Hopefully the physical sales will tell a different story. But based on the Spotify streams and YouTube views for the first 3 singles. They're behind Gigaton's. For example Wreckage will be viewed at least 200k less times than Quick Escape which was also the 3rd single off Gigaton. I obviously don't have all the data. But so far it looks like it might sell less than Gigaton
I think Wreckage is going to catch on at radio and probably cross into AAA more than Dark Matter did. WMMR in Philly played it a couple times yesterday and I saw some other rock stations around the country put it out.
Really catchy tune and I think it'll do well.
"Darkness comes in waves, tell me, why invite it to stay?"
I think Wreckage is going to catch on at radio and probably cross into AAA more than Dark Matter did. WMMR in Philly played it a couple times yesterday and I saw some other rock stations around the country put it out.
Really catchy tune and I think it'll do well.
Dark Matter is not really a Triple A type of song. Wasn't sure why it was on those stations. Unless I'm wrong about what Triple A station should play
I think Wreckage is going to catch on at radio and probably cross into AAA more than Dark Matter did. WMMR in Philly played it a couple times yesterday and I saw some other rock stations around the country put it out.
Really catchy tune and I think it'll do well.
Dark Matter is not really a Triple A type of song. Wasn't sure why it was on those stations. Unless I'm wrong about what Triple A station should play
I agree. It was an odd fit for that format. I think they were just responding to the enthusiasm for the song among their demographic and took a flyer on it. But "Wreckage" fits Triple-A perfectly. Of course, being a Triple-A hit is being a big fish in a small pond. The aggregate Triple-A audience is small.
I can honestly see 3 or 4 other ones doing well on radio too. Album seems very accessible...don't think that's been the case in quite a while for them.
I think the Dark Matter album will sell more than Gigaton. Gigaton was released when all the shops were closed because of the pandemic. So Dark Matter has a huge advantage. Plus many music fans will storm out to record stores on saturday (rsd) and see that there is a new Pearl Jam album out.
That seems pretty low. Let's hope the real numbers will go up.
Everyone of the buyers is experiencing a fantastic record, so gratulations to all of them / us!
The numbers usually hold up. But hope there's a spike. So much for excuse when Gigaton came out that they couldn't buy it because of the stores not being opened because of the pandemic.
And if they didn't add the RSD numbers it would 45k
That seems pretty low. Let's hope the real numbers will go up.
Everyone of the buyers is experiencing a fantastic record, so gratulations to all of them / us!
The numbers usually hold up. But hope there's a spike. So much for excuse when Gigaton came out that they couldn't buy it because of the stores not being opened because of the pandemic.
And if they didn't add the RSD numbers it would 45k
Somewhere on this board, I predicted it would fall short of Gigaton's first-week number despite the COVID effect just because of the overall trend for artists like Pearl Jam. (I posted some numbers about this.) Having said that, Cohen is almost certainly getting his numbers from Hits Daily Double, and that number is a bit of a spitball at this point, so it wouldn't surprise me to see the final number overshoot (or undershoot) that total. These variants are a real wild-card. Taylor's tracking for over 2 million units, which would be a career best, and a lot of that is driven by the variants.
I still also have questions about the reporting of direct-to-consumer sales from the Ten Club and whether they are accounted for by Luminate. They ought to be, but I have no independent verification of this, and knowing how the system works, I have at least a little reason to doubt.
Bear in mind also that many independent retailers, like my local record store, do not report to Luminate. Does Pearl Jam sell a disproportionate number of albums at non-reporting record stores? I don't know, but it's not implausible.
That seems pretty low. Let's hope the real numbers will go up.
Everyone of the buyers is experiencing a fantastic record, so gratulations to all of them / us!
The numbers usually hold up. But hope there's a spike. So much for excuse when Gigaton came out that they couldn't buy it because of the stores not being opened because of the pandemic.
And if they didn't add the RSD numbers it would 45k
Somewhere on this board, I predicted it would fall short of Gigaton's first-week number despite the COVID effect just because of the overall trend for artists like Pearl Jam. (I posted some numbers about this.) Having said that, Cohen is almost certainly getting his numbers from Hits Daily Double, and that number is a bit of a spitball at this point, so it wouldn't surprise me to see the final number overshoot (or undershoot) that total. These variants are a real wild-card. Taylor's tracking for over 2 million units, which would be a career best, and a lot of that is driven by the variants.
I still also have questions about the reporting of direct-to-consumer sales from the Ten Club and whether they are accounted for by Luminate. They ought to be, but I have no independent verification of this, and knowing how the system works, I have at least a little reason to doubt.
