Born This Way: Leak

[ontheEdgeof17]

^best.ever.

my new FB pic.

[bluefox4000]

Having listened to this album a number of times......still bad. Every song is boring, nothing new here. I had such hopes...but they're dead and buried

Mick

[Heartboy]

I love most of it!

'Hair' & 'The Edge of Glory' stand out for me!

[baboles]

Now that I've had time to absorb the entire album, I'd have to say that "Marry the Night", "Hair", "Bloody Mary", "The Queen", and "The Edge of Glory" are my favs.

[AliceLover]

Originally Posted by daniellaaarisen

I haven't listened yet, although the leak is on my iTunes. I'm obsessing over the new Bon Iver record instead. Sounds like I'm not missing much.

!!!!!!

One of my friends played a few songs from the new album in my car the other day. I was beyond impressed. Those songs sound really good!

[HejiraNYC]

Interesting article in the Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/ar...gewanted=print

In Lady Gaga’s Album, Evidence of a New Order
By BEN SISARIO
A paradox of the new music industry: Albums sell less and less well every year, but as a marketing tool they are now more important than ever.

A case in point is Lady Gaga, whose new album, “Born This Way” (Interscope), was released on May 23 and sold 1,108,000 copies in the United States in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Some 662,000 of those sales, or about 60 percent, were digital downloads, the most any album has ever sold in a week.

The extraordinary success of “Born This Way” — it outsold the next 42 albums on Billboard’s chart combined — are a testimony to Lady Gaga’s appeal and the hard work of her business team, which devised one of the most extensive and savvy marketing campaigns ever mounted in music.

Once an artist’s biggest source of income, recorded music now plays second fiddle to touring, endorsements, merchandise sales and an array of other revenue streams once considered ancillary. That’s especially true for an artist like Lady Gaga, who has lined up more branding and promotional deals in the last six months than most artists will in a lifetime.

“People lose sight of how an artist becomes successful in 2011,” said Bill Werde, Billboard’s editorial director. “She could have sold 600,000 albums, or a million, or two million. But in terms of revenue that’s going to be a smaller piece of the pie.”

If there is any asterisk on her achievement, it’s that about two-thirds of the digital downloads are owed to a 99-cent deal offered by Amazon, which helped sales pass the million mark. The huge discount drew an angry reaction from brick-and-mortar retailers who saw their sales drop in response.

Ish Cuebas, vice president for music merchandising of Trans World Entertainment, which operates 460 music and media stores, including F.Y.E., said that his shops sold about half as many copies of “Born This Way” as he had expected.

“I don’t think it sends a good message,” Mr. Cuebas said of Amazon’s deal. “I can understand what Amazon did, but I think it devalues music even further. In the customer’s mind it’s worth 99 cents.”

But something is still needed to organize the flurry of products, activities and side deals that now constitute an artist’s business, and most often that role is filled by an album, no matter what the cost. The album still establishes an artist’s sound, look and message and provides an anchor around which long promotions can be built, from early singles (and leaks) to concert tours and television appearances.

Recognizing this, Interscope and Lady Gaga’s manager, Troy Carter, built their campaign around the release date, which they chose late last year to take advantage of music-related high points on the television calendar, like the Grammy Awards in February (where Lady Gaga played the premiere of her song “Born This Way”) and the finale of “American Idol” last week (where she sang her latest single, “The Edge of Glory”).

“We wanted to approach this like we were opening a blockbuster film,” said Steve Berman, vice chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M. “It became: ‘We’ll put a flag in that date well in advance. We won’t move. And what we’ll do for the next six months is pour gas on that fire every day, really branding the date.’ ”

Like any good movie campaign the selling of “Born This Way” began nearly a year in advance and continued as a well-timed drumbeat of promotional appearances, retail tie-ins and media deals that rose to a climax as the release date approached.

Lady Gaga announced the title of the album at MTV’s Video Music Awards last September and gave the release date on New Year’s Eve. As the promotions piled up in recent weeks, she became inescapable. If you missed her HBO concert special or “Saturday Night Live” appearance, her GagaVille online game or fashion sale through Gilt Groupe, then perhaps you rode in one of the New York City subway cars decked out top to bottom with “Born This Way” advertising.

Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, apparently knows the value of these deals. Mr. Carter said she accompanied him on numerous trips to retailers and to Silicon Valley start-ups eager to attach themselves to the Gaga brand.

But the most effective offering may have been the one the Gaga team knew nothing about. On May 23 Amazon put the digital version of the album on sale for 99 cents to draw music fans to Cloud Drive, its entry into the world of so-called cloud music services, which store a user’s songs on remote servers.

Amazon paid Interscope’s distributor, Universal, the full wholesale price for the album — between $8 and $9 — and accepted the difference as a loss, according to several people briefed on the sales arrangement, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the details. Billboard reported that Amazon’s two-day sale yielded about 440,000 digital sales; if correct, that would mean that the retailer lost more than $3 million on the promotion. (Amazon declined to comment.)

Several other new releases reached high on Billboard’s album chart this week, but none came close to “Born This Way.” Brad Paisley’s new “This Is Country Music” (Arista Nashville) is No. 2 with 153,000 copies sold, and “Glee: The Music, Vol. 6” (Columbia) sold 80,000, reaching No. 4. Adele’s “21” (XL), which has been No. 1 for a total of nine weeks this year, fell two spots to No. 3 with 127,000.

