rundmck

Thankyou for this, always enjoy reading this annually. It looks as though Adele has overtaken Lewis Capaldi literally in the last day or two then.

Well you see, you've chosen to ignore the facts about worldwide album consumption in my previous post, and instead focused in on an extremely specific metric. How do I explain Ed's 14 week #1 single in the UK in 2017? What do you want me to explain? It was a very popular song. Does that make him a bigger artist than Adele? No, otherwise by your metric, Drake is a bigger artist in the UK than Ed, because he had a 15 week #1. Ed's 'sangs' Bad Habits and Shivers challenging Easy on me is because the tracks are very popular and very streamable, great on playlists, party music etc. It's not complicated, as I mentioned, he is one of the biggest artists in the world. However, by no obvious and fair metric is he the 'biggest'. So now that I've answered your question, can you explain to me, given your stance: Adele sells more albums than Ed in the UK, in the US and Worldwide. In fact worldwide she has sold almost 3 times his amount... with fewer albums. She sold more 10 years ago, she sold more 5 years ago, and she sold more in the last 2 weeks.

Yes indeed. If you are one of the most popular artists on the planet, as Ed, or Taylor are, and you release singles or albums at a consistently fast pace, it's basic maths that your overall record sales/streams will increase at a much faster rate than someone who releases one album every 4-6 years. When Adele releases an album however, it vastly outsells every single other artist on a worldwide level (in both speed and volume). It happened with her last 2 albums and it looks to be happening with this one too. If an artist releases new music & more people in the world buy it than anyone elses new music, then they are the 'biggest' artist in the world.

Adele's new album sold almost twice as much as Ed's new album in their release weeks. That's the end of the argument right there. You could bring into it that Adele has the biggest selling album of the century, the biggest opening sales of all time, and the current biggest selling album of year... all with different albums. You could mention her World Wide album sales that dwarf Ed, but you don't need to. Ed and Adele both just released an album each, and loads more people got Adele's than Ed's, both in the UK, and Worldwide. It's blatantly obvious Adele is the 'bigger' artist and has been for a decade.

There has been a lot of discussion about Adele's opening week sales with 30 and whether it was 'good' or 'bad', without an awful lot of context seemingly been used. I wanted to attempt to do this, as since Ed Sheeran's 'Divide' album (the last really big opening week & total seller) the album sales market has dramatically reduced and all releases need to be compared with the current market as opposed to 5 or 10 years ago. To put the opening week of Adele's 30 (261,856) in contextual relation to 25 (800,307) (Incidentally both albums entered the year-to-date charts after 1 week at #3): Looking at the best 1 week sales of other artists in comparison: In the 5 years before 25 was released & up to Divide, these were the biggest 1 week sales: ÷ Ed Sheeran 671,542 Progress - Take That 518,601 Christmas - Michael Buble 317,114 Loud - Rihanna 248,934 Midnight Memories - One Direction 237,338 A Head Full Of Dreams - Coldplay 235,975 In the 5 years before 30 was released (since Divide), these were the biggest 1 week sales: ABBA - Voyage | 203,909 Ed Sheeran - Equals | 139,107 Eminem - Revival | 132,000 Ed Sheeran - No.6 | 125,031 Liam Gallagher - As You Were | 103,000 Coldplay - Music Of The Spheres | 101,045 25's nearest two challengers (Ed & TT) sold 84% and 65% of it's opening week 30's nearest two challengers (ABBA & Ed) sold 65% and 53% of it's opening week Beyond that, every other album released in these time periods sold half or less of both 25 & 30 in their opening weeks. In context, Adele's opening week dominance over the rest of the market appears similar with 30 as it was with 25.

I wonder will it be the last ever...

Yet Adele's last 2 albums have sold vastly more than any of Swifts. Even 19 has sold more WW than most of Swifts albums and all of them in the UK. 30 will outsell most of Swifts albums and probably all of them in the UK. Is that because Taylor Swift's albums are boring? Nope, just that different people have different tastes, some music people prefer to stream while others prefer to own, and overall Adele's music appeals to more people. Doesn't make it necessarily better or worse.

Of course it's subjective. You use the term 'overly long'. That is your opinion, and may be shared by some people, but will not be shared by some people. An objective comment would be that they are longer than average song length. Whether they are overly long or not long enough is subjective. You also have on two occasions called it 'dreary' which again is clearly your opinion. It may be that short, upbeat poppy songs work better for streaming, but that doesn't make your opinion on the quality of the songs objective, as many many people will consider her songs to be cathartic and enjoyable. It is a critically acclaimed album and reviews from both official sources and the general public are significantly higher than all her previous albums and it is about to be the best selling album in years so personal taste and dislike of her music is the very definition of subjective, not objective.

92k on day 1

I mean that's just so subjective though isn't it? I can't imagine anyone wanting to have BTS on repeat, or Ed Sheeran on repeat, but clearly loads of people do and that's fine. It's exactly the same with Adele - you may not like it, but millions of people who aren't you will and will therefore stream it. I personally found it more immediate than her last 2 albums & have streamed it more than I listened to those already.

I've started the count :D

Do you actively seek out her interviews? I haven't seen any with her. I know she did one with Oprah but that hasn't been shown in the UK. From the occasional snippets of talking I've seen her do she seems about as far away from being a 'Hollyweirdo" as a multimillionaire can be.

I've listened as far as track 8 so far and my personal opinion is that it is very very good, and to me more immediately enjoyable than her previous albums. From my simple perspective though, it would be logical to follow up a power ballad (EOM) with a sassy upbeat track like OMG or Can I get it- they are both excellent, before going back to a power ballad like I drink wine (which is also very good), but it seems they are sticking with power ballad singles for now. But what do I know, maybe that is the best idea for the Christmas present buying market.

I wonder how many buzzjack posters will call this album a flop if it becomes the fastest selling album for 4 years but doesn't break, say, 300k

I wish I knew if this was a good or bad thing