Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Now that the Greatest Hits cd has sold more than one million copies in the USA alone, we can safely say it's a bigger success than Live Era ever was.

So the question is, why didn't Live Era sell nearly as much as Greatest Hits? Lack of promotion? Because it was a double cd? Poor song selection? The timing wasn't right? Or the fact that it was a live album which only interests fans like us?



/jarmo

all of the above  :hihi:


um.. .maybe Axl should have tried to block Live Era also  ;D

perhaps that is the marketing scheme for CD!  :D
then when it does come out axl's management can advise us that Axl was against it...
and we can boycott it... and "viola" it will sell go platinum . : ok:
that seems to be the formula in GN'R world  :peace:

eh... i havepurchased 3 copies of Live Era on CD...
and Zero of GH  :rant:

yes ;)

2 things:

Lack of promotions... Yeah, there was no commercials in Denmark for Live Era, and it only sold, i would say 10% of what  the Greatest Hits record sold....

And if youre not a big fan of GNR, then i guess you want a studio-version of the songs...

The timing wasn't right.

People are now more into GNR then ever (well, since '94 ofcourse). If a band stepped up as badass and as musically talented as GNR was they'd be a major hit. People are cravin' for that kind of music now. Why do you think VR sold well in US? If they did it 3 years earlier it wouldn't have done as much as now.

And same for Axl. He'd better hurry cause one of these days there's gonna step a group into spotlight that will be as good and as huge as GNR was. Timing is more important then anything. That's also why AFD was so huge. 2 years earlier or 2 years later it wouldn't have so succesfull......

I couldn't have said it better myself SADIS...i agree : ok:

i think that was time of nirvana and same shit bands(1993-2000),but now lot of changed.

Like teh J-man said, only fans seem to care of live records. Can anyone name a live record that has sold even remotely aswell as the studio albums of the band in guestion?
 

The fact it was a double cd and cost more than double than GH sure doesn't help when you're trying to sell albums. I have seen GH for like 7.99 just about everywhere as opposed to the 19.99-22.99 I used to see GH for when it came out. If you are a fringe fan you are much more likely to plop down 8 bucks as opposed to 20.

I was in Best Buy yesterday, and Live Era was on the end cap for $12.99.

Which now is cheaper than the reg. price of Greatest Hits.
Looks like they're trying to maximize their gnr stock!

KISS - ALIVE 1

really?  cool..!  I actually do need another copy...  ;)

From my experience with other bands' records, I would say the price and the fact that it was a live CD.  Generally, when there's a band I like but don't love, I'll buy their Greatest Hits or Best of collection.  I'll rarely if ever buy a live CD.  Plus, I'd be reluctant to pay $25 for any CD, let alone a live CD.  Also, like you guys have said, the interest in Gn'r wasn't really there much.  I would say all of these reasons are valid.

Well there was two "new" videos when Live era came out so that was "promotion" ..Now when GH came out there wasnt' even videos... :-\

me too,

why didnt it sell as well as GH well not enough promotion (help from VR) and because when LE was released focus in the rock part of the music industry was on  rap/rock shit like limp bizket and Korn and bands of sort while today thanks to VH1 I would say the 80s are cool again so people are going back and looking at things in the 80s you see a bunch of "rock" band which are heavily influienced by the early 80s music and others who are about bare bones rock music, guitar, bass, drums  a couple of riffs and thats the song, best example white stripes one guitar one drum and simple songs, so its only inevitable that GNR would become cool again and I think with Velvet Revolver comeing out and that being marketed as a meeting of the badest rock band (matt, Slash, and Duff from GNR) of the late 80s and early 90s  meets one of the coolest singers of rock from one of the most popular bands of the 90s (weilend from STP).  Hell people who are normally into dance crap music where all the suddenly going to me "hell yeah dude GNR rocks" "I love that song, whats it called, with the piano" when I where my GNR t-shirt. so those factors coupled with all the free publicity from VH1 and worldwide publicity from universal Im sure have made it sell, people wont buy what  Hope I make sense Ive been out partying and im just getting back, and I am incredibly hung over

There were two main problems.  A total lack of promotion from anyone involved.  The record company did as little as possible and the band members just seemed to ignore its release.