Bear in mind also that many independent retailers, like my local record store, do not report to Luminate. Does Pearl Jam sell a disproportionate number of albums at non-reporting record stores? I don't know, but it's not implausible.
I'm disappointed in this fanbase if these numbers hold up. The Rolling Stones, another great band sold 100k their first week.
Hey, as long as Dark Matter debuts in the top five on the charts. Every Pearl Jam studio album has reached top-five album sales status on the Billboard 200. I just want that streak to continue. Long live Pearl Jam! 🥑
Hey, as long as Dark Matter debuts in the top five on the charts. Every Pearl Jam studio album has reached top-five album sales status on the Billboard 200. I just want that streak to continue. Long live Pearl Jam! 🥑
Fingers crossed. I did my part. 4 vinyls, cd and cd/blu-ray, and the digital. Thinking about getting the red white blue vinyl. But at $80. I don't know https://amzn.to/4aE9kBK
I bought a CD, an LP and the Blu-ray. When you think about how many of us bought multiple versions of this album, if the number ends up being 60,000, it might be that there are only 30,000 unique individuals who bought the album.
To your point about disappointment, I guess I would just say be disappointed, but don't be surprised. Look at this community for perspective. We are ostensibly the biggest fans this band has, and yet look at how many of us have little interest in the band's new music. I have a close friend I've attended dozens of shows with, and I learned the other day that, although he has bought baseball cards and license plates and posters and a bunch of other crap in recent years, he never bought Gigaton. When I asked him if he went to the theater event the other day, he said no, and then he asked me whether they gave away any stuff at the one I went to. He didn't ask me what I thought of the album, bugt he asked me about merch. There are a lot of people who go on record here about how much they dislike the last 20 years of the band's output, and who say they only keep their memberships active so they can get tickets to live shows where they mostly want to see them play the same old songs. And these are the band's biggest fans, in theory. If everyone here isn't buying the new albums, how many people outside of the fan club should we expect to be buying them?
PJ is a band that has been around for over 30 years. That hit me when I realized when I was in college in 1991 LeD Zepplin came out 22 years before that and seemed ancient. PJ is not relevant anymore. We still love them but they aren’t on the radar of current music fans. They are mostly a nostalgia act. They will never rule the charts again. And that’s ok. Dark matter is a great album but it’s not bringing rock music back to the an average music fan. They have moved on.
PJ is a band that has been around for over 30 years. That hit me when I realized when I was in college in 1991 LeD Zepplin came out 22 years before that and seemed ancient. PJ is not relevant anymore. We still love them but they aren’t on the radar of current music fans. They are mostly a nostalgia act. They will never rule the charts again. And that’s ok. Dark matter is a great album but it’s not bringing rock music back to the an average music fan. They have moved on.
Those classic-rock acts kept selling albums long after they were defunct. "Relevant" is not the right word-- there's no modifier; the better word is "popular"-- Pearl Jam is not popular anymore. The Beatles and Led Zeppelin went kaput in 1970 and 1980, respectively, but they never stopped being popular. The bigger issue is that, when you say "we still love them," that love doesn't translate into record sales even among a large swath of the fan base for whom, as you note, they are a nostalgia act. Most Pearl Jam fans seem to want to just hear the songs from the '90s and never really gave much attention to the 21st-century albums.
They don't need to sell to the average music fan to put up big sales numbers. If there are 200,000 active members of the fan club, for sake of argument, and there are only 30,000 unique individuals buying the album, that's a lot of sales left on the table without even considering the average music fan. If Pearl Jam sold 200,000 copies of the album in the first week, it would be one of the biggest sales weeks of the year. Instead, they won't come close to that because too many of their fans stopped caring about new music (and/or their new music) a long time ago. Not me, not you, but lots of people who post here and are very straightforward about their apathy.
All my friends just stream everything now. I literally don't know anyone who has bought a new album by any artist in years.
This is almost certainly not true. There were over 100 million albums sold in the U.S. in 2023, 87 million of them physical albums. You may think you don't know anyone who has bought a new album in years, but you almost certainly do. And don't fall for the fallacy of making presumptions about the population at large based on the people you know. We tend to associate with those who are similarly situated to us, but it's a big country full of all different kinds of people. Several years ago, I asked as many people as I could whether they watched NCIS. No one said they did. And yet it was the most-watched show on television for several years running. If I had tried to draw a conclusion based on the people whom I asked, I would have been very wrong about the extent of the show's audience. I encounter things like this all the time. People will tell me "no one does" this thing or that thing, completely unaware that I do whatever the thing is. "No one listens to the radio anymore." I do. "No one reads a newspaper anymore." I do. "No one has cable or satellite TV anymore." I do (and so do 60 million other U.S. households). "Everyone has a smartphone." I don't. Neither does Christopher Nolan, so look for me to win Best Picture soon.
