What's up myspacers?
So this week, Eminem's "Relapse" officially became a platinum CD with roughly 1,049,000 sold in about a month. Taking a month to go platinum these days is actually a good
look, but still some critics are calling his numbers a major disappointment. If anyone cares to look at sales figures and percentages, one would realize that they've been
dropping off at a rate of roughly 30% or more every year since about 2001. At this point even
the best rap artists - or artists in general - are having a hard time cracking the
500,000 bench mark. For a rapper to go platinum these days in this market is a great feat! Most rap album sales across the board are down. If you aren't Lil' Wayne,
Kanye West, Jay-Z, T.I. or Eminem you probably aren't going platinum any time soon.
Those 5 guys are the top tier as far as marketing and having a
wider fan base is concerned. All the second and third tier rap artists won't even come close to their
old late 90s early 2000s sales figures these days. Even a solid first week showing means very little when compared to figures from 5 or 6 years ago. Almost every rap album released recently has seen a 60% or more drop in sales by their second week. Even Eminem's "Relapse" - which posted an estimated 604,000 units sold in its first week - saw about a 65% drop by his second week. Thats a drop down to 211,400 or so. So someone like Rick Ross, Jadakiss, Redman & Method Man, Mos Def and Busta Rhymes shouldn't really
expect to see big 2nd, 3rd and 4th week numbers. Jadakiss and Rick Ross had a
monster first week by today’s standards having both sold about 150,000 in the first week. But now their CD's are barely moving
units at all. This week Jadakiss only moved about 6,000 units.
It’s sad, but it's just the progression of the digital age.
I bought Red & Meth to show my support, but I knew going in that despite
them releasing a solid CD it wasn't gonna sell very well. (BTW If you don't have it, go get it ASAP) What the RIAA and Nielson Soundscan should do is adjust the rating/units sold scale to reflect the current state of the
market. 250,000 could be the interim gold and 500,000 could be the interim
platinum. Maybe it would help some of your and my favorite artists avoid being dropped or shelved at their labels. Honestly,
despite all the economic details, labels only care about making money and
having a successful product by industry standards. If they see a Mos Def flop,
but an Eminem triumph, who do you think they are more likely to keep? Mos Def only sold about 39,000 in his first week.
Adjusting the grade scale might keep more people eating and
maybe encourage some more versatility on the radio and video stations. Right now it seems like everyone’s
so scared of getting dropped, or being seen as a failure. It seems like they all just bite whatever's popular - like auto tuning your voice -
instead of making their own mark like back in the 80s and 90s.
Another thing that labels and artists should consider is partnering with stores and other music outlets. This worked out well for the BEP (Black Eyed Peas) and AC/DC. BEP linked up with retail giant Target to sell an exclusive edition of their CD "The E.N.D" and posted huge numbers by current standards this week selling 305,000 CDs. Rock legends AC/DC found similar success when they joined forces with Wal-mart. Wal-Mart’s exclusive retail sale of AC/DC’s “Black Ice” CD produced big
results for the band, helping to move 784,000 copies during its first
week in stores.
At the end of the day rap/hip-hop artists need to learn to change with the times. We can't keep doing the same things we used to do and marketing ourselves in the same ways that used to work or we will continue to watch our sales figures fall and our favorite artists fade away. President Obama had a messege of change for the country, maybe someone in the record industry needs to take a page from his book and spark a lasting change in the way we market music. I'm not the smartest man in the world, but I know a dead end when I see one coming. If we don't turn things around now, there will be nothing left for us to turn.
Just my thoughts people... until next rhyme
....