Chart longevity

The Juggler

BF25394 wrote:

The Jeagler wrote:

BF25394 wrote:

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.

i was never anticipating they would be on something as big as the oscars. but when you're averaging somewhere around 10-15k copies per week...and then you get an extra 20k based on your calculation there, i'd have to say that would be considered a pretty big spike in my book. more than doubling your normal output.
40,000 copies would certainly move them way up in the charts right?

The Juggler

WhiteMaleRat wrote:

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

i'd be really surprised. letterman's ratings went up a bit after that. plus, what does pearl jam care if he cheated on his then girlfriend in the past? :wtf:

BF25394

PJam82 wrote:

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?

I have actually maintained pretty consistently that "Just Breathe" was the track with the best chance of leading to an expansion of sales beyond the core fan base. There are probably 25 posts from me to that effect in various places on this board.

Having said that, your point about the limited availability of the album is important. Even if PJ made a TV appearance, any sales spike would be even less than it otherwise would be because of the Target exclusive.

As far as Susan Boyle is concerned-- yes, Christmas, but also that her audience skews older and remains album-oriented.

BF25394

igotid88 wrote:

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.

It's not necessarily the hosts themselves who engage in the blacklisting. It's the networks. Anyway, I'm not sure that booking Pearl Jam is that much of a coup. It would not make that much difference in the ratings. Very few acts would.

The Juggler

BF25394 wrote:

PJam82 wrote:

The Champ wrote:

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?

I have actually maintained pretty consistently that "Just Breathe" was the track with the best chance of leading to an expansion of sales beyond the core fan base. There are probably 25 posts from me to that effect in various places on this board.

Having said that, your point about the limited availability of the album is important. Even if PJ made a TV appearance, any sales spike would be even less than it otherwise would be because of the Target exclusive.

As far as Susan Boyle is concerned-- yes, Christmas, but also that her audience skews older and remains album-oriented.

yup...great point about the target thing. i just don't understand exactly what they were thinking. if they wanted to sell more records (as they did say) why do an exclusive with a store not necessarily known for selling music?

BF25394

The Jeagler wrote:

i was never anticipating they would be on something as big as the oscars. but when you're averaging somewhere around 10-15k copies per week...and then you get an extra 20k based on your calculation there, i'd have to say that would be considered a pretty big spike in my book. more than doubling your normal output.
40,000 copies would certainly move them way up in the charts right?

Sure, 40,000 copies would get you close to the top 10, maybe even in the top 10 depending on the week. But that's some fuzzy math. The album's actual weekly sales level is under 10,000. It got a boost from Christmas shopping and iTunes promotion and pricing that jumped it to 14,000 and change. Add 20,000-- a generous estimate based on historical performance, the current retail climate and the Target exclusive-- and you get maybe 30,000. But you're right, that would still be a spike.

The Juggler

BF25394 wrote:

The Jeagler wrote:

i was never anticipating they would be on something as big as the oscars. but when you're averaging somewhere around 10-15k copies per week...and then you get an extra 20k based on your calculation there, i'd have to say that would be considered a pretty big spike in my book. more than doubling your normal output.
40,000 copies would certainly move them way up in the charts right?

Sure, 40,000 copies would get you close to the top 10, maybe even in the top 10 depending on the week. But that's some fuzzy math. The album's actual weekly sales level is under 10,000. It got a boost from Christmas shopping and iTunes promotion and pricing that jumped it to 14,000 and change. Add 20,000-- a generous estimate based on historical performance, the current retail climate and the Target exclusive-- and you get maybe 30,000. But you're right, that would still be a spike.

yeah, either way 25-30k would be pretty decent. and if they couple that with snl the following saturday night, the numbers should be even higher.

BF25394

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

Following up on this now that I have more info, it was not only discounted on iTunes, but iTunes promoted it in its Tuesday e-mail promotion. Overall "Backspacer" sales were up 67 percent in the week where it jumped from 123 to 77, but downloads of the album increased 412 percent.

Imagine what they could sell if Target did anything to promote the album. I don't get why Target is content to let so much product sit and rot on the shelves.

igotid88

kinda hoping they would be announced as grammy performers. that won't happen though.

The Juggler

igotid88 wrote:

kinda hoping they would be announced as grammy performers. that won't happen though.

i would think if it were to happen it would be next year when the album could be up for awards. still, i don't think it has a chance of happening.

BALLBOY

If you look at all the drivel that is on the charts & Backspacer only sells 326,000 you can tell that it means nothing. Crap sells especially in these days of the people hijacking music just to become famous & becoming puppets to reality tv. What happened to all the people who bought Ten, Vs & Vitalogy, what are they listening to nowadays? It has always been a thing that has really puzzled me.

BF25394

After sixteen weeks, "Backspacer" sits at #80 on The Billboard 200. How does this compare with prior Pearl Jam studio albums in their sixteenth week of release?

"Vs.": #19
"Vitalogy": #22*
"Backspacer": #80
"No Code": #83
"Yield": #85
"Binaural": #153
"Pearl Jam": #171
"Riot Act": Off chart
"Ten": Not yet 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).

eyedclaar

BALLBOY wrote:

If you look at all the drivel that is on the charts & Backspacer only sells 326,000 you can tell that it means nothing. Crap sells especially in these days of the people hijacking music just to become famous & becoming puppets to reality tv. What happened to all the people who bought Ten, Vs & Vitalogy, what are they listening to nowadays? It has always been a thing that has really puzzled me.

Well, the vast majority of people (outside of this pit) didn't like Vs. as much as Ten and then the vast majority didn't like Vitalogy as much as Vs. and then the vast majority didn't like No Code as much as Vitalogy. Thank Waffle, Yield stopped some of the bleeding. Then of course Binaural and Riot Act were released and people began jumping ship once again.

Backspacer is actually doing awesome by industry standards today, even if sales aren't pleasing to PJ fans. Hell, it has moved like 900 K throughout the world and 99.9% of all musicians would love to be able to say the same thing these days.

igotid88

on that ukmix site. it was posted that Ten sold 211,382 copies. Which placed them 200th.

http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27645&start=1500

The Juggler

igotid88 wrote:

on that ukmix site. it was posted that Ten sold 211,382 copies. Which placed them 200th.

http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27645&start=1500

thats gotta be the new remastered one right?

igotid88

The Jeagler wrote:

igotid88 wrote:

on that ukmix site. it was posted that Ten sold 211,382 copies. Which placed them 200th.

http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27645&start=1500

thats gotta be the new remastered one right?

i guess all versions. old and remastered. Ten always sells well. When that guy on the board used email us soundscan numbers Ten would usually sell 1-3,000 a week.

i_lov_it

igotid88 wrote:

The Jeagler wrote:

igotid88 wrote:

on that ukmix site. it was posted that Ten sold 211,382 copies. Which placed them 200th.

http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27645&start=1500

thats gotta be the new remastered one right?

i guess all versions. old and remastered. Ten always sells well. When that guy on the board used email us soundscan numbers Ten would usually sell 1-3,000 a week.

I've bought 4 "TEN" Albums over the Years!

igotid88

Shouldn't it have been certified already? Is it because they don't have a big label. They're not bothering paying for the certification? I think that's how it works.

The Champ

You know what I don't understand.....why can't one of these billionaire bands purchase like 500,000 copies of their own record to make it seem like they are kicking major billboard ass??

Haijay

you mean like roadrunner records having 4 million copies of all the right reasons in a warehouse somewhere?