SAY YOU WILL: final analysis

[Cour]

I think it will be considered a success.

For an old rock and roll band that has not been consistent with output or touring to debut at #3 is very impressive.

It took a long time for the Dance to get to 5 million sold. I think by the end of the Dance tour the cd had sold about 2 million. The Dance was also viewed as a Greatest Hits/Live cd which many casual fans bought to update their old studio cds of those hit songs. I think the Dance numbers are going to be harder to acheive this time. The Dance video was played on VH1 and PBS along with their BTM for a year, and right after there was Stevie's BTM, solo tour, and Storytellers that kept fueling the airing of the Dance and FM BTM.

The industry's expectations in 2003 have been dimmed by the general state of the music business and I think if they could get to 2 million sold by the end of a second leg of this tour, it would be considered a success. There are so few artists selling what they used to 2-3 yrs ago, I think the reality of the business cannot be avoided when judging the sales of any artist's cd. It's either rap, or a fluke like a poptart/Kelly Clarkson or debut Norah Jones/Alicia Keyes who manage to sell large large numbers.

Hopefully, good word of mouth, the end of the war and the start of the summer concert season will help pick up some ticket sales for the tour.

I think Stevie mentioned in a recent article that they would be happy to sell 2 million cds, so they're probably being more realistic about the potential.

IMO they could use a little advertising. I have seen 3 five second tv commercials for SYW and 2 tv commercials for a concert at a venue where they're showing Dance video footage with Christine. I can't tell you how many commercials I've seen for Lisa Marie Presely, Kelly Clarkson and a few other younger artists. A lot of people I know don't even realize they've got a new cd out.