Pitchfork Top 10 Albums, In US Sales

essdogg:

adamisacson:

perpetua:

1. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 131k
2. Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca 48k
3. the xx xx 35k
4. The Flaming Lips Embryonic 75k (estimate)
5. Raekwon Only Built For Cuban Linx Part II 141k
6. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest 132k
7. Bat For Lashes Two Suns 36k
8. Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 205k
9. Fever Ray Fever Ray 23k
10. Girls Album 19k

I don’t know the economics of this at all, but it’s hard to imagine an indie band even paying its grocery bills with such measly record sales. If we assume Animal Collective cleared $3 per album, then each member of the band would have got about $100,000 from US sales of Merriweather Post - less than what a mid-level Senate staffer makes.

And we can safely say that no mid-level Senate staffer made anything nearly as great as Merriweather Post this year.

Not that I’m saying anything that isn’t already common knowledge, but touring and non-album merchandise are the only ways that the majority of indie or major-label bands ever make any real money. It’s similar to being an author in the respect that if you’re in the top 1 percent you’re rich beyond your wildest dreams and can get — correction: used to get — guaranteed advances on album sales. But if you’re a middling artist (album sales, not quality), you’re lucky to pay your rent, especially if you’re in a big band and you’re spreading the wealth (i.e. multiple songwriting credits). Hitting the road is where the real coin is for musicians who don’t have a radio hit.

Courtney Love’s greatest contribution to her profession was probably this speech she gave to the “Digital Hollywood” conference back in 2000 when Napster was brand-spankin’-new. It’s a thorough explanation to not only how things worked for major labels for years but also why it doesn’t work anymore (i.e. when you no longer control the means of distribution, you no longer have a foothold on the means of monetization). It’s probably at least part of the reason why the only company making huge contract offers these days is Live Nation, which realized that CD’s are just tchotchkes to get people to spend money on concert tickets.

Sidenote: The economics of music recording are why I’ve never gotten upset with indie groups whose music appears in commercials for soft drinks and car companies. You bust your ass to put together a wonderful recording and make less than a supermarket checker for your efforts. Then a major ad agency comes along and says Client X will pay you six or even seven figures for one of your songs. Do the math.

This is why I hate the term “sell out” and why I hate when people start throwing stones at bands for either selling their songs for ads or having mass merchandise in Hot Topic. It’s what gives them food money. While it’s all well and good to do what you love for a living, there are very few people who would do it for a long period of time if there wasn’t enough money coming in to pay the bills. Bands aren’t philanthropic organizations; they don’t exist just to put a smile on your face, believe it or not. This is what they do for a job. This is their livelihood. To dismiss them because they made their livelihood lucrative instead of having to dumpster dive for food or sleep in vans is ridiculous. Do they still make the music you like? Great. Then stop caring about their songs being used to sell cars. The money they make from those ads and that merchandise is what allows them to continue making the music that makes you smile. Indie bands - and even most bands on big labels - make crap off their album sales. So forgive them if they try to actually earn a living.

I agree with most all of what inthefade said. My only opposition is that when you “sell out” you still want to maintain some sort of long term integrity and sustainability. You might be hot now, and McDonalds might want you to sing and dance in a chicken suit for a quick $500k, but it might be better not to whore yourself so that down the line your fanbase doesn’t see you as a joke. However selling your music as a backing track for 100 car commercials is fine by me.

A few other observations from the list and what people above her said.

1. Bat For Lashes went gold in the UK, she did poorly here but she probably outsold the other 9 internationally, so she’s pretty solid on the list.

2. Raekwon has sold millions of albums with the Wu, so he could sell 5 copies of everything he ever touches again and be good for life.

3. If each Animal Collective member made $100k in profit this year, that is a damn good year by anyones standards. Sure it’s not the snort an 8 ball of coke every night rockstar life, but it’s a pretty comfortable life.

Personally if I had some musical talent I’d love to be able to be on the road all the time, making music, etc. even if I was pulling in $40k a year. Sure it’s way more hours than a 9-5 for less money than a lot of people make, but you get to be out there experiencing and doing things that .01% of the population will ever get to do while they punch away at a keyboard in a cubicle.