New in the Charts Thread
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RMartinez:
To go Gold or Platinum is certainly success. But it is relative in the music biz. If you are a young, new act, those numbers are brilliant. But if I recall, Michael Jackson's THRILLER sold something like 25 million copies. I remember the press writing that BAD was a failure because it sold only 10 million or something like that, as a follow up. McCartney has himself to compete with. His LP and CD sales are respectable. But I am sure the man would still like to see his work sell like BOTR or WOA. NEW is a really good CD that is doing reasonably well. I am sure Macca can handle that!
I think he could live with the overall sales, too -- as long as the album reached No. 1 album in America. As much as I love the album, I am personally ticked-off that it didn't get to No. 1. And, as usual, I blame the concerted lack of radio airplay.
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Meant to post yesterday, New is now one month old. Sure wish he was touring the U.S. right now in a big way, it would kick up the charts.
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audi:
RMartinez:
To go Gold or Platinum is certainly success. But it is relative in the music biz. If you are a young, new act, those numbers are brilliant. But if I recall, Michael Jackson's THRILLER sold something like 25 million copies. I remember the press writing that BAD was a failure because it sold only 10 million or something like that, as a follow up. McCartney has himself to compete with. His LP and CD sales are respectable. But I am sure the man would still like to see his work sell like BOTR or WOA. NEW is a really good CD that is doing reasonably well. I am sure Macca can handle that!
I think he could live with the overall sales, too -- as long as the album reached No. 1 album in America. As much as I love the album, I am personally ticked-off that it didn't get to No. 1. And, as usual, I blame the concerted lack of radio airplay.
I completely agree!!! I am convinced that if it were receiving more radio play the album would be a bigger "hit." How is Cher above Paul in the US charts? Probably because it's getting more airplay for whatever reason. Radio play is where it's at these days, as well as in the "early days." In my opinion it'll make you or break you.
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I looked at the archive Global Album chart sales figures to compare Paul's NEW album with David Bowie's The Next Day album for the first four weeks of release , it's not good reading . David Bowie The Next Day week one - 404.000 week two - 152.000 week three - 107.000 week four - 91.000 Paul McCartney NEW week one - 165.000 week two - 74.000 week three - 49.000 week four - 39.000 These sales figures show I believe that Paul released his album the wrong time of year , the Bowie album came out in March 2013 it benefited from not getting lost in the end of year big releases like Eminem's release The Marshall Mathers 2 album which as just clocked up first week Global sales of 1.221.000. The marketing for NEW as failed Paul needs a fresh team that understands how to market a mature artist . They need to have a chat with Bowie's team they seem to have marketed a mature artist much better .
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Wow. Bowie's album went Gold in its second week.
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Bowie being away for 10 years helped boost his sales in my opinion too. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and people were intrigued by Bowie's return, not the same with Paul as he seems to have been everywhere over the last few years. I think a certain fatigue has set in where Paul is concerned, especially here in the UK, too much exposure can work the opposite and people get fed up seeing you.
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BOYCIE:
Bowie being away for 10 years helped boost his sales in my opinion too. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and people were intrigued by Bowie's return, not the same with Paul as he seems to have been everywhere over the last few years. I think a certain fatigue has set in where Paul is concerned, especially here in the UK, too much exposure can work the opposite and people get fed up seeing you.
Very true. I was waiting on the post office to open the other day, standing in line with a woman in her 50s who turned out to be an ardent fan (can't remember how we started talking about Beatles/Paul) and she said "He's everywhere now. One of the things that made him so cool was that he was hardly ever seen!" She was dead right, perhaps many members of John Q. Public have their memories almost full of Paul and don't have any additional room! Playing "hard to get" worked for Bowie.
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Lack of airplay continues to be a major problem, as many people still encounter new music via radio, archaic as it may seem. "New" was a modest success on Adult Contemporary, briefly hitting #16 on the daily updates of Mediabase 7-day charts, and did nearly as well on Triple A. But that combined equals at best about 5% of the spins a major Top 40 artist like Katy Perry can get. And plenty of stations in even those formats never played it. "Queenie Eye," meanwhile, continues to struggle. It's inching up slowly on Triple A, now at #31: http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=255603 But it hasn't made even a dent in any other format. While I never much cared for "Queenie" as the 2nd single, the unhappy fact is that most radio programmers seem to regard Paul as just an oldies act, and I'm not sure how you break out of that. I do think a really good video for "New" -- with lots of celebs, but maybe a more interesting concept than the pretty boring "Queenie Eye" video -- might have helped, but don't know if it would be enough. And unfortunately, it becomes a vicious cycle: Every time Paul puts out a record that doesn't chart all that well, it reinforces radio programmers' preconceptions.
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I saw where David Bowie is putting out a video for one of his new songs, redone into an extended dance mix, depicting "a couple making love" (naked), should the Mackster have resorted to that? Macca : ops:
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SusyLuvsPaul:
I saw where David Bowie is putting out a video for one of his new songs, redone into an extended dance mix, depicting "a couple making love" (naked), should the Mackster have resorted to that? Macca : ops:
Well, of course that's what Justin Timberlake did with Elvis' granddaughter in his video for "TKO." I think one of the other songs on NEW might have lent itself more to a sexy video (Alligator, Appreciate)
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SusyLuvsPaul:
I saw where David Bowie is putting out a video for one of his new songs, redone into an extended dance mix, depicting "a couple making love" (naked), should the Mackster have resorted to that? Macca : ops:
Nah, I can't see Paul having footage 'John & Yoko' in one of his videos.
