How many albums do you need to sell to be considered a commercial success?

[Snowbunny]

I'm pretty sure the number changes depending on which country is keeping score.

I watched a bit of an interview with Chris Martin, of Coldplay, on MuchMusic recently, and kudos to him for giving credit where credit is due.

He was asked why Coldplay has received such acclaim and his reponse was they were just lucky. He said there are other bands that are as good, if not better, than Coldplay, such as The Flaming Lips and Grandaddy, and for some reason, they have never received the same attention, or album sales, that his band has. He said he had no idea why.

I guess I hang around music geek boards too much, cause I thought Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips did have pretty high album sales. How would you even find out that information? Can anyone tell me the difference in units sold between The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi and Coldplay - A Rush of Blood To The Head ?

Snow

GO GET SOME SUGAR - LSU!!!

[Davey.]

I guess I hang around music geek boards too much, cause I thought Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips did have pretty high album sales. How would you even find out that information? Can anyone tell me the difference in units sold between The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi and Coldplay - A Rush of Blood To The Head ?

Yeah, it's pretty hard to find sales info unless you're signed up for some of the premium reporting services, and even then I guess it's still open to a lot of interpretation. I'd guess that Coldplay sales were at least 20 times that of The Flaming Lips (maybe 50 times), but don't have much to back it up other than A Rush Of Blood To The Head was one of the top 20 best selling albums in the US this year, even being released in 2002. It typically gets a few rows of display space at the dept stores like Best Buy. The Flaming Lips are probably one of the biggest selling indie type bands on a major label right now with Yoshimi and the TV commercials and Justin Timberlake performing with them and the new high-tech DVD-A and all that, but I would guess that total sales for their last album is still far less than a week of Coldplay sales after the Grammys. Or maybe about the same, who knows. I think the last Coldplay album dominated your Canadian charts for quite awhile this year. Grandaddy doesn't even register on sales charts as they're only an obscure indie band. Probably in the 20,000 range. Maybe a little more. They're much more popular in Europe, I believe.

But to answer your question more directly, I don't know :)

[Snowbunny]

Hehehe... thanks for trying, Sugarbear.

Seriously, only 20,000 range for Grandaddy? I'm shocked! I guess I always assumed that if these albums were available in on-line stores that they were pretty popular recordings.

Snowbuns

Hey my respose to you make just push me over the edge into Junior status!!!

[Davey.]

Seriously, only 20,000 range for Grandaddy? I'm shocked!
Hey congrats, Junior! Probably the 20-50 thousand range. You don't see many indie releases that get above that, even the popular ones. An indie type band like Built To Spill (or the Flaming Lips) on a major label can sometimes approach the 100 thousand mark with good luck and good promotion, but not often. The Flaming Lips has gotten so much good publicity from Soft Bulletin that I think that album has sold at least 250 thousand or more over the years. Really no clue on Yoshimi though. It would be fun to know, but someone like Britney moves 500 thousand albums the day of release :)

[Snowbunny]

Hey congrats, Junior! Probably the 20-50 thousand range. You don't see many indie releases that get above that, even the popular ones. An indie type band like Built To Spill (or the Flaming Lips) on a major label can sometimes approach the 100 thousand mark with good luck and good promotion, but not often. The Flaming Lips has gotten so much good publicity from Soft Bulletin that I think that album has sold at least 250 thousand or more over the years. Really no clue on Yoshimi though. It would be fun to know, but someone like Britney moves 500 thousand albums the day of release :)

What about Bjork? Do you think she's mainstream now? I think she got more attention for her Swan feather gown than any album she's every released. :rolleyes:

Did you see the true-life videography by the fan that was obessed with Bjork, who in 1998, sent a sulphuric-acid filled bomb to her home address before taking his own life? Really disturbing!

Snowbuns *Junior*

You must be approaching Grandad status now, Davey! :p

[Snowbunny]

Yeah maybe, but no winter shrinkage problem down here in the great southwest.......

http://members.tripod.com/~kreewut/ariquipa.jpg

New image by tripod, eh? I guess there is no problem with shrinkage if you're identifyiing with a tripod. :D

Let me guess, was it supposed to be a picture of our fine feathered friend, Bjork?

