Q: "Why does everyone care about sales."

[DeanWinchester 41,390]

2 hours ago, RAMROD said:

To me, it is just hypocrisy cos most people here who cares about sales and bash Gaga for low sales didn't even buy CD lmao

The audacity

 

I have a physical copy and regularly stream the entire album (JND is a bop, you flops) on Spotify. By regularly I mean every other day. 

[Lord Temptation 11,209]

Talking about numbers gives any fool the chance to sound intelligent.

[Slayer 9,227]

Because she's a mainstream pop star who built her career on big numbers and big sales. So if those sales dwindle it's seen as a bad thing because it doesn't equate to her previous successes.

[gagzus 15,929]

I've always said that sales dictate her ability to have better budgets and the more likely her label is to renew her contract when it runs out (which is soon btw now she's making her 4th studio album we only have one more after this). If she flops with this and the next album, her label probably won't offer her a new contract.

[Magneto 13,436]

13 hours ago, Prince Bananas said:

If she doesn't sell well, she underperforms or even flops 

Isn't that just the same thing? 

[Infinity Wave 7,635]

If she doesn't sell well, her label will not let her tour all over the world. Remember she went to country where singers never went to, for example south Africa? well it was thank to the magnificent seals of BTW, one of the most selling albums of the 2000s. I don't care about sales, I just care about music, but I do pay attention to her album sales because good sales mean a better and longer tour, a really magnificent tour like the Monster Ball and the BTWBall were (and even ArtRave since ARTPOP underperformed but non THAT much). So don't say you don't care about sales if you want lady gaga to come in your city or in your country, or to perform at festivals or to do interviews etc etc cuz these are all possibilities she has if she sells well. 

That being said, just wait for LG5 to drop and enjoy gaga's perfect songs without thinking always bout sales!

[Lona Delery 7,214]

more sales = bigger tour, bigger videos, more singles perhaps, basically just a bigger era which won't be as floppy as ARTPOP.
 

[MelbHawker 6,583]

I find that question to be rhetorical. No answer required. 

[LUO YI 6,089]

6 hours ago, Magneto said:

Isn't that just the same thing? 

no 

When an album underperforms ot has at least 1 successful single and a big tour. Ut has a little of popularity 

A flop is a unknown album (by the GP obvs) that doesn't even sell 1M with flopy singles (aka Rebel Heart (aka Lotus))

 

[Magneto 13,436]

2 minutes ago, Prince Bananas said:

no 

When an album underperforms ot has at least 1 successful single and a big tour. Ut has a little of popularity 

A flop is a unknown album (by the GP obvs) that doesn't even sell 1M with flopy singles (aka Rebel Heart (aka Lotus))

 

Yup, I get it. Is it the same difference between having a minor sunburn or a severe sunburn if you stand in the sun too long? Or getting wet when you stand in the rain? 

Ps. no shade and all, but I really sounds like circular reasoning

[venusfly 17,885]

20 hours ago, Drunk Poet said:

ARTPOP didn't actually flop. It just didn't sell 20 million records like people expected it too. 

It only sold 2m WW copies and that is not on par with most pop superstars. Its not that it didnt sell legendary copies, it didnt even sell pop superstar level of copies

[LUO YI 6,089]

17 minutes ago, Magneto said:

Yup, I get it. Is it the same difference between having a minor sunburn or a severe sunburn if you stand in the sun too long? Or getting wet when you stand in the rain? 

Ps. no shade and all, but I really sounds like circular reasoning

Yeah I mean

Ps.  I know, sorry 

[Magneto 13,436]

13 minutes ago, Prince Bananas said:

Yeah I mean

Ps.  I know, sorry 

Still love you, babe

[XoXoJoanneGaga 629]

18 hours ago, Alien Tulip said:

God bless this post. I love Born This Way though but I agree The Fame and The Fame Monster are her magnum opuses so far BUT she definitely has potential to top those two albums and I think she will with the next album. Also people seriously need to stop putting Born This Way next to ARTPOP just so they can convince others as if ARTPOP is on the same level of quality as Born This Way. Born This Way fits more with The Fame and The Fame Monster in terms of quality, cohesiveness, and theme based.

To be fair, even Gaga admitted herself back in January 2016 that The Fame and The Fame Monster were her favorite albums when she did that interview with Diane warrenr. That was when this forum had a meltdown because they were expecting her to say Born This Way. She also referred to The Fame and The Fame Monster as her "golds" which pretty much clarifies that they are her best work in GAGAS opinion. When she wrote The Fame and The Fame Monster she had her struggles BUT she didn't let anyone tell her what to do and she was hands on with EVERYTHING even the singles and promotion. Of course she chose to go the electronic route for her first two albums for appeal but it was also genuine as she genuinely loved the music she made.