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Bowie was away for a while. But so was Paul McCartney, the solo Beatle putting out a CD of pop rock. Things might be different if NEW was Paul's first CD since MAF. But when you factor in a cover CD of old standards, stuff like ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS, and Paul doing things like ballets and classical CDs, a NEW CD can get lost in the marketing mix.
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RMartinez:
Bowie was away for a while. But so was Paul McCartney, the solo Beatle putting out a CD of pop rock. Things might be different if NEW was Paul's first CD since MAF. But when you factor in a cover CD of old standards, stuff like ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS, and Paul doing things like ballets and classical CDs, a NEW CD can get lost in the marketing mix.
Bowie didn't have the disastrous Jubilee and Olympic performances either, they haven't helped.
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"Hosanna" gets sexy too, gets explicit near the end I wonder, could Paul reissue "Electric Arguments" with his name in big letters on its cover? Or "Paul McCartney" (huge letters) "and Youth" (somewhat smaller letters, or almost the same size.) That might further 'muddy the waters' and complicate things, though? Distract from "New"? So he should wait on that a while, if he could even do it. (Could he?)
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Why would he do that? He is perfectly fine with being the Fireman.
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Well, for one huge thing, obviously the excellent amazing "Electric Arguments" would have garnered much more attention and acclaim and interest, even a fascination, with the public had it been "officially" a Paul McCartney album. This has been pointed out before, by others.
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SusyLuvsPaul:
I saw where David Bowie is putting out a video for one of his new songs, redone into an extended dance mix, depicting "a couple making love" (naked), should the Mackster have resorted to that? Macca : ops:
Macca did that with "Beautiful Night" off of 'Flaming Pie' 16 years ago. A great song, but it never became a hit. Even with a debut on Oprah!
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Paul Down to 96 in its 5th week in the UK....someone from Britain please explain ? Rod Stewart with new material is at 31 in its 27th week Cher at 56 Elton John at 90 in its 9th week Bowie at 94...week 36 shock shock shock
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SusyLuvsPaul:
"Hosanna" gets sexy too, gets explicit near the end I wonder, could Paul reissue "Electric Arguments" with his name in big letters on its cover? Or "Paul McCartney" (huge letters) "and Youth" (somewhat smaller letters, or almost the same size.) That might further 'muddy the waters' and complicate things, though? Distract from "New"? So he should wait on that a while, if he could even do it. (Could he?)
But why? It's not like Electric Arguments soars above anything else McCartney has put out in the last decade. It's OK. That ship has sailed.
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Teddy Boy22:
audi:
RMartinez:
To go Gold or Platinum is certainly success. But it is relative in the music biz. If you are a young, new act, those numbers are brilliant. But if I recall, Michael Jackson's THRILLER sold something like 25 million copies. I remember the press writing that BAD was a failure because it sold only 10 million or something like that, as a follow up. McCartney has himself to compete with. His LP and CD sales are respectable. But I am sure the man would still like to see his work sell like BOTR or WOA. NEW is a really good CD that is doing reasonably well. I am sure Macca can handle that!
I think he could live with the overall sales, too -- as long as the album reached No. 1 album in America. As much as I love the album, I am personally ticked-off that it didn't get to No. 1. And, as usual, I blame the concerted lack of radio airplay.
I completely agree!!! I am convinced that if it were receiving more radio play the album would be a bigger "hit." How is Cher above Paul in the US charts? Probably because it's getting more airplay for whatever reason. Radio play is where it's at these days, as well as in the "early days." In my opinion it'll make you or break you.
_________________________________________ Yes, lack of radio airplay has significantly hurt but in my opinion, the lack of big US TV Appearances by Paul (especially after NEW became available to buy - 10/15) has hurt sales even more. I actually think that NEW is doing "well" considering the total lack of publicity and appearances in the US. NEW is at #40 on Billboard which is respectable considering all the new Christmas albums "now" above him. Since Paul is on tour in Japan, NEW is selling almost totally on "Word of Mouth" Paul's core audience in the US (baby boomers) are gradually hearing about the quality of NEW from other people or reviews and are slowly getting around to buying. While these numbers are certainly not best selling numbers, it does show that it is working albeit slowly. I still have hope that NEW can be in the top 20-40 as late as next February-March-April etc. The whole key is if Paul decides to do a US tour starting lets say in March. I am also assuming that Paul plays a good number of NEW songs live (hopefully 5 or 6). A tour coupled with all the 50th Anniversary Beatles in America publicity would give NEW "new life". Even a great CD like NEW needs strong Marketing, Promotion and Publicity. Unfortunately, this has not been the case so far and that is a crime in my opinion. But if Paul really wants it and a national US tour is announced, he still has time. The Cher question is a good one. She is at #33 now (after 7 weeks) 7 slots ahead of Paul. The big difference is that Cher was everywhere with appearances after her album was available. She appeared on all the talk shows as well as her big appearance on Dancing with the Stars. On top of that, she announced a major US tour starting in March 2014 and with every ticket purchased, a FREE copy of her new CD is received. With all of this Marketing going on, it isn't surprising that the album is still at #33. NEW hasn't had anything close to this publicity. As I said, for Paul to be at #40 after 4 weeks, isn't bad at all considering the total lack of US publicity particularly over the last 3 weeks. NEW is selling now almost exclusively on good reviews and word of mouth.