[Dusty Chalk]

I'm thinking it depends on the budget. If your net is positive, then you're a success. If your budget was only US$1K, and you make a gross of US$1.1K, then I would say you're a success in my book, even if it is only US$100.

But if your budget is a ridiculous amount (Extreme come to mind -- they never recouped their investment for their last album), then no amount of sales will make you a commercial success, no matter how popular you are.

Don't mind Davey, he was just showing you his prick(s).

(Hint: try right-click compy image address, then paste it in a new window, then hit reload once or twice. Initially it was pretty small, but for some reason it eventually grew.)

[Swish]

Yeah, it's pretty hard to find sales info unless you're signed up for some of the premium reporting services, and even then I guess it's still open to a lot of interpretation. I'd guess that Coldplay sales were at least 20 times that of The Flaming Lips (maybe 50 times), but don't have much to back it up other than A Rush Of Blood To The Head was one of the top 20 best selling albums in the US this year, even being released in 2002. It typically gets a few rows of display space at the dept stores like Best Buy. The Flaming Lips are probably one of the biggest selling indie type bands on a major label right now with Yoshimi and the TV commercials and Justin Timberlake performing with them and the new high-tech DVD-A and all that, but I would guess that total sales for their last album is still far less than a week of Coldplay sales after the Grammys. Or maybe about the same, who knows. I think the last Coldplay album dominated your Canadian charts for quite awhile this year. Grandaddy doesn't even register on sales charts as they're only an obscure indie band. Probably in the 20,000 range. Maybe a little more. They're much more popular in Europe, I believe.

But to answer your question more directly, I don't know :)
Someone e-mailed that to me some months ago and I loved it. I sent it to all my friends, who also loved it.

Oh yeah, I forgot to answer Snow's question regarding album sales. Actually, I haven't a clue. I also don't know how many albums you need to sell to be considered successful or whatever. I just wanted to mention the moral thingy. Ok, I'm done now. Goodbye.

[Davey.]

Nice "moral of the day" Davey. Someone e-mailed that to me some months ago and I loved it. I sent it to all my friends, who also loved it.
Yeah, it is pretty funny. I had a different story last week that was kinda funny too, although not sure if anyone knew it was there. Thought about doing it on a regular basis, but like you indicated, most of these stories have been all over the web by the time I see them so probably not much point. Maybe once in awhile. I do have another ready to go, but it's kind of an oldie.

[Swish]

Yeah, it is pretty funny. I had a different story last week that was kinda funny too, although not sure if anyone knew it was there. Thought about doing it on a regular basis, but like you indicated, most of these stories have been all over the web by the time I see them so probably not much point. Maybe once in awhile. I do have another ready to go, but it's kind of an oldie.

Even if a few are repeats for some of us, others will appreciate them too. I'm ticked that I missed yours last week. Now for my "stoopid" question. How do you create that link where we just click on the word "here" rather than a URL? I'm just not very sophisitcated when it comes to PCs. I can do some basic stuff or the things that my job requires (Word, Excel Spreadsheets, basic e-mail), but it would be nice to incorporate some of those goodies into the mix. I'd gather it's rather simple???

Swish Baby

[Davey.]

How do you create that link where we just click on the word "here" rather than a URL?
You could do it in HTML but there's an icon for it on the format toolbar to do it in the vB code......

<img src=http://members.mailaka.net/davey/edit.jpg>

The story last week was this (http://members.mailaka.net/davey/birdinthehand.html).

[Swish]

Gee that was a toughie. :-)

Thanks Davey. Your now my music and computer idol. :D

Swish Baby

[Davey.]

Gee that was a toughie. :-)
Hehehe, yeah I didn't want to point out the obvious http://forums.audioreview.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Of course, knowing how to do vB code does absolutely nothing for you in the real world so to answer your previous question in a more meaningful way, the end of that signature line will look like this when translated to HTML....

...Be happy for small favors...click &lt;a href=http://members.mailaka.net/davey/smallfavors.html>here&lt;/a> for moral of the day

NP: A few tracks from Translanticism by Death Cab For Cutie, courtesy Slosh. Need to get this one at some point before the SACD pressing is all gone. Very nice album.