In an article posted by Billboard Biz last month billed ‘UK Album Sales Drop By 13%’, the unfortunate but unsurprising news that the rate of LPs sold in the UK had reached record breaking lows hit music lovers all too hard.
Intensified even further with a subsequent report which revealed ‘old releases’ were currently outselling their new counterparts for the first time in US chart history, it’s safe to say that the industry has seen far better days- as it currently experiences its worst.
Indeed, despite commercial highs scored by Adele, Drake, Lil Wayne and Pop deity Lady GaGa, very little can be done to disguise the desperate state many a label find itself in as they struggle to convince the buying public their acts are worth…buying.
So, ever eager to catch your take on matters like these, That Grape Juice asks you:
Can Album Sales Be Saved?
and…
What do you think the labels are doing wrong when it comes to pushing them?
Weigh in below…
I like this article and topic TGJ!
The only way for album sales to be saved is to block them from hitting the internet (leaking) even after the album is released. Right now I’m able to hear any album that came out in the last 5 years on the internet without paying for it. Record companies need to take the Prince route and stop letting the music play on Youtube.
But since that’s never going to happen, I think that the artists and record label should just keep releasing singles even if sales start low or redo the album. (What’s the point in recording hundreds of songs and never using them?) That’s what they did in the 90s. Also they need to stop releasing the deluxe edition of the album the same week as the regular edition. That kills any future opportunity of regaining buzz. When Confessions came out, the Regular edition sold a million in a week. About 6 months later the deluxe was released which kept the album sales rolling in.
Agree with EVERYTHING you just said!!
Co-Sign.
Not just the last 5 yrs. I’m still Bumping Total from ’98… lol
@GIRRRL,,,Great Read,,,,Thanks!
can you preach at my church?
AMEN!!!
Wow! Just wow u r so brilliant!!
No one care about album sales its all about itunes !!
LMFAO!
That means your fave’s career = Beyond FLOP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ppl may disagree with what you said, but it seems to be true. Ppl rave or complain about 1st week sells which is the most ARTIFICAL BULLSH** ever played on artists and fans. The notion that 1 week is to determine the success of an entire CD has always been crazy to me. And ppl don’t realize that iTUNE sells are not counted among an artist’s 1st week sells figures. BB only f=counts the IN-STORE purchases! Digital sells only count if a hard copy is unavailable like the Frank Ocean situation & when they calculate the “new category” of digital sells.
I wish album sales could be saved but I just don´t see it. people don´t have to pay for music and that´s enough to destroy the industry
Adele was just a beautiful exception it seems
I agree. Plus it seems that people are more concerned with buying singles than actually buying the whole album. The reason being, that artists don’ t really put quality work and have lots of fillers in their albums. There is also the fact that lots of stuff leaks onto the internet and the promotions are weak.
Artist in the 80’s and 90’s had fillers and some had mediocre music too…the difference being you had no choice, you either bought the cd or had nothing…..consumers today have too many options in purchasing music , if they even decide to purchase it legally
@DenimJunkieKidd that is true, except that mediocre and filler music of the 80s and 90s was much MUCH better than the ones today…
@DenimJunkieKidd
Bravo, well said! Album’s & singles have always had something called B-Sides. Artists have always had major singles w/ B-Sides” release some B-sides were equally good. Prince always had great B-Side singles IMO!
@ mobwife, yes!!!! Prince had GREAT B-sides.
“When Does Cry” was the single, “17 Days” was the B-Side.
That’s what I call magic!
Personally I think two things need to happen:
1.) the artists mentioned above cater to their fan base and their musical taste while experimenting different sounds but at the sametime staying true their musical roots. When other artists jump on the next big trend they abandon their roots and they trade their loyal fans for casual fans who rarely buy albums. Artists as well as label heads need to learn that huge digital sales does not always translate to huge album sales. They jump on the biggest trend thinking they are gaining fans when they are not and it makes their loyal fanbase upset because they are the ones who supported you through everything. But some fans need to understand their favorites do want to experience a new sound thats different form their norm thats when they need to continue to support them in that. Most artists go through that phase in their musical journey. They will go back to their musical roots..
2.) Label heads need to take risk instead of pushing everyone to follow the trend! To make more money you have to take risk and sometimes yes that means you will lose but it happens. The album buying public is still out their. The album buying public are usually tied to a certain genre they like and support that genre and its album. THEY DO NOT BUY SINGLES THEY BUY WHOLE ALBUMS!!!! The bigger payout are in album sales! 10.99 > 1.29
no one has to agree with me but if you don’t that’s you please don’t write negative comments back to me this is just my opinion I realize others will be different!
Well Said… I totally agree with you!!!!
I couldn’t agree more!!
I don’t think leaking is the main issue. Adele’s album has been out for almost two years and it’s still doing better than records that’s dropping today. I think if artists put more time and make good music where you can actually connect to it then I’m sure more people will buy the album. To many artists are releasing non meaningful catchy music and also artists and record execs are to focus to aim high on the iTunes single chart rather than the actual billboard 100.
so you blaming the artist now,Adele is selling more than everyone so you are saying her music is better than everyone else thats the reason she is selling,i don’t agree with you i don’t know why she is selling like that,but i won’t tear down them other artist out there just because i want to make a comment and a point…i am sure the rest of them artist put there time love and money in to there craft too just like adele.
I’m not necessarily saying its the artist fault but some artists like usher don’t make as great music like he did in the past. Adele album was leaked like everyone else and it managed to go diamond when people could have downloaded it for free. There are many reasons why artists don’t sell well and I feel the main reason is they make lackluster songs
Adale’s success is quite A-Typical and caused by many different factors let not kid ourselves!
Jay Jay and Mofan95 are absolutely right. Its more the quality of the music than anything else. It’s true most if not all new stuff hits the internet weeks before its official release, but the labels have absolute control over that. I use to work in a music store back in the 90’s and we always got tons of cds and singles way before there release date. Where did they come from?…………THE LABELS. So if this were really hurting them they would stop sending things out. They need to stop looking for the quick buck, let the artists be true to themselves and do the work to promote the artists.
Naw, it’s done right now, you will have some exceptions like Adele but that ship of many uber-successful albums artists has sailed. Itunes killed the album concept and it takes many singles to equal one album sold. I think cheap EPs are thee future and it makes more sense. Imagine have multiple EP releases from your fav artists during the year..creates buzz and would help with touring ticket sales and buzz. Also radio has assisted in the death of the albums artists, radio has elevates mediocrity and even quality artists are lowering their standards for a hit. I mean FloRida’s single is no 1 on itunes and he sales no albums…he’s exactly the type of ‘subpar-not that good of an artist’ that radio loves, but who reaally wants an album from him?
