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Re: Sorry state of music... Kid Rock #1
I know we all talk about how fucked the music industry is. But this really brings it home for me. Kid Rock's new cd is number one on the billboard charts this week. The album did 163,319 copies. It is the number one album right now with THAT number.
Now to show you how much buying music has declines...
Here are his numbers for all his other mainstream release albums...
First week sales:
History of Rock: 456,000
Cocky: 224,000
Kid Rock: 188,500
Live Trucker: 53,000
Rock'n'Roll Jesus: 163,319
Even with those numbers, this is still his FIRST number one album.
Re: Sorry state of music... Kid Rock #1
Yeah, album sales have tanked. M.I.A. made it in the top 20, and Kala only sold 18,000 copies its first week. Years ago, it probably wouldn't have cracked the top 100 with those numbers. The new Cult cd sold like 10,000 copies its first week.
The industry is in critical condition, and the doctor is too busy downloading free music at Limewire to save its patient.
When did this huge free downloading craze start anyways? Its seemed out of control since maybe 05 or early 06. I know its been around longer, but it only became the norm recently.
You couldn't make someone buy a cd if you put a gun to their head.
Re: Sorry state of music... Kid Rock #1
Yeah it's a shame for Artists who put out good albums and don't get the record sales they deserve. Especially in this download and not support the band day and age. It's bullshit really when you think about it. If you download a few songs and the album and you like it then it doesn't hurt to go to the store and buy the album. Support the bands you actually enjoy and then download if you want a few songs from random people. I downloaded the last Down album and Kid Rock but then I also picked them both up at the store the week they were released.
Those are sorry numbers for Kid Rock though. His last two albums were filled with good music. Hopefully this one picks up in sales after more markets have heard it. There are a few songs the country crowd would jump on this latest release. But it's still a number one and his first. And it probably sold more already than Tommy Lee's last solo effort.
Re: Sorry state of music... Kid Rock #1
I used to download from limewire in late'05 maybe. After youtube came around it became easier to listen to bands music and see if I liked em, which is what I used limewire for.
I dont even have limewire on my pc anymore, I just look up bands on youtube and then buy their album if I like em.
The record industry needs some serious help. Some people say it needs to change, I guess it does, but I wish it would go back to the way it was before.
Re: Sorry state of music... Kid Rock #1
I also believe firmly that the violent death of the "record store" has played a huge part in it. I cannot stand that places like Wal-Mart & Best Buy just swooped in and killed an entire culture.
Excellent point. There was this incredible record store in Missouri back in the early-mid 90's. Its where I bought the majority of my music, and they even had a huge catalog where you could buy all these great imports and bootlegs. When the guy who owned it was telling me he was gonna have to go out of business, it was pretty sad. He said how he had to buy cds at the price Wal Mart was selling them for and there was no way he could make a profit competing with that.
The death of the mom and pop record stores is a bit similar to the death of arcade culture in the early 80's.
Re: Sorry state of music... Kid Rock #1
It really is sad. There was an entire culture built into that system that helped the record companies. They made a very short sighted choice to kill that off.
Here's the way I look at it:
If you were Mr. Average Consumer and went looking for "that song by that band" at a record store, you would not only find it but be directed toward other material like it you may not have known of. You also would've had a back other material by that artist you didn't know existed. Who knows, you maybe would've seen posters or merch that you liked from other artists you'd never heard of while you were there and looked into them as well. All this before you even factor in hearing some music playing overhead that isn't being pushed at you from all directions (VH1, radio, etc) that you might actually enjoy and purchase.
Somewhere along the lines, the record labels decided that selling copies of their new releases en masse to Best Buy and the like for far cheaper would result in even more first week sales. Which, as I said before worked just fine for a couple of years. But with that choice came the aforementioned death of the record store and the start of the fall of the record industry as we knew it.
Connected? I think so.
Yeah, there's definitely a connection. The record stores started dying in huge chunks by the late 90's, and other than the manufactured artists like Britney, NSYNC,etc., album sales started to drop as well. Now sales are in a downward spiral never to recover.
One other thing about the record stores was it was a more personal experience. You could talk to the people in there, and they actually knew something about music. I told this story at HTGTH ages ago, but one time I was in that record store and they had a giant poster of Axl singing at the Ritz on their wall. The dude knew I was a huge GNR fan and he gave it to me. That would NEVER happen in this day and age.
You were a person in those stores. In Wal Mart, Best Buy,etc., they consider you a mindless bot with a wallet.
Besides record stores, another industry killer is CD prices. In the 21st century there is no reason for cds to cost almost twenty bucks. Its a scam and everyone knows it.
Its like the industry is giving two choices:
1. Go into your local Wal Mart and buy one cd from an artist for $14.99
2. Go into your local Wal Mart and buy 200 Cd-rs for the same price, allowing you to burn cds containing thousands of songs for free.
I'll pick option 2.
