Spotted this and thought it worth posting - the year-to-date top 10 albums sales worldwide from January 1st:

01 3.67m BACK TO BLACK - Amy Winehouse (released 2006 9.78m total-to-date)
02 2.60m VIVA LA VIDA OR DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS - Coldplay
03 2.40m SPIRIT - Leona Lewis (rel. 2007 4.00m)
04 2.34m SLEEP THROUGH THE STATIC - Jack Johnson
05 2.25m ROCKFERRY - Duffy
06 2.18m HARD CANDY - Madonna
07 2.02m THRILLER 25th anniv reissue - Michael Jackson
08 1.87m AS I AM - Alicia Keys (rel. 2007 5.44m)
09 1.64m E=MC2 - Mariah Carey
10 1.59m THA CARTER III - Lil' Wayne

So 4 UK acts in the top 5 worldwide (Radiohead were 12th); 6 solo female artists in the top 10; Amy's continued amazing sales despite being released in 2006; Coldplay's great start; overall sales still dreadful.

I think that this list proves to create major sales we still have to create major "names", which goes back to the recently discussed "branding" issue.
If we look at the list of albums there, not every song is a classic on them, but the artist(s) name on the label is.
How could anyone argue with that brilliant list of acts as products?

That list, is the best argument against one hit wonders (which I do believe in myself for turnover), I have ever seen.

Well posted, PartyMyIts geezer, or geezeress, interesting stuff indeed.

Interesting to note that there is only ONE rock act in this list, 6 women, 5 black singers, 6 r&b style music & 6 Americans. Michael Jackson is still selling strong and Amy Winehouse is tragically brilliant. Her tragic lifestyle is keeping her at the top.

So a&r people of this world pleaase answer thess:

Why are you signing guitar band after guitar band instead of looking at this list and signing more "proper" singers and artists ?

Where are the "pop" acts ?

Also for you JK the women are on top at the moment even after having babies and husbands.

Brilliant start by Coldplay !! Add in the Christmas sales which the album will get around the World and it looks likely to be the biggest album this year. Could even tip 10 million in the year !!!

Ok, now I am probably going to get my knuckles rapped for seeming sexist here, but I keep hearing a lot of female vocalists (one of our tipsheet up and comings excluded), who simply do not put their work in on the jobs required and then have to be coached etc.

Maybe it`s just the area I am in, but I would say to all young acts and singers, please learn and get your act together, us entrepreneurs may seem to have endless funds but we do not.

Yeah , female singers sell better,currently, I don`t know why, they just do.
I could write a whole novel on this bizzare reverse exploitaiton of the business.


....But that`s for another day............

Are you sure that's correct? I find it hard to believe that Duffy is that big worldwide. Is she even known in the states? I'm not meaning to doubt you I just had no idea she was so big...

Oh, and for what it's worth I think they're all pretty ropey records aside from BtB (and whacko obv)

Mart I will rap your knuckles on this. My experience is that female singers are often likely to take their singing more seriously and invest a lot of time and money into getting it right. I can only talk about my experience in the pop/r&b/dance music market. The guys in this market work hard as well but overall most females tend to gravitate towards this market and also folk/acoustic music where they get seduced by the "we don't take any singing lessons" approach found in rock music. The end result is poorer vocals who then need miracles to save their voice when the rock and roll lifestyle has taken its toll (Bon Jovi for example).

There is nothing wrong with coaching and if you are involved in producing 'singers' then coaching is absolutely vital.

How many tennis players excel without coaches ? Ditto football ? Singing is no different. Then again this is Australia and there is a culture of 'coaching' for singers here.

But I don't think you're being sexist by the way if this is your experience then your point is valid

And I repeat, however you disguise it, female singers tend not to sell back catalogue where male singers and rock bands do.

Well what I would add KZ, is that I have had a really bad time, personally, of filtering out the wanabes, too many of which seem to come out of karaoke contests which even the wretched tv supports and are pretty uncoached sadly.
Often I have found , if they have gone down that route, the majority sadly seem to think they know too much.

I do believe this is a regional problem though and does not go across the board.(sic)

We were just talking about this subject before I read your post KZ and some of the stories, I could tell, are probably best suited to the News of the World.

It is a jungle finding talent and in this age, boards like this help so much.

If tonight, for example, I find an excellent lady singer she could well be coached, produced and get a hit. The likelihood is though, she will end up fronting a mediocre function band.

If I find, for example an excellent gay male wordsmith with a good band, I bet he would play festivals, etc, the rest of his life and sell more albums in a lifetime than the lady in a function band who is known for singing "That Song".(but now limps her way through Mustang Sally and Brown Eyed Girl....)

As of last week Duffy's "Rockferry" had notched up over 900k in the UK and a very respectable 270k in the US since release (1.08m rest of the world). It didn't debut with massive sales there but hasn't really declined much since and is still selling a steady 27k a week and keeping its place in the top 20.

As a comparison Leona's "Spirit" has sold 350k in the UK this year (after selling 1.55m in the last 7 weeks of last year) and 830k in the US (1.22m rest of the world).

Where Duffy's success may have gone unnoticed is across Europe where "Mercy" has been a massive hit, and really driven album sales - she's outselling Leona in some countries as a result.

