Chart longevity

wnh1977

The Jeagler wrote:

this is really impressive. what are the total sales numbers to this point?

Current sales figures were in another thread... I believe I saw the Backspacer sales tally at approximately 419,000 (U.S. sales). I thought global sales were around 806,000. I would just be happy if Backspacer hits 500,00 here in the U.S. That's probably still several weeks away.

Why no Letterman or SNL appearance? Perform "Just Breathe" and/or another new single, maybe "Unthought Known". I'm not sure why they're not giving another promotional push for this album. I'm especially surprised by the lack of Letterman considering they've made an appearance for every album since No Code!!

elderman

Well if they sat in on Letterman with "Just Breathe" and the string quartet it would probably send the album and song into another territory altogether....maybe not the Pearl Jam we or they (the band) are about.
Would sell a lot of additional copies of Backspacer thats for sure. :?:

elderman

Oh just noticed that Backspacer is back up the charts for the 3rd week running, up from 123 to 77!!! Is it "just Breathe" airplay or what, tell me!

broloco

^^^ yeah I was happy to see that jump. Backspacer is officially a "pacesetter" on the Billboard 200 chart.
ok, sales doesn't mean shit in the overall picture, but still, good for them. :P

BF25394

elderman wrote:

Oh just noticed that Backspacer is back up the charts for the 3rd week running, up from 123 to 77!!! Is it "just Breathe" airplay or what, tell me!

Someone posted that it was discounted on iTunes. That's the most likely explanation.

BF25394

elderman wrote:

Well if they sat in on Letterman with "Just Breathe" and the string quartet it would probably send the album and song into another territory altogether....maybe not the Pearl Jam we or they (the band) are about.
Would sell a lot of additional copies of Backspacer thats for sure. :?:

Appearing on Letterman would not create a huge sales spike. The audience is small, and smaller by the time 12:30 rolls around and the musical guest appears. The types of TV appearances that create big sales spikes are ones with big audiences (the Grammys; the Super Bowl halftime show; a performance at the Oscars) or ones with not-as-big audiences that are very impressionable (Oprah).

T-Bone 82

#69 this week - moved up again.

http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/billb ... r=position

The Juggler

BF25394 wrote:

elderman wrote:

Well if they sat in on Letterman with "Just Breathe" and the string quartet it would probably send the album and song into another territory altogether....maybe not the Pearl Jam we or they (the band) are about.
Would sell a lot of additional copies of Backspacer thats for sure. :?:

Appearing on Letterman would not create a huge sales spike. The audience is small, and smaller by the time 12:30 rolls around and the musical guest appears. The types of TV appearances that create big sales spikes are ones with big audiences (the Grammys; the Super Bowl halftime show; a performance at the Oscars) or ones with not-as-big audiences that are very impressionable (Oprah).

no you're still reaching between 1-2M people on letterman

BF25394

The Jeagler wrote:

BF25394 wrote:

elderman wrote:

Well if they sat in on Letterman with "Just Breathe" and the string quartet it would probably send the album and song into another territory altogether....maybe not the Pearl Jam we or they (the band) are about.
Would sell a lot of additional copies of Backspacer thats for sure. :?:

Appearing on Letterman would not create a huge sales spike. The audience is small, and smaller by the time 12:30 rolls around and the musical guest appears. The types of TV appearances that create big sales spikes are ones with big audiences (the Grammys; the Super Bowl halftime show; a performance at the Oscars) or ones with not-as-big audiences that are very impressionable (Oprah).

no you're still reaching between 1-2M people on letterman

Right-- which is not a big enough audience to generate a huge sales spike. If one-half of one percent (which is actually an overestimate of the amount of sales generated by TV appearances) of the 30 million people (roughly) who watch the Oscars buy a record, you'll sell 300,000 copies. If one-half of one percent of an audience of 2 million buy a record, you'll sell 20,000 copies.

BF25394

After fifteen weeks, "Backspacer" sits at #69 on The Billboard 200. How does this compare with prior Pearl Jam studio albums in their fifteenth week of release?

"Vs.": #14
"Vitalogy": #18*
"Backspacer": #69
"Yield": #77
"No Code": #77
"Binaural": #141
"Pearl Jam": #157
"Riot Act": #199
"Ten": Not charted

*Does not include two weeks on chart when available on vinyl only (debuted at #55 vinyl-only, then fell to #173 before leaping to #1 upon the CD release).

