Backspacer has to be closing in on 500,000 sold here in the US. I think the US album sales can be determined a success at this point.
Pearl Jam apparently liked the deal they struck with Target. Some people on here claim that deal has had a negative effect on total sales, but Pearl Jam apparently liked other aspects of the agreement. By today's standards, meaning today's fledgling music industry, I think 500,000 is a success no matter how you decide to distribute the album. Not too many million-sellers these days.
I would've liked to see a Letterman appearance or a Saturday Night Live appearance... a performance of "Just Breathe" on SNL as the song was enjoying radio success might've pushed a few more units. Maybe they'll still do these shows and release another single, who knows? I'm guessing Pearl Jam is completely comfortable with the amount of promotiong they're doing and trying to keep up with the times as far as a way they feel comfortable in distributing future albums.
The album is extremely close to 500,000-- it literally could sell its 500,000th copy any day now.
Pearl Jam likes the Target deal because they make money off of it regardless of how the album sells. Target bought a million copies from the band for $5.00 each. The band made $5 million regardless of whether a single consumer ever bought the record. Under a traditional record deal, the band would get roughly $2.00 per unit moved, meaning that they would have to actually sell 2.5 million copies to consumers to make the same money.
am i the only one who thinks backspacer isn't selling well?
it's a better album than their self titled with two solid singles.... self titled produced world wide suicide... the rest were pretty bad for the radio.
any ideas why it isn't selling as well as the others? is it because they re-released ten back in the spring? could that have dulled the sales a bit?
I think because Target is the only major retailer it's available at (and who buys cds at Target?) and the lack of promotion. Also, I think a lot of PJ's target audience tends to download songs rather than purchase CDs.
As of June 2007, Target was the #5 music retailer in the U.S., behind Wal-Mart, Best Buy, iTunes and Amazon.com (0.1% behind Amazon).
Also, downloads count in the sales total. And something like 75 percent of sales have been of CDs, not downloads. Pearl Jam fans tend to be collectors. They want the physical product and the artwork.
Illegal downloads don't count...that's what I was referring to above. Also, if people only buy selected tracks from iTunes and not the entire album, I don't think that's counted either. June 2007, was a long time ago. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon now takes a bigger piece of the pie. Do you have the actual numbers to go along with the rankings? Thanks.
2003: San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Seattle; 2005: Monterrey; 2006: Chicago 1 & 2, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Detroit; 2008: West Palm Beach, Tampa; 2009: Austin, LA 3 & 4, San Diego; 2010: Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbus, Indianapolis; 2011: PJ20 1 & 2; 2012: Missoula; 2013: Dallas, Oklahoma City, Seattle; 2014: Tulsa; 2016: Columbia, New York City 1 & 2; 2018: London, Seattle 1 & 2; 2021: Ohana; 2022: Oklahoma City
When you think about in terms of sales vs. industry trends and comparable bands, 500k is a very strong number. Just think of it this way, industry-wide album sales have dropped by 50% since 1999. Binaural came out in 2000 and sold about 800k. If this album came out in 2000, it would have sold around 1 million with only one big-box retailer. If it had been distributed widely, you're talking possibly around 1.5 million to 2.0 million. It's like adjusting for inflation when comparing money in one time period to another. So much has changed in the music industry in the last 10 years and 500k today is not the same level of success as it was 10 years ago. It's much better.
It's definitely true that distributing the album in more big box stores would have helped overall sales, but it would have made no sense for the band and may have been impossible for them to manage without a major label backing them. With this deal, they got paid. If Target wants to get rid of the excess inventory, they will. They'll slash the price and put it in their weekly ad more prominently or something.
There was a hitsdailydouble article recently that mentioned how successful the project has been w/ sales approaching 500k. I think industry people view it that way. It's only going to allow PJ and other bands to eschew the traditional 'major label' approach and operate as their own, individual entities which is better for them and the fans.
"Darkness comes in waves, tell me, why invite it to stay?"
Illegal downloads don't count...that's what I was referring to above. Also, if people only buy selected tracks from iTunes and not the entire album, I don't think that's counted either. June 2007, was a long time ago. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon now takes a bigger piece of the pie. Do you have the actual numbers to go along with the rankings? Thanks.
Gotcha, but the vast majority of downloads are legal downloads. Plus, if anything, I would speculate that Pearl Jam fans are less likely to download illegally because: 1) we skew older than the average music consumer; 2) we are so proud of the band's integrity and how well it treats its fans that we tend not to want to steal from it; and 3) we are completists/collectors who want the physical package, artwork, etc. For these reasons, I would surmise that Pearl Jam's record sales are less undercounted than those of most other artists.
You are right that downloads of individual tracks count toward the sales figures of the individual tracks, not the album. But that affects every artist, and is the primary reason why albums sales are in decline industrywide. It's not unique to Pearl Jam.
