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- mickronson
- Rep: 118
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
yeah, and thats why the first track on myspace (the default one to play when visiting) got the massive amount of plays it did and the rest got next to shit in comparison....
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
Mikkamakka wrote:I'm undecided how many copies were sold of CD. I found two numbers - one says 2 million copies, the other say 3 million. Can someone please enlighten me?
Between 2 and 3 million copies....:haha: I just had to. Honestly I have no clue. It did break all streaming records on Myspace which I think is a lot more important than selling actual discs
No way... only here in Brazil it was almost a million
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
Approximately 3.5 - 4 million, of course someone here is just bound to post sales figures from a random blogspot or from February again, claiming it's two million.
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
all I know is that it scanned about 550,000 retail sales in the US, shipped approximately 1.3 million to Best Buy in a one way deal which to the record company and Axl is just as good as a scanned retail sale. Outside of the US, which is pure profit for Ax and the record company (assuming the Best Buy deal cleared the books), it should be at least another 1.5-2 million. My best guess would be in the area of 2.5 to 3,000,000 actually sold to consumers worldwide. Axl made his money back and then some in one 4 month swoop and promptly disappeared.:(
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
all I know is that it scanned about 550,000 retail sales in the US, shipped approximately 1.3 million to Best Buy in a one way deal which to the record company and Axl is just as good as a scanned retail sale. Outside of the US, which is pure profit for Ax and the record company (assuming the Best Buy deal cleared the books), it should be at least another 1.5-2 million. My best guess would be in the area of 2.5 to 3,000,000 actually sold to consumers worldwide. Axl made his money back in one 4 month swoop and promptly disappeared.:(
So he did pull a this magic trick! I gotta learn how to do that. The disappearing act I mean.
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
He certainly pulled the wool over Best Buys eyes....they got fucked and he came out ...."smelling like a Rose." About as much of a magic trick as you can pull in the music industry these days. He won't have that luxury and good fortune next time around.
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
He certainly pulled the wool over Best Buys eyes....they got fucked and he came out ...."smelling like a Rose." About as much of a magic trick as you can pull in the music industry these days. He won't have that luxury and good fortune next time around.
Depends. Next time he could pull a deal with Walmart. IF there is a next time.
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
Ah, but don't underestimate Irving Azoff's part in the last verse of this Great Rock N' Roll Swindle. Our man Axl walked Geffen/Interscope around like dogs in leashes for a decade before they decided to call his bluff and cancel funding. Ultimately, it was Azoff who came to Axl's rescue and pulled off the unthinkable - a deal that would guarantee Axl and Uni their money back. Obviously, this meant somebody else had to be conned into it, and BestBuy was simply gullible enough to bite the bullet (just like ClearChannel in 2001, when Goldstein/Merck sold them the idea of a GNR North American tour).
In that sense, the whole CD saga is a marvel to behold; Axl & co spent years pulling money off from various sources, artificially creating a demand for something that would never be directly supplied. How much of this was financial wizardry a la Goldman-Sachs (read the Rolling Stone article to boggle your mind), and how much plain coincidence, circumstances and insane bravado is obviously open season for revisionist historians. Regardless, the capital moved through the GNR brand in the past 15 years is, in total, way beyond the $13 million most people are stuck up with - the more important thing is, where did most of the money go?
Take it from me, you need to describe the CD saga somehow, try this: People barricaded themselves behind the GNR brand name (THE biggest band of the early 90's) and stuck around long enough to run away with suitcases loaded with money. The advance alone for making the album was said to the absolutely-amazing $10 Million; and this was included to the renegotiated record deal back in around '91, when 10 million meant a hell of a lot more. It's not a case of Axl screwing the industry, it's about a lot of people taking advantage of how much the GNR brand was valued by the record company and the music industry in general.
Axl just may have enough to preserve a livelihood of his current standards and preferences after releasing CD; there just might've been a lucrative contractual fee waiting for him as soon as the album would've been turned in. What would Universal of today care? They got their money back, more or less, capital they most likely never expected to recover, particularly as in the last decade, digital downloads have soared while record sales have twindled. All and all, it's a terrible thing to get away with.
GNR is still worth a lot of money and would be worth even more with Slash. A lot of people will tolerate Axl and his vanity project because of the fact that when he comes to town, he often brings the money with him.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
I'd imagine next time they'd be writing some promo obligations into a contract, but then maybe Axl would tell them to fuck off if they did that.
Anyway, I do feel the international numbers are enough for the band to secure a release of future stuff. I know that compared to historical GNR numbers it looks bad, but compared to what other bands around do, there's not really a problem. Especially if much of the next album is already recorded and thus it might not cost as much to develop a follow up.
- emcitymisfit
- Rep: 28
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
Anyway, I do feel the international numbers are enough for the band to secure a release of future stuff.
I don't doubt that he can still get funding to release something -- but funding to flame message boards and watch cartoons in a studio for 17 years with no accountability or restraint?
Axl barely released the album under those circumstances, what makes you think that he'd release something other than the Chinese Democracy B sides in the future?
Believe me, a lot of the sales of the disc were to people who had been waiting for that album since puberty. Curiosity and mythos surrounding Taiwanese Sovereignty will be much, much less, and therefore, will not sell nearly as much.
And he'll be lucky to get Big Lots to buy 1.3 thousand copies, much less 1.3 million.
Axl played his hand, and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to humble up and take a step backwards.
