of his Queenie Eye video, the television appearances *(which preceded) the release of the album. Also to a minority of press and mean spirited people in the UK he is panned unfairly I think. Happily in the USA and in Japan and Latin America at least, he is very very popular and beloved. He entered the biggest music market on the planet *USA at number 3, that's fantastic! But that's only worth 65,000 units sold, in a nation of 320 million people.. horrific, it's a very telling commentary, on changing demographics, and just how badly the excecutives in the USA ran the music business (into the ground)) Don't kid yourself, Paul McCartney is the most succesful recording artist and songwriter in history. If there was no music piracy I wonder how many units he might have sold. It's hard to rally the troops, his marginal or casual fans, when this is his sixth studio and 13th overall album this century, John Lennon only released seven studio albums before he was killed. Because there aren't very many, they are revered like gold. McCartney could do a lot of things to sell more cds, At 71 he needs the Beatles name, too many of his fans have died of old age or stopped buying music, If he fixed up a Beatles outtake similar to Free As A Bird and included it on his album, if he tours to support the album, if he does three or four expensive videos like the Queenie eye video, if he buys more ads on television and magazines to promote the album, does more interviews, he can shepard over NEW until it gradually sells a couple million copies. If he didin't have so many projects people would have paid more attention to this one, this is the 13th time he has promoted an album this century, the casual fan becomes confused. He has about the worst set of advisors, promoters, publicists in history, and he and them confuse the public.
I have been looking for a message like yours, you summed it up quite well. I can well remember how his sales started to sag in the early 80s and how I kept hoping for something huge in terms of sales after Tug of War and it just wouldn't happen during that decade. Then Broad Street and the bad press on that carried over and unfairly hurt Press to Play, plus industry changes, etc. brought us to the point we are at today. Somewhere along the way, I think in the 90s, I pretty much quit worrying about it and just enjoy his music regardless and try not to follow the charts to where I am upset. Fact is, all his older fans, people like me in the their 50s on up don't buy much of ANY music these days and most prefer to have Paul placed carefully in a nice time capsule marked "BEATLES" and can't move beyond that, which is THEIR fault. A song like New is fantastic and one would think they would readily embrace it in terms of sales but it just doesn't have that magic word Beatles on it, even though it certainly has that magic sound. Someone on here said that New has only sold 15,000 copies in the UK. If correct, that's less people than he will play to in Japan in just one night! That's where the stage is the place he devotes some much time to these days, that and his own nostalgia for his early days. Those shows there will help sales, just as I am sure a 2014 tour in the US, UK, etc. will help sales as well. That's what happened with Flowers in the Dirt in 1989, that album came out in June that year, he hit the road in the fall and then made it here in December with sales moving up after they sagged following the summer release. Lot harder to sell them now than the 70s but give him time, he can do it!
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Apollo C. Vermouth:
With poor performance of New in UK charts (75) so far compared to US , although US could be better (17 on Billboard). I wonder why Paul's UK fan base or just the general public have lost interest. I often wonder is it the " tall poppy" syndrome. I am sure any objective listener would agree New is a excellent album as most critics have said. So it must be something else working against it. What do you Brits think ???
Lack of radio airplay for the singles, I think. So what you have, as a result, is the core McCartney fans buying on the week of release showing a strong first week chart position. And after that, the album then drops away quickly. Same scenario with Metal bands to. I would like to see the album still in the top 20 at least, but never mind as the album itself is very strong and that's most important in my books.
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Look 288,000 copies in 21 days is very good in todays world. I think McCartney's people made a grave error in promotion, by focusing on youtube and download sales. McCartney has some young fans of course. But the majority of his fans are older, they prefer cd and traditional advertising on television and radio and print magazines. Of course you're profit may go down as you are increasing costs when you buy print and tv ads, but it gets the word out to the older Beatles or Wings fan. Gotta spend on advertising to get the word out. McCartney having a nice new album out, isin't the automatic number one it would have been years ago. Fans have died off, fans have stopped buying music. In today's rough economy someone with seven Paul McCartney cds on the music shelf, may not be that inspired to buy that eighth album, unless you really bombard them with heavy touring, television appearances and advertising. Radio is not nearly as important as it once was, but it would help, sadly he doesn't get much airplay. New is a terrific album, the world goes on, the sun will come up tomorrow, McCartney will still be worth a billion, the most succesful songwriter in history. Eventually this album will break a million units sold, and that's very good in 2013, remarkable for a guy 71. If Paul and Ringo are seen in public a couple times, and rumors swirl about a new unreleased Beatles song from the archives, New will slam right back into the top ten. Believe me there are ways to make things happen. Question is, will McCartney let the sharks out to make a strong run when he hits Europe or the States with some concerts. Watch Japan buy an extra 20-30 thousand copies of New just because he is playing a few shows there.
