Lightning Bolt turns 8 today

igotid88

46% reporting
106,550
LIGHTNING BOLT

igotid88

Final numbers
169,687

igotid88

Backspacer sold about 190,000 its first week and drop 69% the second week. Hopefully with Pearl Jam week on Fallon and the World Series it's not that much of a drop.

Pap

166.000 in its first week

Veddernarian

igotid88 wrote:

Backspacer sold about 190,000 its first week and drop 69% the second week. Hopefully with Pearl Jam week on Fallon and the World Series it's not that much of a drop.

The large drop should occur just for the fact that week-1 sweeps up pre-orders that have been going on for months. So now, we're down to just a week's sales for week 2. Fallon and World series may soften it slightly but you should expect a huge decline just by the way the system works.

BF25394

I wonder whether the Ten Club orders show up in the SoundScan totals. According to Billboard, there were 166,000 sales, of which 84,000 were digital, or slightly more than half. In general, about 55-60 percent of sales across the market are of physical albums (e.g., CDs). (Yes, it is still true that a majority of album sales are of physical albums.) Pearl Jam is a band that should be more likely than the average artist to sell physical albums, both because it's audience skews older and because it has an above-average number of fans who are collectors and who care about the artwork.

So, having said all that, it surprises me that album downloads were greater than CD/vinyl sales, and it makes me think that Ten Club direct sales are not included in the SoundScan numbers. (For the record, no pun intended, many independent stores do not report their sales to SoundScan, so there are certainly additional copies not accounted for through those outlets.)

Is there anyone at the Ten Club who can offer any insight into whether the Ten Club reports to SoundScan?

Yes Way

BF25394 wrote:

Is there anyone at the Ten Club who can offer any insight into whether the Ten Club reports to SoundScan?

I would also like to know the answer to this.

Zod

Doesn't Soundscan now count albums shipped, not albums sold.

IE wasn't that the big change done in the 90s that resulted in Garth Brooks overthrowing Vs as the biggest first week album sales?

IE does it matter who the albums ship to? As long as the record label reports them shipped?

I still think Vs. would hold the record to this day had the rule not changed. It's way easier to ship over a million records in a week than it is to sell them. With PJ's record only being broke (2 or 3 times) buy a few hundred thousand, I have to imagine it was only beat because of this rule.

Regardless I imagine 10c's numbers would be counted as shipped. It's also possible dormant inventory is counted as shipped as well... assuming the albums got sent somewhere.

CitizenRick

One little nugget to add. Billboard reports that Lightning Bolt is the best selling rock album since last November.

Pretty cool.

http://blbrd.co/HhtNi7

igotid88

Zod wrote:

Doesn't Soundscan now count albums shipped, not albums sold.

IE wasn't that the big change done in the 90s that resulted in Garth Brooks overthrowing Vs as the biggest first week album sales?

IE does it matter who the albums ship to? As long as the record label reports them shipped?

I still think Vs. would hold the record to this day had the rule not changed. It's way easier to ship over a million records in a week than it is to sell them. With PJ's record only being broke (2 or 3 times) buy a few hundred thousand, I have to imagine it was only beat because of this rule.

Regardless I imagine 10c's numbers would be counted as shipped. It's also possible dormant inventory is counted as shipped as well... assuming the albums got sent somewhere.

No. The RIAA, who does the certifications counts the shipments. Neilsen Soundscan counts albums sold. The change that soundscan made was they ended the week on Sunday. Before it would end on a Friday. So that's how Garth broke the record. And also because he sold his double album for something like $10 at Wal-Mart.

BF25394

Zod wrote:

Doesn't Soundscan now count albums shipped, not albums sold.

IE wasn't that the big change done in the 90s that resulted in Garth Brooks overthrowing Vs as the biggest first week album sales?

IE does it matter who the albums ship to? As long as the record label reports them shipped?

I still think Vs. would hold the record to this day had the rule not changed. It's way easier to ship over a million records in a week than it is to sell them. With PJ's record only being broke (2 or 3 times) buy a few hundred thousand, I have to imagine it was only beat because of this rule.

Regardless I imagine 10c's numbers would be counted as shipped. It's also possible dormant inventory is counted as shipped as well... assuming the albums got sent somewhere.

No, Zod. Nielsen SoundScan tracks actual retail sales. You may be thinking of the certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) (e.g., platinum and gold), which are based on the number of units shipped.

The first-week U.S. sales for Vs. have been surpassed by more than 10 other albums, and the record-holder more than doubled Pearl Jam's total with over 2.4 million units sold ('N Sync with No Strings Attached).

