"Dark Matter" and its tracks on the charts

BF25394

igotid88 said:

Imagine if they got rid of cd/vinyl. They wouldn't even make the top 200

That would be the end of the album as a format. If there were no more physical albums, artists would probably just release individual tracks intermittently.

kramerica4

Dark Matter (album)

#2 / #23 in Australia
#2 in Germany
#2 in Netherlands
#2 in Ireland
#2 in Scotland
#2 in UK (9,835 sales)
#2 in Swiss
#2 in Belgium
#3 in Italy
#3 / #18 in New Zealand
#5 in US (59' sales)
#13 in France

Without Swift, there would be a couple of number one coiuntries for PJ.
Disappointed about the US numbers. Even with RSD, the regional variants  and the 10-C exclusive Vinyl, the US shows the worst chart position of all countries. Sad.

BF25394

kramerica4 said:

Dark Matter (album)

#2 in Australia
#2 in Germany
#2 in Netherlands
#2 in Ireland
#2 in Scotland
#2 in UK (9,835 sales)
#2 in Swiss
#2 in Belgium
#3 in Italy
#3 in New Zealand
#5 in US (59' sales)

Without Swift, there would be a couple of number one coiuntries for PJ.
Disappointed about the US numbers. Even with RSD, the regional variants  and the 10-C exclusive Vinyl, the US shows the worst chart position of all countries. Sad.

I think that may be because the other countries' charts are measuring only sales, whereas the Billboard 200 measures sales and streaming. In the U.S., the album is also number two on Top Album Sales.

Or, if the other charts do measure sales and streaming, it just means that Future & Metro Boomin, Beyonce and Morgan Wallen are not as popular in those places, and there isn't anything else getting a particularly large number of streams this week in those countries. Country music generally does not do well overseas, so I wouldn't expect Morgan Wallen to be streaming much in the countries you list. And the Beyonce album is a country album, so it may not be as big overseas as a typical Beyonce album.

demetrios

BF25394 said:

Final numbers:

Total units: 59,000
Total sales: 52,000
Vinyl sales: 24,000

There were 9.33 million on-demand streams of the 11 songs on the album, which translates, along with free streams, to the 7,000 streaming-equivalent units that account for the difference between 52,000 and 59,000.

The album debuts at No. 5 on the Billboard 200.

(Taylor Swift had 2.61 total units, of which 1.91 million were pure sales, of which 859,000 were vinyl.)

BF25394

Original post updated for charts for the week ending May 4, 2024. There are a lot of updates, as the album debuts on several charts, "Wreckage" debuts on several charts, and nine of the album's eleven songs appear on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart. As is typical, the songs chart in roughly the order in which they appear on the album, with singles ranking ahead of album tracks. Singles get more traffic, and then people tend to listen to the album in order, with earlier tracks in the sequence consumed more because people don't always make it all the way through to the end. However, it is interesting that "Setting Sun" charted ahead of both "Something Special" and "Got to Give" (neither of which made the 25-song chart), which suggests that some number of people are skipping the latter two tracks.

igotid88

BF25394 said:

Original post updated for charts for the week ending May 4, 2024. There are a lot of updates, as the album debuts on several charts, "Wreckage" debuts on several charts, and nine of the album's eleven songs appear on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart. As is typical, the songs chart in roughly the order in which they appear on the album, with singles ranking ahead of album tracks. Singles get more traffic, and then people tend to listen to the album in order, with earlier tracks in the sequence consumed more because people don't always make it all the way through to the end. However, it is interesting that "Setting Sun" charted ahead of both "Something Special" and "Got to Give" (neither of which made the 25-song chart), which suggests that some number of people are skipping the latter two tracks.

Got to Give deserves more love. That could easily be a single

Vedd Hedd

Wait, did we conclude that orders from 10C counted towards the totals?

BF25394

igotid88 said:

BF25394 said:

Original post updated for charts for the week ending May 4, 2024. There are a lot of updates, as the album debuts on several charts, "Wreckage" debuts on several charts, and nine of the album's eleven songs appear on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart. As is typical, the songs chart in roughly the order in which they appear on the album, with singles ranking ahead of album tracks. Singles get more traffic, and then people tend to listen to the album in order, with earlier tracks in the sequence consumed more because people don't always make it all the way through to the end. However, it is interesting that "Setting Sun" charted ahead of both "Something Special" and "Got to Give" (neither of which made the 25-song chart), which suggests that some number of people are skipping the latter two tracks.

Got to Give deserves more love. That could easily be a single

I agree. Fantastic song.

BF25394

Vedd Hedd said:

Wait, did we conclude that orders from 10C counted towards the totals?