By the same token, there were more than 850 million movie tickets sold in the U.S. last year in an industry that made over $9 billion. It's an industry that has challenges, but it is far from dying.
Physical media is dying (for years now). PJ is the only band in the last few years I've bought a physical copy of their album. I have always been a huge Metallica fan. Didn't buy their last album and got the previous one for free from this forum because they were being packaged with tickets and someone didn't want theirs. Almost nobody has CD players anymore under 30 and they aren't even a feature in most new cars. I would wager most of the Swifties buying the LP or CD aren't even playing them. It's the weird collecting phase. Soon to be a lot of college aged women with excess Swift merchandise to pawn.
As to the other person's comment about not knowing anyone buying physical music, add me to that mix. I work at a College with all ages and demographics, no one is buying much of anything unless it's a streaming subscription and everyone has Airpods for their smartphone. Same goes for movies; theatre or streaming. I think we'll continue to see more artists trying to cash in on theatre showings to balance the lost revenues in physical sales. Taylor is just ahead of the curve like in most things merchandise related.
All my friends just stream everything now. I literally don't know anyone who has bought a new album by any artist in years.
This is almost certainly not true. There were over 100 million albums sold in the U.S. in 2023, 87 million of them physical albums. You may think you don't know anyone who has bought a new album in years, but you almost certainly do. And don't fall for the fallacy of making presumptions about the population at large based on the people you know. We tend to associate with those who are similarly situated to us, but it's a big country full of all different kinds of people. Several years ago, I asked as many people as I could whether they watched NCIS. No one said they did. And yet it was the most-watched show on television for several years running. If I had tried to draw a conclusion based on the people whom I asked, I would have been very wrong about the extent of the show's audience. I encounter things like this all the time. People will tell me "no one does" this thing or that thing, completely unaware that I do whatever the thing is. "No one listens to the radio anymore." I do. "No one reads a newspaper anymore." I do. "No one has cable or satellite TV anymore." I do (and so do 60 million other U.S. households). "Everyone has a smartphone." I don't. Neither does Christopher Nolan, so look for me to win Best Picture soon.
By the same token, there were more than 850 million movie tickets sold in the U.S. last year in an industry that made over $9 billion. It's an industry that has challenges, but it is far from dying.
I have a group of friends who try to go to PJ every time they are in town. Talking 10-12. Not a single one of them have bought Dark Matter. Some have spotify, some apple or amazon. Just saying. Of course this is circumstantial evidence. But that was my whole point. I don't know anyone who bought any albums recently, let alone this one.
Hey, I bought eight copies of the Dark Matter album, six for myself and two for my brother, so it's all good. I also saw the movie theater preview, and I'll be seeing them perform in Ireland in two months.
Hey, I bought eight copies of the Dark Matter album, six for myself and two for my brother, so it's all good. I also saw the movie theater preview, and I'll be seeing them perform in Ireland in two months.
You did your job, so did I with 14 vinyl variants and a CD. Great times (for collectors) being a Pearl Jam fan!
As a fan who's 53 years old, I just really value having physical copies of the albums I love most. I'm guessing that people who are about 45 or older know what I mean, because they experienced it several decades ago. I mean, there's an artistic aspect to the album sleeves and inserts that doesn't really exist with digital versions. I honestly feel more connected to the band(s) by owning their albums on CD and/or vinyl. That's just me though.
As a fan who's 53 years old, I just really value having physical copies of the albums I love most. I'm guessing that people who are about 45 or older know what I mean, because they experienced it several decades ago. I mean, there's an artistic aspect to the album sleeves and inserts that doesn't really exist with digital versions. I honestly feel more connected to the band(s) by owning their albums on CD and/or vinyl. That's just me though.
I forgot to mention having physical copies of albums framed for wall art. I have approximately a dozen albums hanging on the walls of my man cave. Perhaps many of the all-digital people just have bare walls.
All my friends just stream everything now. I literally don't know anyone who has bought a new album by any artist in years.
