Stevie Nicks Disappointed With Sales Of Her Latest Album

[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.