Stevie Nicks Disappointed With Sales Of Her Latest Album

[Sleepless-Child]

Oh she can be honest (although seriously what did she expect) but when i read "a big act like MOI" i want to punch her.

[bluefox4000]

Originally Posted by Sleepless-Child

Oh she can be honest (although seriously what did she expect) but when i read "a big act like MOI" i want to punch her.

Lol.....Really show's there IS a Stevieland. Well I guess with who she was at one time, ya can't blame her.

Mick

[Sleepless-Child]

Originally Posted by bluefox4000

Lol.....Really show's there IS a Stevieland. Well I guess with who she was at one time, ya can't blame her.

Mick

I guess you're right but she's also been through tough times, you'd think she would be a bit more modest now .
(actually i always knew she wasn't modest but does she have to make it that obvious?)

[Blueletter18]

Just for comparison's sake, does anyone know what Lindsey's recent solo albums have been selling? (SWS, GoS, Under the Skin, etc.)

[MikeVielhaber]

Originally Posted by TheWILDheart

Stevie needs to fact the facts....

• This is NOT 1975.
• Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks are NOT hot new artists.
• 10 years between albums is a joke.
• At this stage in their career, the Mac members are NEVER going to do anything groundbreaking or reinvent themselves, so as good as the music on IYD is, it's nothing new.
• 300,00 copies is a LOT of record sales and will make a lot of money, regardless of your status. Stevie should be happy that people still want to listen to her music and buy her records, unlike a lot of older artists that just hang around the nether regions of the charts
• "but it's not really that awesome if you're Stevie Nicks"....Stevie, I love you, but GET OVER YOURSELF, LOVE!!

300,000 worldwide sales really isn't a lot of sales.

[TheWILDheart]

Originally Posted by bluefox4000

What else does she except. This is like when Elton John was disappointed with his sales. Her best record selling days are long gone sadly.

and i agree that the ridiculous waiting periods don't help either......time her outlook changed and she made music for herself.

Mick

EXACTLY!

She is not alone in lower album sales. NOBODY is shifting albums like they used to. "Rock a Little" and "The Otherside Of The Mirror" charted LOWER than IYD, but both sold more copies in their first 2 years on sale. For Stevie to have a top 10 album and top 10 singles at this stage in her career is fantastic, regardless of how many copies it sold.

The success of an album is not purely based on the number of copies sold. Albums don't sell like they used to, so the adjustment has to be taken into account. IYD recieved rave reviews from fans and critics and brought in a lot of new fans for Stevie with Dave doing a lot of net promotion, the documentary and the Q&A sessions.

Whether Stevie belives it or not, IYD was a MASSIVE success and she should be so proud of herself for it.

An artist does not create just to sell it, they create because they have something inside them that they want to share with others and express in a certain way. Why does Stevie feel that she needs to sell sell sell? It's not like she needs the money, she's already MINTED.

[The Catdancer]

Originally Posted by nicolasjz

Do you guys remember the time in 2011 when Stevie said she didn't care if nobody bought IYD and that she just wanted to make the record for herself and her fans? Sounds ironic now…

I do understand why it can be hard for such a sucessful act not to sell nearly as many records as before in spite of still making great music. But as for lamenting her poor sales in foreign markets, she has only herself to blame. Had she consistently toured Europe in her heyday she certainly would have built a following there and knowing how loyal Europeans fans are, that would have made a huge difference in the long run.

I just hope her disappointments won't dissuade her from making another record again.

You have a point about consistently touring Europe. Back in the day I had some good contacts at the record company and they were dying for her to come over to promote BD, WH and RAL and do shows. But she cancelled every single time. By the time TOSOTM came around it was too late. Although the album did fairly well, her shows weren't sold out'. I remember attending the show in Holland in '89 and the arena was half full and half of the people that were there, came to see Richard Marx.

As for IYD selling only 300.000, I think she's right. For a big act like her it is nothing. I don't think she's being arrogant or cocky about it, she's just being honest. She's used to selling millions. But she has herself and her team to blame for that. She listened to people who said if she would do a record she wouldn't make a dime because of internet piracy. That may be true but (like someone else said) she used to say she made music for herself and didn't care if it wouldn't sell one copy. A ten year 'pause' between albums wasn't a smart move. And releasing the documentary 2 years after the fact wasn't smart either. If she would have released the doc a few weeks after the record she might have sold a lot more. I don't know anything about digital releases but was IYD for sale as a digital download? If not, it should have been. This is the digital era and you reach a lot more people through the internet in addition to releasing hard copies.

[The Catdancer]

Originally Posted by TheWILDheart

EXACTLY!

