Sales figures for the Pitchfork top 50 for 2010

Leo

Well-known member

not sure this deserves its own thread but didn't know where else to put it.

those of you in the industry probably won't be surprised, but i was kinda shocked at how little some of these hyped albums actually sold. and some unexpected findings: sleigh bells at 95K units, yet flylo and caribou at only 33K, and robyn "body talk" with just 23K sold. are soundscan figures for US sales only?
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Yeah, it's properly interesting. The US sales thing might explain it for me though, as I can't believe those are the overall figures for the Robyn album.

Yep, for the eponymous album:Sweden 65,000+
United Kingdom 242,000
United States 33,000

Make smore sense now. But still puts into place how niche artists I think of as well-known, really are, for example LCD.
 

mms

sometimes

not sure this deserves its own thread but didn't know where else to put it.

those of you in the industry probably won't be surprised, but i was kinda shocked at how little some of these hyped albums actually sold. and some unexpected findings: sleigh bells at 95K units, yet flylo and caribou at only 33K, and robyn "body talk" with just 23K sold. are soundscan figures for US sales only?

soundscan is US only yes, but its the biggest territory potentially, also not sure whether all shops are soundscan too, much like alot of indie shops in the uk don't report chart figs.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Yep,Soundscan is US only. There was a very rubbish piece in the Indie a couple of weeks back quoting UK sales figures of this year's critical darlings. Caribou was 20k UK alone, which is pretty healthy for a record like that. Trouble is a huge chunk of these sales now come from places that squeeze margins to the bone – places like Amazon, Fopp (where you can currently get Janelle Monae's for a fiver) supermarkets, if you're sufficiently popular.
 

mms

sometimes
Yep,Soundscan is US only. There was a very rubbish piece in the Indie a couple of weeks back quoting UK sales figures of this year's critical darlings. Caribou was 20k UK alone, which is pretty healthy for a record like that. Trouble is a huge chunk of these sales now come from places that squeeze margins to the bone – places like Amazon, Fopp (where you can currently get Janelle Monae's for a fiver) supermarkets, if you're sufficiently popular.

Yes thats true, it's not a good thing that hmv is doing badly, esp if you consider the companies online like amazon etc, who don't pay any vat cos they work offshore, and have terrible employment practices, they've no interest in music perse just unit costs.
 

Elijah

Butterz
Would the failure of HMV invigorate independents?

I went into Oxford Street HMV during the week with Terror Danjah and it was like a graveyard for CDs. They had albums released within the last 6 months for £6 stacked to the brim. Then you had recent independent albums in there for £14?!

Was weird
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
Would the failure of HMV invigorate independents?

I went into Oxford Street HMV during the week with Terror Danjah and it was like a graveyard for CDs. They had albums released within the last 6 months for £6 stacked to the brim. Then you had recent independent albums in there for £14?!

Was weird

It would help indie shops, but not labels. Obviously that situation you describe is a nightmare, but you can't stop labels dumping stock. HMV is the only physical place a lot of people outside big cities would be able to find a mid-range indie artist, the kind who gets reviewed in the broadsheets and mags but doesn't make the charts or daytime radio.
 

Webstarr

Well-known member
Would the failure of HMV invigorate independents?

I went into Oxford Street HMV during the week with Terror Danjah and it was like a graveyard for CDs. They had albums released within the last 6 months for £6 stacked to the brim. Then you had recent independent albums in there for £14?!

Was weird

It depends what type of independent, the small shops that sell mainly CDs then yes I think it will. For the dance music orientated shops I don't really see it having much of an impact as people mainly go there for vinyl, which I doubt HMV still sells anyway
 

mms

sometimes
Would the failure of HMV invigorate independents?

I went into Oxford Street HMV during the week with Terror Danjah and it was like a graveyard for CDs. They had albums released within the last 6 months for £6 stacked to the brim. Then you had recent independent albums in there for £14?!

Was weird

well that's part of the problem as they're selling off that stock at cost cos they overstocked in the last 6 months, which shows you they support good music, the problem is also independent new albums stocked at £14 of course, as they're cheaper in amazon and play - who incidentally don't pay VAT, and can charge cheaper prices, plus hammer distributors, so HMV is kinda fucked in that way unless they do something different, it's a shame they're being punished as offshore companies can charge less, but alas it's one of the many visible contradictions of wresting with current government etc.

