Here Today... Gone To Hell!

www.billboard.com

It is # 85 and it is certified platinum not bad for a record sold only at about 800 stores with no promotion or big single! :beer:

But there was promotion for the album.  :yes:

promotion??? sure.

it's sold 1Million already??

it just broke the 500,000 a few weeks ago... and there hasn't been a climb in sales.

it's more like gold... not platinum.

Its listed as platinum on the billboard chart, I was as surprised as anybody not sure if Best Buy purchases are in there or if those are actual customer sales.  If Billboard listed it as platinum than its platinum!  As far as promotion, I don't classify what Best Buy did as much in the way of promotion.  Im just saying everyone was ready to call this record a flop, it has done considerably well considering the economy, promotion and lack of info from the band.  How many other artist could do this?

Monumental promotion started yesterday with Brain's email!   :hihi:

Seriously though, if the copies BB bought were included in the numbers, wouldn't it have been certified platinum in the first week?

It states "RIAA certification for net shipment of for 1 million units...." I would venture to guess that they have not sold one million albums yet. Here in Phoenix, many of the Best Buys received 800-1,100 copies of the album, so based upon there being 800+ Best Buy stores, it would not have been platinum the first week (I'm assuming many stores in smaller cities received much smaller shipments as well). Considering that Kanye West's 808s album was just certified last week, there's no way that GN'R could've sold up to that number (since Kanye has been much higher on the chart over this period of time).

OK, platinum certification means that one million copies have been shipped.  We all knew that Best Buy had agreed to snatch up at least that many copies so this isn't a big surprise.  It probably shipped platinum the first week and it's just a matter of when the record company applies to the RIAA for platinum certification.

never mind whatever good news is good news.

chin chin! :beer:

it isn't platinum

Refer to the little triangle on the right hand side of Chin Dem.

Thatt is justt fanttasttic.

Lunsjail is right it means a million copies have been shipped to Best buy not a million people have bought the album. But after tour, Better video, Ballads with video , interviews and an appearance at VMAs it will have been bought by at least 3 or 4 million people me thinks

hell fuckin' yeah man!

and nice screen name by the way!  we fucking rule

yea but vmas? yea possible but isn't it like in August/September that they deicide on the performers?

Not a bad Birthday present for Axl.


 :peace:

Please see above area in bold print.

wow... you're stuck in 1991 are you? records don't sell like that anymore really. 3 or 4 million in 2 1/2 months? you're quite optimistic.

Lil Wayne who has the biggest seller hasn't even moved that in like 6 months. Not saying he has better music... just better sales.

Ohh yeah the label has done its job for now. Its cashed in with the Best Buy deal. I can see why a re-release in more stores is being discussed. You can deliver more sales and cash in even more.

Awesome news!  :peace:

Congrats to the band on doing so well worldwide...Cant wait to see you this summer!!  : ok:

Not in 2 and a half months, when its all over and we move to the next one i think it could sell that much maybe a year from now , time will tell

ok, I'm done searching...

can anyone give me a direct link to the ''CD is platinum'' news?

I cant find it anywhere. This looks like great news but its seems a little unlikely that CD is platinum when it was gold just a few weeks ago...

It's listed with the little Platinum icon on the Billboard album chart.



/jarmo

cool :beer:

fuck yes.  this is awesome, awesome news.  and to all those doom-and-gloomers who were saying sales weren't good enough in one particular country...  :beer:  let's drink to victory.

Well, I see the 'platinum' icon...official enough?  I guess congratulations are in order!  I am surprised there was no press release... :beer:

Good for Guns! I think it's just the beginning though. CD is too good and has too many good songs to not continue sales well into the future  : ok:

Curious about how it works though with the platinum certification... like how is it possible Taylor Swift's album isn't certified with all the time it's spent at the top of the charts?

The record company has to apply for the certification.  I think sometimes if they anticipate the album will continue to sell strong for an extended period of time they wait until they can certify it 2 or 3 times platinum in one shot (this saves a few bucks I believe).  For example, Appetite sat at 15X for years even though it had shipped 18 million... it was only recently bumped up.

Yes ok that makes sense... thanks. I remember talking about that with Appetite too.

Guys, all it means is that Best Buy has bought over a million copies. It doesn't have to do with sales it has to do with copies of the cd shipped.

