Songs from Black Mountain on the Charts Options

[SJN1279]

SFBM dropped to #79 on the US Billboard charts this week. The album sold 13,600+ copies, which was only a 24 percent drop from last week's 18,006. Overall 31,000 + copies sold over the counter, and digital downloads 8-10,000 more. Album is holding pretty steady and the upcoming tour can only help.

I really hope management allows the band to sell the album at upcoming shows. It could be a real boost to sales.

This post has been edited by SJN1279: Jun 21 2006, 10:00 am

[ShowalittleLove]

With almost no current US promotion, hit single, TV spot or US concert I can see why the sales are what they are. I did think the AI performance would have a bigger impact though. I could care less about the sales as long as it doesn't discourage them from continuing to make music but I do miss the TV spots like SNL and actually seeing their videos on TV.

[Costakoui]

With almost no current US promotion, hit single, TV spot or US concert I can see why the sales are what they are. I did think the AI performance would have a bigger impact though. I could care less about the sales as long as it doesn't discourage them from continuing to make music but I do miss the TV spots like SNL and actually seeing their videos on TV.

I agree, I do not care about sales either. I do not think that sales will discourage the band from making music unless they start blaming each other for the possible incipient commercial failure. I want to believe that bad sales will encourage them to go back to the rock unique Live sound and produce album number 8 that will rock the world. Chad said that they went pop because this is what is nowadays more prominent on the radio (at least, this is what I got from his interview). Well, they tried it with 3 albums and it did not really work. Perhaps it is time to rock it again.

Why do we take for granted that the new songs are so good to receive airplay and increase album sales? Would I – or you - like The River and Mystery if I was not a Live fan? No! I liked the songs after I listened to the album many times and probably they would not capture my attention by the first listen if I had no idea about the band. Some songs such as Show, Sophia and Night of Nights have the potential but, as what happened with BoP, the best songs are not going to be released.

TC sold millions because it stood out as an album. SS too, also because it followed TC. TDTH sold on its own. But V, BoP and now SFBM are not outstanding. Why, for example, should somebody choose to listen to The River and Live and to Shakira or ever Bon Jovi? If Live chose to release a song like Lift me Up I think that it would top the charts because it would be very melodic but more importantly very different from what would be available out there.

I think that Epic cannot increase sales substantially because the album cannot sell on its own (how i wish to be wrong here). Promotion cannot really make people buy; it can only create public awareness which is not a sufficient factor if an album is not outstanding. Blaming Epic is the easy way - perhaps the band, or Ed, needs to re-arrange their sound orientation.

This post has been edited by Costakoui: Jun 21 2006, 2:47 pm

[SJN1279]

Promotion cannot really make people buy; it can only create public awareness which is not a sufficient factor if an album is not outstanding. Blaming Epic is the easy way - perhaps the band, or Ed, needs to re-arrange their sound orientation.

So only oustanding albums make it to the top of the charts? I never knew that. Maybe I should buy albums based on Billboard chart position from now on.