[JPL] a look at Record Sales

Tue Dec 9 14:22:13 EST 2008

 folks, even before the market went further south, sales in excess of 15,000 constituted a jazz hit.? as jae points out certain household names (that crossover) can sell significantly more.
???????? in the current market i doubt that Herbie's "River has gone Gold or close (500,000) certainly not platinum.? in 2008 to date i think only 3 albums have sold in excess of 2 million 
???????? (all genres, pop, hip-hop, country, rock).? the bigger jazz acts who used to break six figures regularly are way down as well.? diana krall, tony bennett et al still can eclipse six figure sales.
???????? vocalist will almost always sell in multiples compared to instrumentalists. 

???????? even going back a few years ago, many might be surprised the number of "big" mainstream jazz artists who didnt break 10,000.

???????? however the measure of sales for a jazz record are truly measured in terms of sales: first 12 months; second twelve months and then on an ongoing basis as a catalog item.

? ? ? ?? the standard is "Kind of Blue" recently certified triple-platinum (sales in excess of 3,000,000). consider that is ONLY sales from 1991 forward !? we may never know, but i'd guess KOB has US sales
? ? ? ?? in excess of TEN Million with untold international sales, that could easily double that.? it is doubtful we will ever know for sure, but extrapolate the 1991 forward figures.

???????? its also interesting to note some of the biggest selling jazz albums of all-time were considered avant garde: "Bitches Brew" and "A Love Supreme" among them. 

? ? ? ? when my team at Warner Bros (and the label at large cooperated) to break Joshua Redman, we sold almost 100,000 between his first two CDs in a little over one year's time.? artists like Benson, Jarreau,
? ? ? ? and Sanborn frequently sold Gold (500,000+) within 12-14 months.? that was in the 1980s and into the 90s.

??????? people who run jazz labels with catalog understand it is truly the long tale.? even a # 1 smooth jazz record was a success if it broke above 50,000 sales some years ago.

??????? let me close this with this (always) sobering fact: and this was as of 5 or 6 years ago when sales were far more robust--95% of ALL recordings released in the US fail to sell 5,000 units in their first two years.

??????? nonetheless, music will continue to increase in popularity, even if its not measured in hard sales.? digital sales are increasing but not apace with the decline of hard goods.? rental models ala Netflix or 
??????? "buffet style" models like emusic may eventually eclipse hard sales.? in the cycles of these things, people will return to either attending live performances or subscribing to watch on their home entertainment
? ? ? ?? systems in larger numbers.

??????? keep in mind that jazz is art music and the arts have taken a real beating in the schools in recent days.? hopefully Barack & company will reverse this sad trend.

brighter moments and happy holidays!

ricky schultz
www.jazzconsultant.com

www.ResonanceRecords.org.
? 

-----Original Message-----
From: eflash17 at comcast.net
To: jazzproglist at jazzweek.com
Sent: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:15 am
Subject: Re: [JPL] Record Sales

Jae, 

Yah, I got what were you saying as far as the "average" jazz album goes, I was 
just curious if someone like Herbie could actually move a million copies of a 
record these days. If he is, that is impressive no matter the genre of music, 
especially for a jazz record !! 

- Flash 

"The Sounds of Jazz" 
Tuesdays, 10am-Noon 
88.9 FM KRFC - Fort Collins, CO 
www.krfcfm.org 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jae Sinnett" <jaejazz at yahoo.com> 
To: jazzproglist at jazzweek.com 
Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 11:10:26 AM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain 
Subject: Re: [JPL] Record Sales 

Flash, I stated between 200-5000 copies for most. I wouldn't put Herbie's 
release in that category by any stretch. That is probably near a million or over 
by this point. Put it this way...probably about 90 of what you play falls within 
the numbers I listed. Back in the day I heard that Joshua, Chick, etc... were 
doing over 100,000 units but even they don't sell near that figure today as I 
understand it. Diana Krall is up there for sure. Sanborn might sell 100,000 
units or more on his funk things. The artists that are selling are the ones that 
can tour consistently. Consider who is able to do that and you'll come up with 
you those that sell above and beyond my numbers. 

Jae 

--- On Tue, 12/9/08, eflash17 at comcast.net <eflash17 at comcast.net> wrote: 

> From: eflash17 at comcast.net <eflash17 at comcast.net> 
> Subject: [JPL] Record Sales 
> To: "JPL" <jazzproglist at jazzweek.com> 
> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 12:58 PM 
> In an earlier post, Jae made a reference to the fact the the 
> average jazz album sells between 500 and 2,000 copies. I am 
> wondering if anyone knows roughly the number of copies a 
> "hit" jazz release sells. I see that Herbie's 
> "River: The Joni Letters" is still #852 on Amazon, 
> but in this day and age I really have no grasp of how many 
> copies of a record like that might actually be sold. 
> 
> - Flash 
> 
> 
> 
> "The Sounds of Jazz" 
> Tuesdays, 10am-Noon 
> 88.9 FM KRFC - Fort Collins, CO 
> www.krfcfm.org 
> -- 
> 
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