With the release=albums sold thread...

[Verse Chorus Verse]

I'm think at most 250k first week, then dropping from there. It'll probably go platinum by a year of it's release, maybe 6 months.

I just looked at the charts.  You realize Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad" is only double platinum after almost 18 months on the charts?  That album is a mega-success worldwide and in the US.  I don't see Chinese Democracy going platinum in 6 months. That would be a miracle.  It's a cool disc, but it's not Appetite or even close.  Just look how many platinum CD's there are on the charts.  They are few and far between...

Yeah, I was just being optimistic. The name + curiosity will do a lot towards sales.

[The Dog]

I'm think at most 250k first week, then dropping from there. It'll probably go platinum by a year of it's release, maybe 6 months.

I just looked at the charts.  You realize Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad" is only double platinum after almost 18 months on the charts?  That album is a mega-success worldwide and in the US.  I don't see Chinese Democracy going platinum in 6 months. That would be a miracle.  It's a cool disc, but it's not Appetite or even close.  Just look how many platinum CD's there are on the charts.  They are few and far between...

Chinese Democracy will be platinum within 4 weeks of the release.  I'd be willing to bet money on that

how much?

[Journeyman]

I'm very curious to see how the world will react to CD, i dont mean the fans, I mean the rest of the world. I strongly believe it will be a huge success cause its a genius work, and has so many different types of influence...

I will contribute buying 3 or 4 copies at once just for me, and maybe I will give my friends some Chinese Democracy as Christmas present eheh

[plasmabeam]

All this talk of Kanye and Rihanna just made me realize how bad I wish CD would just stick it to the overplayed trash that pollutes radio stations and parties. Hip-hop has to go. Normally, it's not my problem, but whenever I get driven around by a friend or visit his/her house, I'm left witnessing people worship Soulja Boy/Kanye/Rihanna or whatever "star" is leading the trend that month.

Long live rock 

[destroier]

All this talk of Kanye and Rihanna just made me realize how bad I wish CD would just stick it to the overplayed trash that pollutes radio stations and parties. Hip-hop has to go. Normally, it's not my problem, but whenever I get driven around by a friend or visit his/her house, I'm left witnessing people worship Soulja Boy/Kanye/Rihanna or whatever "star" is leading the trend that month.

Long live rock 

  Sounds like you need new friends.

[burnz007]

I'm think at most 250k first week, then dropping from there. It'll probably go platinum by a year of it's release, maybe 6 months.

I think that's way low... Metallica sold 490,000 Death Magnet albums in the first 3 days; I expect Chinese Democracy to double that

[Eazy E]

Hip-hop has to go.

It amazes me that there is still this group of rock fans that "wage war" against hip hop... like there is only room for ONE of the two genres.  Why would artists on a radio station that plays music that you aren't a fan of bother you in the least?  Does country have to go?  Does classical music have to go?  I wonder if Jazz fans in 1992 were saying "Enough of this rock shit on the radio!"... Just because there are no good mainstream rock bands, does not mean a completely seperate genre of music is to blame.

FYI, "Gold" status is based on units sold, "Platinum" status is based on units shipped !

[destroier]

Hip-hop has to go.

It amazes me that there is still this group of rock fans that "wage war" against hip hop... like there is only room for ONE of the two genres.  Why would artists on a radio station that plays music that you aren't a fan of bother you in the least?  Does country have to go?  Does classical music have to go?  I wonder if Jazz fans in 1992 were saying "Enough of this rock shit on the radio!"... Just because there are no good mainstream rock bands, does not mean a completely seperate genre of music is to blame.

FYI, "Gold" status is based on units sold, "Platinum" status is based on units shipped !

If it was simply a matter of not listening to that station, but it's not. Rap is everywhere. It's in movies, video games, on television, it's even on the loudspeaker at McDonald's while you're trying to eat. You can't get away from it. Rock stations are going out of business because everybody's listening to rap and r&b stations.

[DarkKnight]

Hip-hop has to go.

It amazes me that there is still this group of rock fans that "wage war" against hip hop... like there is only room for ONE of the two genres.  Why would artists on a radio station that plays music that you aren't a fan of bother you in the least?  Does country have to go?  Does classical music have to go?  I wonder if Jazz fans in 1992 were saying "Enough of this rock shit on the radio!"... Just because there are no good mainstream rock bands, does not mean a completely seperate genre of music is to blame.

FYI, "Gold" status is based on units sold, "Platinum" status is based on units shipped !

If it was simply a matter of not listening to that station, but it's not. Rap is everywhere. It's in movies, video games, on television, it's even on the loudspeaker at McDonald's while you're trying to eat. You can't get away from it. Rock stations are going out of business because everybody's listening to rap and r&b stations.