I think it will be a while before CD sells 1 million copies. The cd was set up from the beginning to go at least platinum with the Best Buy deal. In fact, it would have been certified platinum if only 5 copies were bought by fans.

pffft barely ::)

i'm glad its finally plattinum, can't wait till it gets past AFD :headbanger:

A lot more promotion than most bands get.

pulled this off the RIAA website...it's definitely official.

First 
Artist GUNS 'N ROSES
Title CHINESE DEMOCRACY
Certification Date 02/03/2009
Label GEFFEN
Award Description GOLD
Format ALBUM
Category GROUP
Type ST

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Artist GUNS 'N ROSES
Title CHINESE DEMOCRACY
Certification Date 02/03/2009
Label GEFFEN
Award Description PLATINUM
Format ALBUM
Category GROUP
Type ST

Nice find!

 8)





/jarmo

Im still confused about units shipped.  If I make an album and ship 1 mil copies to retail outlets I can get a platinum certification even though not 1 person buys it.  Doesn't sales half to equate in to that somehow.  Even if u ship 1 mil units a certain percentage or those half to sell to get a platinum cert. Does anyone have an RIAA official definaition? :confused:

You just have to ship then appeal for the Riaa certifaction.


I remember years ago " Beck " Telling a friend in an interview that though oddely was plat with the Riaa it still need to sell like another 150 - 200 thousand unit before the sold a million.

It will get a mil soon enough :beer:

Prior to soundscan it was the only real method of "counting sales", because there was no system in place to actually count how many albums where sold at the retailers.   So instead you count how many units are shipped on the macro level, with the mindset that if retailers are buying that many copies, the album is obviously selling that many or it may sell that many eventually.  (Retailers are not going to buy 1 mil copies of an album if it is only going to sell "one" copy)

 RIAA has not changed its methodology even with soundscan, so it is still based on the net units shipped standard, that is where the confusion comes. The billboard chart is based on soundscan sales, but platinum is based on a different standard.

 The Chin Dem instance is a unique one, since rumour has it BB bought ex amount of "non-returnables".   I wonder if they can sell them to other retailers once the exclusive has expired.

Retail outlets still have to buy what you shipped. They won't buy 1 million copies without some expectation that they can sell that many to consumers.

Best Buy will eventually sell whatever copies it purchased.  They're not gonna just throw them away. 

also platinum in the UK

http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1036788&c=1

GUNS N' ROSES: 'Chinese Democracy' Certified Platinum In U.S. - Feb. 9, 2009

GUNS N' ROSES' new album, "Chinese Democracy", was officially certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 3, 2009 for shipments in the United States in excess of one million copies. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the CD has shifted 537,000 units since it was released on November 23, 2008 as a Best Buy exclusive after a wait of more than 15 years.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=114073

I think that might be European sales, not just UK?



/jarmo

This is awesome news... I was seriously worried that the record company (given their apparent issues with Axl) were not even going to bother to file for any certifications for CD (b/c it would increase Axl's leverage in future dealings IMHO).

As far as the "shipped" v. "shifted" debate. Not important to me b/c: (1) this album will w/o a doubt in time shift over 1 million copies in the US; and (2) the album is w/o a doubt "PLATINUM" quality [some terrible albums have gone platinum- so an all-time great like CD (IMHO) should definitely be up there].

Anyway, congratulations Axl and congratulations Guns N' Roses! :peace: :beer:

round two ?  :hihi:

How many albums of Spaghetti Incident were sold to date?

It was certified Platinum in 1994.



/jarmo

I have to say that I get a bit of the Babe Ruth/Hank Aaron vs. the modern steroid freaks thing (baseball/homeruns) - every time I see people try to compare numbers.  What happened in 1994, 1987, and even further back (when did we get high speed dubbing tape decks?) have had an exponentially negative effect on sales - in certain genre's.  Religious music, and rap, seem to have suffered much less than rock and pop.  Religious because most religious 'zealots' do recognize this as stealing, and rap, probably because of less computer availability/training.  Ages ago you would play a record for your friend, and if he liked it, he had to go buy his own copy (or borrow yours).  In 1994 it still required a certain amount of work to 'share' your CD...unfortunately in todays market, one CD buyer might share the thing with 5 friends or 50,000...the numbers just don't mean the same thing anymore.  I am happy to see CD go 'platinum'...but end state for me doesn't change...I still have a great cd in my hands, whether others buy it or not.   : ok:

Edit - I reread this and I wanted to make it clear that I feel bad for the artists that have lost big $$$, and understand their frustration with this new 'accessibility'...point was that a great CD in 1990 would sell much more than a great CD today.