"Gigaton" and its tracks on the charts

The Juggler said:

KN219077 said:

igotid88 said:

KN219077 said:

The Juggler said:

KN219077 said:

I’m guessing because album sales are such a minimal percentage of an artists income that they’d probably rather just not. Do people still listen to the radio?

I don't know...pride plays a factor too. I remember being at the show the week Lightning Bolt debuted at #1. Ed spent a considerable amount of time gloating about it...It still means a lot to them. How could it not, if you used to be as big as they were?

Absolutely ! DMB even gave away free albums with a ticket to their summer tour to ensure 8 straight number one albums and securing the record.

Starting this year Billboard won't count those anymore. Also artists have where you buy merch and get a digital download of the album.  I think those won't count anymore 

I don’t think they should count, it’s kind of a lame way to get a number one album.  DMB would have likely got it anyway based on their track record. It will be interesting to see if Gigaton sells more than 150-200k in its first week.

What's a typical number one album sell nowadays?

BF25394 said:

The lowest sales total for a Billboard 200 number one album was-- unless this has been "bested" since and I forgot-- 823 by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie last year.  I think the lowest sales total for a number one album in sales was 29,000 for Drake's "Scorpion."

Amazingly, the single best sales week since 1991 (and probably ever) was 3.4 million for Adele's "25" in its debut week in 2015.  This is roughly equivalent to an artist selling 10 million copies in a week back when PJ was setting records at just under 1 million for "Vs." and just under 900,000 for "Vitalogy." 

The Juggler said:

igotid88 said:

The Juggler said:

KN219077 said:

igotid88 said:

KN219077 said:

The Juggler said:

KN219077 said:

I’m guessing because album sales are such a minimal percentage of an artists income that they’d probably rather just not. Do people still listen to the radio?

I don't know...pride plays a factor too. I remember being at the show the week Lightning Bolt debuted at #1. Ed spent a considerable amount of time gloating about it...It still means a lot to them. How could it not, if you used to be as big as they were?

Absolutely ! DMB even gave away free albums with a ticket to their summer tour to ensure 8 straight number one albums and securing the record.

Starting this year Billboard won't count those anymore. Also artists have where you buy merch and get a digital download of the album.  I think those won't count anymore 

I don’t think they should count, it’s kind of a lame way to get a number one album.  DMB would have likely got it anyway based on their track record. It will be interesting to see if Gigaton sells more than 150-200k in its first week.

What's a typical number one album sell nowadays?

Anywhere between 40k-400k
But the younger artists, mostly hip hop will get it from streams. I gave an example before where The Who sold 89k in physical sales and and close to 1k in streams or track sales. But had the #2 debut. Roddy Rich sold under 1k in physical sales. But had 90k in streams and had the #1 that week.

I can't be the only one who had to google Roddy Rich right?

BF25394 said:

igotid88 said:

BF25394 said:

igotid88 said:

BF25394 said:

The lowest sales total for a Billboard 200 number one album was-- unless this has been "bested" since and I forgot-- 823 by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie last year.  I think the lowest sales total for a number one album in sales was 29,000 for Drake's "Scorpion."

Amazingly, the single best sales week since 1991 (and probably ever) was 3.4 million for Adele's "25" in its debut week in 2015.  This is roughly equivalent to an artist selling 10 million copies in a week back when PJ was setting records at just under 1 million for "Vs." and just under 900,000 for "Vitalogy." 

I don't think that's right about it being equivalent to 10 million copies back in the early 90s. There are more people now. 250 million in the 90s to 300 in the 2010s. 

I'm not talking about the percentage of the population that it represented.  I'm accounting for declining record sales and talking about the percentage of record sales that it represented.  Pearl Jam sold 900,000+ copies in an era when there were about 12 million CDs sold in total in an average week.  Adele sold 3.4 million CDs in a week in an era when there were about 2.4 million CDs sold in total in an average week.  Her sales that week represented some ridiculous percentage of all records sold that week-- I don't have the number but I recall that it was over 75 percent.  75 percent of 12 million is 9 million.

Yea but I don't think she would sell 10 million in a week in 91 or 93. But it's more possible that vs. if released today would sell more than 950k. Especially if there was no streaming.

I'm definitely speculating, but mostly I'm just trying to get across the point of how staggering a 3.4 million figure was for 2015.  I'm not sure that anyone other than Adele could sell more than 950,000 copies in today's environment.  Even Taylor Swift, who is the only artist to sell over 1 million copies in a single week for four different albums, only sold 679,000 copies of her 2019 album "Lover" in its first week of release.  (I realize that your hypothetical assumes that 2019 Pearl Jam is at the level of popularity of 1993-94 Pearl Jam.)

BF25394 said:

igotid88 said:

BF25394 said:

igotid88 said:

BF25394 said:

igotid88 said:

BF25394 said:

The lowest sales total for a Billboard 200 number one album was-- unless this has been "bested" since and I forgot-- 823 by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie last year.  I think the lowest sales total for a number one album in sales was 29,000 for Drake's "Scorpion."

Amazingly, the single best sales week since 1991 (and probably ever) was 3.4 million for Adele's "25" in its debut week in 2015.  This is roughly equivalent to an artist selling 10 million copies in a week back when PJ was setting records at just under 1 million for "Vs." and just under 900,000 for "Vitalogy." 

I don't think that's right about it being equivalent to 10 million copies back in the early 90s. There are more people now. 250 million in the 90s to 300 in the 2010s. 

I'm not talking about the percentage of the population that it represented.  I'm accounting for declining record sales and talking about the percentage of record sales that it represented.  Pearl Jam sold 900,000+ copies in an era when there were about 12 million CDs sold in total in an average week.  Adele sold 3.4 million CDs in a week in an era when there were about 2.4 million CDs sold in total in an average week.  Her sales that week represented some ridiculous percentage of all records sold that week-- I don't have the number but I recall that it was over 75 percent.  75 percent of 12 million is 9 million.

Yea but I don't think she would sell 10 million in a week in 91 or 93. But it's more possible that vs. if released today would sell more than 950k. Especially if there was no streaming.

I'm definitely speculating, but mostly I'm just trying to get across the point of how staggering a 3.4 million figure was for 2015.  I'm not sure that anyone other than Adele could sell more than 950,000 copies in today's environment.  Even Taylor Swift, who is the only artist to sell over 1 million copies in a single week for four different albums, only sold 679,000 copies of her 2019 album "Lover" in its first week of release.  (I realize that your hypothetical assumes that 2019 Pearl Jam is at the level of popularity of 1993-94 Pearl Jam.)

Streaming either has helped or hurt certain artists

I'm speaking only about sales.  Adele's album (and the four million-selling Swift albums) were not available to be streamed in their first weeks.  Rock (and country) acts sell more albums than pop and hip-hop acts, but pop and (especially) hip-hop acts dominate streaming.  Rock acts sold four times as many physical albums as hip-hop acts in 2019 and twice as many digital albums. 

If Pearl Jam was as big today as it was in 1993-94, I think that would translate into about 400,000 in first-week sales.  Metallica's first-week sales for Hardwired... to Self-Destruct in 2016 were 291,000, and Metallica is the best-selling contemporary rock act in the U.S.

BF25394 said:

And streams, too, but that would actually show up on the chart for April 11, which is two charts from the current chart.

Updated for March 28.