Wow, that’s a huge sales drop for Kylie, I was expecting the album to have held up much better than this. She’s a legacy artist, so strong first week saies, high peak (helped by endless formats/loyal fans), and then saies freefall.

There’s been such a media blitz/buzz, so this is a surprise.

 

I feel that even in the past 3 years since DISCO was released, (album) sales have plummeted further. Although I haven’t researched this, I would say that the drop between first and second week sales has increased across the board - we are seeing albums debut in the top 2 then plummet out of the top 100 now. Obviously, there are the exceptions - typically, those artists who have significant streaming numbers.

 

Even for artists like Kylie, it is getting harder and harder to get massive physical sales, and most of those physical sales will be from fans during the first week. DISCO benefited from being bought as a Christmas present for people who like her music without being the biggest fans. But these days, the number of people who are buying CDs outside of the core fan base, regardless of their age, is dwindling.

 

On a couple of other notes - I can’t help but think that Ed Sheeran doesn’t care massively what sales he gets this week. My gut feeling is that what matters to him is the opportunity to release the music that he wants to release.

 

As for Mae Muller - some people have described the lack of success of her album as being a reason why record companies shouldn’t jump into releasing albums from new artists. Why?!? Just because an album isn’t a big hit doesn’t mean it’s not justified in being released - it’s an opportunity for an artist to get their music out there. I love Mae’s album - I feel it’s more than the sum of its parts, and I’m glad that it has been released.

Edited October 3, 20232 yr by GreyAsh

With regard to NSYNC, did anyone expect it to be doing a bit better even with the film not out yet? Praying the film elevates the song.

 

Not really, they're an act who haven't been present for over 20 years and I know they had a few hits in the UK but they were never that huge here.

I'm going to be a bit controversial here and say that this far into Ed's career, at a time when his style of music is not too popular, he is doing just fine! I think the purpose of this album is just to get another no1 to his Name (he loves the charts). He will try for a big pop album one more time I think.

Ed can't win. He said this album wasn't for the charts, but he could release an album full of pop songs, and if any of the songs got close to number one, he'd then be criticised for pandering to the charts. It's not long until "Merry Christmas" makes a big return, which is sure to please everyone.

Im sure Ed will be back next year in full pop force

he needs to do what he's good at, pure pop songs that could be hits for anyone like Little Mix or Rihanna

 

what he needs to stop trying is to pass as a real tormented singer songwriter kinda stuff

cos he doesn't have the range and doesn't have the writing skills

he writes like if he were 12 yers old, which is ok if you wanna write a Little Mix single, but not a Leonard Cohen album

 

so no wonder he's got the flop of the century album when you put everything into context

but sure it's salvagable if he goes back to pop, which is what he will do 1000% for sure next year

Divide vol 2 is coming for sure

Ed Sheeran is the singing personification of the Live Laugh Love posters, stickers, and ornaments that the general public has in their homes. He appeals in the same way Michael Bublé does at Christmas: overplayed, generic, but beloved by mums. I don't enjoy his music, but I don't reasonably think his career is on a nosedive just because he's taken a different approach with his latest album. He's a staple in our lives at this point.

I can see Ed abandoning the seasons theme altogether if Autumn Variations underperforms critically & commercially.

does anybody have recent sales totals for Lana Del Rey's albums in the UK

Wow, that’s a huge sales drop for Kylie, I was expecting the album to have held up much better than this. She’s a legacy artist, so strong first week saies, high peak (helped by endless formats/loyal fans), and then saies freefall.

There’s been such a media blitz/buzz, so this is a surprise.

 

I actually think she is doing okay for the second week, no? It's holding on when most artists that don't get high streaming numbers drop out of the top 100.

does anybody have recent sales totals for Lana Del Rey's albums in the UK

Her latest album was certified Gold last Friday, which means it has sold more than 100,000 copies so far.

