Interesting Article Speculating on the Chances of CD Success
 

This USA Today article has some interesting people giving their opinion on FM's chances for big CD sales.

hey, thats encouraging news about thoughts of a successfull tour ...BUT I take great offence at that man suggesting I'd buy FM because I've got grey hair!! (I haven't!):D

Well
 

At least it is an honest view of the whole thing...the record may not hit #1 one...but when it comes to touring,...people go see the Mac no matter what...

Good article. My sentiments exactly.

N

That's some pretty insightful stuff. I suspect that Anthony DeCurtiss is right. The tour will sell like crazy. No doubt about that, but most people will be going to hear Go Your Own Way, Dreams and Rhiannon. Which sucks for me because I want to hear the new stuff.

I don't think this album is going to be a huge seller, but let's take into consideration what that means by Mac standards: If it sells 2 million, that's a lot of plastic pancakes. But by Mac standards it would be low. However, I don't think it will do much more than that. I put my estimate at 3 million tops.

I think we'll also see a lot of copies on used bins within a few months for several reasons:

--Some people who liked the 70s sound will not like the new sound, especially Lindsey's quirkier stuff. Even if you remove the quirky Lindsey factor, this happens with every band that's been around that long.
--Some people will not like the way Stevie sounds anymore.
--Some people will make copies of this thing with their computer and then try to sell their original.

All good points, and likely, but..
 

My theory is all it needs are 3 very big, radio-friendly hits and the whole album will be snapped up, lock stock, despite preconceptions and prejudices against about the Mac.

It worked for Rumours (GYOW, Dreams, Don't Stop) and Tango (Big Love, Little Lies, Seven Wonders, Everywhere).

The question is - do such cuts exist in this new album? (Don't ask me - I'm biased)

I think I would reframe the question more along the lines of -- Even if they have three radio-friendly cuts, will that be enough to get them on the radio in spite of the preconceptions and prejudices of the companies that now devise so many radio station playlists across this country?

See? Haven't I been spouting off as to how Rumours ruined the band?? :laugh: Since it came out, every album they do has this preconceived expectation of selling "Rumours numbers" and it will never happen again...it was a phenomenon in its own time.


So my suggestion is just buy the album (Grey Hairs?!?!? Hand me the L'Oreal!) and enjoy the music and totally disregard what kind of sales numbers it produces. (can you TELL I'm not a record company exec? :laugh: )

interesting article but critics are like weather man, getting paid to guess...

personally, as a fan, I'm just glad to get another new album out of the MAC and I will definetely be supporting the tour.

how did these guys find out about my greys?? That's pretty low especially since I use Nice-n-Easy Dark Auburn...:laugh:

There is a pic of Stevie and Linds on the front page of US Today advertising this article..then inside there is another pic,similar to the new one,but Stevie is leaning out more and Lindsey's hands are in a different position...

All I really care about is that I get a copy of the new album. It really doesn't matter to me how many other albums sell or how often they are played on the radio. I wouldn't expect much radio airplay though. Probably similar to what we got with TISL. The only benefit I can see of them having success is that it might encourage them to record further albums, which would be great. I wouldn't want to see them scared off just because this album only sells a 'piddling' 2 million copies and MTV, the worst channel ever, won't put their video into heavy rotation.

If i saw a Fleetwood Mac video on MTV i think i'd die of shock.Besides,MTV is no longer about music...it is all crap...they are not even worthy to speak the name Fleetwood Mac.

There was a similar article, published right before the release of 'The Dance,' where the author was speculating whether or not Fleetwood Mac's reunion would be successful, after poorly-received lineup changes had "tarnished the band's name value."
And we all know what a massive (and almost surprising) success 'The Dance' was... both the album and the tour.

Radio stations have been playing a *lot* of Fleetwood Mac's music lately, and almost all of the DJs mention the fact that a new album is coming out soon... so I take that as a sign that there is a deep interest for this album.

I guess we'll see if people connect with it in such a way as to really get those CDs flying out of the stores (and not being returned later).



Johnny Stew

Does anyone else remember when John Fogerty's Centerfield album came out? It was about a dozen years since Creedence/CCR was the top rock band, but it all came back in style and was huge. You couldn't turn the radio on for about a year it seemed without hearing Old Man Down The Road and Centerfield and one or two others. He even got sued for sounding so much like Creedence and himself! :^)

I hope FM hits a homerun. I hope it is as good as George Harrison's, Santana's, Boston's and ELO's last albums and not like the newer Journey or Kansas albums.

That reminds me, MTV just recently announced that they were going to cut back even further on the amount of airtime they devote to videos and music-related programs. They were going to pick about 20-30 videos at regular intervals and repeat them very, very heavily, but otherwise turn even more of their resources toward non-musical programming. I wonder then about the point of continuing to call themselves "Music Television?"