Flo Rida is a good example of a niche atist. He found his niche as a POP-RAP HYBRID act and he plays that lane exclusively! I do find it interesting that he never gets the grief of say a Nicki Minaj who is constantly ridiculed as being a POP-RAPPER when Flo Rida is the epitome of one.
As for his CD, the price was the same as Justin Bieber’s latest effort —> $5.00.<— I don't know why it didn't sell at that price yet ppl will purchase his singles for $1.29 a pop!
Flo Rida was always a pop-rapper. His career was built on that. Nicki on the other had was not a pop rapper. She completely abandoned her core audience which made her famous and went far left.
I agree that I think EPs are gonna be the next wave. I’d much rather see an EP with 8 tracks and MAYBE one filler track, than to see an album with 16 tracks, 8 amazing ones, and 8 filler records. It also lets the production schedule be closer together, in theory, so we’d hear more music.
I think Dawn’s Armor On was a great example of this. It’s the perfect length, IMO.
ohh my. this’ simple. for the digitals they gotta change itunes. 😉 so peops can’t choose just a couple songs they like on the albums and have to buy the complete thing. 😉
That already happens in a few cases – Pink Floyd will not let their albums be sold as individual tracks as they tell a story. Maybe more artists and labels doing this would help.
It depends if the album has quality and substance and if the label knows how to market their artists and promote them properly. The difference with music these days is its mostly dance POP and lots of acts have sold themselves out to that trend therefore losing a great deal of their fanbase. If the album is full of dance songs, people are only interested in buying the songs they like on itunes. When it comes to albums of quality and substance, there’s a story to tell and people rush out to buy the album because they can relate to the music in every way. I believe Linda Perry said the same thing a while back as to why a lot of these popular acts these days can barely sell albums but they have hit song after hit song. Most of the top 40 songs these days is popcorn music.
no one have to buy albums,just need to have a phone with internet an internet connection at home with a lap top are any other internet ready device and you are good to go,some people won’t even buy there favs music so how people expect them to buy other peoples music it is that bad, only people who is really buying music is stans….everyone else went out and download it for free,i see many fans putting up there favs music on utube for views all the leaks,they don’t even wait for the albums and singles to be officially be release they don’t care….thats why alot of artists invest in other ventures to make there money and don’t make music there primary incomes…like i said everyone have everyones music but they didn’t buy it they got it off the record they downloaded it for free…so when they sales figure comes in saying an album went-gold are platinum…off the record it brobly went plat-2x-plat are more off the record…..i said this before and i am going to say it again only stand is buying albums so if an artist have a huge fan base like 4 mill twitter followers and up[i know you can,t use twitter follower to judge albums sales but] pray that atleast quarter of them is hard core stands,because the rest of them fans an’t going to buy sh-t they are going to download it for free…they will go on your tour but they an’t going to buy your music,don’t mean they don’t have it..i support my fav though i buy music but not all see things i do,it is what it is.
Besides creating new ways to market music since it always leaks, I believe that music channels should embrace the music video once again. Back in the day, you would always see music videos being played over and over on MTV and BET and VH1 and they always served as a reminder of what was popular in music and what people were buying. Nowdays music artists virtually do not have this luxury and many times their CDs are overlooked because people don’t know.
I respect VEVO and YOUTUBE and all but everyone doesnt surf the internet for music. We need the music channels to do what they were founded upon doing — play music. Then we may see a turn around in music sales…
Adele is living off hype. Once that void was open from Amy Winehouse’s death, her fame skyrocketed. No one was checking for her after “19” many ppl don’t even know this is her sophomore album.
& P.S. artists need to do their own thing & stay in their respective lanes. Toni Braxton stays trynna do pop dance records… that’s not working b/c she’s an R&B artist. People like Ciara’s problem is not the music they release, but their promotion. You have to dominate media for atleast a couple months while your album is on the charts so that you can get certified, then you can relax a little. People give the internet too much credit. When “Ride” had 50mil views on Youtube, Everyone thought the album would be a success, but once it was banned off BET, she lost a lot of momentum. She shouldve rapidly introduced another single/video but her team dropped the ball. I’m rooting for her this time around though, #TEAMCI
I actually just agreed with u!
Adele’s album was already selling through the roof BEFORE Winehouse died.
Adele’s first album was actually platinum and earned her two gram awards. What are u talking about. Her success had nothing to do with amy…
I think it’s just that the format of music is changing. Everything is digital and the fact that people can just pick songs from albums to buy on all these digital sites is killing album sales. If an artist has a #1 single, chances are more people are going to just buy the single than being convinced to buy the WHOLE album (ex: RIHANNA, PITBULL, FLO RIDA). I wish Itunes would eliminate that. Someone could buy like 7 songs from a 12-track album but it wouldn’t even contribute to the album sales. Maybe us as consumers should stop worrying too much about album sales because I think music labels focus more on the “BIG PICTURE.” (touring revenue, merchandising, endorsement deals, ETC.)
Physical album sales still lead album sales. Alot of people don’t even purchase physical albums like that..
I mean’t don’t even purchase digital albums like that..
there is a big decline in music, adele is just the one exception. i mean she is the only artist to have sold more than 10 million albums in the last two years.
there has only been a couple of artist who have even sold over 6 million albums in the last two years, like eminem, rihanna, bruno mars and taylor swift.
its not that there hasnt been any good albums, its that people are going to get it for free rather than buying it in a store, they are literally one click away. people can feel like someone has released one of the best albums ever and they would probably still go and download it for free. they can even think that it is worth the money to buy but wont buy it to save 10 dollars.
IF ALBUMS ARE GOING TO SELL LIKE THEY ONCE DID, RECORD COMPANIES NEED TO START SEARCHING FOR, SIGNING, MARKETING AND PROMOTING NEW ACTS WITH ACTUAL TALENT, MUSICAL INTEGRITY AND ACTUAL ARTISTRY!!!!!!!
THE DIGITAL AGE IS KILLING THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND AS TECHNOLOGY BECOMES MORE PROFOUND, THE “PHYSICAL” BUYING PUBLIC WILL ALWAYS BE MARGINALIZED AS ITUNES AND OTHER DIGITAL/DOWNLOAD FORMATS BECOME MORE AND MORE ENTWINED WITH THE CURRENT CULTRAL LANDSCAPE OF QUALITY BENEATH QUANTITY.
THE POP MUSIC PRAIRE HAS BECOME SO, ALMOST, PHENOMONICAL AND PROFIT-SAVVY THAT THE MASSES (YOUNGER GENERATION) ISNT INTERESTED IN GETTING TO KNOW WHAT “TRUE” MUSIC IS AND FINDING OUT ABOUT OTHER GENRES WHERRAS THE MEDIA AND RECORD COMPANIES, MANIPULATIVELY, SHOVE A SPECIFIC MUSICAL TREND DOWN THE PUBLICS THROATS (THAT BEING DANCE/ELECTRONIC MUSIC) AND THEN MOAN AND COMPLAIN ABOUT THE LACK OF TALENT IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY.