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NEW is predicted to drop to 32 on Billboard in its 4th week. That is a poor showing and means that the album will vanish from sight after only one month. Quite touching to read posts saying that worldwide sales are nearing 300.000. Eminem will be No. 1 with 700.000 copies in its 1st week in the US alone ! Do I expect Paul to sell like Eminem ? Certainly not ! I´d be perfectly happy to see him selling like, Dylan, Bowie, Cher . But he doesn`t ! Funnily he used to when he was his own man in the 70s and early 80s. Now that he`s the eternal Beatle Paul his new songs have become a footnote to the charts.
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Theres very little chance now for NEW to come back in any great numbers in the UK,if there was a decent sized winter tour in the next week or two i would revise my thoughts but given it'll have disappeared from sight by the time of the next tour people will have moved on,more than likely to the next reissue. If the worldwide numbers being bandied about on here are to be believed they're poor,paint it no other way so i do hope its sold a sight more than that but who knows,it deserved better sales than it got,the chart position is meaningless nowadays,the album in question needs to be back the big number up by hanging around the charts. I'll say again NEW was let down by a poor release date in my view,given Pauls American tour last summer that would have made sense to promote it the old fashioned way rather than go out on a relatively meaningless tour with no new songs then release a new album..very odd to say the least,you leave reisuues alone when new material is about surely?
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hengirl:
Theres very little chance now for NEW to come back in any great numbers in the UK,if there was a decent sized winter tour in the next week or two i would revise my thoughts but given it'll have disappeared from sight by the time of the next tour people will have moved on,more than likely to the next reissue. If the worldwide numbers being bandied about on here are to be believed they're poor,paint it no other way so i do hope its sold a sight more than that but who knows,it deserved better sales than it got,the chart position is meaningless nowadays,the album in question needs to be back the big number up by hanging around the charts. I'll say again NEW was let down by a poor release date in my view,given Pauls American tour last summer that would have made sense to promote it the old fashioned way rather than go out on a relatively meaningless tour with no new songs then release a new album..very odd to say the least,you leave reisuues alone when new material is about surely?
that's true. However the Japanese tour, future USA and UK and Europe touring, tv, and interviews, may add five thousand sales here, five thousand there, over an extended period, eventually adding a couple hundred thousand to the totals over time, the omlette isin't cooked yet we shall see the numbers, lets revisit the totals in a few months see how they look, late reporting, revised figures, further promotion and so forth.
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Hasn't the "New" album done pretty well, so far, considering many young music fans won't even consider buying anything by a mature artist, it's said, while older ones don't buy many albums at all, anymore, it's claimed. And the music industry has changed so much, also. With downloads and all the various ways of obtaining tunes, some of them free. I finally remembered Paul has a facebook page and saw in there a lot of young people holding copies of "New," even more were pictured than older fans--not all youths are closed-minded. And worship only at the altar of Top 40. As pointed out, there are various methods to stimulate sales, get going on the charts again, let's trust these will be utilized. "New" deserves extra efforts! Recall when Macca wanted "Memory Almost Full" to be heard so badly that oodles were distributed free in a Brit newspaper, something other artists had tried. He did this only in England. Shows how dear his native land is to him Shall he resort to this tactic for "New" later on, because "New" is so dear to him and he avidly desires it be heard, you think?
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whobeatle:
Look 288,000 copies in 21 days is very good in todays world.
No, it's not. Eminem just sold 779,000 copies in his first week in just the U.S. We need to take off the rose-colored glasses, folks.
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Macca wears them, doesn't he? He's optimistic, upbeat, positive All that. Maybe this doesn't hurt him as much as you fear. He knows it'll get better, sales will improve, more ears will hear and enjoy--all that. "New" will probably be a steady seller. Might be slow, but steady and is subject to future "boosts" and "bumps" up the chart again.
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Bruce M.:
whobeatle:
Look 288,000 copies in 21 days is very good in todays world.