On market share, more recent numbers, from January 2008, show:
When you think about in terms of sales vs. industry trends and comparable bands, 500k is a very strong number. Just think of it this way, industry-wide album sales have dropped by 50% since 1999. Binaural came out in 2000 and sold about 800k. If this album came out in 2000, it would have sold around 1 million with only one big-box retailer. If it had been distributed widely, you're talking possibly around 1.5 million to 2.0 million. It's like adjusting for inflation when comparing money in one time period to another. So much has changed in the music industry in the last 10 years and 500k today is not the same level of success as it was 10 years ago. It's much better.
It's definitely true that distributing the album in more big box stores would have helped overall sales, but it would have made no sense for the band and may have been impossible for them to manage without a major label backing them. With this deal, they got paid. If Target wants to get rid of the excess inventory, they will. They'll slash the price and put it in their weekly ad more prominently or something.
There was a hitsdailydouble article recently that mentioned how successful the project has been w/ sales approaching 500k. I think industry people view it that way. It's only going to allow PJ and other bands to eschew the traditional 'major label' approach and operate as their own, individual entities which is better for them and the fans.
And bear in mind that "Binaural" has had years to accumulate 800,000 in sales. "Backspacer" has been out for less than 6 months.
Illegal downloads don't count...that's what I was referring to above. Also, if people only buy selected tracks from iTunes and not the entire album, I don't think that's counted either. June 2007, was a long time ago. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon now takes a bigger piece of the pie. Do you have the actual numbers to go along with the rankings? Thanks.
Gotcha, but the vast majority of downloads are legal downloads. Plus, if anything, I would speculate that Pearl Jam fans are less likely to download illegally because: 1) we skew older than the average music consumer; 2) we are so proud of the band's integrity and how well it treats its fans that we tend not to want to steal from it; and 3) we are completists/collectors who want the physical package, artwork, etc. For these reasons, I would surmise that Pearl Jam's record sales are less undercounted than those of most other artists.
You are right that downloads of individual tracks count toward the sales figures of the individual tracks, not the album. But that affects every artist, and is the primary reason why albums sales are in decline industrywide. It's not unique to Pearl Jam.
On market share, more recent numbers, from January 2008, show:
2003: San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Seattle; 2005: Monterrey; 2006: Chicago 1 & 2, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Detroit; 2008: West Palm Beach, Tampa; 2009: Austin, LA 3 & 4, San Diego; 2010: Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbus, Indianapolis; 2011: PJ20 1 & 2; 2012: Missoula; 2013: Dallas, Oklahoma City, Seattle; 2014: Tulsa; 2016: Columbia, New York City 1 & 2; 2018: London, Seattle 1 & 2; 2021: Ohana; 2022: Oklahoma City
Interestingly, "Backspacer" actually saw its sales increase by 12 percent from 5,382 to 6,050 last week (2/27/10 chart) even though it moved down the chart from #118 to #128. Through last week, "Backspacer" had sold 490,699 units.
Following up on a point made above, "Black Gives Way To Blue" sold 832 more copies than "Backspacer" last week (a 2 percent decline from the previous week), and that was enough to rank it 15 spots higher. The AIC album had sold 368,400 units as of last week.
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Must be nice having that kind of money :-)
Me, too. One thing I'm pretty sure of: it would have done better.
Illegal downloads don't count...that's what I was referring to above. Also, if people only buy selected tracks from iTunes and not the entire album, I don't think that's counted either. June 2007, was a long time ago. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon now takes a bigger piece of the pie. Do you have the actual numbers to go along with the rankings? Thanks.
It's definitely true that distributing the album in more big box stores would have helped overall sales, but it would have made no sense for the band and may have been impossible for them to manage without a major label backing them. With this deal, they got paid. If Target wants to get rid of the excess inventory, they will. They'll slash the price and put it in their weekly ad more prominently or something.
There was a hitsdailydouble article recently that mentioned how successful the project has been w/ sales approaching 500k. I think industry people view it that way. It's only going to allow PJ and other bands to eschew the traditional 'major label' approach and operate as their own, individual entities which is better for them and the fans.
Gotcha, but the vast majority of downloads are legal downloads. Plus, if anything, I would speculate that Pearl Jam fans are less likely to download illegally because: 1) we skew older than the average music consumer; 2) we are so proud of the band's integrity and how well it treats its fans that we tend not to want to steal from it; and 3) we are completists/collectors who want the physical package, artwork, etc. For these reasons, I would surmise that Pearl Jam's record sales are less undercounted than those of most other artists.
You are right that downloads of individual tracks count toward the sales figures of the individual tracks, not the album. But that affects every artist, and is the primary reason why albums sales are in decline industrywide. It's not unique to Pearl Jam.
On market share, more recent numbers, from January 2008, show:
1) Apple, 19%
2) Wal-Mart, 15%
3) Best Buy, 13%
4) Amazon, 6%
4) Target, 6%
I can't find more recent numbers than that.
And bear in mind that "Binaural" has had years to accumulate 800,000 in sales. "Backspacer" has been out for less than 6 months.
Thanks for the info!
Following up on a point made above, "Black Gives Way To Blue" sold 832 more copies than "Backspacer" last week (a 2 percent decline from the previous week), and that was enough to rank it 15 spots higher. The AIC album had sold 368,400 units as of last week.