ALBUMS SALES, SADLY, FALTERED POST-2004 (WHICH WAS ITS LAST TRUE PEAK) AND THE ONLY REASON WHY IS BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE NO LONGER INTERESTED IN BUYING “REAL” MUSIC.
BUT ONE DAY… THAT WILL ALL CHANGE.
ADELE’S “21” IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE 70’S/80’S CIRCA ALBUM SALES WHEN ALBUMS WOULD SELL OUT IN DRONES AND WHY? BECAUSE THE QUALITY WAS BETTER AND 80% OF ARTISTS TREATED THEIR MUSIC LIKE IT WAS ART. TODAY TGAT HAS FALLEN TO AT LEATS 25% AND MOST DEFINETELY WITH THE ARTISTS ON TOP 40 RADIO!!!!!!!
ROCK, R&B, SOUL, COUNTRY, FOLK IS NOW TAKING A BACK SEAT. THOSE GENRES ARENT DEAD… THEY ARE STILL THERE. THE PUBLICS INTERST JUST NEEDS REIGNITING ONCE AGAIN… THAT TIME WILL COME.
ONE ARTIST CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING!!!!!!! AND THE WORLD SHALL SEE HIM OR HER. ADELE IS A START.
I agree with you 100% with this statement “WHERRAS THE MEDIA AND RECORD COMPANIES, MANIPULATIVELY, SHOVE A SPECIFIC MUSICAL TREND DOWN THE PUBLICS THROATS (THAT BEING DANCE/ELECTRONIC MUSIC) AND THEN MOAN AND COMPLAIN ABOUT THE LACK OF TALENT IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY.”
There is a lack of talent in the industry. I don’t even listen to the radio anymore because of the lack of quality and talent. There are some radio artists that I listen to, Beyonce, GaGa, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber. When I go into iTunes I see what various genres of music have to offer, and I listen to the previews of the albums. If I like what I’m hearing I’ll buy the music. If I don’t like what I’m hearing I won’t buy the music. I also don’t always follow the trends that media shoves down our throats.
You people are so dumb. Downloading music has been around for the past 10-12 years! Usher, Beyonce, and etc. have all sold albums during that time. Downloading has nothing to do with it. Radio only plays five songs, music channels don’t play videos, videos aren’t appealing anymore because the concepts are all the same, and mixtapes are better than albums! Let alone the fact that everyone wants to do “techno” music… I mean let’s not blame the consumers. You have to blame the people who are selling the product. Obviously consumers will buy what they want, if they like the quality of the product. Blame the record execs who in my opinion are equal to the banks during the housing market decline!!
LOL really? The ubiquities technology that is so easily accessible today was not around 10-15 years ago. The media outets that are so frequently used today -Twitter, FB, UTube – simply were not as pervasive as they are now. There are a 1000 and 1 ways to cop free illegal music these days. It simply did not exist back then!
*psss…. house, techno, rave, and dance music has always been around and always will be.
See this is why I can’t deal with you people who parents could not afford a computer. You’re obviously a broke *** “Mob wife” who was not able to get educated because I said 10-12 YEARS not 10-15 YEARS. I was in the 9th grade in 2000 and I was able to download music if I wanted too. Limewire, Napster, and etc. WERE AVAILABLE at the time. You idiot. Sorry if your none having computer *** was not able to participate. So like I said let’s not blame it on downloading because it has been available for 10-12 YEARS.
*PSSSS: 99% of the entries on the Billboard 100 wasn’t based on Techo, Rave, House, and Dance music 10-12 YEARS AGO EITHER.
I find it ironic that your name is Dumb people and you’re making the dumb comments…..@mobwife only had a 3yr difference from you, big f****** deal….the point of her comment was that even though downloading music was around 10+ years ago, it wasn’t as easy nor assessable as it is today….think about it, you can tweet a link to download a cd and get it instantly to your iphone….you couldn’t do that in the early 2000’s…..@mobwife also makes a good point, music other than R&B did well on the charts artist like CeCe Peniston(google her if you’re not a 90’s kid) ruled the charts with Dance music
@Dumb People __/ __/ __/
@DenimJunkieKidd <–Thank you!
But everybody didn’t have a computer 10-12 years ago! Now everybody has a computer, a smartphone, an ipad,etc or knows someone that has one. The advancement of technology has definitely left the music industry (and the U.S. job market) behind then you have the lack of great music and that’s why music sales are down. Face it, people love free stuff.
Not sure why you edited my comment @TGJ/SAM, but let me try it again!
@Dumb People,
Wow, LOL Really? Reading is Fundamental dumbass! I said the widespread availability and USE of such products did not occur until much later. Not everyone participated in the ILLEGAL process of STEALING an artist’s work/product. It had nothing to do with ownership of a personal computer. In 2012, there are many more aves. in which to “SHARE” music and ppl who are much more inclined to do so than in past years! Also, while you were in High School some were in COLLEGE. Here you go dear –> __/
How soon people forget Napster, Ares, Kazaa, etc., etc. Illegal downloading was at its peak in 1999-2000. And yet albums were going 6, 7, 8, 9, 10+ platinum.
Hey, guys, the economy is affecting everyone, who got money to buy albums and singles when you can get it for free??? I support artists, but music sucks nowadays and people are struggling to make ends meet, if the economy is doing better like in the 90s, people would buy music again. Get the economy up and people will buy.
Artists need to HUSTLE and do things the old fashioned way. RADIO TOURS! Performances! People have gotten F****** LAZY the past few years thinking TWEETS are going to sell their album. B**** aint nobody but your STANS who already bought the album gonna be following you on Twitter. Do artists SERIOUSLY think doing Twitter and Facebook promotion is going to sell an album? They’re preaching to the same people who are already going to buy the record that’s why sales are EXTRA front loaded these days then fall really flat.
These artists need to come down off their high horses and start building GRASS ROOTS fans and suport at radio. Radio tours do WONDERS! When radio stations know an artist is coming they bump up their spins and then play their records when they’re there, then continue to bump the song days after. That’s a LOT of extra spins and exposure.
And artists need to be performing everywhere again. Not one or two shows, b**** please. You need to be on E-V-E-R-Y show. Literally every show you can book. No television gig is too small. Why don’t R&B artists ever go on the late shows? That’s white people city!!!! GET WHITE PEOPLE INTERESTED IN YOUR MUSIC TOO!!! Black artists need to get over the whole “white people won’t buy my music” mentality. These R&B acts need to start acting like superstars instead of blockstars. OHHHH you don’t wanna do Jimmy Kimmel cuz only white people watch that show. B**** PLEASE GET YO ASS ON DAT STAGE!!!!!!!