It's a bit like Mika who without much fanfare in the UK knocked up huge worldwide album sales last year - sales since release for "Life In Cartoon Motion" are 5.36m and it has the fourth highest worldwide sales for albums released in 2007 behind High School Musical 2 (5.89m), Linkin Park (5.72m) and Alicia Keys (5.44m).

Sorry, JK that is such a sweeping statement but then again perhaps you can define what you mean by "back catalogue" and how much sales you need to generate in order to qualify. We went over this weeks ago and the statistics contradict you. If you look at the cumulative sales of each artist and you can google the information, you will find that proportionately you are wrong. I would imagine if an artist sells 30 million albums, a fair proportion of that would be back catalogue wouldn't it ?

Maybe you can back your statement with some facts and figures.

Figures KZ?

Ouch, I am artist! I don`t do sums!
Dunno if JK does both! lol

Hi ItsMyPArty! That's an interesting list indeed. Can you please tell me the source of that data? thanks.

I can't believe this thread. Men and women are different
and have different strengths, weaknesses and needs. So instead of celebrating how things are proving that women are selling strongly at the moment, some want to
belittle their achievements and dismiss them.

Mart, there is nothing wrong with wannabes, we are all wannabes to some degree. However, they need nurturing and development. Instead of moaning about the lack of talent, why don't you set up something suited to girl singers instead of trying to fit them into a model that they don't understand.

Don't forget the rock industry is a male dominated one at its core and hates women achieving any success in "rock". Ask yourself what happens to many female fronted rock bands or females in rock. They are fine to be groupies and page 3 girls but not good enough to perform or sing in a rock band.

This leaves them pop, r&b, dance music. Problem again is no one is willing to train them just blame them.
I have heard similar arguments in business, politics and religion. We even have a situation where some men are prepared to leave the church because womoen dare to become bishops. Look how the rock crowd
constantly demean Britney and her ilk. And some idiot called the Spice Girls the Anti-Christ.

Thankfully things are changing so the back catalogue argument, while flawed, is really irrelevant. Women are getting a lot more opportunities and whilst I accept many are for non-music reasons, so what ! The more women getting success, the more women will be attracted to music. There are as many men stuck in mediocre bands as there are women.

Before you do any comparison you need to look at the population, which in this case means the numbers of men
v women in the music industry. Then reinterprete the stats in this light.

Well KZ - I think HEART was one of the best rock bands ever, but I bet you their back catalogue sells far less than many less deserving male rock bands.

Pat Benetar made some superb rock records but I bet none of them shift anything now whereas far worse male rock hits go on and on and on selling.

But then again how many of these male rock bands sell as good as ABBA or even Kylie Minogue ?

Isn't the real issue total album sales regardless of when they were generated ? I remember when you last brought this issue up, I checked what records (Greatest Hits or similar compilations) were in the chart. Well there wasn't a huge gap between male and female singers. Also looking at the best selling albums of all time, the same thing was the case. Yes, this is all anecdotal evidence but the gulf is not as huge as you say.

Hmm, how many girlee bands have Brian Wilsons daughter in?

I appreciate any molder of female singers into an act, but from my experience, it is a simple, never again answer on the whole to the "why not train them?" question.
The natural professionals are fine,and they are diamonds, but compared to hours spent on training some of them up, followed by the days dealing with the sulkiness of some of them (once again, I must stress , not all), I have to say it`s not my genre and I really do not look for these sort of acts.

I think we all have to know what we do and not push into areas we are not happy with.

Hi! Does anyone know where these figures come from? Thanks.

I would hardly call Coldplay's numbers dreadful, under the current conditions. AND what is happening with them and their stunning ability to draw live, and the album placement is due for the most part to their manager and not anyone at EMI.

Its quite easy to get to the point where filtering wannabe's before you invest time or money in them, becomes old hat.

Know that very few kids that dream of stardom really know how hard the work is, and once they find out it narrows the field considerably.

All the kids from pop in the late nineties, Britney Spears N-Sync, etc.....all those kids had thousands of hours of television and professional performance experience, before the world ever heard any music from them. In other words they were already aware of the work involved. You will not find those kind of kids casting a net into the ocean. It just doesn't happen.

Jk is dead on about back catalogue. The Spice Girls 35 or so Million albums is not. Nor are Sade's 30M plus albums, which were sold back then. Guns and Roses however were selling 5-10K copies of "Appetite" a month, twenty years after the fact, and what is Journey's greatest hits at 17 Million? That is back catalogue.

The concept of back catalogue, as we knew it is over. The one that sustained the great labels of the past will be no more, because what is being produced is so forgettable, and over-hyped, the burn rate for most is in weeks, if that.

We are in a business that so freely uses the words superstar and legend (to describe the beat programmer of the moment)and to describe zero's, that we are in the circus of the absurd. Particularly so in the US.

AND what's his name is going to save EMI Recorded Music A&R........right????

words of sense GG, Jk and Mart. So is it not all just down to people paying their dues and learning their craft? So few seem to be bothered any more and I find that quite depressing. However, Mart you are right about one up and comer...what a professional, right attitude, real talent and a thoroughly pleasant person to boot.