Hi all -
Just a meanering thought or two about sales and charts and such. I spoke
to a US manager of a UK band (who was trying to convince me that imports
are evil and if my favorite UK bands don't tour the US it's all *my*
fault ;) ). He had some interesting points that I thought I'd pass on.
For many UK bands, their album is released in the UK days/weeks/months
before any US release. Naturally the biggest US fans of the band tend to
fork out the $25-30 and buy the import to have it *now* rather than
waiting for whatever indeterminate date to get the domestic version.
When I go into my local (US) shop and purchase the import version of the
album it doesn't show up on the US sales charts obviously. But, I was
told, depending on how that shop orders the album sometimes it doesn't
show up on the UK charts either.
So when the album is finally released in the US, all the biggest fans
already have the album so they don't buy it. As a result, the album
doesn't do well in the US, and the record execs say that it once again
proves that UK bands just don't have an audience in the US. They often
will then drop the band from their label (Manic Street Preachers, Echo &
The Bunnymen) or cancell the US tour (Suede, Simple Minds).
Another thing pointed out to me was that if you buy either a promo or
used copy *instead* of a new retail copy, this doesn't count toward the
band's sales numbers either. If it's a band like U2 or REM who is going
to sell a gazillion copies of the album anyway it doesn't matter, but for
smaller bands even a few album sales make a diference.
I'm not saying that we US maddies shouldn't buy the UK version of
"Wonderful" as gawd knows when/if there will be a US release. But
when/if it is released in the US, if we don't buy a US version at all,
only buy a promo, or buy a second hand copy...that contributes to lower
sales figures, which could conceivably prevent a US tour.
A little food for thought. Which of course will be completely irrelivant
if "Wonderful" is never released in the US.
- Elizabeth
-
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