It does own Fopp of course, who are quite often masters of taking in stock, and often kinda rebranding it - usually overstocks at distributors and big lists of label stock and selling it at knock off prices, - since they're a bit more specialist it works for them, so HMV could benefit from following more of a Fopp model or something similar, infact i think there is a real gap in the market for something that connects with music fans on more of that level, HMV have a whole interest in live music as well, it's actually got alot of strong assets about it and potentially lots of opportunities, but it's firefighting right now and needs to be more proactive and essentially look like it loves the things it sells, as i'm sure it's young employees of music and film fans for inspiration, cut away the rigid management, present the things that it's competitors don't have and be a bit more humble, less like a corporate warehouse with tills, and more like the sort of place people can enjoy and discover stuff in.

The slow death of the other stores hasn't invigorated indies so far, but it could be different with HMV as it's the last one standing, HMV's expansion definitely killed indies too on the way up. Dance music stores, of which there are very few now, need to adapt too I think.

thats my half arsed thinking anyway, - it's probably a little too late still.
 
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Benny Bunter

Well-known member
It depends what type of independent, the small shops that sell mainly CDs then yes I think it will. For the dance music orientated shops I don't really see it having much of an impact as people mainly go there for vinyl, which I doubt HMV still sells anyway

apart from all those audiophile 180gm reissues. I was in HMV the other day and saw a reissue of Neil Young's 'Everybody knows this is nowhere' selling for £53!!!

There was no extra tracks, artwork or anything particularly special about it either, just the standard album repressed. Who on earth would pay that much?

The 12" single section had dwindled down to a few dog-eared copies of the last Mark Ronsen single. Pretty dire situation...
 

mms

sometimes
Basically HMV become a nationwide version of rough trade?

not that far, at all, as the people that shop there are more interested in a wider range of things, and they sell a wider range of things too, but they should steal ideas from all over the place, rough trade being one of them, but i think they should be aware they can exploit a miriad of niches, obviously not just music too, but the strengths they have is the range they have in a way too.
 
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Leo

Well-known member
fwiw, the disappearance of large music retailers hasn't seemed to have done anything to help small indie stores in nyc. over the past few years, tower, virgin and hmv all went out of business here, yet the number of indie shops continues to decline and those that have stayed in business (like other music) now carry a more narrow selection of new releases and drastically less back catalog inventory. could be to do with the ridiculously high rents here, but i can't imagine london overhead is that much cheaper.

rumors have swirled for the past couple of years that rough trade was scouting locations here to open a brick lane-type store. while i'd love that to happen, they'd have to be pretty brave.
 

4linehaiku

Repetitive
Adding up the downloads of CMYK on two bittorrent trackers I'm aware of totals ~6400. I would say twice as many is an underestimate.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
well that's part of the problem as they're selling off that stock at cost cos they overstocked in the last 6 months.
HMV sale had virtually all of last year's EMI releases that are > 6 months old for £3. Mate of mine (who worked for an EMI subsid for years) said that's not HMV overstock, it's label over-press, just dumping them on HMV. Horrendous situation for the artists.
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
Getting back to the original subject of this thread: I'm amazed that JoNew only sold 50,000 units. Less than Direhunter!
 

mms

sometimes
Adding up the downloads of CMYK on two bittorrent trackers I'm aware of totals ~6400. I would say twice as many is an underestimate.

Yes so would I - more like 20 / 30 times.
those cmyk sales are really good for a 12" in the US.
 
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mms

sometimes
HMV sale had virtually all of last year's EMI releases that are > 6 months old for £3. Mate of mine (who worked for an EMI subsid for years) said that's not HMV overstock, it's label over-press, just dumping them on HMV. Horrendous situation for the artists.

Yes you're right there, i'm not really sure how the chain shops and the majors work together, but like most of their business, i'm sure it's not healthy actually or any other way. There must be a situation where these things are eventually returned and probably destroyed too though, I dunno, it's all fucked isn't it?
 
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