We didn't conclude anything. I expressed my doubts about whether those orders are included, but I noted that I have no definitive information one way or the other.

Vedd Hedd

BF25394 said:

Vedd Hedd said:

Wait, did we conclude that orders from 10C counted towards the totals?

We didn't conclude anything. I expressed my doubts about whether those orders are included, but I noted that I have no definitive information one way or the other.

Gotcha.  

I would THINK they would be included, yeah?  I mean, thats a lot of orders. 

BF25394

In order for the Ten Club orders to be reported, they would need to be set up with the equipment that allows for transmission of point-of-sale data to Luminate. That equipment costs money, and it's hard to imagine Pearl Jam investing in it when they only have meaningful direct-to-consumer record sales once every few years. It wouldn't surprise me if over ninety percent of the CDs and LPs shipped by the Ten Club are pre-orders of new albums (although I don't really know), which would mean that there's very little to be reported in the years between album releases. It is possible that Luminate has some sort of workaround that doesn't involve point-of-sale transmission and that allows them to capture direct-to-consumer sales by artists with confidence that the numbers are not being exaggerated or manipulated, but I have never heard of any such arrangement and don't know how it would work.

Having said that, it seems fairly obvious that Taylor Swift sells a huge number of albums direct-to-consumer and that those are being counted. (If they aren't, then her already-staggering sales numbers would be truly mind-boggling.) But she and her record company have an incentive to report those numbers because her sales actually serve as marketing. When you break records, you will get all kinds of free media reporting it, and that will drive even more sales. So I could easily see Taylor Swift's management or her record company paying for the Luminate equipment to ensure that these sales are fully reported. Pearl Jam's not setting records anymore, and they don't really seem to care about their sales numbers, so it's harder to imagine them shelling out (or their distributor shelling out on their behalf) to get set up to be able to report sales to Luminate.

I have tried to find out more about this without really getting anywhere. If someone in Ten Club operations would like to enlighten us, we're listening.

igotid88

I would think if you have a barcode it would count. Unless they don't scan their cd/vinyl 

BF25394

igotid88 said:

I would think if you have a barcode it would count. Unless they don't scan their cd/vinyl 

It's not that simple. The barcode has to be scanned by a device that is set up to report to Luminate.

JimFletcherPearlJam

Yeah, it would be totally counter-intuitive for Ten Club orders to be excluded from sales totals. It certainly seems proper to assume they are included unless demonstrated otherwise. 

JimFletcherPearlJam

At least Pearl Jam is making money off all the albums regardless. They must make a substantial percentage from each album these days compared to other artists, especially since they began using Monkeywrench Records in 2009. 

JimFletcherPearlJam

Yesterday I went looking in the town where I live for another physical copy of Dark Matter, but after visiting FYE, Target, and Walmart, there were none immediately available. I suspect I'd have to drive 35 miles (each way) to the nearest Barnes and Noble to acquire another one without waiting. Consequently, I simply ordered another copy through Amazon. 

BF25394

JimFletcherPearlJam said:

Yeah, it would be totally counter-intuitive for Ten Club orders to be excluded from sales totals. It certainly seems proper to assume they are included unless demonstrated otherwise. 

It may be counterintuitive in a vacuum but, when you know what Luminate's tracking entails, you realize that it's hard to know what to assume. 

JimFletcherPearlJam

Well, someone could just ask the people who work at the Ten Club. That is, if you want to know so badly. 

JimFletcherPearlJam

Based on the information included on this web site (recent article), it seems as though Ten Club album sales would almost assuredly be included in Luminate totals. 

heatonthestreet.com/what-is-sounscan/

BF25394

Responding to your two posts:

1) I don't know anyone who works for the Ten Club, and I don't think this is a question they would address in response to a random inquiry. No one from the Ten Club has volunteered any information about it here even though this topic has come up many times over the years.

2) I'm not sure how the information in the article you linked supports the idea that the Ten Club is set up to report sales to Luminate. If you look at the section on D2C, the Ten Club does not use a fulfillment company such as the ones listed there (at least I'm not aware of it if they do). Again, there is a difference between the distributor (UMG/Republic) and the Ten Club. The distributor is dealing with retail; the Ten Club is dealing directly with consumers.

As a general point, when I talk about this subject, I'm speaking from a certain knowledge base and experience. I also try to be clear when there are things that I do not know. So, again, based on my experience and understanding, I don't think it's safe to assume that direct-to-consumer sales via the Ten Club are reported to Luminate, but I don't know for sure. We do know that many independent record stores do not report to Luminate, so direct-to-consumer sales via the Ten Club wouldn't be the only sales that go uncounted.