Ultimately the problem is COMMITMENT. Everyone wants to half ass sell their s*** on Twitter and FakeBitch then say WHY MY ALBUM ONLY GO ALUMINUM!?!? The hustle is gone!!!! Black acts aren’t hungry anymore because it’s nothing to them for black artists to be successful. And the labels and the artists can’t commit to an album for more than 2 months. B**** please. MILK THAT S***!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m over it.
OMG!!!!!!!
@JER, I LOVE YOU FOR THIS.
AMEN. AMEN. AMEN. PRRACH THAT ISH.
Under normal circumstances I would agree with you but the music industry & media is now owned by a few individuals and major corporations. Artists can’t go the JONNY GUITAR WATSON (old school early days of the independent music artists) route. Just look the many obsticles artsits have today, from the media trashing them/their product to DJs that refuse to play their music …..ala Hot97 nothing ROSENBERG refusing to play Nicki Minaj’s music but of course LOVES Asher ROTH <— ummm shall we speculate as to what's really going on? LOL
I partially agree with you. I do agree that some artists are lazy. And I wish they could perform at more places. But I think a lot of that has to do with their record label, and how much the label wants to put into their album promo.
What I hate is when an artist takes a year to complete a record, or when they wait 5-6 years to release new music. Granted, sometimes it has to do with unforseen circumstances, but waiting 5 years to release new music is ridiculous these days. It should be a new album every year, year and a half at this point.
quit letting artists and producers leak s*** and you’ll have ppl buy music
that’s just teasing it online. everybody does that. or’d you buy an album without listening? i mean there’s the digital generation that doesn’t even go into a music shop anymore. how’d they know how it sounds to decide to buy it on itunes. it just that they can’t control the leaks fully most of all times. but that’s just their problem. 😀
btw. mosdef everybody – except the hardcore stans – that has got an album on his ipod and no cd probably listened to a leak before. no matter them all hyprocrits say. 😀
I agree with you JOKER!!! Hell when I listen to a leaked album, it almost like streaming the album! It lets me know if the ish is worth buying!
There is little labels can do. Why buy a whole album for 14.99 from target when I can buy 4 songs from the album for far less n get EXACTLY what I wanted. Back in the days, u had to buy a full album just for 1 song, unless you bought the single it self with a remix or something with it. Now, u can just buy that 1 or 2 songs n not the full album. Illegal download is a factor, BUT why is it that artists can sell millions off 2 or 4 singles, but not do the same with that album?
AmbeRussell on YouTube
You got it exactly right. The other implied dimension of this is that most artists fail to put out albums with enough good songs to make fans buy whole albums.
I feel it’s all about supply, demands and trends. People like what they like
and it does not matter if you are black are white. I was listing to “Nas” on
MSNBC the other day and he was talking about how the Rap music has not
been a favorite by a lot of mainstream yet he says there is money to be made.
And believing in your self and giving it your best shot, and catering to your fans
they are the one’s who really bring out the best in all of the artists. You wonder
why these large band and groups like U2, Coldplay and others are still going
strong and still selling with and without the decline of music. They are doing
good because they are catering to a crowd that follows their every move they
ever thought about making. Many of the artist in R&B, POP sales moistly to their own crowd. Even when we see Adele selling so good, that in any way should it have a bearing on the artists who put out music like their fans love. Mary J, Beyonce, Jill all dropped great albums and to me i see many who supports these artist, but it’s all in words not with their pocket books. The thing that really messes up things is all of this illegal down loading. Often times it seems like a album leaking is did on purpose. Ask yourself why did adele album not leak and Beyonce’s did? They are on the same Label. Anyways we just have to work harder to try and support our fave and do it in a big way. I don’t feel that a artist who’s Rock has to go soul to sale Music. Keep working as hard as humanly possible and keep giving your work all that you have got and just keep rebating and casting your line and keep hoping for a big fish to come along and grab the bait and take it all the way to the finish line and beyond.
AMEN!!!!
whatever the answer is Beyonce better figure it out soon because if she flops again Columbia are going to treat her like dirt.
She’s on the same label as Adele and so the pressure for the new album to be a huge seller must be so intense. Dont worry Beyonce, if you get dropped Im sure Rihanna will be more than happy to offer you a job
B**** you stupid! Columbia ain’t stupid enough to drop Bey she is STILL a house hold name! And if they did so what she got her own label, her daddy got a label, and her husband got a label! How many labels Rih got?
NO ONE ON ROC NATION HAS WENT PLATINUM!! RIHANNA IS AT DEF JAM SO BEYONCE WONT BE STRAIGHT… SHE WILL B SPENDING HER OWN MONEY TO PREMOTE HER NEXT WACK ASS ALBUM IF SHE DOES GO TO ROC NATION!!
jayz on roc nation and j cole and they platinum and rihanna even doh i hate her
Let cut the motherf****in’ CRAP, shall we? 🙂
1) YMCMB buys CD’s of their major acts in large quanitites. This is to give the illusion of their artists popularity. Let’s stop being confused or plain ol’ delusional! And no, I don’t hate YMCMB as a collective. In fact, I have enjoyed songs by most of their top acts!
2) Lady GaGA served up some HOLLOWEEN type tricks to inflate her 1st week CD sells of BTW. TWO, 2-DAY $0.99 CD sells on Amazon . com followed by that TWO for ONE Best Buy scam. If you purchased a cell phone at a discount rate you received a digital pre-installed copy of BTW and a hard copy both registering as TWO SEPERATE SELLS!
3) Adele is a FORCED anomaly who benefited greatly from (a) the long absence then untimely death of Amy Winehouse. (b) the American fascination with all things white & British (a simple fact, just suvey history) and (c) she is a white female singing SOUL MUSIC at a time when Black artists were not supported for doing the same *cough* JAZMINE SULLIVAN
Your argument for YMCMB makes no sense. Why would a business make an album for $1 and buy it back for $10. That would mean for every one album you claim they bought they would lose 9 dollars.
That’s silly because at this rate they’d be bankrupt. I do believe your Adele theory though.
@MusicMan because they know they will make their money back. If an album sells good, more people are going to be interested in it and wonder why it sold so much; hence Adele’s 21. People wondered why it sold so much, and decided to buy to see if it lives up to the hype.
Go in on Flopga
Adele’s music while it is soul influenced is different from Sullivan’s. It’s not just about the music, it’s about the overall artist. Adele has charm and charisma. She reminds you of a throwback artist. Jazmine is strickly soul music. Adele’s music is sorta pop/soul infused..
LOL Adele does not have charm and charisma. Go to youtube and check out her interview where she gutted artists she said dressed like WHOREs (Beyonce, Rihanna, Gaga, Katy Perry etc.). Her language was foul and so was her attitude. Sorry but it’s true.
