Martin Orford August 2009

Well...that was a depressing, bitter, and sad interview. But it was also sobering and insightful.

Overall, taking everything into account if I could trade no internet downloading--legal, illegal, good, bad--for the old CD/vinyl culture. I think I might just do it. There are positives and negatives we all know.

I would love to be candid about downloading, and I think I could at least give worthy opinions on it, but I think the past has proved to me ProgArchives is not the place for that.


Edited by stonebeard - September 30 2009 at 23:55

The amazon numbers are total sales in a sales list - i.e. on the list of highest selling albums these albums have place such and such.
These are the list placements for the standard editions of those albums - various special editions doesn't count.
For better or worse, these are indicators as to how much more or less the given albums have sold compared to each other. Sadly they don't say anything about the number of copies shifted as such.

As for IQ sales, until any better numbers may arise. Did a check on amazon's uk department, which should be a useful indicator for sales since they've ben around "forever", and is a sales outlet that shifts a fair few number of copies.

Sales rank Frequency: 21.759
Sales rank Dark Matter: 41.559

For the US department of Amazon:
Frequency: 152.528
Dark Matter: 66.092

For the German department of Amazon:
Frequency: 11.020
Dark Matter: 8,452

Apparently, Dark Matter shifted many more copies in the US and a few more in Germany than IQ's latest did, while in the UK the situation is the totally opposite.

Which makes Shawn's observations pretty accurate for the US market, yet also makes it plausible that IQ have actually sold more copies in total for their latest than for their previous effort.

Thoughts?

O.K., for those who believe that sanctions will work, please take some time to read the RIAA's successes and the increase in CD sales in the past decade.
Then, imagine how many more CDs IQ would have sold if only blah blah blah. Are you certain that the other entertainment options available to people today does not have an effect ? Are you sure that those legal consumer choices don't actually play a much bigger part in decreasing CD sales ?

 So let's spend another 10 years staking out the moral high ground which is not even the site of any relevant battle nowadays. If all you can do is state the obvious (it's illegal) then join the ranks of the many who have made no progress in truly helping the musicians get paid for their music.

Or if you want an analogy - compare how effective the war on drugs is on drug use. Has the increase in funds been matched by a comparable decrease in drug use ? At what point does it make sense to think about how to make things work in today's world.

again, don't bother banging your head against the wall when there might be a window or door that you can use. And there are. Just not the ones that the industry was used to for the last 30-40 years. Reading up on the average  musician's challenges in the times preceding this so-called golden age might be an eye opener.

digital downloads are one option. they will not be the saviour of the industry. subscription services will be part of it too. but again, they won't be the answer to the entire problem. it will, unfortunately for the artistically entitled artiste, require work, and attention paid to the fan(s) who will pay for the LPs, CDs, Special edition box sets, merchandise, tour tickets, and such. Oh wait, the verb will "is" passed on ... the verb is "does" .
Radio , TV, advertising, record labels and such are no longer arbiters of what people will get to buy or hear. The listener is. And he has many more  choices today. Not counting the other amusing divertissements  that he can spend his hard earned money on. You do know that there are other things now that have taken up the consumer's budget , right ??? unless you can show me that consumers also got a matching pay raise to afford buying as much music as they used to AND pick up that Wii, that HDTV wide screen plus the home theater, and then that paper thin laptop that Little Joe wanted for Xmas, and that Iphone that your wife insisted she needs for her business, as if your blackberry wasn't good enough for her.

But that's harder to figure out than just pointing the finger at easy targets.

what was that guy's name - Dan Quiche eat ...


Edited by debrewguy - September 30 2009 at 21:21

Teaflax, I already know you like to instigate sh*t, and I know how this business works, and I can pull sales records at retail, so I know what the numbers are, so that's pretty much that.  Feel free to open yourself a soundscan account and pull them for yourself.

I hate to say this, but typical hype, it hasn't.

Windhawk - I should say I'm only a bit of a lurker on the IQ forum, to my shame haven't posted there for ages. I've followed them for ages but never seen any concrete info on sales, on the forum or elsewhere.  The statement seems pretty unequivocal though...

Link to the topic on the IQ forum: http://www.iq-forum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2233&start=30

Not really.  It may be their best selling because its a good album, the band is on a popular upswing, and word of mouth is spreading.  Add in the figures of the stolen downloads to the sold CDs and the sales figures could be even better than they are.

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

TGM: Every country has a different law, the requirement of permanently depraving is not common to all.

One good reason to hook up with Mindawn is that they have much/most of Musea's extensive catalogue available in digital format there.

Which, as far as I know, isn't available in digital format anywhere else.