On a related note, Keith Caulfield of Billboard said that this is the lowest first-week sales total for any Pearl Jam studio release. Someone in this thread already pointed out that the first-week sales for Riot Act may have been lower (they were reported as 166,000, the same as for Lightning Bolt, but those numbers are both rounded) but, even if Riot Act did outsell Lightning Bolt in its first week of release, Ten certainly did not. Ten did not even chart in its first week of release in 1991. Album sales were generally higher then, but not so high that an album that sold over 166,000 copies would have failed to crack the Top 200. Even if Caulfield was referring to the albums' first weeks on the chart-- which came months later for Ten-- I still don't think it sold 166,000+ as it debuted at No. 155.

Does anyone know Keith Caulfield's email address?

BF25394

igotid88 wrote:

Zod wrote:

Doesn't Soundscan now count albums shipped, not albums sold.

IE wasn't that the big change done in the 90s that resulted in Garth Brooks overthrowing Vs as the biggest first week album sales?

IE does it matter who the albums ship to? As long as the record label reports them shipped?

I still think Vs. would hold the record to this day had the rule not changed. It's way easier to ship over a million records in a week than it is to sell them. With PJ's record only being broke (2 or 3 times) buy a few hundred thousand, I have to imagine it was only beat because of this rule.

Regardless I imagine 10c's numbers would be counted as shipped. It's also possible dormant inventory is counted as shipped as well... assuming the albums got sent somewhere.

No. The RIAA, who does the certifications counts the shipments. Neilsen Soundscan counts albums sold. The change that soundscan made was they ended the week on Sunday. Before it would end on a Friday. So that's how Garth broke the record. And also because he sold his double album for something like $10 at Wal-Mart.

I see we were posting simultaneously about the RIAA, but just a note: Garth Brooks' total for Double Live, which broke the first-week sales record held by Vs., isn't even among the top 10 for first-week sales anymore. You can check out the top 10 at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fa ... ted_States

igotid88

BF25394 wrote:

igotid88 wrote:

Zod wrote:

Doesn't Soundscan now count albums shipped, not albums sold.

IE wasn't that the big change done in the 90s that resulted in Garth Brooks overthrowing Vs as the biggest first week album sales?

IE does it matter who the albums ship to? As long as the record label reports them shipped?

I still think Vs. would hold the record to this day had the rule not changed. It's way easier to ship over a million records in a week than it is to sell them. With PJ's record only being broke (2 or 3 times) buy a few hundred thousand, I have to imagine it was only beat because of this rule.

Regardless I imagine 10c's numbers would be counted as shipped. It's also possible dormant inventory is counted as shipped as well... assuming the albums got sent somewhere.

No. The RIAA, who does the certifications counts the shipments. Neilsen Soundscan counts albums sold. The change that soundscan made was they ended the week on Sunday. Before it would end on a Friday. So that's how Garth broke the record. And also because he sold his double album for something like $10 at Wal-Mart.

I see we were posting simultaneously about the RIAA, but just a note: Garth Brooks' total for Double Live, which broke the first-week sales record held by Vs., isn't even among the top 10 for first-week sales anymore. You can check out the top 10 at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fa ... ted_States

Obviously. Just talking about that time

igotid88

Ten #14 and Rearviewmirror #21 enter the Catalog chart

igotid88

46% reporting 25,022

BF25394

igotid88 wrote:

Obviously. Just talking about that time

I didn't mean it as a correction of you, more as a clarification for posters who may not pay as much attention to this sort of thing as you and I do.

igotid88

BF25394 wrote:

igotid88 wrote:

Obviously. Just talking about that time

I didn't mean it as a correction of you, more as a clarification for posters who may not pay as much attention to this sort of thing as you and I do.

it's okay. I just wish I had access to those numbers weekly. A poster used to gives us their weekly numbers.

igotid88

68% reporting
#5 29,054

Veddernarian

igotid88 wrote:

BF25394 wrote:

igotid88 wrote:

Obviously. Just talking about that time

I didn't mean it as a correction of you, more as a clarification for posters who may not pay as much attention to this sort of thing as you and I do.

it's okay. I just wish I had access to those numbers weekly. A poster used to gives us their weekly numbers.

The user-name was UpHereSoHigh (I think that was it) and he had access to soundscan. Changed jobs and no longer had access to Soundscan. It was interesting info.

igotid88

Veddernarian wrote:

igotid88 wrote:

it's okay. I just wish I had access to those numbers weekly. A poster used to gives us their weekly numbers.

The user-name was UpHereSoHigh (I think that was it) and he had access to soundscan. Changed jobs and no longer had access to Soundscan. It was interesting info.

I know. I still have some of the emails