Mr. Carter, Lady Gaga’s manager, said the prerelease promotional campaign for “Born This Way” had been in full swing for six months. “If you look at ‘The Fame,’ ” Mr. Carter continued, referring to Lady Gaga’s first album, “it wasn’t marketing ploys that drove the success of that album. It was the quality of the content and Gaga’s willingness to go around the world and play for the fans, do the promotion, do the TV shows, visit the radio stations and the club D.J.’s. There’s a lot more of that than there are marketing ploys.”

That means the promotion for “Born This Way” is far from over. “This is where the work begins,” he said.


******************************

It makes me sick to my stomach that Gaga still received the full $8-$9 for each of the 440,000 $0.99 downloads on Amazon. I mean, good for her and everything... but Amazon could have also sold hundreds of thousands of copies of IYD this way too.

Indeed, Gaga's promotional campaign has been incredible. Just yesterday I was on the Times Square S subway and the interior was totally made over in Lady Gaga drag: the seats were red, the walls were festooned with outre black-and-white promo photographs and there were even video screens playing a continuous "sizzle reel" of her new album. It was actually a lot of fun! Alas, it is the shortest subway line in the city- just shuttling between Times Square and Grand Central. It really doesn't give anyone enough time to properly desecrate this elaborate display.

[GoldDustOrphan]

I found BTW somewhat abrasive at first and was initially disappointed, but a repeated listens revealed the hooks, which just aren't as obvious as her previous stuff. Pieces of Judas, Bad Kids, and a few other started to ring in my head. She's really in a situation where she can't possibly win everybody over. Everyone wants her to conform to their expectations, but that's not going to happen. If

"You and I," the recorded and live version from her BBC 1 Radio concert are fantastic. The song debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 at #36.

Her voice and piano version of "Edge of Glory" from BBC 1 demonstrates just how good her voice is. I don't care for the original. "Marry the Night" is definite hit single.

Jimmy Iovine sure has good luck with eccentric singer songwriters named Stephanie/Stefani.

Here are audio files of the live stuff:

Edge of Glory (Live)
http://www.mediafire.com/?1talkouk6j2iu7g

You and I (Live)
http://www.mediafire.com/?r9piykfbr1m8qll

Edge of Glory

You and I

[kak125]

hey GoldDustOrphan thanks for sharing those songs! the live versions are excellent. when i heard the cd at first i wasnt too sure about it but not i absolutely love it!!
my favs are marry the night, government hooker, judas, bloody mary, bad kids, heavy metal lover, electric chapel and edge of glory! even scheibe is growing on me as well as hair too!!
i had trouble sleeping last night because i had bad kids and bloody mary in my head -ha ha!!

[sorcerer999]

I didn't like this album at all upon first listen. I thought it was too long and had too much filler. The CD got stuck in the player in my car a week ago...so I've had no choice but to listen to it every time I drive. I must say it has grown on me.

Still not as good as the first two albums, but there are some really kick ass songs on there!

And am I the only one who LOVES "Fashion Of His Love" and "Highway Unicorn"?

[DefDumbandBlond]

The only tracks now I seem to be playing the most are Americano, Scheibe, The Queen, Bloody Mary, Government Hooker and Electric Chapel. The others are just kinda so-so to me at this point.

[RickRobert]

I liked Americano and You And I(though what was with the attention-seeking umlaut?), Government Hooker and the title track were cool... other than that, meh

[bluefox4000]

Sigh......I'm making a real effort with this album.....but no.....I just don't like a single thing about it.

Mick

[Heartboy]

I take it 'The Edge of Glory' will be the third single? I heard she's making a video for the song and I've heard it on my local radio station already. I hate the edit version. I like the beginning and the saxophone. Clarence Climmons from Bruce Springsteens band plays the sax, love that part.

I love the MTV special the other day, she had me in tears a few times! lol

I think like Madonna, she looks better with dark hair even though she kinda looks like Amy Fisher (Long Island Lolita)

[tilthefirefades]

I absolutely love this album, but I've found almost all of her music to be nearly flawless. I still can't stand to see her, and think the album cover is hideous. My favorite song is still Heavy Metal Lover, followed by Hair, Marry The Night, Judas and Government Hooker. I think you obviously have to be a fan of the genre to enjoy it, and I am very pleased with this album, she deserves her kudos

[KarmaContestant]

My boyfriend is a big Gaga fan, and so I've been hearing this new album a lot in his car - I think it's pretty good! I was surprised by how good the songs were, and expected something terrible after reading some of the comments here. I love Bloody Mary the most, but in general the whole 80's vibe of the album is really enjoyable.

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

It makes me sick to my stomach that Gaga still received the full $8-$9 for each of the 440,000 $0.99 downloads on Amazon. I mean, good for her and everything... but Amazon could have also sold hundreds of thousands of copies of IYD this way too.

Yeah...but even that would not have sold hundreds of thousands of copies of Stevie's album because people were not on the edge of their seats waiting for it, and she would never have agreed with it in the first place. Remember this a woman who thinks a CD should cost 18 dollars instead of the standard 9.99-12.99 most stores sell for.