{"id":173,"date":"2009-01-23T10:51:20","date_gmt":"2009-01-23T10:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=173"},"modified":"2009-01-23T10:51:20","modified_gmt":"2009-01-23T10:51:20","slug":"uncharted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2009\/01\/uncharted\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncharted"},"content":{"rendered":"

I learned a lot about the Billboard charts<\/a> while subbing at the record label this fall. In the classical realm at least, it’s shocking how little of a difference there is sales-wise between debuting at the top spot and coming in around number four or five. All the more reason not to turn our collective noses up at coverage on targeted blogs that get 600 – 1000 hits a day: they may not have the readership numbers of your local paper, but that’s 600 potential buyers already engaged in what you’re trying to sell. And if 100 of them buy the record, it may actually make a difference. <\/p>\n

In a similar vein, here’s something to chew on, from Ronen<\/a> from Brooklyn Vegan<\/i><\/a> from MTV<\/a>: The band Animal Collective<\/a> released their new album on a “deluxe double-LP 180-gram gatefold vinyl
\nformat” along with a full digital download on January 6, while the album wasn’t available on CD until January 20. MTV writer Gil Kaufman incorrectly but interestingly predicted that the album would make history by breaking the charts with vinyl sales alone:<\/p>\n

We were really pulling for Panda Bear and crew. When I wrote last week that Animal Collective might make it onto the Billboard 200<\/i> charts<\/a> this week based on the first-week sales of the vinyl edition of their Merriweather Post Pavilion<\/i> album (raved about this week by our own James Montgomery<\/a>), the underdog quality of that potential feat was kind of exciting … and subversive.<\/p>\n

But, alas, despite selling out all 4,500 copies of the first run of Pavilion<\/i>
\nalmost instantly across North America, with so many of those sales
\nhappening in indie shops that don’t report to Nielsen SoundScan, the
\nscrappy sonic experimentalists just didn’t make the cut. <\/p>\n

According to next week’s Billboard<\/i> albums chart<\/a>, Pavilion<\/i>
\nofficially moved 1,500 copies, which put them just outside the big
\ngame, even in this moribund time of year when the majority of the
\nalbums in the top 200 saw double-digit sales dips.<\/span>
\nHad they been able to scare up another 1,000 official sales, they might
\nhave sneaked in above the likes of former “American Idol” Kellie
\nPickler, Lifehouse, OneRepublic and Framing Hanley, all of whom sold in
\nthe 2,400 realm, which was enough to sneak them onto the bottom of the
\ncharts.<\/p>\n

Better luck next week, when Pavilion<\/i> is officially released
\non January 20, with a good chance to score an old-fashioned chart debut
\nthanks to the flood of already rapturous reviews it’s received as one
\nof the best albums of the year so far.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In classical music – at least in the US – I think limited edition special album packaging and then digital-only releases is the way of The Future.<\/i> Audience members can take home true souvenirs of their concert experiences (get their discs signed by the artist, etc.), and record labels won’t have to worry about pitching physical product to a shrinking retail market. Additionally, the availability of special product at concerts gives marketing departments another reason to e mail out about their concerts to their lists – “this concert is the only place you can buy a physical copy of the new Hilary Hahn album” – and gives artist publicists and PR departments an interesting state-of-the-industry story to pitch as well. Perhaps the Animal Collective timetable is a good place to start – for a month, the album is only available in special edition form at concerts and digital, and then is released on a disc – but then again, the physical CD follow-up is becoming increasingly less of an option<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I learned a lot about the Billboard charts while subbing at the record label this fall. In the classical realm at least, it’s shocking how little of a difference there is sales-wise between debuting at the top spot and coming in around number four or five. All the more reason not to turn our collective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}