I have to say that I disagree with your comments based on the following;

 

1. Kylie can still have a substantial hit single and "all the lovers" proved that by being her biggest selling single in 10 years in the UK

2. I think Madonna's lack of success is more to do with a very poor lead single and a poor advertising campaign by her record company

3. Parlophone messed up badly on the releases of get outta my way and better than today. GOOMW was the wrong choice for 2nd single. For both songs, there were no B sides and instead crap remixes. BTT had a poor promotion campaign

 

I think the reason Madonna and Kylie have struggled with their most recent albums are due to poor record company management. It was ridculous that Parlophone abandoned Aphrodite after the third single. They didnt even try to re-release it following the success of "higher".

 

1. You're comparing apples with oranges. ATL is arguably her first true single of the digital age*. In this age, songs sell far more units thanks to itunes etc. Per unit, indeed, it sold well compared to her singles from BL and X. Compared with other hit songs from 2010 - it was decent, but not substantial hit.

2. I agree to a point. Madonna did very little promotion - but when was the last time she did? In the past, Madonna could fart in a bottle and see it go top ten. Those days are gone. Rihanna & Katy can still do it.

3. Personally I thought GOOMW was a corker. That said, I hated the video and the key is very hard to perform live (which she did numerous times). B sides are totally irrelevant - they only count on physical singles and few buy them anyway.

 

* Before you shoot me down, I do realise that itunes was around during the days of X. But strong physical sales alone could still get you into the top ten back then. Not anymore.

1. You're comparing apples with oranges. ATL is arguably her first true single of the digital age*. In this age, songs sell far more units thanks to itunes etc. Per unit, indeed, it sold well compared to her singles from BL and X. Compared with other hit songs from 2010 - it was decent, but not substantial hit.

2. I agree to a point. Madonna did very little promotion - but when was the last time she did? In the past, Madonna could fart in a bottle and see it go top ten. Those days are gone. Rihanna & Katy can still do it.

3. Personally I thought GOOMW was a corker. That said, I hated the video and the key is very hard to perform live (which she did numerous times). B sides are totally irrelevant - they only count on physical singles and few buy them anyway.

 

* Before you shoot me down, I do realise that itunes was around during the days of X. But strong physical sales alone could still get you into the top ten back then. Not anymore.

 

 

You make some good valid points but I disagree with you on a couple of things.

 

1. There was a lot more promotion for Madonna's confessions album. Also, hung up was widely popular on radio stations. In contrast, Madge's latest material is largely getting ignored by radio cos its not very popular. If the record company releases the wrong song, then it aint gonna do well whether its Madonna, Katy Perry or Rihanna. Just look at Rihanna's last two songs which havent done very well because they werent very good.

2. A lot of people still collect CD singles and Kylie singles tend to be very popular with the fans. She is usually no1 or no2 in the physical charts. I think ATL CD single sold about 13k in the first week of release, which would make a big difference to chart placing. Good tracklistings can make all the difference and the last couple of CD singles have been very disappointing and must surely have affected chart performance. I'm convinced GOOMW would have gone top 10 (IF ONLY FOR 1 WEEK), had there been something worth buying on the physical product.

3. A lot of record companies seem to be cashing in these days by re-releasing albums in deluxe formats and expanded editions following the initial album. Like I said in the last post, Aphrodite had all the potential to do well but was badly managed. Had they re-released the album after higher with a killer new track, then the album could have shifted a lot more.

 

I agree about Kylie physical singles, all the lovers sold well on physical, and i think better than today and get outta my way both had around 10,000 sales in their opening weeks, however, all singles had 3 formats which indicates the sales were from hardcore Kylie fans. I was a huge cd single fan and still am but get little to be excited about but i always buy Kylie's cd singles and i would do regardless of a new b side or not.

 

While Kylie in my opinion never releases samey sounding singles but at the same time they are not breaking any new ground for her. Dont get me wrong i still love her music but i agree she probably needs to come back with something very different. While i am not a fan of the acoustic stuff she is doing it shows she is trying to come up with something new. Kylie has done this before and i do think she can do it again, she is still doing well but she needs to come back fresh sounding with a bang to truly show she can survive in the digital era and compete with the best of them.