thank u, next 182,000 pure sales

[Ryusei 59,929]

I buy gaga‘s and lana‘s albums for example physically. It‘s like a collection item or something. There are some things that annoy me about streaming (specifically how a lot of discographies are incomplete and how some japanese artists are absolutely absent from streaming) but overall i think it‘s really convenient and the music industry is actually growing so the decrease in physical sales isnt anything that‘s hurting the industry. Most people who buy physical copies are fans who wanna support more actively.

[Rio 5,088]

1 hour ago, mauvais said:

Do artists who are for all intents and purposes successful with high consumption rates discuss about the phenomena of people not buying their music? I don't think it's a coincidence artists like Adele and Taylor emphasize the physical aspects of music consumption and still sell albums/tour like it's 1994. Ariana could do something innovative with her physical album releases because her fanbase is fueling the influencer industry, but it's like current artists don't even care. I find it hard to drag artists when they clearly don't give a f*ck about their industry. 

She could also be earning way more money with physical sales tbh. The amount Adele must have earned for 25 must have been HUGE. 3M+ in the US alone makes a bitch rich

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

iTunes is closing soon. Who cares?  

[Emvee 7,080]

Damn, this site is always trying to tear someone down. 

[StrawberryBlond 13,285]

So, its been out for 2 months now, but has only actually sold 182k bought copies? That is actually pretty shocking. When Joanne was released, despite it not having a mega hit like Ariana had, sold 170k in its debut week and to date, its sold about 649k with 1 million sales SPS. All of that despite it only having one reasonable hit single (Million Reasons - peak of #4) and a very short tour. But Ariana has had 2 #1's and a #2 thus far, plus a further top 10 and possibly more to come if she releases more singles. And she has over 34 million YouTube subscribers and her videos are gaining views and likes like nobody's business. How can she only have sold 182k actual copies in the US if this is the case? For any of you saying that she can only sell so much because her fans are very young, that actually makes the situation worse. Young fanbases are famed for being a massive cash cow to artists. Look at the sales for 1D, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift and every other young newcomer. Labels want artists to have young fanbases because they pull in so much money. They don't actually have any of their own, hence, they ask their parents to buy it for them. Sure, this doesn't always work but more often that not, parents, in the western world at least, are more than happy to indulge their child's wishes, especially if it's something as simple and cheap as an album purchase. Adults are actually known to spend limited money on their own musical tastes but they'll do it for their kids. Did the parental advisory sticker, raunchy cover art and f word in the lead single put a lot of parents off, I wonder? I do know that a lot of adults, parents or not, think Ariana's sexual image is too much for her young fans. Yeah, the more I think about it, that parental advisory sticker probably was its downfall when it came to actual purchases.

[FentyGa 14,340]

6 hours ago, RAMROD said:

Japanese people, almost exclusively.

this chart is the US Billboard 200 though lol
not discrediting those sales, I'm just saying they don't impact this chart

6 hours ago, gabrielflorin01 said:

Talk to yourself honey. I still buy CDs and I have a huge CD player from, like, 2005 or something that is still working perfectly. iPods and all other stuff that came after 2005 can't relate.

but I mean...physical album sales have gone down. People can stream all the music in the world for $10 ish monthly, which is the price of one album. It just doesn't make sense to buy an album, unless you want to support the artist (or unless there's something exclusive, like Taylor's magazine situation, exclusive tracks, or something of that nature).
I own some of my favourite albums in physical, I'm a stan. The majority of people probably don't do that. It's just not cost efficient.

[FentyGa 14,340]

6 hours ago, RAMROD said:

Japanese people, almost exclusively.

this chart is the US Billboard 200 though lol
not discrediting those sales, I'm just saying they don't impact this chart

6 hours ago, gabrielflorin01 said:

Talk to yourself honey. I still buy CDs and I have a huge CD player from, like, 2005 or something that is still working perfectly. iPods and all other stuff that came after 2005 can't relate.

but I mean...physical album sales have gone down. People can stream all the music in the world for $10 ish monthly, which is the price of one album. It just doesn't make sense to buy an album, unless you want to support the artist (or unless there's something exclusive, like Taylor's magazine situation, exclusive tracks, or something of that nature).
I own some of my favourite albums in physical, I'm a stan. The majority of people probably don't do that. It's just not cost efficient.

