11.25.12 - 12.30.12 Numbers Thread

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Everybody gets so bent out of shape about these certifications not matching retail sales but it's never been about retail sales. It's all about what the label has sold and regardless of whether or not retail sales ever catch up to the certified numbers the label has to pay out the royalties on those units that they reported sold. If the label is fudging the numbers somehow they are literally costing themselves money. The rules for certification state that they are counting sales made by the label and shipments are the most common way to verify that but not the only way because digital tracks and albums technically aren't shipped.

The point is these things look like early certification only because the only sales we can see are straight retail. But we don't even have ways of seeing all the retail sales so I just think it is meaningless to even quibble about it. Some artists don't even bother to keep the certifications updated anyway. Certification is a prestige and marketing thing and the reality is the EVERYBODY'S numbers are fucked up. Even if you had access to Soundscan you still aren't seeing everything an artist has sold here in the states because there are still sales that are outside of soundscan's reach. Granted it's a small percentage but the fact remains that there is NO totally accurate source of sales info for ANY artist. If you want to know what the artist is getting paid for the only place to get that info is from the label, and if you are trying to gauge popularity the closest thing to accurate is Soundscan.

Bottom line if the label certified Trespassing Gold I'd be jumping up and down crowing about it and fuck the haters. What I find hilarious is that I only see complaints about early certification here in the US where we get leaked Soundscan data, I don't think I've ever seen anyone question certification in other countries. I don't even recall anyone questioning certification in the UK. But just because we see these Soundscan figures people are constantly questioning the certifications. Most of the people questioning also have never bothered to read the guidelines for certification anyway but they are quick to criticize.

Oh, I am actually sure it is a marketing & promo ploy. He will have album #2 coming out next year. Having a Gold Christmas album will look great in the press releases.

This is where you are getting tripped up. These days retailers don't bother with returning stock. The sell off what they don't want to store in truck load or lot sales. This is how Dollar Stores and places like Big Lots get there stock. So regardless of whether this stuff sells or not it is not going to go back to the label and they and the artist have made their money. The unsold stock will possibly go through many more hands but who gives a shit cause the label got paid and that's that. It's a level playing field because all artists do it if they want the marketing brag.

At this point I have no doubt that FYE could be certified platinum BUT it would cost Adam more money than it is worth in marketing because everybody credited on the album gets a plaque. Go look at your FYE booklet and count. It's a small fucking fortune just looking at the 14 tracks on the basic album. Not long before he left the site RCAEd responded to someone harping about certification with the comment that if Adam wanted it done it would be done. When they went ahead and did the gold certification I figured that they probably would not bother to do the platinum unless the sales really took off at some point in the future.