andPOP » sales

Adele’s ’21′ Fastest Selling Digital Album

andPOP Staff — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:56:22 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

Adele has set a new record in the United States for her release 21. The release is the fastest selling album to sell over 1 million copies.

It was released only four months ago, selling 2.5 million copies in the U.S., and 9 million globally.

Pretty amazing accomplishment, considering a couple of years ago Adele was basically unknown.

Video Game Sales Hit Four-Year Low

Christian Allaire — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:00:02 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

The video game industry hit a four-year low in May, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Video game sales apparently hit its lowest monthly U.S. profit since October 2006, totalling $743.1 million. That number may seem high, but it’s nothing compared to the $866.8 million of last year.

“A light slate of new releases is at the heart of this month’s performance,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “As a result of a lighter release slate, promotional activity at retail and in circulars was reduced as well, which undoubtedly affected not only planned but impulse purchases.”

Frazier says it is unfair to base all results on figures, though, as an increasing amount of video game sales derive from online or downloadable exclusive content purchases.

This year’s top selling game was ‘L.A. Noire,’ a murder-mystery action game set in old L.A.

I agree with the analyst. Much of today’s market comes from the online world, so we have to factor in the sales from that. I don’t think video games are going anywhere anytime soon.

Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ Sells Over 1 Million In The US

Christian Allaire — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:15:22 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

It’s official, Lady Gaga is the queen of pop.

Gaga’s latest album, ‘Born This Way,’ has become one the fastest-selling albums in the world, with 288,000 copies sold in its first day. Yep, that’s more than many artists’ full-week of sales. But it doesn’t stop there.

The album then went on to sell 1,108,000 U.S. copies its first week alone. This means that ’Born This Way’ shows the largest week of sales of any album since 50 cent’s ’The Massacre,’ which sold 1,141,000 in its first week, reports Billboard.

On a global scale, the album sold over 1,000,000 copies outside the U.S. When you think of how many people illegally download music, that number is simply crazy.

First-week sales in the U.K. were also greater than the rest of the Top 10 combined, while her singles were #1 in many, many countries.

Success well deserved, I think.

Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ Explodes UK Charts, Surpasses 1 Million In US

Christian Allaire — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:50:52 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

Lady Gaga’s latest album ‘Born This Way’ blasted onto the U.K. chart this Sunday, marking the biggest first-week sale of the year at 215,000 units.

If that wasn’t enough, the sales of her album are more than the rest of the top ten titles combined. Talk about madness!

Gaga’s opening U.K. sales also narrowly beat Adele’s first-week sales of 208,000 for “21″ in late January, which had spent 16 of the previous 17 weeks at No. 1.

Meanwhile, in the US, Gaga’s first-week album sales are expected to surpasses the 1 million mark. This is partly because her biggest fan base is there, and amazon’s 99 cent sale of the album didn’t hurt.

This was expected, though, so we can’t all be too shocked. The album is great and Gaga is great, so as long as the top-earners are deserving, I’m happy.

Kate Gosselin New Book Flopping in Sales

andPOP Staff — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:18:40 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

So it turns out that Kate Gosselin fans like watching her on TV and reading about her on the Internet (THANK YOU FANS!), but not reading her books.

Since its April 13 release, “I Just Want You to Know: Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith, and Family” has sold just 10,084 copies, according to national book sales tracker Bookscan.

Jim Milliot, business and news director of book-industry magazine Publishers Weekly, tells UsMagazine.com that the numbers “nowhere near a blockbuster” and “not that impressive.”

This must be extra insulting as the reality TV Mom really hustled the book hard to anybody that would speak to her. Let’s also not forget that she has been a tabloid sweetheart for months and everybody has been talking about her. However they were obviously talking about her for the wrong reasons as not too many are willing to open their wallets.

We wonder if Jon Gosselin is happy or sad about this development. Happy perhaps because his ex-wife has failed at her writing career. Sad perhaps because that means less alimony for him and increasing the likelihood of him needing a real job.

50 Cent’s Newest Album Records Disappointing Sales

Joelle Tomlinson — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:58:24 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

It seems that those fans waiting so eagerly for 50 Cent’s fourth solo album were in fact, not so eager.

The album, entitled Before I Self-Destruct recorded disappointing sales that, earlier in the rapper’s career, would have made him imitate the album title and self-destruct out of shame. But, according to mtvnews.com, 50 Cent isn’t too bothered by the meagre release.

The album release was the lowest opening week of his lengthy career, premiering at #5 on 160,000 sales. 50 Cent is blaming some of these lackluster numbers on the fact that the record leaked weeks before the big debut, instigating an earlier-than-anticipated release date by the record company.