OK and when rock bands stopped working on their craft and taking 15 years to deliver an album, that's when everybody went hip hop.  I'm not bashing rock or Guns, but think about it.  I mean, it took 15 years to get CD.  How can you really blame people for going in the direction of Rihanna and Soulja Boy?  There was a time when rock bands were working that hard too.  Laziness doesn't usually pay dividends...

[ShotgunBlues1978]

I'm think at most 250k first week, then dropping from there. It'll probably go platinum by a year of it's release, maybe 6 months.

I just looked at the charts.  You realize Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad" is only double platinum after almost 18 months on the charts?  That album is a mega-success worldwide and in the US.  I don't see Chinese Democracy going platinum in 6 months. That would be a miracle.  It's a cool disc, but it's not Appetite or even close.  Just look how many platinum CD's there are on the charts.  They are few and far between...

Chinese Democracy will be platinum within 4 weeks of the release.  I'd be willing to bet money on that

how much?

 

I was just using it as an expression of certainty, not literally planning on placing a bet

But seriously, if Metallica can hit nearly 500K in 4 days, I'm pretty confident that GnR will hit 500,000-800,000 in 9 days.  Metallica, which was my main basis for comparison, was platinum in 4 weeks, it just hasn't been certified yet.

As Eazy E mentioned, platinum certification is based on units shipped to retailers, not Soundscan sales.  So if the rumors of GnR brokering a deal with Best Buy for 3,000,000 copies is true, then it'll already be platinum in week one.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Hasn't Death Magnetic gone platinum already?

They lost a lot of fans and lost a lot of credibility after St. Anger.

They practically went gold in that one weekend.  That goes to show you that they still have fans.

This is our first fresh studio album since 1991.

We will post Metallica-esque numbers, maybe even better.

At the very least, Chinese Democracy will go platinum by the end of the year.  It will have a very long shelf-life, aided by GH, AFD, and the whole catalogue being re-released.

[DarkKnight]

Hasn't Death Magnetic gone platinum already?

But Metallica has been relevant all these years and kept their main core together.  There's a big difference there.  I think CD can do as well as Death Magnetic, but don't be disappointed if it does not...

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Hasn't Death Magnetic gone platinum already?

But Metallica has been relevant all these years and kept their main core together.  There's a big difference there.  I think CD can do as well as Death Magnetic, but don't be disappointed if it does not...

Metallica had St. Anger and Some Kind of Monster.

BAD!  Their reputation had been trashed up until that point.  DM helped quash the nay-sayers and all is well again.

Chinese Democracy can do the same.

[destroier]

Hip-hop has to go.

It amazes me that there is still this group of rock fans that "wage war" against hip hop... like there is only room for ONE of the two genres.  Why would artists on a radio station that plays music that you aren't a fan of bother you in the least?  Does country have to go?  Does classical music have to go?  I wonder if Jazz fans in 1992 were saying "Enough of this rock shit on the radio!"... Just because there are no good mainstream rock bands, does not mean a completely seperate genre of music is to blame.

FYI, "Gold" status is based on units sold, "Platinum" status is based on units shipped !

If it was simply a matter of not listening to that station, but it's not. Rap is everywhere. It's in movies, video games, on television, it's even on the loudspeaker at McDonald's while you're trying to eat. You can't get away from it. Rock stations are going out of business because everybody's listening to rap and r&b stations.

OK and when rock bands stopped working on their craft and taking 15 years to deliver an album, that's when everybody went hip hop.  I'm not bashing rock or Guns, but think about it.  I mean, it took 15 years to get CD.  How can you really blame people for going in the direction of Rihanna and Soulja Boy?  There was a time when rock bands were working that hard too.  Laziness doesn't usually pay dividends...

There's a lot of quality rock music out today, people just aren't listening to it. Besides, it's easy to put out an album every year when all you write is crap.

[ShotgunBlues1978]

Hasn't Death Magnetic gone platinum already?

But Metallica has been relevant all these years and kept their main core together.  There's a big difference there.  I think CD can do as well as Death Magnetic, but don't be disappointed if it does not...

In general though there is a huge group of Metallica fans that do nothing but bitch and moan about them and how everything they've done from Black forward sucks.  Yet the general public still goes out and buys it. 

That's the thing.  The casual fan doesn't care what some 14 year old douchebag on Blabbermouth thinks.  They just see a new Metallica CD and buy it.  That's why St. Anger was reviled almost everyone but it still had a big first week.  The reason St. Anger flopped (by Metallica standards) is that it had terrible word of mouth and no hit singles after the first one.  Yet even with the terrible reception of their last album, and the rampant negative regarding Metallica on the internet, the new album still had a big first week.  The only difference is that this one will hang around longer because of positive word of mouth.

