Why did "Libertad" flop?

[GeraldFord]

Okay, after spending a few months lingering on the charts, it's safe to say that VR's second album bombed, selling less than a quarter of the debut. But why did it bomb?

1. Bad choice of the first single. "She Builds Quick Machines" is a solid song, but nothing exceptional. It's kind of generic and wasn't a good way to get people interested in the album.

2. Not enough promotion. "Libertad" just kind of came out--without a lot of buzz or hype.

3. The band took too long getting it out. All the fanfare and initial hype kind of died down three years after the well received debut.

[Jim Bob]

its sub-par.  even to contraband's standards which weren't that high in the first place.    simple as that.   

She Builds Quick Machines is one of the cheeziest lamest songs of 2007.

[CSS]

Answer number two sounds about right.

It's a bloody shame since it's one of the greatest albums in 2007.

[faldor]

I think #2 and #3 go hand in hand.  I think there was a fair amount of promotion, people just didn't care about the album coming out.  The interest wasn't there, it's tough to promote something people aren't clamoring for.  I guess they could've whored themselves out like Jon Bon Jovi, but again I don't think that's what the public wanted.  Unfortunately that's the state of rock and roll today.  You've got to appeal to the masses, and the masses wouldn't know good music if it punched them in the face.

[SpiritDave]

It wasn't promoted right.  Pushed.  Etc.  I totally disagree about it being sub-par, since I listen to it on a very regular basis and love it.  It's not sub-par, it's just not everyone's cup of tea.  I listen to Libertad a lot more than I listen to the (excellent) Guns N' Roses demos, such as Chinese Democracy, There Was A Time, etc .... I love them too ... but I still listen to Libertad more.  So, I can't see how Libertad can be described as sub-par.



Shame ... but promotion is key.

[Falcon]

I've never  bought into the "lack of promotion" theories at all.

They did all th late night shows, tons of radio/mag interviews etc.

Bottom line, the first single didn't capture the masses imagination.

[Butch Français]

a combination of all of them I think. it wasn't promoted at all over here, maybe we'll see a small promotion for the album when they tour around here though.
I think Libertad will sell quite a bit still.

[Ali]

I think "She Builds Quick Machines" was a bad choice as a first single. ?It should've been "Get Out The Door". ?

I wonder if some people just saw the band as a "supergroup" like Audioslave, and after Contraband, the supergroup novelty just wore off? ?I mean, look at Audioslave. ?Their albums saw diminishing sales with each successive release.

This just goes to show you that quality and sales do not necessarily go hand in hand.

Ali

[GeraldFord]

The second Audioslave sold well (not as well as the first) and the third went Gold.

[Ali]

The second Audioslave sold well (not as well as the first) and the third went Gold.

Yes, that's true, but the sales still diminished with each release.  That was the point I was trying to make.

Ali

[GeraldFord]

I don't think the second Traveling Willbury's CD was as successful as the debut either.

[Ali]

I don't think the second Traveling Willbury's CD was as successful as the debut either.

Were they a supergroup? 

The point was that perhaps the first record's sales were inflated by some sort of novelty of VR as a supergroup, just like Audioslave.  Perhaps the novelty wore off and that contributed to diminishing sales with both Audioslave and VR.  Just a theory like everyone else is posting in this thread.

Ali

[GeraldFord]

Were they a supergroup?

Well, they were made up of:

George Harrison
Jeff Lynne
Bob Dylan
Tom Petty
Roy Orbison

No one too famous, so I guess not.

[Ali]

Were they a supergroup?

Well, they were made up of:

George Harrison
Jeff Lynne
Bob Dylan
Tom Petty
Roy Orbison

No one too famous, so I guess not.

I wasn't being sarcastic, I honestly didn't know.

The point is that supergroups have a certain novelty to them that can wear off and result in lower record sales.  That may have happened with Audioslave and that may have happened with VR, hence contributing to the lower sales for Libertad.

Ali

[DeadHorse]

A lot of good points here, but it mainly depends of the first choice of the single. And in this case the label definitely dropped the ball. Get out the Door or Let it Roll would of did much better than SBQM, IMO.

When VR first began to do their club tour in 2004 Slither had been out for nearly 2 months. People wanted to go see them and hear what else the guys had in store. That didn't hapen this around b/c ?the 1st single was rather weak, compared to the rest of the album. ?I mean really Slither is a monster of a song, and "Get Out the Door" could of been that next song.

And lets not forget that SBQM wasn't released until nearly a month after the guys had begun touring. With no first single that kinda limits the bands drawing power too.

I was at the Edmonton show here last week and there might of been 5000 people there. The last time they were here it was sold out.