As I said, Adele sings soul music from a white, British female perspective and is accepted. Jazmine Sullivan is just one example, of an artists who plays her lane but was rejected by the music industry because her CD “under performed”. Jill Scott, Ledisi, Kelly Price and others could sing Adele into an early grave but they are not widely pushed. They don’t have Adele’s international Pop-Soul music industry and media favor!
A lot of things drove albums sales down for example:
1. The fact that artist only have 10 songs on an album where as it used to be 15-17 songs per album.
2. Fast food songs with no lyrical depth and no quality.
3. Too demonic and sexual.
4. Young kids don’t buy albums but only singels.
5.The fact that people can download individual songs and don’t need to buy the album as a whole doesn’t help either.
If they could change that I think people would be intrested to buy albums. But deserves record companies right as they ripped people off for a long time.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller had only 9 tracks!!!!
Yes but Thriller was Thriller.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K_Lx9_5tPdQ
You need to change your name because that’s MY NAME
this is random but Ive decided that Jay Z is overrated.
Think about it, people credit him for making Rihanna when all he did was sow the seeds Def Jam had already reaped.
Thats why Rita Oral is flopping all over the charts and 4 flopped. He doesnt know how to make a star from scratch
Jayz is a puppet of the POWERS THAT BE (the select group of folks who run it all…… the illuminati …..I really don’t know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
I could name 20 MC who could rap Joe Camel into a coma: Nas, KRS1, Busta Rhyme, Mos Def , LL Cool J, of course RIP: 2 Pac & Biggie are just a few. Camel is in the pocket and doing the bidding of those in control that’s why he has been protected and elevated. Folks can be delusional if they want!
@MOBWIFE,,,ROTF,,,,LMAO And u r so right,
rap jay into a coma,,,lmao, so dam true,,,,,,,,
UM 4 WILL NEVER OUTSELL TALK THAT TALK!! AND RIRI ALBUM IS ON BILLBOARDS!!! AND 4 IS A WORLDWIDE FAT FLOP JUST LIKE HER STANS!!
You made a whole lot of sense until you named LL COOL J
But Jay- Z didn’t have anything to do with 4… And if that’s the case why isn’t J.Cole flopping? IMaybe Rita Ora isn’t on top of the charts because she hasn’t really been promoted in the US a lot. She has one song (How We Do) and it did okay but in the UK she is selling and do you guys not remember that Rihanna’s first album didn’t sell like crazy either just give Rita a chance.
Um J COLE IS FLOPPING!! HE HAS EVEN WENT PLATINUM YET!! Y BECAUSE HIS SONGS ARE LAME AS HELL HE NEED TO LET YMCB HANDLE HIS S***!! JAY IS A BUSINESS MAN WHEN IT COMES TO HIS AND HIS FLOP WIFE POCKETS NOT ANYONE ELSE!! IE OF HIS OLD ARTIST ON ROCKAFELLA ARE WHERE NOW? BROKE AS HELL!! JAY ONLY SIGNED RIHANNA BUT HE HAD NOTHING TO DO W HER GLOBAL DOMINATION AND BRAND… LA REID WAS THE BRAINS AND RIHANNA WAS THE HEART!
4 IS NOT FLOPPING AND MATTER FACT IT IS BACK ON ITUNES SO SHUT THE F*** UP AND IT’S PLATINUM
If album prices were to go down that would help album sales .
An additional fact that people simply want to OVER LOOK are the (S**** TYPE) 360 DEGREE CONTRACTS many artists have been MAINPULATED INTO SIGNING in order to receive industry privilage. Has no one grown wise to the SCHEME being played by now?
Have you not wondered why they have removed or simply shoved certain categories/genre’s of music to the BACK OF THE BUS? R&B is not a prior at all in the industry anymore. Hell, they don’t even recognize it at many major yearly events *cough* MTV’s VMAs. And those that do give it no respect. R&B artists are often given their Awards off screen while those in POP, COUNTRY & HIP HOP are paraded in front of the camera like “califs at a cattle call”!
All PRIORITY & RESOURCES are given to POP 1st, followed by COUNTRY then RAP! The POWERS THAT BE force all the acts they support (those with 360 Degree Contracts) to produce POP-HYBRID SONGS (Pop-Rap, Pop-R&B, Pop-Country). If a TRADITIONAL ARTIST cannot shift into the Pop-Hybrid genre, they will simply not know the same “SUCCESS” as those who can! Why are you ppl surprised?
Folks can sit up here talking bullsh** about this artists or that one but in REALITY, the CORPORATE OWNED, CONTROLLED, & CORRUPTED music industry will only support those acts they are assured to make money off of and those are first and foremost the acts with 360 DEGREE CONTRACTS!
So True! mobwife!!!!!
You right about the promo being weak. Adele survived cuz culumbia execs are from Europe n they understand dat kind of music so they put a lot of money on her. The same applies for drake n weezy. Birdman does nt limit their promo budget….this explains the destiny’s child. Matthew convinced sony to put money on the group n beyonce’s solo career n it paid off!! I can make another example that shows that the labels are also at fault here…Ms. Kelly the album pushed a lot of copies compared to here i am cuz sony never gave up on the project even though it didn’t exactly reach the mark they set for it while here i am was treated as a promo project…they were goin to change the uk tracklistin n make it a more dance Lp but changed their mind after it failed to garner sales in the US which in turn ruined the chance of that Lp being a hit in Uk like it’s lead singles….timing is also everything in this game…lables take too long to send tracks to radio n shoot promotional videos for whatever reason e.g lay it on me n brandy’s put it down. Videos r supposed to capture non-believers n make em fans of the song like it’s done in the UK!! Lables shld just get their act together n show more faith in their artists as that will reflect to buyers.
I only buy albums that are good. I dont buy any albums on itunes, id rather get the CD. i mostly download leaks.
the only album i have bought physically this year is Nas “life is good” because TIME & EFFORT were put into it and it was hot. im not here for artists who dont write their music and their music is basic, forgettable and has no substance.
@ THE REAL XOXO True but remember people are from all diverse groups and all walks of life, and what one like the other don’t like. One group of people like Rihanna’s music while another group like Taylor swift, see. And as far as to what is of substance and what is selling is a whole new ball game. What’s iconic for say Celine fans is very different from Mary J fans, see.
All of THIS right here folks! 🙂
F*** this discussion. Sams hot topics are all the same
I think JER hit it on the head, if I wasn’t an internet junkie I wouldn’t know whose albums are out and whose isn’t. Labels don’t promote worth s***, black artists aren’t hungry anymore, they don’t care about album sales so why should we?
