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 Post subject: Record sales expectationsPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 4:52 pm 
This topic has been raised before with Eisley. I found this LA Times article interesting. It discusses the sales figures of some heavily promoted (radio, MTV) major label indie bands likes the Hives, the White Stripes, and the Strokes. It is interesting to hear the labels long haul approach with the Hives. It is also interesting see what major label support can do for an album - sales difference for the Hives on Epitaph and major label for the same album. Does WB think of Eisley as the Hives or Avril? "You haven't heard our new album," Hives singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist told the crowd at the KROQ-FM (106.7) Weenie Roast concert last weekend. "But you already love it." Well, the singer has high expectations for his Swedish band's "Tyrannosaurus Hives," which will be released July 20. That's no surprise. Much of Almqvist's charming stage persona revolves around puffed-up boasts about how much the Hives are loved. Off stage, though, he's a bit more modest. "If the people who liked our last album like this one, that will be enough," he said during a break while taping a performance on the "Pepsi Smash" music show on Monday. "More would be good, of course. But the same would be fine." The "same" would mean U.S. sales of about 425,000 copies — the number that the Hives' "Veni Vidi Vicious" sold, nearly all of it after it was picked up by Warner Bros. Records in April 2002. (It was originally released here by independent Epitaph Records in September 2000.) The surge came as the band's neo-garage-rock style took the spotlight alongside the similarly back-to-basics approaches of the Strokes and White Stripes. But would 425,000 really be enough, considering the deal the Hives signed with Interscope Records at the peak of the last album's rise two years ago? The contract reportedly is for more than $10 million over three albums. Mark Williams, senior executive of A&R at Interscope, says the company's executives are not thinking in those terms. "The reason we wanted to get involved with the Hives is we felt they were an exciting, fresh face of rock 'n' roll," he says. "As far as the expectations go, we're in business with these guys because they're great. We expect to see the benefits artistically and commercially down the road. At this point, they have made a great album that shows growth from the last one and retained what everyone loves about them." Almqvist says the record company has not focused on sales mandates. "I guess they have expectations. But there has not really been a lot of pressure." A big breakthrough is hardly guaranteed. For all the attention to the new wave of garage-rockers in the last couple of years, only the White Stripes has had album sales exceeding 1 million, with the 2003 album "Elephant" at 1.6 million, according to Neilsen SoundScan figures. The Strokes' "Room on Fire," released in October, stands at 495,000, just more than half of the total U.S. sales for the band's first album, 2001's "Is This It." And even Australian band Jet's 2003 debut "Get Born," with a tremendous amount of exposure from the use of the song "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" in Apple's iPod advertising campaign, is at 865,000 copies now — a good number, but not blockbuster level. "The Hives has a superstar frontman, a great live show," says Matt Smith, music director of KROQ. "The question is, do they have the hit song to get the sales numbers?" Alan Light, editor of the rock magazine Tracks, believes that the best strategy for Interscope is to think not about short-term hits and sales, but about the band's long-term prospects. "What's on their side is that they're good on stage and can win people that way," he says. "If Interscope has the patience, given the contract, then they could do well. There's no shame in having a Hives on your roster, as long as you're not building in an assumption that this is a platinum-selling act." So the band will continue its own mission to win converts. "I just think it's better for people to like us instead of other bands," Almqvist says. "It's healthier for everyone." |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004 | Posts: 56 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Post subject: Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 1:57 am
as long as eisley make a hit single, i think everyone would be happy and supportive. boyd mentions in a recent blog that WB doesn't expect them to sell a million in their first year at least, which is a relief, as they are realistic about the fact that eisley aren't avril. _________________ "You're my favorite person." - David Carradine, Kill Bill vol. 2 |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2004 | Posts: 497 | Location: aventura, FL
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Post subject: Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 1:59 am
oh yeah and i mean the aren't avril thing in a complimentary way - of course!  _________________ "You're my favorite person." - David Carradine, Kill Bill vol. 2 |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2004 | Posts: 497 | Location: aventura, FL
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Post subject: Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:02 am
ideal wrote: oh yeah and i mean the aren't avril thing in a complimentary way - of course! :roll: you know, comparisons with avril come up a lot. why so? I mean they aren't in any way similar. has avril set the bar from a marketing/sales perspective or something? _________________ "Religions have started on lesser revelations" - investor on MarketWatch.com |
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Joined: 01 Jul 2003 | Posts: 4403 | Location: Dallas
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Post subject: Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:53 am
i'd think so. i mean, there hasn't been this big a fashion fad brought on by a music artist since the cone bra  i wouldn't expect eisley to bring on the next up and coming '80s tie comeback, or to be the kind of band that will get made fun of on SNL. they're going in a different direction than avril lavigne has, but i do think that ms. lavigne has, in a way, set the bar for new artist sales. _________________ If the end of the world has proper noodles I'll probably be okay with it. |
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Joined: 29 Jun 2003 | Posts: 11069 | Location: Prague
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Post subject: Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:59 am
oh i would have figured britney spears set the standard for sales/marketing. is she old news now or something? i'm pretty out of touch.. no tv = no mtv and i don't listen to regular radio ( i had mine stolen from my car ) just internet stations. _________________ "Religions have started on lesser revelations" - investor on MarketWatch.com |
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Joined: 01 Jul 2003 | Posts: 4403 | Location: Dallas
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Post subject: Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 3:01 am
britney spears just sucks now. no one knows why she even gets mentioned in the news anymore. pop crap isn't "in" right now, i hear. it's pop rock crap that's the big thing.  _________________ If the end of the world has proper noodles I'll probably be okay with it. |
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Joined: 29 Jun 2003 | Posts: 11069 | Location: Prague
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Post subject: Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 3:09 am
oh it is? great and i just now learned the macarena. i've got to keep up better. :P you know Eisley may be just different enought to spawn a genre of their own. that would be so cool to have, in a couple of years, a dozen or so bands that cite Eisley as their main influence. _________________ "Religions have started on lesser revelations" - investor on MarketWatch.com |
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Joined: 01 Jul 2003 | Posts: 4403 | Location: Dallas
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