And I think the band has kinda thrown in the towel ?based on the show I saw last week, (on the album that is). They played 7 frickin' Contraband songs and only 5 Libertad songs. They didn't Grave Dancer, Just Sixteen or Pills, Demons, Etc. They played more songs from Libertad when I saw them in may in Toronto and the album wasn't even release. Nor was their single released for that matter.

Now the guys where extremely tight and sounded frickin awesome, but do we really need to hear Big Machine or Super Human anymore. Jesus if they're going to continue to play Contraband material how about bringing back "You got No Right" or start playing ?Loving the Alien. ?

LAter,

DH

[Robman?]

A lot of good points here, but it mainly depends of the first choice of the single. And in this case the label definitely dropped the ball. Get out the Door or Let it Roll would of did much better than SBQM, IMO.

When VR first began to do their club tour in 2004 Slither had been out for nearly 2 months. People wanted to go see them and hear what else the guys had in store. That didn't hapen this around b/c  the 1st single was rather weak, compared to the rest of the album.  I mean really Slither is a monster of a song, and "Get Out the Door" could of been that next song.

And lets not forget that SBQM wasn't released until nearly a month after the guys had begun touring. With no first single that kinda limits the bands drawing power too.

I was at the Edmonton show here last week and there might of been 5000 people there. The last time they were here it was sold out.

And I think the band has kinda thrown in the towel  based on the show I saw last week, (on the album that is). They played 7 frickin' Contraband songs and only 5 Libertad songs. They didn't Grave Dancer, Just Sixteen or Pills, Demons, Etc. They played more songs from Libertad when I saw them in may in Toronto and the album wasn't even release. Nor was their single released for that matter.

Now the guys where extremely tight and sounded frickin awesome, but do we really need to hear Big Machine or Super Human anymore. Jesus if they're going to continue to play Contraband material how about bringing back "You got No Right" or start playing  Loving the Alien. 

LAter,

DH

they only played 12 songs or so? When I saw them they played over 20.

[LunsJail]

Okay, after spending a few months lingering on the charts, it's safe to say that VR's second album bombed, selling less than a quarter of the debut. But why did it bomb?

1. Bad choice of the first single. "She Builds Quick Machines" is a solid song, but nothing exceptional. It's kind of generic and wasn't a good way to get people interested in the album.

2. Not enough promotion. "Libertad" just kind of came out--without a lot of buzz or hype.

3. The band took too long getting it out. All the fanfare and initial hype kind of died down three years after the well received debut.

 - I'd say #1 and #3 are the main reasons.  SBQM is not a good song at all, cookie cutter as one of my friends described it.

 - I don't agree with #2.  In fact, I saw plenty of VR interviews where they didn't really have anything interesting to say (unless it was about GNR).  Plus others have mentioned the late night shows, there was plenty of promotion.

 - I would modify #3 by saying that some of the hype died down when people put down Contraband and didn't pick it back up after the initial excitement.

[CSS]

Was "She Builds Quick Machines" and "The Last Fight" even released as singles? Because I have seen no signs of both whatsoever, apart from the videos.

The only thing that I've seen/bought when talking about singles is the Melody and the Tyranny E.P.

[faldor]

I've never? bought into the "lack of promotion" theories at all.

They did all th late night shows, tons of radio/mag interviews etc.

Bottom line, the first single didn't capture the masses imagination.

I agree about the lack of promotion argument.  I mean what more promotion were you expecting?  They did the late night talk shows, they did a live concert on myspace, they took over Sirius Octane 20 for the entire weekend Libertad came out, Sirius promoted and gave away tickets to the current tour.  I mean, I don't know exactly what more could've been expected.  The fact is, people just didn't care about Velvet Revolver anymore.  They had a successful debut, people were interested to hear what they could do.  Been there, done that.  Some good stuff off of Contraband, but not much that would make you demand more.  I bought Libertad, I thought it was a good album, but Contraband probably didn't leave my CD player for a good 6 months or so.  Libertad lasted a few weeks, haven't listened to it in a couple months probably.  I've stated this before and I'll say it again, I think the reason for the flop could very well be because of the re-emergence of Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses.  Back when Contraband was released Axl was nowhere to be seen, we weren't sure we'd ever see or hear from him again in fact.  So many of us took what we could get at that point.  Axl and the band resurfaced in 2006 and speaking for myself completely grabbed my attention.  I cared a lot less about VR.  I'm sure a lot of diehard GNR fans share those same feelings.  If Axl goes back into hiding for a couple years and VR decides to release another album maybe I'd be back on the bandwagon, but as long as GNR is somewhat relevant, I'm all in.  I know I'm crazy, I know.

[DeN]

i think people who bought contraband by curiosity and with a certain excitment to see 3 ex-gunners on it
were disgusted enough by the poor quality of the album they didn't want to buy the new one.