She is not alone in lower album sales. NOBODY is shifting albums like they used to. "Rock a Little" and "The Otherside Of The Mirror" charted LOWER than IYD, but both sold more copies in their first 2 years on sale. For Stevie to have a top 10 album and top 10 singles at this stage in her career is fantastic, regardless of how many copies it sold.

The success of an album is not purely based on the number of copies sold. Albums don't sell like they used to, so the adjustment has to be taken into account. IYD recieved rave reviews from fans and critics and brought in a lot of new fans for Stevie with Dave doing a lot of net promotion, the documentary and the Q&A sessions.

Whether Stevie belives it or not, IYD was a MASSIVE success and she should be so proud of herself for it.

An artist does not create just to sell it, they create because they have something inside them that they want to share with others and express in a certain way. Why does Stevie feel that she needs to sell sell sell? It's not like she needs the money, she's already MINTED.

She should be proud of herself, it's a great record. I know I love it

I don't think Stevie made this record with "sell sell sell" in mind. She knows she doesn't need the money. I think she's using the 300.000 figure as a way to poll how popular she still is. Concerts may sell out but she knows just as well as we do there are a lot of people going to the show who are casual fans or come with a friend.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by The Catdancer

She should be proud of herself, it's a great record. I know I love it

I don't think Stevie made this record with "sell sell sell" in mind. She knows she doesn't need the money. I think she's using the 300.000 figure as a way to poll how popular she still is. Concerts may sell out but she knows just as well as we do there are a lot of people going to the show who are casual fans or come with a friend.

oh I think she definitely made it hoping to sell a lot. the commercial gods just weren't as favorable this time. She isn't Lindsey, never has been, and sales and success and magazine covers and top of the charts and all that matters to her. She can hide it a lot of the time, but our girl is VERY competitive and likes to win.

As for needing money, in terms of supporting just herself, yeah she's set. But she doesn't. she supports a LOT of people... who have made their entire careers working for her and being supported by her .... friends, family, assistants... she gives them nominal job titles or they do errands and things, but they are paid by her. and then they have kids, and she puts most of them through college. and her brother, and her singers, and so on. and let's not forget managers and publicists and lawyers and all who work for her all year managing her assets and the like whether she's putting out new product or not, and many of those people get a cut of what she makes. money coming in also pays for the new stage wardrobes etc which cost a fortune. she's got a ton of expenses and if she retired and lived off her royalties she'd be eating into her capital really fast.

does she make enough to live a very nice version of most of our lives? sure. but she doesn't live our lifestyle, for better or worse, and keeping that huge ship afloat takes beaucoup cash.

[bluefox4000]

Just for the record I love IYD too. Her best work in years I think. It makes me sad that she's stuck in this mode of thinking. Cause she should be WAY proud. I certainly was proud of her when the album dropped.

Mick

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

Why is everybody jumping down her throat?

Probably because she refers to herself as "a big act" which, sorry, she just isn't. Maybe in her mind...

But seriously, she should never expect the sales numbers of today's big acts. Frankly, her album sold very well with over 120K copies in the US, and actually, more than 500K world wide (I just sourced this statistic a few days back in another thread). There are tens of thousands of albums released every year. Most don't sell more than 5-10 thousand copies. Her 500K is quite respectable, and very enviable.

I find her comments annoying more than anything, because she prefers to lay blame instead of looking at her own output. If you want to sell records, you've got to be in people faces, all the time. They can't ever forget about you. Stevie's gaps between releases are simply too much. TV shows are not enough. Concerts don't sell albums - but might if albums were actually sold at her shows. Videos in heavy rotation do. Radio play does. Stevie doesn't have those promo tools to fall back on. It's not her fault - it's the passing of time.

That said, Stevie just needs a better perspective, instead of comparing her success to her previous successes - she needs to think about now, and not then. I hope she's happy with the album, regardless of sales.

[kak125]

i think in your dreams did pretty good considering how long its been for releases from her but if you listen to the entire interview from the Toronto Q&A sessions you wont think she was being such a jerk about it, its actually pretty funny the way she says it. that quote was taken out of context, she did go on to say that you cant look at it that way anymore because records don't sell like that. then she says this it is a great thing because she sold those 300,000 records personally by herself by stomping all over the US and then stomping all over Australia on her own.

you can listen to it here:

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

Probably because she refers to herself as "a big act" which, sorry, she just isn't. Maybe in her mind...

But she is a big act. The fact that she participated in the best selling group studio album of all time is not to be taken lightly. The fact that her band can sell out 15,000-seat arenas means she's a "big act." No, she's no Taylor Swift or Beyonce in today's world, but if you use Stevie's own past accomplishments as a benchmark, she is a big act, and sales of IYD fell well short of that benchmark.