Also there was no indication of when or where the tracks were recorded which is very frustrating for fans as it seems like instead of taking the best live performaces  from the tour they just took alot of material from the tokyo show which many of us already owned on video and no on dvd.  How many different formats do they expect us to buy the same material on?

This is an easy one.  There was no apetitie for GNR at the time.  At the time there were still some okay bands left that were in their prime.  Now, there isn't shit out there.  The current rock scence is awful.  DREADFUL.   

Given the recent breakup of the band it appeared to be a cash grab by many - that was the opinion people told me when I worked at a record store.......

I agree with that. With Slash gone, a lot of people probably figured that his exit meant that GNR had effectively broken up - Despite the hype for "Oh My God" at around the same time.

It was probably viewed as a 'last gasp' at the time, and GNR had been basically forgotten by the 'mainstream' by that point. I think that Live Era would've fared far, far better in 2004 - Surprisingly, when the GNR name is at its most valuable since 1992 or so.

I just think it has a lot to do with timing and the publics perception of the band at the time.

"Framton Comes Alive" would be one example.

 I just don't think live albums sell as well as greatest hits with any bands these days. I'll have to look up some examples, but Bon Jovi and Motley Crue put out live and greatest hits in the last few years, and I'm pretty sure greatest hits sold better. Casual music fans will pick up greatest hits before a live album.

All those other bands went out and actively promoted their live albums.  The members of GN'R treated it the way most families treat a mad relative, they just didn't talk about it.

I'm not sure what promotion any members, current or former, did for greatest hits, other than file a lawsuit.

like The Darkness right? lol

i agree with the timing subject. music is really softining....i really really fuckin hate fags like maroon5 who have one fuckin sucky assnballs song and they get a lot of hype and now you got little hoes too. fuck that.

I thinkit has to do with the current popularity of greatest hits packages in general, they seem to be selling alot for all types of artists and alot fo artsist who have already done greatest hits records (like aerosmith several times) released another one the past few years on account of this. Alot of the occasional non-die hard fans can pick them up. I think most of the people who are the oppostie on this baord have live era and not greatest hits.

Garth Brooks - Double Live
Any Dave Matthews Band CD...
and people already mentioned Kiss and Peter Frampton...

You're right though, it is not common that a live CD explodes.

I never saw one advert for Live Era, I only found out it existed when I saw it in the GNR section of HMV.

Same here, i didn't even know there was such a thing and i consider myself more than a casual fan.

I do think it's highly under rated and i love live albums and the rawness.

'Didn't Peter Frampton's  Comes Alive' sell something like 10 million copy's?

Frampton comes alive was a better album.   That's why it sold so well.

in my opinion,live era was realised 1999(in very bad time for gunsnroses,when gnr was "band that the time was forgot"),but now,gnr realive.
in this week in usa gh sold in 35330 copies,and in usa 1.100.000 copies of gh was sold.

I remember seeing a TV ad for Live Era on Much Music and it showed the new WTTJ video - but I only remember seeing for about a week.

I think since 1999 the music has changed in the industry people seem interested in older rock since bands like The Darkness have made it 'cool' again and to see ex-gunners in a successful band must help to.  Plus the point of it being a double CD makes it mainly for us mega fans because people would rather have studio cuts it's sells may of increased if reviews had been good but they were not so.  I mean i hear GN'R tracks much more on football focus on saturday here in the UK they played You Could Be Mine at the end, you always find tracks on Kerrang & Scuzz and they get plays on many other music channels, they have had weeks dedicated to them and more ads so increased promotion has helped reminding people of who these fuckers are and despite the poor 2002 VMA performance i still think it was a reminder to people who maybe remember songs like Welcome To The Jungle something like that alone would of sparked interest again and it may of died a bit until the GH came out but it wasn't the same gap of TSI? to Live ERA with jusy SFTD in the middle which was slated despite being class anyway.  So all in all it's a combination of a lot of things ultimately i think it is down to timing many bands i like have split up or not achieved the success they should and could have because they arrived during the wrong musical scene/time.

def lack of promotion and Live CD's never do well any way I thought it was Axl's idea because he said it was to close the old band

The fact it wasnt a real live album and done all in studio didnt help.

