Adele's "25" obliterates every first week sales record in history...

There have been 15 Decembers (and 15 Novembers, since that's when 25 was actually released) since N Sync's record setting week, and not a single album has even hit 2 million during any one of those weeks. Adele just passed 3 million with ease.

Saying this sales number is "no news at all" because it's December (i.e. November) is a ridiculous statement on the level of "Usain Bolt only smashed that world record because there was a strong wind that day."

 

You've got it wrong - that is the record company execs' excuse to the musicians.

 

WOW. You have literally no idea how the music industry works, do you? There are hundreds of new releases every week of the year, from labels both big and small, and that number only increases leading up to Black Friday. More foot traffic means more exposure means (ideally) more sales. Adele almost certainly brought more people into record stores than would normally have been there. I guarantee a tiny indie label did not say, "Oh no, Adele is coming! Looks like we can't release any punk or garage rock acts this quarter! The marketplace can't handle both!"

You know what also got released within weeks of Adele? "Jeff Lynne's ELO." If that didn't get postponed because of Adele, then NOTHING got postponed because of Adele. And if your local Walgreen's or Best Buy didn't carry it, it's not because Adele "pushed it aside." It's because their buyers made a smart stocking decision. (As opposed to the buyers at my local store, where 50 unsold copies of "Jeff Lynne's ELO" have been gathering dust for a couple weeks.)

 

So how many of thousands of records have been released in the past two weeks? Not many others have even sold 5% of this one. And it's November not quite December yet.

 

Have to say I'm liking this album. My first by Adele. It's a bit ballad heavy, but it's good. Have to try 21 next. Is this better?

 

I will agree the cd is far too maxed and the vinyl is better, but if you turn the cd down considerably, it's not too terrible. That 'typical Adele fan' stuff is just moronic, the definition of 'typical Adele fan' should be 'people between 5 and 95'


yet another fun fact:
more people are searching the net for the lyrics than for the illegal download.

 

25 certainly isn't a reference sounding CD, but I agree that turning down the volume does help. It's certainly not a horrible sounding disc.

 

Some recent CD releases don't exceed DR 5, with volume clipping all over the place. Why would anyone find that acceptable?

 

Because the vast majority of the listening public does not and has never cared about great sound, they care about the music at best. If they really cared about the sound MP3 wouldn't never have taken off.

 

This is Torch singing at its finest. I've heard many a singer over the years, what many people don't understand is that it's not how 'perfect' you hit the notes, quite the opposite, you can scratch it but if you do it with passion and deep conviction, it can work...and that takes it to the next level.
The sound on this is horrendous due to it being at Radio City Music Hall filmed on an I phone or something...but oh, this performance.
....and to have written this as well? Cherry on the cake.

 

I'm in the target audience (minus watching Family Guy) and I bought the bonus tracks version at Target. Of course I also spend a couple hundred dollars on CDs/records/digital downloads a year so I don't know how well I speak for my demographic....

 

Yeah, she's just destitute for a few more CD sales from snobby Hoffmanites.

 

You are right, but that doesn't mean it has to be this way. Compressing dynamic range and volume limiting benefits no one, and you don't have to do that to well-recorded music to transcode it to Mp3.

 

My analogy works in either direction. What I'm saying is when someone like say.......hell, anyone who isn't named Adele or Swift, is at a cocktail party discussing their upcoming record or simply talking about songs they're recording. Whether it's Sara Bareilles, Tom Petty or a dude from Metallica, for quite a long time it been easy for them to fall back on the excuse that 'nobody sells records anymore'. I'm sure it's a comfortable blanket when a new record comes out and it sells maybe 10 thousand copies it's first couple weeks to use that excuse.

 

Decades ago, there were some in the industry that felt that new releases "competed" with each other and might push back a release date if another big artist already had a new release scheduled. I think that is no longer the prevailing view. In fact, you sometimes see one artist release two different albums on the same day. Unlike movies, which compete with each other for a customer's time, hit records are viewed as getting customers to the record store (physical or online) where they are more (not less) likely to buy other records.

In December, the view has been that consumers buy albums as Christmas gifts. For this reason, the late November - early December traditionally saw a large number of greatest hits collections.

Whether any of this still holds true for the new digital age, I have no idea. Do people still give new releases albums as gifts? Downloads? I've never received one, although I have received iTunes cards ( but those would boost sales after Christmas, no?)

 

Would probably sell about 100 more...not even approaching round-off error in the profits for all stakeholders.

 

I think it is a small number who care about sound quality enough to avoid buying an album, but don't have a turntable. A lot of Digital only audiophiles have decided to live with the poor sound, so they still buy the album.

 

Wow...this album has sold SO MANY copies...my dear Grandpa who's been deceased for 30 years even bought a copy!

Interesting to see...I guarantee the industry will be propping-up other acts to repeat the same very soon.

 

She is the industry's Black Friday...one thing to make-or-break the sales for the year.

 

Didn't it sell more than the rest of the top 40 put together? Incredible. I bet the industry wishes she'd put out an album a year!

 

An incredible achievement and certainly not undeserved.

 

You have a point, but she would sell like hotcakes if her album was released in August or March or whatever. Let's say 25 was released this past August. It would certainly have sold less initially than it is now during the holiday rush. But remember, with each hit single pulled from it, more and more copies would have been sold and guess what? It would get an even bigger boost now during this same holiday rush we're arguing about. So what does it matter?
Of course it was meant to be a big seller. And it will be a big seller next holiday season too.

 

I do find it puzzling that the top selling albums are driven by women in this day and age.

Taylor swift, Adele and Beyoncé don't seem to have any trouble selling.

Are guys just listening to older recordings, stealing and streaming music?

I did buy it and I like it but I don't rate it as close to the best release of the year.

 

I thought it was said Be Here Now, at least in the UK, still held the record for the first week timeframe?

 

There are many reasons for this phenomenon, and one is---not to sound sexist or anything--is that I have a feeling men of all ages tend to like a wider variety of music. What I mean is there is no single male act that can pull in as many buyers for a single disc. Some guys like alternative, some metal, others, hip-hop. Then there's country. And catalog sales; who do you think buys all the Hendrix and Dylan releases? Soccer moms? ( and don't tell me about your former hippie aunt who loves Dylan.)
I haven't seen sales figures and buying trend data so maybe I'm talking out of my rear end, but I bet men buy most music---but spread out over many different discs across a variety of genres. I still know men who buy CD's. I don't know any women who do.

But they all bought Swift and, now, Adele.