But seriously, she should never expect the sales numbers of today's big acts. Frankly, her album sold very well with over 120K copies in the US, and actually, more than 500K world wide (I just sourced this statistic a few days back in another thread). There are tens of thousands of albums released every year. Most don't sell more than 5-10 thousand copies. Her 500K is quite respectable, and very enviable.

I don't think she said anything about being compared to today's big acts. She's comparing IYD to her past accomplishments. It's purely math: IYD sold about 1/20 what Bella Donna sold. That's not good any way you slice it.

I find her comments annoying more than anything, because she prefers to lay blame instead of looking at her own output. If you want to sell records, you've got to be in people faces, all the time. They can't ever forget about you. Stevie's gaps between releases are simply too much. TV shows are not enough. Concerts don't sell albums - but might if albums were actually sold at her shows. Videos in heavy rotation do. Radio play does. Stevie doesn't have those promo tools to fall back on. It's not her fault - it's the passing of time.

What is this- the 1990s? Are videos on "rotation" anywhere? Does anybody really listen to the radio anymore? I agree that being in the public eye (premieres, social media, parties, paparazzi, etc.) is crucial for maintaining ones relevance in today's hyper-connected age, but that is tantamount to selling your soul. Quite simply, she's just not that kind of girl; she's not going to compromise her integrity/privacy just to get a few more hits on YouTube. Yes, ten years between studio albums is excessive, but she was still out there touring every year and offering retrospective packages of her work in the interim. And her continuous ubiquity on album rock and AAA format radio is unquestionable. It would be dishonest to say that suddenly she became a non-household name during those ten years.l

That said, Stevie just needs a better perspective, instead of comparing her success to her previous successes - she needs to think about now, and not then. I hope she's happy with the album, regardless of sales.

I honestly don't think she cares about the money. But she does care about sales because it is some kind of a metric on the quality of her album and the degree to which her fans did or did not embrace it. She wanted everyone to love it because she was so proud of it. Plus I'm sure there is a side of her that wishes she could go all in yer face to the naysayers who were telling her not to bother recording new music for the past ten years. Alas, the commercial reception of IYD only validated what they've been telling her; that has to sting.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by kak125

i think in your dreams did pretty good considering how long its been for releases from her but if you listen to the entire interview from the Toronto Q&A sessions you wont think she was being such a jerk about it, its actually pretty funny the way she says it. that quote was taken out of context, she did go on to say that you cant look at it that way anymore because records don't sell like that. then she says this it is a great thing because she sold those 300,000 records personally by herself by stomping all over the US and then stomping all over Australia on her own.

To hear her say it, you would think she toured for two years continuously, when in fact she toured for one month in 2011 and one month in 2012 plus a handful of one-off shows here and there. And her touring has been mainly limited to the U.S. Northeast; she didn't really properly tour the west coast or Midwest. Yes, she (and Dave) pretty much peddled the record herself. But she shouldn't act like she visited every nook and cranny to do it.

[rhiannondontgo]

Wikipedia says IYD sold over 500,000 copies worldwide.

And, I don't think it's fair to be annoyed with her for referring to herself as a "big act". Guys, she's Stevie effing Nicks. Every time I would wear my Stevie tees to highschool, the teachers and students would be like "Oh my god, you saw Stevie?". She's kind of a rock goddess, people. And yes she's a few decades past her prime. But she's still a rockstar. Her band made the 8th best-selling record of all time. She's often referred to as the queen of rock & roll. That's really something. I know we're all like overly familiar with her and know so much about her that it's nothing out of the ordinary to make fun of her or joke about it. But to the rest of the world, at least the majority of it that is old enough or cultured enough to know this stuff, she is a pretty big deal.

And I think IYD would've sold better had it had better vocals. But my mother and I are both die-hard Stevie fans. So are about 5 of my close friends. And not one of them plays IYD very much at all. The vocals are a little nails-on-a-chalkboard. I get that she's older and the voice is destroyed by all the **** she's ingested (Trust me, I get it. I used to be the lead in school musicals every year. Then I had my bout with blow and rehab and all that jazz, plus a pretty nasty smoking habit. And now I can't sing a note.), but at the same time every now and then she'll sing something so pure and stunning that it amazes me. You just have to learn to produce that voice and how to deal with her. I mean to me Love Changes stands out on TISL because her voice sounds a decade younger than all the other songs. And the guy who produced it also did Call On Me For Magic, where she hits the highest notes we've heard in years. That's not a coincidence. I think you just have to put a lot of effort into stretching her voice and getting a clean take. Ehh, ignore my rant. Maybe i'm crazy.