BF25394

This is the first time "Backspacer" has charted at a higher position than "Yield" did at the corresponding time in its chart run.

T-Bone 82

You know what's crazy to think?...by that time in Yield's shelf life, it had probably sold well over 1 million copies. Backspacer is ahead by rank and debuted at #1 (Yield was #2), yet Backspacer has sold about 420,000 - 440,000 copies from what I've read.

It just goes to show how vastly different the record industry is from the late 90's to today.

The cool thing is, it shows that the bands popularity is as strong now as it was then. Maybe stronger. It also, in my opinion, shows what a great record that Backspacer is. Although I have a feeling that some people on this board would disagree with me on that subject.

BF25394

T-Bone 82 wrote:

You know what's crazy to think?...by that time in Yield's shelf life, it had probably sold well over 1 million copies. Backspacer is ahead by rank and debuted at #1 (Yield was #2), yet Backspacer has sold about 420,000 - 440,000 copies from what I've read.

True. It is likely that "Yield" sold more copies in its fifteenth week than "Backspacer" did, even though "Backspacer" ranks higher, just because album sales were higher across the board in 1998.

WhiteMaleRat

I wouldn't be suprised if the Letterman scandal thing had something to do with them not playing the show....

The Champ

BF25394 wrote:

Right-- which is not a big enough audience to generate a huge sales spike. If one-half of one percent (which is actually an overestimate of the amount of sales generated by TV appearances) of the 30 million people (roughly) who watch the Oscars buy a record, you'll sell 300,000 copies. If one-half of one percent of an audience of 2 million buy a record, you'll sell 20,000 copies.

Wow, you sure do know everything..

William Wallace

T-Bone 82 wrote:

#69 this week - moved up again.

http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/billb ... r=position

This is really great!

In Canada, Backspacer even went up to #33 this week.

BF25394

WhiteMaleRat wrote:

I wouldn't be suprised if the Letterman scandal thing had something to do with them not playing the show....

Or maybe they're blacklisted for going on Conan, Letterman's head-to-head competitor. There was a lot of that between Letterman and Leno.

BF25394

The Champ wrote:

BF25394 wrote:

Right-- which is not a big enough audience to generate a huge sales spike. If one-half of one percent (which is actually an overestimate of the amount of sales generated by TV appearances) of the 30 million people (roughly) who watch the Oscars buy a record, you'll sell 300,000 copies. If one-half of one percent of an audience of 2 million buy a record, you'll sell 20,000 copies.

Wow, you sure do know everything..

Well, I have a fair amount of experience with these matters.

PJam82

The Champ wrote:

BF25394 wrote:

Right-- which is not a big enough audience to generate a huge sales spike. If one-half of one percent (which is actually an overestimate of the amount of sales generated by TV appearances) of the 30 million people (roughly) who watch the Oscars buy a record, you'll sell 300,000 copies. If one-half of one percent of an audience of 2 million buy a record, you'll sell 20,000 copies.

Wow, you sure do know everything..

Hehe, I was thinking the exact same thing...I'm slightly amused by it, as none of us know how the Backspacer charting will play out. Let's face it, in this musical landscape where the album is only available in 2 places, NONE OF US has any idea just how to gauge this current run. We can try and compare to a different time, but it doesn't work. The best method we have to see how the album is doing is to simply look at weekly jumps, or drops in sales.

I know people like to turn it into some kind of science to back their claims, but Backspacer is doing better than any of us thought after releasing "Just Breathe" as a 2nd single.

The really impressive run is Susan Boyle's 4 straight weeks or so at 500,000+ sales all of Dec. THAT was incredible on any level. But, I guess we can just attribute most of that to Dec. X-mas sales, right?

igotid88

BF25394 wrote:

WhiteMaleRat wrote:

I wouldn't be suprised if the Letterman scandal thing had something to do with them not playing the show....

Or maybe they're blacklisted for going on Conan, Letterman's head-to-head competitor. There was a lot of that between Letterman and Leno.

Letterman doesn't hate Conan like he does Leno. So that can't be it. And Letterman won't turn down big guests.