Edit: I- why did this post twice lol

[DeleteMyAccount 11,881]

I still consider physical sales superior.

[Twitter 14]

ɐuɐıɹɐ sʇɐɹƃuoɔ ʎɐʍ ɹǝɥʇıǝ

[FentyGa 14,340]

34 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

So, its been out for 2 months now, but has only actually sold 182k bought copies? That is actually pretty shocking. When Joanne was released, despite it not having a mega hit like Ariana had, sold 170k in its debut week and to date, its sold about 649k with 1 million sales SPS. All of that despite it only having one reasonable hit single (Million Reasons - peak of #4) and a very short tour. But Ariana has had 2 #1's and a #2 thus far, plus a further top 10 and possibly more to come if she releases more singles. And she has over 34 million YouTube subscribers and her videos are gaining views and likes like nobody's business. How can she only have sold 182k actual copies in the US if this is the case? For any of you saying that she can only sell so much because her fans are very young, that actually makes the situation worse. Young fanbases are famed for being a massive cash cow to artists. Look at the sales for 1D, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift and every other young newcomer. Labels want artists to have young fanbases because they pull in so much money. They don't actually have any of their own, hence, they ask their parents to buy it for them. Sure, this doesn't always work but more often that not, parents, in the western world at least, are more than happy to indulge their child's wishes, especially if it's something as simple and cheap as an album purchase. Adults are actually known to spend limited money on their own musical tastes but they'll do it for their kids. Did the parental advisory sticker, raunchy cover art and f word in the lead single put a lot of parents off, I wonder? I do know that a lot of adults, parents or not, think Ariana's sexual image is too much for her young fans. Yeah, the more I think about it, that parental advisory sticker probably was its downfall when it came to actual purchases.

Dangerous Woman and sweetener also had parental advisory stickers, though. Most albums do, in fact.
And the album cover really isn't raunchy...at all.
I think the ain reason is the fact that it's the streaming era. Joanne was released during the streming era too, sure, but Gaga's general demographic is gay white men aged 20-35, let's say. That means thast Gaga's target audience can indulge in a physical copy to support their favourite artist. The rate of gay men with children is lowewr than the rate of straight people with children, for obvious reasons, which means that they have more money to spend on themselves. This audience was also built in the late 2000s and early 2010s, which means that Gaga's fans have more attatchment to her, possibly resulting in people wanting to buy the album to support Gaga and to have it as memorobilia. This age range would also mean that most of her fans were teenagers before the streaming era, which means that they may be more used to owning phyical copies. We also live in a world of nostalgia, with film and music references from the past often being utilised in pop culture, which may be part of it.
Ariana's traget audience is 12-16 year old girls, I'd say. Most teenagers in general now have iPhones, or other smartphones, which means access to the world. Spotify is free, and streaming is cheap, so there's trly no reason to buy a physical album, or even an album on itunes. Most of these teenagers are also used to streaming, as they're still growing up. Streaming has been the go-to way of listening to music for 5-6 years now, the entirery of Ariana's career. Her fanbase is fairly new.
TRaylor's first week sales for reputation were much bigger, that's true. That said, Taylor had a lot of attention due to the smash hit that was LWYMMD, the Katy beef, the Kim/Kanye beef, Tom Hiddleston, Calvin Harris, etc. That said, I believe that the main reason was the fact that she didn't release the album on streaming platforms until nearly 2 weeks later. Taylor's superfans could only buy the album, there was no streaming option. The physical copies also came with exclusive magazines, so some fans bought multiple copies for the sake of the magazines. Taylor's also been around since 2006, longer than gaga, which means that her audience is also established, and actually older than expected. Of what I've seen, most Taylor fans are women in their mid-lte twenties, while teenage fans tend to be more casual listeners.