This is almost certainly not true. There were over 100 million albums sold in the U.S. in 2023, 87 million of them physical albums. You may think you don't know anyone who has bought a new album in years, but you almost certainly do. And don't fall for the fallacy of making presumptions about the population at large based on the people you know. We tend to associate with those who are similarly situated to us, but it's a big country full of all different kinds of people. Several years ago, I asked as many people as I could whether they watched NCIS. No one said they did. And yet it was the most-watched show on television for several years running. If I had tried to draw a conclusion based on the people whom I asked, I would have been very wrong about the extent of the show's audience. I encounter things like this all the time. People will tell me "no one does" this thing or that thing, completely unaware that I do whatever the thing is. "No one listens to the radio anymore." I do. "No one reads a newspaper anymore." I do. "No one has cable or satellite TV anymore." I do (and so do 60 million other U.S. households). "Everyone has a smartphone." I don't. Neither does Christopher Nolan, so look for me to win Best Picture soon.
By the same token, there were more than 850 million movie tickets sold in the U.S. last year in an industry that made over $9 billion. It's an industry that has challenges, but it is far from dying.
I have a group of friends who try to go to PJ every time they are in town. Talking 10-12. Not a single one of them have bought Dark Matter. Some have spotify, some apple or amazon. Just saying. Of course this is circumstantial evidence. But that was my whole point. I don't know anyone who bought any albums recently, let alone this one.
What I'm saying is that you probably do know people who have bought albums recently, but they may not be the people you talk about music with. 87 million physical albums sold last year is one for every four people in the U.S. Of course, it's a smaller group of people buying multiple albums, but it's still probably at least 30 million people buying at least one album.
Comments
Really catchy tune and I think it'll do well.
I can honestly see 3 or 4 other ones doing well on radio too. Album seems very accessible...don't think that's been the case in quite a while for them.
Gigaton was released when all the shops were closed because of the pandemic.
So Dark Matter has a huge advantage.
Plus many music fans will storm out to record stores on saturday (rsd) and see that there is a new Pearl Jam album out.
Let's hope the real numbers will go up.
Everyone of the buyers is experiencing a fantastic record, so gratulations to all of them / us!
And if they didn't add the RSD numbers it would 45k
I still also have questions about the reporting of direct-to-consumer sales from the Ten Club and whether they are accounted for by Luminate. They ought to be, but I have no independent verification of this, and knowing how the system works, I have at least a little reason to doubt.
Bear in mind also that many independent retailers, like my local record store, do not report to Luminate. Does Pearl Jam sell a disproportionate number of albums at non-reporting record stores? I don't know, but it's not implausible.
https://amzn.to/4aE9kBK
To your point about disappointment, I guess I would just say be disappointed, but don't be surprised. Look at this community for perspective. We are ostensibly the biggest fans this band has, and yet look at how many of us have little interest in the band's new music. I have a close friend I've attended dozens of shows with, and I learned the other day that, although he has bought baseball cards and license plates and posters and a bunch of other crap in recent years, he never bought Gigaton. When I asked him if he went to the theater event the other day, he said no, and then he asked me whether they gave away any stuff at the one I went to. He didn't ask me what I thought of the album, bugt he asked me about merch. There are a lot of people who go on record here about how much they dislike the last 20 years of the band's output, and who say they only keep their memberships active so they can get tickets to live shows where they mostly want to see them play the same old songs. And these are the band's biggest fans, in theory. If everyone here isn't buying the new albums, how many people outside of the fan club should we expect to be buying them?
They don't need to sell to the average music fan to put up big sales numbers. If there are 200,000 active members of the fan club, for sake of argument, and there are only 30,000 unique individuals buying the album, that's a lot of sales left on the table without even considering the average music fan. If Pearl Jam sold 200,000 copies of the album in the first week, it would be one of the biggest sales weeks of the year. Instead, they won't come close to that because too many of their fans stopped caring about new music (and/or their new music) a long time ago. Not me, not you, but lots of people who post here and are very straightforward about their apathy.
Nuclear fission
Dying mediums.
Nuclear fission
By the same token, there were more than 850 million movie tickets sold in the U.S. last year in an industry that made over $9 billion. It's an industry that has challenges, but it is far from dying.
As to the other person's comment about not knowing anyone buying physical music, add me to that mix. I work at a College with all ages and demographics, no one is buying much of anything unless it's a streaming subscription and everyone has Airpods for their smartphone. Same goes for movies; theatre or streaming. I think we'll continue to see more artists trying to cash in on theatre showings to balance the lost revenues in physical sales. Taylor is just ahead of the curve like in most things merchandise related.
Nuclear fission
Great times (for collectors) being a Pearl Jam fan!