With Born This Way I know she's proud of it but you can tell she wanted the album to be more experimental but Interscope started restricting her artistic endeavors in 2011 to the point where she couldn't even pick her own singles. She stuck to her guns but with ARTPOP it was obvious she had to dumb down her music and make an album for the charts and that didn't work because Gaga works best when she's making music she wants to make like the fame, the fame monster and born this way TO AN EXTENT. I have a great feeling about this next album because it seems like she's more free and less restricted with her career than she was during born this way and ARTPOP. I don't care what genre the next album will be as long as it's all from her then I know it will be great...as long as its not hip hop though. 

Oh yeah, Born This Way is way way better than ARTPOP, and even though it has it's fair share of flaws (amateurish and derivative production and engineering, bad "empowerment" songwriting in parts) it's still got a lot of great stuff and is much more comparable to her first two. But yes, Gaga knows what her strongest work is which is great, Elton John knows it and has been working with her closely, critics know it, most of the fans know it, non-fans certainly know it, etc. Her self-awareness and newfound drive is really reassuring, and with her working with better producers and having considerably stronger vocals than she ever did prior to C2C I can't wait to see what she delivers.

[StrawberryBlond 14,872]

I would never let sales be my #1 concern but they do matter to me. Whether we like it or not, Gaga's career, anyone's career, depends upon having good sales to some degree. Don't believe me?

1. Fewer singles and fewer music videos. See Christina's last two albums and Duffy's second album for this (that one was shocking, giving up on it after just one failed single). Gaga even suffered this for her last 2 albums. As an artist who really lives for music videos, this will be a major blow. Once your singles stop selling, your label all but pulls the plug on everything related to your album, which leads to...

2. Less promotion. It doesn't make sense, but labels usually don't give promo slots to acts who don't sell well, even though they're most in need of help. I guess they see it as too much of a loss if they weren't selling to begin with. It goes without saying that promotion is compulsory to sell albums. Without albums selling...

2. Shorter tour/no tour. If your album isn't selling, you can't be trusted to sell out a world tour, so artists will only stick to the biggest cities in select countries and miss out whole continents, meaning their fans will either have to bankrupt themselves to go see them or miss out on the show entirely. Alternatively, some labels are completely cuthroat and decide to not let the artist tour at all. Tours are too expensive to put on to handle any potential losses. Xtina hasn't toured for her last 2 albums because of this. Gaga is extremely lucky that she got a tour for AP as most pop artists who sold like she did wouldn't be allowed. But if she does worse next time, she might not get the chance. Seeing as touring is one of Gaga's passions, this will be another major blow for her and her fans. And all this lacking of singles, promo and tours leads to...

4. Being forced to go more generic and getting your work written for you. Again, Xtina is a casualty for this. Her last album was her most generic and least artistically controlled since her teen pop puppet debut. She was no longer trusted to write hit songs on her own, professional writers were drafted in to pen half the album and for the second album in a row, her lead single didn't have her involvement. This business plan is sadly all too common when it comes to under-performing female artists due to sexist beliefs held by executives. Seeing as writing her own material and doing her own thing is Gaga's reason for living, this would be devastating for her. And if this genericism doesn't work, your label gets really tired of you, which means...

5. Your label halts your album plans, cancels ideas, delays releases, makes you re-work everything, etc. Some artists take months, sometimes even years, to release an album where nothing released from it is amounting to anything. This one album they've been working on gets chopped and changed so many times, it doesn't represent its original conception when eventually released to the public, if it gets released at all. Your label stops having faith in you, basically. Gaga's already proved that she wilts under a label that doesn't respect her ideas. So, when your label is 100% tired with you, this results in...

6. Being dropped from your record label. Whether being dropped early or not getting your contract renewed, this is the end of the road. Gaga fought hard for fame and is so talented. She deserves to keep what she's earned. Finally, this all accumulates into the final and most devastating step...

7. Rarely making albums/having trouble releasing albums/taking early retirement. When you're under-performing, at a record label who doesn't believe in your vision, can't get a hit, get dropped from your new label...it's horrible for the artist and horrible for the fans. If you're a Gaga fan, you won't want this.

 

This is kinda like a drugs PSA, but for music. Not so much "This is your brain and this is your brain on drugs," as "This is an artist. And this is an artist without sales. Any questions?" If you want your artist to still be around, to still be making music, you'll have to care about sales to some degree. Any artist who says they don't is lying.