What Stevie and fans can learn from Sia and Tom Petty...

[Jondalar]

1. Sia's album 1000 Forms of Fear was heavily promoted with very smart videos using Maddie Zieglar from Dance Moms. It debuted at #1 on the American Charts, selling 52,000 copies it's first week. (By the way, that is horrible for a #1 album.)

Here are the amount of views her music videos have received. (This does not include the views from Ellen, The Grammies, or Saturday Night Live.)

Chandelier = 660,000,000 views.
Elastic Heart = 230,000,000 views
Big Girls Don't Cry = 15,000,000 views.

Did all those views do much good? Not really. To date Sia's album still has not went gold in the United States. It has only sold 177,000 in the United States. That's horrible. In Your Dreams has sold more. It has been certified in other countries but for all the views and awards she has been nominated for, it's awful.

Australia (ARIA) Gold 35,000 copies sold
France (SNEP) Platinum 100,000*
Poland (ZPAV) Gold 10,000*
United Kingdom Gold 100,000^
United States 177,000

2. Tom Petty
Came out with a critically acclaimed album, Hypnotic Eye that debuted at #1. It sold 131,000 copies in the United States which was pretty good. Guess what? The album still has not went gold. That is god-awful for a #1 album. The Heartbreakers released 2 songs from the album and none of them charted. Hypnotic Eye has not been certified anything in any country.

What Stevie can learn from both is that getting a new album to go Gold in the United States is next to impossible these days. What fans can learn from Sia and Tom Petty is lay off Stevie. She is pretty much helpless in this environment. The only thing that has helped her are TV appearances and maybe the Rolling Stone article, but going Gold is a very big long shot. (Country music artists are even having trouble now.) She has to make albums for the long haul and for artistic reasons.