[mauvais 0]

6 hours ago, Rio said:

She could also be earning way more money with physical sales tbh. The amount Adele must have earned for 25 must have been HUGE. 3M+ in the US alone makes a bitch rich

Adele made at least 50M usd from her albums sales if you use the conventional wisdom of 1 album sale = $1 in artist profits. I totally understand why fans  like streaming, but artists are fiscally irresponsible if they don't encourage physical sales. SEA just doesn't get you as far as pure. I think digital is a malleable platform but artists aren't innovative and rather conceded to streaming because its easier. 

[StrawberryBlond 13,285]

21 hours ago, FentyGa said:

Dangerous Woman and sweetener also had parental advisory stickers, though. Most albums do, in fact.
And the album cover really isn't raunchy...at all.
I think the ain reason is the fact that it's the streaming era. Joanne was released during the streming era too, sure, but Gaga's general demographic is gay white men aged 20-35, let's say. That means thast Gaga's target audience can indulge in a physical copy to support their favourite artist. The rate of gay men with children is lowewr than the rate of straight people with children, for obvious reasons, which means that they have more money to spend on themselves. This audience was also built in the late 2000s and early 2010s, which means that Gaga's fans have more attatchment to her, possibly resulting in people wanting to buy the album to support Gaga and to have it as memorobilia. This age range would also mean that most of her fans were teenagers before the streaming era, which means that they may be more used to owning phyical copies. We also live in a world of nostalgia, with film and music references from the past often being utilised in pop culture, which may be part of it.
Ariana's traget audience is 12-16 year old girls, I'd say. Most teenagers in general now have iPhones, or other smartphones, which means access to the world. Spotify is free, and streaming is cheap, so there's trly no reason to buy a physical album, or even an album on itunes. Most of these teenagers are also used to streaming, as they're still growing up. Streaming has been the go-to way of listening to music for 5-6 years now, the entirery of Ariana's career. Her fanbase is fairly new.
TRaylor's first week sales for reputation were much bigger, that's true. That said, Taylor had a lot of attention due to the smash hit that was LWYMMD, the Katy beef, the Kim/Kanye beef, Tom Hiddleston, Calvin Harris, etc. That said, I believe that the main reason was the fact that she didn't release the album on streaming platforms until nearly 2 weeks later. Taylor's superfans could only buy the album, there was no streaming option. The physical copies also came with exclusive magazines, so some fans bought multiple copies for the sake of the magazines. Taylor's also been around since 2006, longer than gaga, which means that her audience is also established, and actually older than expected. Of what I've seen, most Taylor fans are women in their mid-lte twenties, while teenage fans tend to be more casual listeners.

I forgot those albums had stickers as well. Hmm. But nevertheless, those albums didn't sell overly well either, especially Sweetener. Ariana's never been much of an album seller, even though she's now at her peak.

Your points are all very valid but regardless, young fanbases are super loyal by design. Unlike older fans, who don't feel the need to click subscribe and hit like and re-watch videos on repeat, young fans do that stuff because they see it as their civic duty. That's why the young, current artists always have the highest numbers of subscribers, video views and likes because that what young fans think is ultimately important about being a fan - supporting the artist in ever conceivable way. Merchandise doesn't sell that well at concerts aimed at adults but ones aimed at kids? Massive queues and everything's sold out. Even when it comes to stadium tours, where you think parents would draw a line at driving miles to the nearest big city and accompanying their child in a huge venue, they still sell out. Young fanbases just have to ask their parents and they buy, it's that simple in their minds. And young fans definitely want music in its first week, which is why albums by the likes of Britney and Nsync were the biggest first week sellers. For Ariana to have just 116k pure sales in the first week is bizarre when you consider how impatient young fans are and don't wait to buy something when "they get round to it" like adults do. I just don't get how the US, the country where the vast majority of Ariana's fans come from, where all her singles have been a hit so far, can only give her this amount of actual sales.