Autumn variations aside it says it all when Lewis and ed have the biggest debuts of the year and are still branded flops, can

 

see taylors 1989 TV outdoing both but what else is there on the horizon that could

Ed will probably regroup and be fine, but this acoustic and mid-tempo stuff isn't really what people are here for from him. He's usually so on the money with the industry and how it works that he surely must be putting this stuff out only as a passion project and not because he's expecting to have a big success. He is not Taylor Swift's male equivalent, I'm not sure if that's how he has been trying to position himself with these releases.

 

Sure, he launched with acoustic music in a kind of similar vein almost 15 years ago now but if he'd carried on like that he'd probably have never been around so long at the top as those kinds of singers don't tend to have long-term singles chart success. He might have been another Passenger or Corinne Bailey Rae kind of one album wonder. It's certainly not what the majority of his fanbase want from him in 2023.

 

Ed made a successful decision to pivot to become a popstar on X, it worked and he continued that and massively expanded his fanbase globally. His ballads post-X became more boyband sounding while his uptempos were of course very catchy and radio friendly (I love many of those records and have absolutely no shame in that). But that was his choice to make that switch in his sound to become a popstar and that's what the public came to associate him with. Trying to switch constantly between releasing a 'big pop record' (does he mean 'big pop production and choruses' or is he simply expecting it to be big? bold assumption if it's the latter) and this acoustic troubadour stuff isn't going to work out commercially.

 

Imo he pigeonholed himself as THE male popstar for the early Spotify generation and it's going to be very difficult to change that perception. Truly, if these acoustic and lo-fi albums are just passion projects then that's of course absolutely fine - they're nice enough listens - I thought Subtract had some great tracks on it, this one has fewer - but they are never going to be big sellers. I think he's probably aware of that too, but the more time he takes releasing these albums, and the less time he spends on being the popstar the world knows and loves, inevitably people will move on to other popstars, that's how pop has always worked. I just think after peddling big Spotify pop numbers and very vocally chasing success and hits for a decade, it's very hard to just go 'ok guys, here's my authentic albums now' and expect people to lap them up.

Edited October 3, 20232 yr by gooddelta

He is not Taylor Swift's male equivalent, I'm not sure if that's how he has been trying to position himself with these releases.

I think it is, which is where he's gone wrong, I was saying this recently. I think he was expecting a Folklore moment from the last album at least.

Edited October 3, 20232 yr by 365

I think it is, which is where he's gone wrong, I was saying this recently. I think he was expecting a Folklore moment from the last album at least.

 

100% he thought he would have a Folklore hit on his hand, but the tslent just isn't there. Like Byork says, he's got the writing skills of a LM or Scooch song.

Kylies second week sales are disappointing, no doubt about that. However it will probably add more streaming sales over the long run. Of course she also has her big ITV special to come which hopefully will stabilise things. I think it will be better to judge this in 12 months.

The thing is people are acting like folklore sold millions, it debut with low sales (by her standards) for a number one (probably due to being a suprise release) and just did consistently well, subtract actually debut with almost double sales

Autumn variations aside it says it all when Lewis and ed have the biggest debuts of the year and are still branded flops, can

 

see taylors 1989 TV outdoing both but what else is there on the horizon that could

 

Kylie had the biggest debut

Kylie had the biggest debut

 

Yep if we omit Ed, Lewis, Taylor and Olivia she certainly did :P

Ncheesy Fad is majorly flopping, and that' with massive payola

The thing is people are acting like folklore sold millions, it debut with low sales (by her standards) for a number one (probably due to being a suprise release) and just did consistently well, subtract actually debut with almost double sales

 

folklore’s debut was digital only, no physicals, which Ed has, so you’re gonna have to subtract Ed’s physical sales if you want a fair comparison

folklore’s debut was digital only, no physicals, which Ed has, so you’re gonna have to subtract Ed’s physical sales if you want a fair comparison

 

And also... still selling WELL and becoming a classic of this decade so who cares from "low" first week sales?

He's flopping 2 in a row. Mega flopping.