The hand-wringing over Kanye West’s and Guns N’ Roses’ disappointing sales figures last week has begun, and lots of fingers seem to be pointing toward the economy, the decline of the music industry as a whole, and Axl Rose’s reclusive nature. But should someone maybe point out that people aren’t buying the discs because they heard them already and felt like they could live without the return of Axl and the rise of Autotune?
Billboard noted that the entire market was down, along with the headliners.
Music sales were down anywhere from 10% to 30% and hit albums released for Black Friday didn’t perform up to expectations, according to merchants contacted by Billboard. Sources say Kanye West’s “808s & Heartbreak” will sell in the range of 425,000-450,000 units, significantly down from 700,000-975,000 units previously projected.
Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” is expected to clock in at 250,000-260,000, which is also down from expectations that it would sell anywhere from 300,000-784,000 units.
Some might say that if sales for music are down in general from last year, it would follow that big titles’ sales would be disappointing as well. However, isn’t that reversing the cause and the effect? If another 500,000 customers would have headed into the music section of their favorite store to pick up the Kanye disc, wouldn’t the entire market have risen as well?
Maybe the problem isn’t the economy, but the bad the pre-release leak buzz for both discs. It wasn’t that long ago that Lil Wayne and Coldplay eclipsed the gold standard in their albums’ first week on shelves, and although the economy has taken a decided turn for the worse since, there weren’t millions of additional customers flooding stores during either of those earlier sales weeks. Maybe my real question is: What would Weezy have sold if Tha Carter III hit stores last week instead? I realize that it’s impossible to come up with a definitive answer, but on a personal note, I purchased each previous Kanye disc on its release date, but didn’t feel the need to get 808s, despite the snappy cover. After hearing the leak, I knew I wouldn’t be listening to the disc once 2009 rolled around, and I decided to spend my money on something else (a Wii game, incidentally).
Did you feel the same way? What’s really to blame for the disappointing bottom line?
Kanye, Guns N’ Roses Post Slow Debut-Week Sales [Billboard]
I don’t care what the economy says, Auto-Tune is awesome.
Honestly, I got every track on 808s as soon as they leaked. As a result, I didn’t buy the album. Not because I didn’t like it, but because Kanye doesn’t need my money. Now I realize that is bringing up a whole other debate, but still, I’m broke as hell and though I love the album, I don’t need the plastic and liner notes. I’ve read enough about it online to know what I need to know, so I suppose maybe I could take a whole “save the paper” line here and argue for stealing the album off the internet as a way to save the environment. As far as Gnr goes, the album just seems like a novelty. I don’t have the time now to look it up, but I think a fair comparison might be made to Metallica’s most recent album sales.
I forecasted Kanye would be doing well if he broke the 500,000 mark this time around, which is probably the first time I’ve ever gotten something correct.
I think the main point of the post is a good one though. The fact Axl doesn’t do any press is one of the reasons CD sold poorly, but the interest was still there. The stream broke records on MySpace, so people were definitely curious, I just think that when people are curious about a record they’re far less inclined to take a punt and actually buy the thing.
To answer the poll, I bought them both :o
Chinese Democracy took too long and wasn’t worth the wait.
When I heard the first 2 singles off [i]808s[/i] and was underwhelmed I thought, “I’ll still buy it, Kanye always has some good deep cuts.” But by the time the release date had rolled around, I had gotten really sick of the singles and outright hated most of the other leaks I heard, so there was pretty much no way I was going to buy it.
I still bought [i]Chinese Democracy[/i], even though I didn’t much like the leaks, because it still felt like kind of a kind of a big deal that I was even able to buy it.
Side note that should probably saved for a seperate discussion: are there any potential big sellers left for December? Other than Britney and Fall Out Boy (which may disappoint, sales-wise) I can’t think of any big ticket releases that haven’t been pushed back to ‘09 already.
@Al Shipley: akon? plies? soulja boy?
Common!
This has to be the worst blockbuster week I can remember in terms of the major albums being any good at all. (I’m also counting that awful Beyonce album.)
oh so it’s all my fault.
@Maura Johnston: haha are you trying to prove my point? I didn’t even know Akon was out today until I heard someone mention it on the radio this morning.
@silkyjumbo: Yeah, this is pretty much where I am, too. Payday’s not til the end of this week. (Also, why spend money on an album right before a holiday when I can ask my family to spend money on it?)
G’n'R, however–haven’t spent money on them yet, and I see no reason to start now.
@Michaelangelo Matos: And further on that note, I am so far very unimpressed by Circus.
@Al Shipley: Fall Out Boy will ABSOLUTELY do less than Infinity on High (in both the first week and overall sales).
In this case, the music industry has the same problem as the auto industry; creating outdated, inefficient crap that people don’t want to spend what little money they have on. I grabbed leaks of both of these records and spent most of my listening time with them feeling like I was being glazed through the speakers with a thin slime of egotism, production gloss, and the artists’ contempt for me as a both a consumer and a thinking person. Yeah, the leaks hurt them. However, the leaks were also a corrective to a pair of records that are the equivelant of having the artist plant their ballsack on your face and force a nut into each eye socket.
I just bought a shitload of other albums: Skinny Puppy’s newest, Black Light Burns newest,Blackmothsuperrainbow, etc…
I normally buy albums; just rarely any of the big releases…
I have zero Beatles, GnR, etc.
@offthekolas: $8.99 dude… it was $5 last weekend on Amazon. Don’t be full of shit.
Just to get the Portuguese take, the headline from a music magazine there called Blitz reads: “Novo álbum dos Guns N’ Roses não está no nº1… e a culpa é de Axl Rose”.
I don’t really think the Chinese Democracy sales were dissapointing. Given the times, that’s just what should be expected. We aren’t living in the 90’s where MTV is going to be exclusively airing the first video, radio stations are going to world premiere songs, etc. Axl, in taking his sweet-ass time, has widdled his fan-base down to only a marginal number of diehards. Severe fragmentation along with a new set of “hawd rawk” bands (Buckcherry, Hinder, Avenged Sevenfold, etc.) have all taken away potential album sales from G’N'R. Plus, there is no tour, press, excitement around ‘Democracy besides the shear excitement that it’s FINALLY out.
What, no voting button for “I bought both albums, and 808s is much better than Democracy, and, indeed, much better than I and most critics had feared after the leaks”???
@Rob Murphy: or maybe a button for “i’m thinking about getting one/both of them but i don’t have to buy them the first week - i’m not some 12-year-old who must have it NOW or else my friends will laugh at me”?
I downloaded both and can’t stop listening to 808s. Haven’t really sunk my teeth into Chinese Democracy yet.
@silkyjumbo: I’m in this camp.
Although, i have promised myself I will be buying the fall out boy first day as long as Tunes in Hoboken stocks it.