Spice was out today!

Universal posted this about Spice yesterday (LINK)

 

The debut record 'Spice' was released on this day, November 4, in 1996. ⁠

A worldwide commercial success, ‘Spice’ topped the charts in more than 17 countries across the world, and was certified Multi-Platinum in 27 countries, Platinum in 14 and Gold in 3, including 10-times Platinum in the United Kingdom and Canada.

It became the world's top-selling album of 1997, selling 19 million copies in over a year.

The album has sold a total of 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album in music history by a girl group and one of the best-selling albums of all time. ⁠

 

And I was wondering why all of a sudden they are back to state the 23million copies figure that has been the same since 1999?? Even if you don't include streaming units, it seems self-defeating to state this figure since even in physical copies, it has grown since then too?

 

:blink:

They have been stating it at 31 million copies for so long seems ridiculous to have it back down to 23 million!? It was always obvious the 31 was a somewhat inflated figure but we know it has sold an extra million in the USA and a few hundred thousand in the UK since 1997 so it's clearly on at least 25million+...

'Mama'/'Who Do You Think You Are' was released as a single 28 years ago on this date, 3rd March 1997!

It's wild that this album was the best selling album in USA 1997. Sometimes, one needs a reminder of how huge they were! It's crazy!

Just like the Greatest Hits, it looks like Spice25 is getting a repress in June!

https://shop.universalmusic.it/products/spice-girls-spice-25th-anniversary-box-doppio-cd

Was Spice25 a success or do you think they expected more from it?

The amount of variants and even TV ads, etc, was quite a lot which showed that they expected quite a lot of buying from the GP beyond their own fanbase only?... But the group didnt promote it themselves bar some instagram posts and while the album got to #5 on the UK Charts, it fell off straight after...

Their complete lack of enthusiasm for Spiceworld25 and how cheap that release was - from the bad sound quality of the music, to the terrible deisgn, marketing and PR - just shows they didnt expect much from it either...

I often wonder if a lack of a standard CD releases for both Spice25 and Spiceworld25, alongside the lack of 'new' material too hurt it too much??

#5 came across as a good result, but I do believe they could have pushed it further if they'd had standard CDs. Particularly if they'd done one of each member - and I'm sure that they would have had way more potential for good sales than the cassettes.

The chart that week:

#1 - 139,107 - Ed Sheeran

#2 - 11,422 - Richard Ashcroft

#3 - 10,135 - Elton John

#4 - 7,875 - Coldplay

#5 - 7,798 - Spice Girls (so close to being #4!)

Spice:

Vinyl: 4,563 / CDs: 1,464 / Cassettes: 1,219 / Streaming: 364 / Downloads: 188

Vinyl: 58.52% / CDs: 18.77% / Cassettes: 15.63% / Streaming: 4.67% / Downloads: 2.41%

To be honest the CD sales were poor, and an indication that it was overpriced. Having 5 cassette formats only to sell around a thousand copies of them in the UK also wasn't a great outcome (an average of 244 copies per member shows that very few fans were motivated to buy all 5). Clearly the vinyl was the main event, with there being 6 versions.

I'll never understand how the Universal team looked at the above result and decided that Spiceworld 25 should have half the number of vinyl formats, ditch the individual members concept entirely, and stay firm with there being just one expensive CD. Before we even get into the lack of quality. (Side note: Someone on Popjustice recently discovered that the metallic texture background used for Spiceworld 25 was a free stock image. )

1 hour ago, -Jay- said:

#5 came across as a good result, but I do believe they could have pushed it further if they'd had standard CDs. Particularly if they'd done one of each member - and I'm sure that they would have had way more potential for good sales than the cassettes.

The chart that week:

#1 - 139,107 - Ed Sheeran

#2 - 11,422 - Richard Ashcroft

#3 - 10,135 - Elton John

#4 - 7,875 - Coldplay

#5 - 7,798 - Spice Girls (so close to being #4!)

Spice:

Vinyl: 4,563 / CDs: 1,464 / Cassettes: 1,219 / Streaming: 364 / Downloads: 188

Vinyl: 58.52% / CDs: 18.77% / Cassettes: 15.63% / Streaming: 4.67% / Downloads: 2.41%

To be honest the CD sales were poor, and an indication that it was overpriced. Having 5 cassette formats only to sell around a thousand copies of them in the UK also wasn't a great outcome (an average of 244 copies per member shows that very few fans were motivated to buy all 5). Clearly the vinyl was the main event, with there being 6 versions.

I'll never understand how the Universal team looked at the above result and decided that Spiceworld 25 should have half the number of vinyl formats, ditch the individual members concept entirely, and stay firm with there being just one expensive CD. Before we even get into the lack of quality. (Side note: Someone on Popjustice recently discovered that the metallic texture background used for Spiceworld 25 was a free stock image. )

Yeah I think it was not a flop but it didnt do the numbers they expected... but it provided a good insight into how to go about with Spiceworld25...

This is exactly why it is so baffling how they went about Spiceworld25 and how everything was so overpriced, ugly and lack of incentives as well... They learnt all the wrong lessons or none at all lol was Spiceworld (the main 10 tracks) even mastered?

A standard CD for each release would have done wonders, I think. And a couple of unreleased songs - this could have easily been the main attraction of Spiceworld25! And also the group themselves needed to promote both Spice25 and Spiceworld25.. What the hell is wrong with them that they cant get together to promote their own music? Damn...

And it would have taken so little to promote those albums, like a bare minimum of doing some Instagram posts / reels (that could have been scheduled over time - and doubled up as sponsored posts). That probably would have been an afternoon of work at most? If they'd been truly passionate about the reissues project, even just having one or two of the girls sitting down (together or separately) to discuss their memories of the album, the tracks... it all could have been useful content to get the public interested in buying the albums!

Yep yep yep!!

Also, it bothers me that neither album is available on CD... The only way to purchase them is by spending £30 on a special edition boxset that most people don't engage with.

Spice was in print on standrd CD until about 2018 but then it stopped being. The only CD in print from them is the Greatest Hits right?

Spice and Spiceworld are two of the biggest selling albums ever. Why they are not in print is criminal...

I recall that the Spice25 won the team a packaging/ marketing awards as well. And to see a year they just dropped a ball with Spiceworld 25 was shocking. What happened with the alternative spice world logo that came out? Clearly they had ideas to do something about it since it was featured on a mug. They just scrapped everything.

What’s gonna happen to Forever25 now? Are they just gonna put a silver background on the cover and call it a day too?

Wait I dont remember an alternative logo?

This one was on the mug that they ended up never released