I think album sales are down because of the prices. If the prices went down ithink album sales would go up. In this day and age I just don’t think people have the money lol.. And if the product isn’t high quality then people aren’t going to buy the music.. Let’s be honest with ourselves the standard of music has decreased drastically since erm let’s say the 90’s. I myself do buy music if I think the artist is extremely talented /if I stan for them but the internet is righ there and is pretty easy to use to download music so…
I bought my first CD back in the 80’s – I paid £12.99 for it. These days even a brand new CD will cost, at most, £8.99 so how are albums so expensive? Too many people are stealing music – that is the problem. It needs to be got across, to young people in particular, that illegal downloading is theft and is no different from walking into a shop and putting a CD in your pocket. Its thieves that have ruined album sales, end of.
Album sales have declined because music has become easier to get for free and it has also become so “predictable. Artist are afraid to take risk and make different music and work with different producers and unknown writers.
It’s like all RnB artist are confined to work with Sean Garret, Rico Love, The Dream & Ester Dean. All pop artist work with Dr.Luke, Ke$sha, Stargate, RedOne, Diplo & Dream. For album sales to be revived Artist and lables need to focus on making good albums rather than making radio hits. Albums used to tell stories and make sense. Nowadays it’s a bunch of crap on a cd with no clear concept or direction. Maybe the reason for this is that a lot of artist music don’t tell stories because they aren’t writing their own music like artist in the 90s did.
Promotion is also a huge factor, artist need to promote their album on every medium available, BET, MTV, Radio, morning shows, late night TV, Internet, EVERYTHING! Put out more singles and they need to actually put out stuff that the fans like and actually put some leg work in it. Some artist will drop a song early January, release to radios mid February, but no video until April after all the hype is dead. I don’t see why people don’t do dual singles (A-side & B-side). Take Beyonce for example, her IASF era would not have been as productive if she didn’t have dual singles because songs like Halo & IIWAB didn’t really cater to her urban audience like Single Ladies & Diva did. This helped Bey get 2 different audiences to buy one album.
So to revive album sales labels need to get these artist better promotion( touring before and after the album drops) and artist need to work on crafting good albums and better concepts(story telling.) And last but not least they need to move faster on releasing things to the public.
O YOU MEAN THE SINGLE SHE STOLED FROM BC JEAN?
How she steal it? Toby gave it to her it’s not her fault that BC Jeans didn’t know and that’s in the past because they came to a conclusion about that, so STFU and worry about your self 🙂
If Adele had not been the biggest seller then we would be right back to the
drawing board. The big 104 is why haven’t any of the other artist sold as much as she sold and that is because many have got that crab in a barrel syndrome they can’t stand to see others make it they are so dam used to tryinh to tear others down and they will never do good. You got label heads like jayz and diddy and beyonces old trifiling dad you go figure and thum me down bytches all you want , just know that none of us can make others hate are love their fave no matter what yo fickle minds says. How many do jay mamge are bosses that is at the top of their game? go on i will wait.Hom many is diddy mangeing and bossing that have knocked the cealings out with their musicPS
Rihanna is as sharp as they come she know that yo ass have got to cater to all demographics to make it in thei time zone. Watch when the next Tours are laid out how there will be many artits whos going to do their heavy lifting in Europe, just watch what i tell ya. The new guide lines have been set by Adele and shes the number one seller and less see whos going to come even remotely close to her and thoise epic sales of her’s,,,,
IF they want to save albums, the BIG problems are:
1) Spotify (free streaming of ANY song with limited commercial interruptions? Who the f*** would buy a CD?
2) Youtube (silly fangirls uploading “lyric videos” and then saying “no commercial infringement intended!” Record labels need to sue google for allowing this).
3) Sites like rapdishare, yousendit, etc. Whole albums uploaded to the net…need I say more?
Taylor swift’s album is comng sooon…. The biigest releaseof of the year!!!
Expect sales of 1 million in its first week.
Adults don’t buy records anymore, kids do.
The problem is a combination of people downloading singles not albums, downloading illegally, lack of quality music, etc. All things that have been raised already.
What hasn’t been mentioned is the fact that record companies need to start looking at another business model. A different way of doing things. It seems crazy to me that when sales are declining you just keep doing the same thing but now just do everything cheaper (eg recession music videos).
To be honest the fact they ripped everyone off with the price of music and were rolling in money makes it hard for me to care especially when artists only get a fraction of the money in the end and getting treated like crap if they aren’t selling with minimal budgets which only makes the problem worse.
I think they need a new way of.making money from music and they need to do it soon because sales are only going to keep declining, I can’t remember the last album I brought and quite frankly I don’t care that I pirate because everyone’s broke these days but record execs and (most popular/successful)artists are still doing all right.
Indeed, despite commercial highs scored by Adele, Drake, Lil Wayne and Pop deity Lady GaGa, very little can be done to disguise the desperate state many a label find itself in as they struggle to convince the buying public their acts are worth…buying.
Please Sam, Gaga with all her hype and millions of followers on twitter, it’s struggling to barely sell more than 6 millions copies ww, Adele is really the big deal now.
For once I actually agree with you. Adele is the only one bringing in big numbers the rest get a max of 1-2x platinum….
Gaga still can sell no matter what.
There plenty of artists that sstill sale well though. The label has a huge factor in everything…
I LOVE ALL KINDS OF MUSIC!! BUT I ONLY BUY MY FAVES ALBUMS!!! I ILLEGALLY DOWNLOAD ARTIST THAT I DONT FAVOR LIKE BEY!! I PURCHASED RIHANNAS GGGB AND TTT AND LOUD ALBUM!! BUT ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADED 4 AND I AM…SASHA!!
Damn… And 4 still went platinum and IASF still went 3X PLATINUM without your ragedy ass 🙂
AS LONG AS MY FAVE IS OUTSELLING UR FLOP!! 4 IS A FLOP!! RIHANNAS SECOND ALBUM SOLD 3M WATS UR POINT!! RIHANNA WILL NEVER HAVE A FLOP ALBUM!! EVEN RATED R WENT 3 X PLATINUM!! WORLDWIDE!! OH TTT JUST WENT PLATNIUM IN GREECE!! SO AS LONG AS KING RIH KEEP OUTSELLING BEYFLOP!!
LMAO. You think Rihannas Outselling beyonce?
“Rihanna Will Never Have A Flop Album.”
Music of the sun. HELLO.Her best selling album sold 7M Ww.
Beyonces sold 11 M WW and 7 M twice.
plus bey said herself she wasn’t looking for commercial success with 4.
And with six albums rihanna should be at 100M Ww.
People will buy albums if they think they’re worth it. What the labels are doing wrong is selling too much s**.
Exactly, I buy albums if they’re worth it. The good thing about iTunes is that if you don’t want all the extra album stuff like iTunes LP you can just buy the single songs. I did that with Cisco Adler’s latest release, I bought every single song on his latest release, but didn’t buy it as an album because I didn’t want or need the extra stuff that came with it.
