ugh, 25% in one year! and '07 sales were already bad enough. i know on one forum they did a list of the top selling albums of the calendar year, and only one - ONE - album has hit double platinum (lil wayne). coldplay was at 1.8m so maybe they will get there in by 12/31...maybe. but that is a ridiculous number when you consider that not so long ago, pushing a mere 'platinum' was nothing - sometimes even considered a flop - for major artists, and now it is a huge fucking accomplishment.
i have heard people say before that music is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment and so it doesn't get affected as much by the economy and that may very well be true, but pirating is so easy now that it completely nullifies that theory. it really comes down to fan loyalty. it SHOULD be about the music, but it isn't - hasn't been for a very long time. it's about if you can convince someone to like YOU enough to buy your album even if they already have their favorite song as their ringtone.
it's so weird to think about twenty, ten, five years ago when it actually was not hard to develop a committed fanbase of any size if you put out a good (or at least commercial) album in your genre. now? it's like pulling teeth to get people to be bothered or to make the connection between album sales ---> favorite artist's chances of getting to make a next album. and if they do nine times out of ten they are not average fans, but obsessed stans. i have no problem with being designated as an obsessed stan if that is what it comes down to, btw :-) but it's a shame that it has to be like that. i have friends/a sister who look at me like i've lost my mind when i buy an album, b/c i could easily have it for free. i shouldn't feel like a freak for buying a cd, for crying out loud.
as you can see i could talk about this all day...music is my obsession. all that said i'm really proud of dc for doing 283k his first week, and a number like that, with continued steady promotion, SHOULD hold up to a good total at the end the entire cycle. i have my fingers crossed for him.
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Date: 2008-11-26 10:12 am (UTC)i have heard people say before that music is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment and so it doesn't get affected as much by the economy and that may very well be true, but pirating is so easy now that it completely nullifies that theory. it really comes down to fan loyalty. it SHOULD be about the music, but it isn't - hasn't been for a very long time. it's about if you can convince someone to like YOU enough to buy your album even if they already have their favorite song as their ringtone.
it's so weird to think about twenty, ten, five years ago when it actually was not hard to develop a committed fanbase of any size if you put out a good (or at least commercial) album in your genre. now? it's like pulling teeth to get people to be bothered or to make the connection between album sales ---> favorite artist's chances of getting to make a next album. and if they do nine times out of ten they are not average fans, but obsessed stans. i have no problem with being designated as an obsessed stan if that is what it comes down to, btw :-) but it's a shame that it has to be like that. i have friends/a sister who look at me like i've lost my mind when i buy an album, b/c i could easily have it for free. i shouldn't feel like a freak for buying a cd, for crying out loud.
as you can see i could talk about this all day...music is my obsession. all that said i'm really proud of dc for doing 283k his first week, and a number like that, with continued steady promotion, SHOULD hold up to a good total at the end the entire cycle. i have my fingers crossed for him.