The fact it cost $25 kept me from buying it.

Wrong timing, There was no real push for it. I agree if Axl would of tried to stop it from coming out it  would of created a BUZZ and free pub. that would of helped push it.

Although Live Era is not a "real" live album, I still think it's a must-have for most GNR fans.  That said, I don't think Live Era is a "must have" for the casual listener who sometimes listens to GNR.  The casual listener today would rather spend cash on studio cuts like GH or download them online. 

How much of live era was done in the studio and where did everyone hear this? If it was done alot in the studio they goofed big time because the first thing they shoulda done was added a second guitar. I love live era but on most of the songs you onlyt hear slash and no gilby or izzy.

It went gold, right?  That's not huge, but not too bad. On another note, do you think Axl re-did some of the vocals? And is it me, or can you hear Robin Finck doing backround vocals in "Mr. Brownstone"? Maybe that question belongs in the dead horse section.

I think everyone has added valid points here. Personally, i will go with the GNR were not really on the map at the time theory. It had been 5 years since anything had been heard from the band, other than that Slash had left. After Axl's semi-reemergence in 02, and the whole VR project coming together, the GNR began to be circulated again in media outlets, hence GH's success (which also had commercial and print adverts). Give that to Live Era today, and we might see better sales.

Do you think that if Greatest Hits had been released in say late 2003 (as originally planned) and Live Era this year, that Live Era would've sold more thanks to the new "interest" in GN'R among record buyers?

I doubt that myself since it's still mostly aimed at fans who have everything by GN'R.



/jarmo

 Jarmo,
     I think all the press Velvet Revolver has been doing this past year, as well as Behind the Music helped out, along with the new GNR touring a few years ago. All the members, current and former, seemed to be pretty inactive in 1999. Greatrest hits is also a cheaper version for someone to buy than Live Era, as far as someone who is a very casual fan, maybe someone who does not own a Guns record.

I never bought that cd and never knew that it didn't sell well.

I thought the lowest selling cd was Spaghetti Incident?()  :nervous:

 Look, im a little new here, ok  :nervous:  A rookie forum poster  :confused:

 Why is this >>>  thing here and not a "flash" design?

 Is this an HTML thingie?   What did i do wrong?


 HTML 101 class

   

In simplest terms, it just wasn't very good.

Rerecords, overdubs et al.

It should have been audio verite', what you hear was what was there.

That wasn't this case with Live Era.

I did not buy it because I was/am waiting for some new stuff. Why spend $25.00 on live versions of songs I have been listening to for 10+ years. And I never gave it a chance since buying the Use your Illusion era Tokyo show and being a little disapointed.

I don't give a damn if i have the studio versions. I like 'em live too. Cides, it has "It's Alright" on it. Good ehough reason for me.

Dont know think that the choise of song, had anything to do with the record sales!
People dont know if the live version of the song is good or bad, before the buy the album.
I remember the had TV commeceials for this album here in Norway,dont know about other places!
Im sure that it was the wrong time!

I remember the video for the Live Welcome to the Jungle being on TRL for like 3 days when Live Era came out and I remember Axl calling it to promote it. It wasnt a bad video, I just dont think the general public who hadnt heard about guns in 1999, since 1993 were interested in a made disk that was suppose to sound like they were live. Personally some of the live boots that are out there I prefer, I love the new line up with the Rock in Rio bootleg, and I also like a few of the old line up bootlegs. Witha  live cd i want the vibe that I am at the concert, but with Live Era it doesnt give me the vibe that I am at the show.

Yeah, but people (except from the internet geeks and the GN'R "specialists") didn't know about the re-recordings of those songs.

And those who knew about them were so into GN'R that they bought the record anyway.

So, to me that's not an excuse for the poor sales.

I think it didn't sell well because no one had a clue as to the fate of GNR... i.e. "What comes next? Anything?"