Options
Lowest Album Sales of the 21st Century
![[Deleted User]](https://wb.vanillicon.com/v2/b14d08f5a25bef6db07eabad50439b25.svg)
[Deleted User]
Posts: 2,425 Forum Member
✭✭✭
http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1049160&c=1
The sales for the top 5 albums:
1 Adele 22,235
2 Nicki Minaj 18,981
3 Alabama Shakes 15,703
4 Jessie J 14,171
5 Emeli Sande 12,719
Not good. Album sales have been down a lot this year but this is a new low. I suppose a lot of people might have been on holiday over Easter which could explain some of it but it's still a massive drop. At least singles are still selling well...
[news]Album weekly sales hit lowest point in 21st century[/news]
Overall album sales are 27.62% down week-on-week at 1,446,218 – that is 23.19% below same week 2011 sales of 1,882,878, and lower than in any of the 640 previous weeks that have elapsed in the 21st century.
The sales for the top 5 albums:
1 Adele 22,235
2 Nicki Minaj 18,981
3 Alabama Shakes 15,703
4 Jessie J 14,171
5 Emeli Sande 12,719
Not good. Album sales have been down a lot this year but this is a new low. I suppose a lot of people might have been on holiday over Easter which could explain some of it but it's still a massive drop. At least singles are still selling well...
[news]Album weekly sales hit lowest point in 21st century[/news]
0
Comments
That's true, but sales are almost 25% down compared to the same week last year and the lowest they've been in any week for at least 12 years. Might be a bit more than just seasonal variation.
Have all the good artists take a sabbatical at the same time?
Its not its just alot of crap is out these days thats why 21 million people have bought Adeles album because its a good album and doesn't sing about how she would like to **** someone :rolleyes:
Even though it sold only 22k this week just goes to prove that
Emile Sande has produced a great record and isn't selling even half of what Adele is.
It's all about capturing the public's imagination, I guess. Adele clearly has, Emeli and the others not so much but she's still selling very well (#2 on the UK YTD list). And I do find it weird that her first name is actually Adele
I think she's sold 21 million because of the hype around the album. After a few months it sort of became a "well if it's done so well and won so many awards then I must check it out" type purchase, imo. It's a good album but severely over rated. Everyone seems to think Adele is the only one who has released a decent album recently when actually there are plenty other brilliant albums that aren't getting anywhere near as much attention. It's almost like people are just buying 21 out of default since everything else is ignored by the media.
True there are a few good records out there i just meant a lot are crap
Hype can certainly sell an album..... but only for a short period if it doesn't actually connect with the public. I think '21' is a classic case of 'word of mouth' selling. It's not like Adele is whoring herself out on any show going in order to get these sales, the last time she actually appeared singing on TV was almost 2 months ago.
If Madonna's album had been less awful, maybe it would've helped to not give last week the statistic of lowest sales. But It's not down to one person, it's because nobody has really released anything in that week - which is a shame because it'd be an easy number 1 album for them lol.
Madonna's album is actually great. Many critics have listed it in her top tier. Its suffered from not having the correct promo and a wrong single choice. Many don't even know her album is out. That said its still managed to shift over 1 million copies in a few weeks. Its officially the biggest selling new release this year so far. Then of course if you factor in all album sales are way lower than normal for this time of year, not just in this country but America too, you can see the sales problems are way more wide spread than one chart.
This. There are loads of great albums, but the media don't hype them up in the same way.
I can't believe anyone would be disappointed in the slightest by 21 slowing down in terms of sales at this point. She's hogged the top spots for ages now - let someone else have a go!
Every now and then we see a stand out album, but selling 10-15 or even 20 million, could only be half the sales the respective albums may have shifted otherwise. Perhaps even less. The success of Adele in particular demonstrates the sales you could achieve from crossing demographics - from young pop fans to grandparents - but I think it's a mistake to use her success as an indicator of what "good music" can sell and how "quality" transcends illegal downloading. 21's sales are so huge because typically Top 40 oblivious (and likely non-illegal downloading) people bought it, not because it was just so brilliant it convinced people to not illegally download it.
I'm waiting for one of the big artists to experiment with how albums are distributed. I think it could be interesting to offer the album for free, using a legal download link from their website (potentially sponsored, to generate revenue). The aim of the game would be to attract all those who illegally download in addition to those who would have bought it, using a counter to calculate the digital units downloaded in total. They would lose out on sales, but they'd also have a more accurate indicator of their audience. The increased exposure would aid ticket sales, with the free album as added incentive. If they were to release singles beforehand and later release a physical (deluxe) CD for those who want it, I think costs could be covered. If not, the tour will more than cover it.
Someone needs to step out of convention and see how best to go about it in this day and age. The industry is largely stuck in the past, crying over lost sales that there's no way they can retrieve. Move forward. Be innovative.
interesting, a different approach could improve the music too. What we get now in an age of sales decrease is sales chasing, which is an anti-art way of doing things, so the music declines along with the sales and both drag each other down.
As you say, it's probably time to look beyond the traditional idea of sales.
there's probably always an element of snowballing with giant selling albums. But 21's sales are interesting the more you think about it. It's probably fair to say most of it's sales weren't to existing Adele fans, as she didn't have a huge fanbase previously, but were just people who liked something they heard. There really hasn't been much hype, it grew naturally with a few strong tv performances which hit the mark, and some strong singles. Hype comes before the event and is about selling what can't easily be sold, 21's award came a year after it's release when it'd already destroyed everything else. It's a one-off in this era, it can't be easily explained but it won't happen again, not even to her.
It's true there are great albums that get overlooked (Feist's last one for e.g:(), but even if they'd been over-exposed everwhere there's no way of knowing if they'd have fared much better - some music just doesn't have that wide appeal but it's no worse for that
Illegal downloading is obviously a factor but the crapness of pop music at the moment doesn't help. It would help if better music was promoted more (and different types of music to appeal to a wider range of people). Adele has shown that people are still willing to buy albums and '21' isn't even that good.
Illegal downloading plays it part but generally disposable income is lower during periods of recession and compared to say 20 years ago there is so much else on the entertainment front you can spend your money on.