| Thursday, January 4, 2007 |
| O!G. on Billboard 200: Why #18? |
The chart's other top debut is Switchfoot's "Oh! Gravity" (Columbia) at No. 18 with 63,000. The San Diego rock act's prior album, "Nothing Is Sound," debuted at No. 3 in September 2005 with a career-best sales week of 131,000.
I'm not all that surprised. Though I hoped for a #1, I was always aware that was a bit of a pipe dream. Here's 7 reasons or explanations that come to mind...
1) It was leaked on BitTorrent (the king of p2p) on the 20th evening. Not that I think that made a significant difference...
2) "Leaking" the album officially (like this album was, on MTV2.com and AOL music) is always a bit of a two-edged sword.. a risk, something only a confident artist would do. While you might gain many fans who hear it and then buy your CD, you could also lose some who hear it and don't like it on first listen.
3) It didn't have a TBL preceding it. No teenyboppers rushing out to buy it, which I'm sure happened with NIS, leading to them being disappointed to hear something that made them feel uncomfortable (when TBL was all feel-good). With that album they lost a lot of their not-so-hardcore, mainstream fans, though they gained cool points with critics and serious music fans (which will help in the long run, if not so much in first-week sales).
[As reflected by points 2 and 3, NIS was much less exposed before release, which means it kinda forced people to let it grow on them, because they'd already bought it on the basis of liking the previous album. Buyers of O!G, on the other hand, knew what they were in for, before they bought it. Which, I'm sure, reduced the numbers--it not only lost customers who didn't like NIS enough to rush out and buy this new one, but ALSO those who didn't like O!G on first listen... an album that grows on you with time, more so than any other SF album.]
4) Many people who had bad experiences with copy protection on NIS must've been hesitant to get this one, for the same fear. Its mob mentality--not everyone does their research.
5) CD sales, on the whole, dip more and more every year, because of the invasion of digital downloading as a legal option. (iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, URGE, etc.) Last year, NIS clocked in at 131,000 and it was placed at #3. This time Omarion's #1 (not #3) album scores just 119,000 copies, 63,000 less than his previous album's debut week. Remember that, with 63,000 sales, O!G is the second highest debut on the chart, while, if I remember right, NIS was the 3rd highest debut in its opening week, inspite of scoring double that number. Copy protection on the last album was just one more reason for Switchfoot fans to switch to the digital way of buying music... and that might be part of the reason why this album hit #1 on iTunes, something NIS couldn't even come close to achieving. Increasingly, CD sales are becoming less indicative of an artist's success, because of the digital music revolution. Evidence: While "Oh! Gravity." is happily switching spots on iTunes' top 3 positions (it peaked at #1), Omarion's Billboard-chart-topping album is languishing at #45 on the same chart. Proof enough of how Billboard isn't the final word on an album's success? Not in this time and age.
6) I'm glad it still scored 63,000 copies. I mean, introducing this album with "Dirty Second Hands" (the first promo move for this album), was a bold step. While it won over many new fans and critics... expectedly, people whose favourite Switchfoot song was "Stars" (a big number, unfortunately), didn't quite take to it. It didn't have spoon-fed lyrics, nor did it shy from experimentation-- both of which are a bad omen for your radio-hugging music fan. First radio single "Oh! Gravity.", too, was quite unlike what post-TBL fans are used to--while the music was more accessible than DSH, the lyrics were still uncharacteristically cryptic. With NIS, on the other hand, the ever-so-accessible "Stars" (the single released to promote the album) was the most TBL-ish track on that album, so that took all the TBL fans rushing back to the stores. O!G's early singles didn't do the same for the album. But I'm sure Switchfoot knew what they were doing... they seem to be caring much less about the numbers or pleasing anyone, which is a very good thing. Oh, and, did I mention, "Stars" got airplay on pop/mainstream radio as well (and HEAVY rotation on Christian radio, because, amongst other reasons, it clearly spoke of "Someone else", and you know how CCM fans are).. while the not-so-CCM-friendly "Oh! Gravity." on the other hand has been played just on alternative radio, and with much lesser success on Christian radio (they play WAOT more than O!G, if you look at the charts).
7) Its dropped right after the holiday season's buying-spree. It was a week where the whole music industry took a setback, as far as sales went. Akon's CD sales dropped by 50%, and it still shot up the charts to #2! So, unusual choice of release date, indeed.
That said, I'm positive this album will end up doing much better than NIS, and winning a whole new demography of fans. A platinum, at least, I'd predict. Watch out for how it continues to do on the chart, and for the super-accessible "Awakening" which is most likely the next single.
EDIT: John's comment (below) has prompted me to add: on the brighter side of things, the album is #1 in "Top Internet Albums", #4 in "Top Rock Albums", #4 in "Top Digital Albums", #1 in both the "Top Christian" chart and the "Top Christian & Gospel" combined chart. (see charts here)Labels: excess opinion_analysis. |
posted by phil @ 4:51 AM  
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| 9 Comments: |
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It's at number one on interent albums with 82880 http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Albums&f=Top+Internet+Albums
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hey thanks man, i edited that in at the bottom of my post. btw, 82880 is the catalog number, not the # of sales.
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hey phil, thank you for that, its sure nice to keep up with whats been going on! I know you put a lot of hard work into this and hopefully this comment and everybody else will make you feel appreciated!
God Bless
Pip
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I have a downloadable link for the Awakening video last post; if you would like me to post it...
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hey sure john, that'd be great. i could add it to that post and credit you.
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http://play.rbn.com/?url=realguide/music/rnconcerts/rso/2006/switchfoot/switchfoot_song2_500k_ro.rm
You have to download it as a Real Audio or Video file...if you want to convert it, you can use this: http://play.rbn.com/?url=realguide/music/rnconcerts/rso/2006/switchfoot/switchfoot_song2_500k_ro.rm
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In a way I'm not dissapointed, my secret prediction was between 15-20 on the chart, so this is a happy medium. I knew that the released date would effect sales. It'll grow, I just keep telling myself it's not about the numbers.
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It's at number one on interent albums with 82880 http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Albums&f=Top+Internet+Albums