No, it's not. Eminem just sold 779,000 copies in his first week in just the U.S. We need to take off the rose-colored glasses, folks.
Happily Bruce I wouldn't know an eminem song if you put a gun to my head, so there is always a silver lining. I don't have any rose colored glasses on, it doesn't matter what Eminem sells or Miley Cyrus or Pearl Jam. 288 K in the first 21 days is probably what, in the top 25 or 50 artists for the whole year? I firmly believe McCartney will sell in spurts and dribs and drabs and eke his way well past a million worldwide sales. Does that equal the popularity of Abbey Road or Band On The Run, certainly not. There are twice as many people on the planet today as when the Beatles sang Love me do, and there are probably 10 times as many ipods, and stereos, as there were record players back then. I mean the guy released NEW against pretty heavy competition, for whatever reason, instead of picking a better window, but lets say he tops out at 1.1 million sales a year from now, on the NEW album. What is wrong with selling a million albums! He entered the USA market at number 3, number 2 in Japan, what the heck do you mean rose colored glasses? he entered Germany at number 6 I believe, was he 4 in France? number one in Norway. I'm under no illusion NEW has the sales and social impact that the White album or even Tug Of War had. But a million units is still good in my book. You act like it's an abject failure. How ridiculous. Young people largely think of music as something you get free, and many less units are being sold than before. I remember when hundreds of singles and albums went gold every year. How many album go gold now? 30? how many gold singles in a year now? 4 ? He's way past 300 K now, he is gonna get a bump in Japan and that entire region. He's gonna pick up sales when he tours Europe, UK and USA, how many copies does he have to sell before he isin't a commercial failure to you? Many established big name acts that used to go multiplatinum are often selling five or ten thousand copies now. A million is still good. I think the people at Hear music are idiots, they own the Starbucks chain, Or Starbucks owns Hear Music, whichever. But they don't play his album for a day or two in all the stores upon release. Most of the Brick and Mortar stores are gone now, but Starbucks has thousands of outlets! That one move probably cost him at least 30=60 thousand the first week. They never released a proper video for NEW the single, and Queenie Eye didin't come out till the album had been out over a week. He only did a few tv shows and they were all prior to the albums release. I haven't seen any print ads in Rolling Stone or on Television. If they correct some of those things, he can hang or return to the top forty and gradually sell quite a few units. Hell that covers album of old standards Kisses on the Bottom sold a lot of copies just last year. There are lots of folks who dig Paul McCartney, Beatles fans, Wings fans, music fans, I don't think most of them have a clue he has a new album out, If they really buy some ads, get some worldwide press on the McCartney mania taking place in Japan, get him on some more tv shows, he could still do well. His people don't seem very good at working the angles
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Over at WogBlog, he has noted that Amazon UK and Japan have pre-orders up for CDs of the original US Beatles albums (Meet The Beatles, Yesterday and Today, Hey Jude, and everything in between), coming out January 20! You make a lot of good points, whobeatle, but any significant further gains that Paul makes with "New" will, I say again, probably not happen till next year's tour. Right now, the media are inundated with images of 20-something Paul, and 70-something Paul will have a hard time competing with that until after the Ed Sullivan 50th anniversary passes. I'm as frustrated as you that Starbucks didn't do more with its massive platform to be able to promote this album, but if it's any consolation, they're not really doing much promotion for any new music anymore. Take a look at their Entertainment page: http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/entertainment. Rather pathetic. Hugh Laurie gets touted as a top new release, but not even a mention of Paul Friggin' McCartney? And the one video feature on the page is from last year? Ah, well. I guess they leave the music thing to some part-timer these days. Looking forward to the '14 tour!
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yankeefan7:
audi:
Apollo C. Vermouth:
With poor performance of New in UK charts (75) so far compared to US , although US could be better (17 on Billboard). I wonder why Paul's UK fan base or just the general public have lost interest. I often wonder is it the " tall poppy" syndrome. I am sure any objective listener would agree New is a excellent album as most critics have said. So it must be something else working against it. What do you Brits think ???
Very, very few artists are moving units of new product these days. I would say that there are less than 20 pop/rock acts selling in the millions these days. As much as country-music still sells, I was quite shocked that Scott McCreery's new album seems to have tanked. Incidentally, nearly every male that has ever won American Idol no longer has a record-deal.