What a great post SAM. This is a very great discussion.
Anyway, I think album sales CAN BE SAVED.
There is just a lot of things that need to be renewed and take care of.
First, we need to get rid of allowing to buy singles digitally from an album. For an example, the way how iTunes have it. You either have a choice to buy a song from the album OR the whole album. We need to get rid of the option that involves buying a single from the album. If we get rid of that option, then customers wont have a choice BUT to buy the album because the album has a couple songs that they really like. This is one of the things that will help album sales increase again.
Another thing is, we NEED to get rid of REALITY SHOWS on channels that are suppose to be for MUSIC.
MTV FOR AN EXAMPLE. Their channel is FILLED with reality shows. Why the hell your channel is filled with reality shows when your channel suppose to stand for MUSIC TELEVISION? They need to show MUSIC VIDEOS like how they did back in the day. If they want to have shows, then they can still do, but they NEED to balance it out by showing MUSIC VIDEO SHOWS. Since TRL left, that channel just been filled with a bunch of irrelevant, werid & stupid shows like “AWKWARD.”. What the hell? Then “16 & Pregnant” type of s***. Smh. They need to get on the ball with showing Music Videos again.
BET needs to do the same damn thing. They do have 106 & Park, but who the hell wants to watch 106 & Park all the damn time? They need more options of Music Video shows. They need to create more to keep the viewers interested. Nobody hardly watches 106 & Park, so they need to either cancel it or continue, BUT create more Music Video shows.
VH1 is another channel that needs to get rid of a lot of their reality shows. They need to show music videos during the day because even though they do show music videos in the morning, nobody be up watching it because people gotta go to school/work.
Also, Artist need to get on the ball with going to radio stations and book every gig they can find to promote their album. They can’t just keep tweeting about their album on Twitter/Facebook because a lot of people is NOT following them, only their STANS. Of course their STANS will buy their music, they need to get new fans and in order for them to do that, they need to be EVERY. F******. WHERE.
EVEN IF you are a R&B/RAP artist, still go to the white T.V/Radio talk shows instead of 106 & Park so more people can know who the f*** you are and buy your damn album. .
And last but NOT FREAKING LEAST, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE IS the Internet needs to BLOCK & BAN all the leakage websites like Hulkshare, ShareBeast & BeeMP3 so that way NO SINGLES or NO LEAKED ALBUMS get into the Internet and their will be NO ACCESS for people to download the leak music. <—— I believe this is the most important thing because this is the MAIN PROBLEM WHY albums are not selling like how they use too. The leak material is only one click away and it's FREE.
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Those are the most important things that needs to be done in order for the album sales to be saved. And I believe it CAN BE SAVED if only people follow what I said above.
The labels gotta do their part, and stop all of this free streaming. Take the music/albums off of free streaming sites. Promote each artist. Give them about 4-6 singles if they are of great quality. Another major important factor is radio. Radio is trash……….. They need far more diversity. Music use to cater to all sorts of consumers. Now it’s mainly to one group of people. Radio needs to get diverse again. Singles on itunes need to go up to about $2.50. Physical albums still sale the most albums however. These labels need to do everything that they can. Albums should cost no more than 10 11 dollars now….. There are quite a few artists that still sale very well…
Album sales can be saved if a number of things happen. It takes more than putting out a catchy single with mediocre lyrics and an infectious beat. Artist, and I use that loosely, because artist vary. From the very definition itself it has multiple meanings.
Artist have to connect with their audience from the beginning of an era. They have to stick with the theme that they have and run with it. Take the fans on a journey of the music that you’re releasing and remain consistent. If you’re going to be happy, be happy, heartbroken show pain and conviction. Albums these days are all over the place.
Know your lane and drive in it well. Lady GaGa had done this perfectly. As well as Adele. Lady GaGa has the LGBT, outcast community and they have felt like they now have a voice. Adele had taken the theme of the heart and taken it through a relatable theme of heartache. Although they are two different artist, each has their lane under control.
Forget the singles and think about the overall cohesiveness of the album. Too many people are concerned about that it single and forget they have a whole album to promote. Once again Adele’s biggest moment wasn’t get first single. Rolling in the Deep, was released as a latter single and propelled the album into the upper echelon of what it is now. It has longevity.
B**** CHANGE YOUR GODDAMN NAME.
Honestly, this issue is not and never will be black and white. It’s always a gray shady issue. Yea you can say “stop the leaking”… even some albums that arent immediately leaked before or even after the release dont sell like they should (see Usher “Looking 4 Myself” & Nicki Minaj “Pink Friday Roman Reloaded)…and then on the flip side you can say “make non-trendy music” a-la Adele. I think Adele was just a blindsighted success. I’m not saying she’s not talented or makes god music, but I reall think she got lucky. Cuz 21 couldve easily flopped. So she’s a one-case thing— you cant base Adele’s success on the rest of the industry and say she’s the remedy. I think there’s no real solution at this point because the industry has gotten so unorganized and messed up that the odds of getting it where it used to be are slim to none. It’s just the change of times, and as much as that sucks, thats the reality. People’s priorities when it comes to music have changed. Thats the biggest issue. We might get another success like ’21’ but it’ll be a long shot or some years before that happens again. Confessions was the last album to go diamond and that was almost a decade ago, where as in the 90s and early 2000s, albums went diamond left and right.
*good music (not god)
If you listen to adeles full album, you will understand why that thing sold. Its good music, god lyrics. Like anything, quality sells.
Artist that sells makes quality music and work hard.
People can talk about lil wayne, but he has a style, he is a punchline rapper who plays with lyrics but its still quality. He’s a whole package and steps above many of these basic rappers.
Im not saying what Adele has done isnt good… but its nothing new. Her types of songs and voice have been heard before through works by artists like Amy Whinehouse and Joss Stone. Im not knockin her success, but she is a bit overrated as well as the album 21. And yes while SOME quality music albums do sell, so do fast food albums. How do you explain the likes of a Justin Bieber selling as much as a Lil Wayne? Quality sells but definitely not all the time. There are SOOOOOO many artists of quality with excellent works that have been slept on, underrated, and flopped for whatever reason. Like i said, its not black and white. For every “good” artist that sells exceptionally well, there’s a “bad” one, and I use those terms loosely and subjectively.
The funny thing is exactly 30 years ago the industry was in the EXACT SAME POSITION! Before Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” came out there wasn’t really much happening. As a result Quincy Jones told him that he shouldn’t expect more than 2m copies (I don’t know if worldwide or domestic) but it upset MJ.