Boombox.com published the following sentiment that 50 Cent told DJ Green Lantern’s Siruis Satellite radio show in an interview:

“For myself, I’m asking myself, ‘What did you expect, bro? Your fans got it when it was available, at the first available opportunity,’ ” he said earlier this week. “For me this album is a prequel — it’s full circle. When the energy around a project is the way this is, you can’t really feel like it’s a failure. Like, I look at the numbers and am like, ‘What is this?’ I’ve already assessed that the album has been out a month before its actual release period [due to an online leak, and the album's early digital release due to the leak]. So when you got that, you go, ‘Well, what did you actually expect?’ ”

Apparently his attempted beef with rap mogul Jay-Z and public disagreements with Rick Ross weren’t positive factors in the light of publicity. Though 50 Cent has broken records with albums such as Get Rich or Die Tryin’, it appears that this newest release is more of a flop than a fighter.

Billboard Changes Rules

Vanessa Baker — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:07:04 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

Billboard will now be including catalog releases when calculating the best-selling albums, which were previously decided based on record sales from the past 18 months, reports Perez Hilton. The Nov. 25 chart will be the first to reflect these changes.

Taylor Swift is the only artist who sold more albums this year than Michael Jackson. Rihanna previously held the record for digital songs, selling 9.9 million, but Swift, Jackson, Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas have all broken that this year.

100 Million Nintendos

Carys Mills — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:54:55 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

Nintendo shipped its 100 millionth portable DS system on March 9.

The 100 million sales include Nintento DS, DS Lite and DSi systems. All sales have been since late 2004 when the product launched.

“Consumers have shown their love for Nintendo DS – 100 million times over,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “We are grateful that people of all ages continue to respond to our products, and we will continue to look for ways to please current gamers and create new ones.”

Over the last five years the product has evolved. The Nintendo DS Lite offered a slimmer look than the original. The Nintendo DSi will be available in North America on April 5. The product, already available in Japan, includes two cameras and will allow for the recording and playing of soundfiles.

At the end of December 2008 there were 83 DS titles to choose from, with over one million shipped, some titles topping 10 million.

Album Sales Up For Rihanna

Ilan Mester — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:43:11 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

After the altercation with Chris Brown on Grammy day, Rihanna’s sales for her album “Good Girl Gone Bad” went up 33 per cent.

The singer’s 2007 release sold 25,000 copies, landing the No. 31 spot on the Billboard albums chart. Brown’s album on the other hand continues to decline in sales.

Brown’s “Exclusive” failed to make it on the Billboard Top 200. However, many artists have increased sales, including country singer Taylor Swift who took the number one spot (again) with “Fearless,” selling 92,000.

Album of the Year winner “Raising Sand” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss followed at No. 2, selling 77,000 per Nielsen SoundScan..

Grammy Award Winner Coldplay shot up 23 spots with their album “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” landing the band the No. 8 spot.

India.Arie earned the No. 3 spot with “Testimony: Vol. 2—Love & Politics” (75,000 copies), followed by The Fray’s self titled album. Lily Allen’s “It’s Not Me, It’s You” landed the No. 5 spot on sales of 70,000.

‘High School Musical’ Wins Big Time

Ilan Mester — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:55:36 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

“Highschool Musical 3: Senior Year” has earned the title of the best opening weekend for a musical. Disney’s popular song-and-dance series starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale grossed a hefty $42 million in box office sales this past weekend.

Other movies didn’t stay far behind. The fifth installment of the Saw series came in second place with $30 million for “Saw V”, pushing the series past the horror flick “Friday the 13th” making Saw V the highest-grossing horror franchise in history.

Mark Wahlberg’s “Max Payne” came in third place with $7.6 million. The film based on a video game has now made $29.7 million overall.

Another Disney flick, “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” came in fourth place with $6.9 million this past weekend, followed by “Pride and Glory,” which made $6.3 million in its first week of release.

Universal Music To Slash Wholesale CD Prices

Michael Levine — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 10:00:29 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

In a shocking move yesterday, Universal Music, the world’s largest record company, said it would cut wholesale prices by up to $3 per CD, due to a 31% drop in sales over the last 3 years (industry wide).

Current wholesale prices per CD start at $12.02USD, with the average retail price being $18.98USD. Under the new pricing scheme, Universal hopes that retailers will also cut their prices by $3, bringing the average CD to about $10USD.

“Our new pricing model will enable U.S. retailers to offer music at a much more appealing price point in comparison to other entertainment products,” Jim Urie said. “We are confident this pricing approach will drive music fans back into retail stores.”

It is unknown at this time if these new prices will affect worldwide distribution channels or just in the United States. You can expect to see these lower prices beginning October 1st.