"Incidentally, nearly every male that has ever won American Idol no longer has a record-deal" Because some of them should have not won, like Taylor Hicks who beat the definitely more talented Katherine McPhee.
Actually, Eliott Yamin should've won, but who wants to quibble?
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Bruce M.:
whobeatle:
Look 288,000 copies in 21 days is very good in todays world.
No, it's not. Eminem just sold 779,000 copies in his first week in just the U.S. We need to take off the rose-colored glasses, folks.
If those figures are correct then those worldwide sales are abysmal simple as that.
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I agree with others that the timing of the album release was horrible. It seems like Macca has been touring non-stop for the past 10 years, yet the album is released when he is not on the road?? Makes no sense whatsoever. If he had released the album in Spring/Summer, he could have played a heavy 'New' set of songs on Tour, as well as done a number of other promotions that tied album sales to concert events.
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Also, now that the second BBC Sessions CD of The Beatles is out, I suspect promotion of NEW will be relegated to Paul's concerts.
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whobeatle:
Bruce M.:
whobeatle:
Look 288,000 copies in 21 days is very good in todays world.
No, it's not. Eminem just sold 779,000 copies in his first week in just the U.S. We need to take off the rose-colored glasses, folks.
Happily Bruce I wouldn't know an eminem song if you put a gun to my head, so there is always a silver lining. I don't have any rose colored glasses on, it doesn't matter what Eminem sells or Miley Cyrus or Pearl Jam. 288 K in the first 21 days is probably what, in the top 25 or 50 artists for the whole year? I firmly believe McCartney will sell in spurts and dribs and drabs and eke his way well past a million worldwide sales. Does that equal the popularity of Abbey Road or Band On The Run, certainly not. There are twice as many people on the planet today as when the Beatles sang Love me do, and there are probably 10 times as many ipods, and stereos, as there were record players back then. I mean the guy released NEW against pretty heavy competition, for whatever reason, instead of picking a better window, but lets say he tops out at 1.1 million sales a year from now, on the NEW album. What is wrong with selling a million albums! He entered the USA market at number 3, number 2 in Japan, what the heck do you mean rose colored glasses? he entered Germany at number 6 I believe, was he 4 in France? number one in Norway. I'm under no illusion NEW has the sales and social impact that the White album or even Tug Of War had. But a million units is still good in my book. You act like it's an abject failure. How ridiculous. Young people largely think of music as something you get free, and many less units are being sold than before. I remember when hundreds of singles and albums went gold every year. How many album go gold now? 30? how many gold singles in a year now? 4 ? He's way past 300 K now, he is gonna get a bump in Japan and that entire region. He's gonna pick up sales when he tours Europe, UK and USA, how many copies does he have to sell before he isin't a commercial failure to you? Many established big name acts that used to go multiplatinum are often selling five or ten thousand copies now. A million is still good. I think the people at Hear music are idiots, they own the Starbucks chain, Or Starbucks owns Hear Music, whichever. But they don't play his album for a day or two in all the stores upon release. Most of the Brick and Mortar stores are gone now, but Starbucks has thousands of outlets! That one move probably cost him at least 30=60 thousand the first week. They never released a proper video for NEW the single, and Queenie Eye didin't come out till the album had been out over a week. He only did a few tv shows and they were all prior to the albums release. I haven't seen any print ads in Rolling Stone or on Television. If they correct some of those things, he can hang or return to the top forty and gradually sell quite a few units. Hell that covers album of old standards Kisses on the Bottom sold a lot of copies just last year. There are lots of folks who dig Paul McCartney, Beatles fans, Wings fans, music fans, I don't think most of them have a clue he has a new album out, If they really buy some ads, get some worldwide press on the McCartney mania taking place in Japan, get him on some more tv shows, he could still do well. His people don't seem very good at working the angles
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Eminem is a jugernaut though, his numbers don't reflect the market. there's him and everyone else, in terms of sure fire platinum/#1. whobeatle, you need to get what eminem is doing. its silly to shun such genius.
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If Eminem is a genius, I'm a demigod.
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RMartinez:
If Eminem is a genius, I'm a demigod.
You don't think Marshall Mathers is a lyrical genius?
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kapoo:
RMartinez:
If Eminem is a genius, I'm a demigod.
You don't think Marshall Mathers is a lyrical genius?
Nope. But that's just me. Post some lyrics here, I am open to seeing what he has to say.