With MJ being given his own freedom to create thought provoking videos and style himself the way he wanted (plus include the type of music/songs he wanted on the album) people bought into it. It’s interesting to note that MJ released “The Girl is Mine” first as he said because it was a duet with Paul McCartney he kind of had to “Get it out of the Way”. All would agree that it is in no way the best representation of the music on the album yet it is very much a part of it and the era of MJ/PMc duets. With this being the first single, which reached number 2, sales could have dropped off. It was at lease another 6 weeks until the parent album was released and that didn’t debut at #1 (no albums did back then it seems).
However, Epic were galvanised to make it a hit album and SPENT $250,000 on the Billie Jean video which was really what skyrocketed the album to high sales for the first half of 1983. More effort was taken again to have a good video for Beat It which included some of MJ’s most recognisable choreography. After that there were no more videos until almost a year later when “Thriller” hit the radio in Jan 1984.
What I’m getting at here is that schedules were made and schedules were STUCK TO! Over the last 5 years lovers of Black Pop (I can’t say much about White Pop as I don’t pay as much attention) have had to put up with their favourite artists fronting lack-lustre album campaigns, poor material, even worse videos and delay after delay before getting the project. It’s true that with the internet leaks can be hard to avoid, but it doesn’t seem there’s much to get excited about anymore.
Let’s take That Grape Juice’s favourite daughter, Kelly Rowland for example. Now let me state, I have ALWAYS been a big fan of the Row. Loving her voice more than any member of DC and playing songs off her 1st album constantly. I preach Kelly Rowland’s Simply Deep album! However, that appears to be the only album she’s fronted quite succesfully. Ms. Kelly was a disaster and “Here I Am” well, wasn’t. Looking at her promo campaign last year it was a JOKE and I’m sure Mathew Knowles was found giggling as he collected another royalty cheque from Beyonce’s 3 solo albums. She dropped Motivation in March and the video didn’t come until over a month later. Let’s not talk about how she HARDLY performed it in the US and didn’t even release another song until August! and the video for that song…released in October! A mess, a big heavy mess wrapped up in a flour tortilla!
Mariah Carey: comeback announcement, song title, snippet, video stills, full song, remixes, radio play = on point.
Kelly Rowland: Blah, blah, blah, my album, blah, blah, blah, my new album, blah, blah, blah, my sister “B”, Blah, blah, do you like “Ice” blah, blah, it could be scaling up the charts as it’s summer but I’m flying to Australia to judge a dance competition (Australia which is 900 light years further from the US than the UK ever was and has a smaller market), blah, blah, I’m working on the video…
KELLY HAS NO DIRECTION!
There were also no proper showcases of her album. No small concerts (which she could easily fill in America) so fans could hear all the material. Beyonce (I didn’t want to bring her in) was EVERYWHERE promoting and her singles hadn’t done any better than Kelly’s.
People would have bought Kelly’s album if she’d have released it around the time of “Commander”which followed “When Love Takes Over” her biggest hit. But all the faffing around made people bored and as a result the album performed embarrsingly. Mel B had the exact same issues when she took too long to release her debut, “Hot”.
Let’s remember the sarcastic attitude Kelly gave Sam Grape Juice when he told her that fans wanted to know when she’d be doing some live performances. Pride! Well, at least she has a double cardboard selling album to support her claim that she has a great team and everything is in place.
I’m getting tired but I think it goes like this: Don’t release singles until the majority of the album is done. That avoids 6 month waits while you restructure everything! Have an image, have a direction and GO! Pick dates to showcase/promote and keep it going. Diddy Dirty Money got this and the album is only 100,000 off Gold but it’ll probably get there. Promote, promote, promote.
Just to add. The reason Destiny’s Child did well worldwide is because Mathew Knowles understood this promotion aspect. Total, Xscape, 112, and the rest relegated the UK to award show status so we never bought their records.
Record companies: Let artists embrace their artistic talents, with some direction (no crazy run-away-from-my-zone Alexandra Burke Heartbreak on Hold moments please) Frank Ocean, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Nicki Minaj, Gaga and RIhanna have proven that given support and some freedom a little or a lot of talent can go a very long way!
I agree with some of what you said but Nicki can barely get a platinum. She was better off feeding and improvising her last sound which sold ok these days for a female rappers debut instead of going s far left. She compromised what was working.
Rihanna is barely scraping plat either. I mean she has been out a long time nad works her b*** off. I think her team spends good on giving her good writers and stuff but her bulk is overseas and the US is the big market here.
Frank Ocean should be selling better based on his skill level.
Truthfully, Adele is proving that albums can sale. She’s the only one doing the numbers that record labels used to see a while back.
Lil wayne and drake dont do bad for rappers. Nicki couldve even been up there herself if she worked her popularity better and didnt compromise so much.
Just to add. MJ’s “Thriller” so rocked the music industry that music videos became the norm and so much money was poured into the music industry. By the end of the decade old and new artists were enjoying their best ever sales that they’ve never matched since. Madonna, Prince, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, Terence T. D’Arby, Anita Baker, George Michael, Stevie Wonder. All of these artists benefited from the “Thriller” effect.
Even Black music award shows such as BET and Soul Train were founded in this era.
TGJ, I really like when you start these types of discussions. I do believe that the album sales can be saved, it’s just a matter of whether or not the record companies are going to do what it takes to rescue the decline of album sales. What I am noticing about the music of today is that their is a shortage of artists who put quality work into their music. The newer artists of today, many of them are not extending their best. They are not giving as much passion and soul and time into the music as some of the greats like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Queen have. Plus everything sounds the same now. The artists who are putting more effort and quality into their music are not getting mainstream exposure.
It’s about priorities. Everything is done at such a quick pace now. Every time you turn around an artist is releasing a new song and these are not always song on the actual LP. Plus artists often have different versions of songs and I think many fans are tired of that. Because you already brought the album but the single of the song is a different version than the album one. Record companies need to make sure their artists produce quality music worth buying and stop waiting so long to release the album, especially when the song is already a hit. Nowadays it seems that the industry is more concerned with how many twitter followers an artist can gain rather than how many copies they can push. When are they going to realize that social media accounts do not translate into album sales? What’s the use in bragging about a million plus followers when the sales are significantly less than that?
I think that Adele is selling well above exceptions is because her music is a mature sound and olders folks are eating it up and buying the album and young people are too. I don’t know what is going to happen to the music industry, but I feel that people feel that it is nothing but snakes and the artist doesn’t get pay well anyway, no wonder people are not buying music. It is a mess and will be a mess unless something changes.
I think one reason for people not buying music, is because a lot of music these days sounds the same. A lot of music isn’t original, especially the top 40 type music. I’m starting to listen to more indie and singer/songwriter type music now because I like the way it sounds. Its more original. There are radio artists that I listen to, but I can’t really listen to the radio anymore, I just get annoyed with the music.
BUT STILL NOBODY KNOWS
HOW ADELE SLAY OTHER POP STARS FOR NEALY 2 YEARS .
theu shall steal!!! we need spirtial rivial .