Think about why Nickelback sells records.  I've never, ever met anyone who likes that band.  And they get terrible reviews.  Personally I think they are awful.  But they still sell records by the truckload.  Why?  Because they get a ton of airplay and a lot of casual listeners see the album and buy it

For us diehards, this album is a huge deal, it's a big event.  People are planning on having release parties and planning their entire week around the release.  For the average, casual fan, the people who make up the majority of album sales past the first couple weeks, it's not an epic event.  The person who's heard Better (or whatever) on the radio a bunch of times and sees the album and buys it on a whim doesn't care that Slash isn't in the band or that the children at ultimate-guitar hate it.  They just buy the album because they like the song on the radio and like some other GnR tracks.  That's why getting two or three big hit singles is the key to this album selling a lot of records.  Because a ton of people are going to buy the album first week, either because they are die hard fans or they are just curious because of all the hype and mystique surrounding the album.  Selling a ton of records in the long run and remaining high on the charts is all about getting the casual music fan to buy it

[DarkKnight]

Hasn't Death Magnetic gone platinum already?

But Metallica has been relevant all these years and kept their main core together.  There's a big difference there.  I think CD can do as well as Death Magnetic, but don't be disappointed if it does not...

In general though there is a huge group of Metallica fans that do nothing but bitch and moan about them and how everything they've done from Black forward sucks.  Yet the general public still goes out and buys it. 

That's the thing.  The casual fan doesn't care what some 14 year old douchebag on Blabbermouth thinks.  They just see a new Metallica CD and buy it.  That's why St. Anger was reviled almost everyone but it still had a big first week.  The reason St. Anger flopped (by Metallica standards) is that it had terrible word of mouth and no hit singles after the first one.  Yet even with the terrible reception of their last album, and the rampant negative regarding Metallica on the internet, the new album still had a big first week.  The only difference is that this one will hang around longer because of positive word of mouth.

Think about why Nickelback sells records.  I've never, ever met anyone who likes that band.  And they get terrible reviews.  Personally I think they are awful.  But they still sell records by the truckload.  Why?  Because they get a ton of airplay and a lot of casual listeners see the album and buy it.

Well, that's kind of why I think CD will do very well to outsell Death Magnetic.  15 years is a long time, my friend.  A long time to stay out of the limelight.  Look how many artists have COME AND GONE during that time.  I miss the old Metallica too, but you've got to admit... they tour regularly, they don't leave fans hanging for years, they put out an album with regularity.  Even if you don't like Metallica, you've got to admire their work-rate after all the success they've had.  They could retire today on millions of dollars in their bank accounts. 

Again, not trying to knock Axl or the new Guns, but if CD fails to outsell Death Magnetic, it won't be because the music is better on DM.  It will be because Metallica has kept themselves visible all this time and GNR has not.  I mean, Hetfield is always giving interviews to everybody.  They are all over YouTube.  Axl rarely gives interviews.  So, CD will probably turn out better musically than DM, but don't be surprised when DM outsells CD. 

I hope after all this time we figure out the REAL reason Axl has let this process drag out so long.  The lawsuit thing is an excuse IMHO.  With a name like Axl Rose, he could publish a new album anytime he wanted.  I love the new material... I just wish we didn't have to wait so long.  Hell, even the Best Buy guy said the same thing about the next album and he is marketing the thing!

[divoz]

First things first, i hate Metallica, & love Gnr so im not being biased but how can you ppl say "CD will DOUBLE sales of death magnetic" metallica is outdated.
GNR has not released a cd of original material since 1991. since then, Metallica has released numorus albums, staying in the spotlight.
some ppl on these boards just don't have their head on their shoulder and think that just cuz they love GNR means the album will go f**king triple platinum in 12 hours.
Get real people. I love GNR, but what have they done in 15 year to stay in the public eye? NOTHING

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

I'm think at most 250k first week, then dropping from there. It'll probably go platinum by a year of it's release, maybe 6 months.

I just looked at the charts.  You realize Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad" is only double platinum after almost 18 months on the charts?  That album is a mega-success worldwide and in the US.  I don't see Chinese Democracy going platinum in 6 months. That would be a miracle.  It's a cool disc, but it's not Appetite or even close.  Just look how many platinum CD's there are on the charts.  They are few and far between...

Chinese Democracy will be platinum within 4 weeks of the release.  I'd be willing to bet money on that

how much?

 

I was just using it as an expression of certainty, not literally planning on placing a bet

But seriously, if Metallica can hit nearly 500K in 4 days, I'm pretty confident that GnR will hit 500,000-800,000 in 9 days.  Metallica, which was my main basis for comparison, was platinum in 4 weeks, it just hasn't been certified yet.

As Eazy E mentioned, platinum certification is based on units shipped to retailers, not Soundscan sales.  So if the rumors of GnR brokering a deal with Best Buy for 3,000,000 copies is true, then it'll already be platinum in week one.

You should have taken that bet.

(Call Survival now.)

[BatVin]

My bet is 2-4 mills in US, it depends on promotion which will CD get. In the rest of world, it will be propably less, maybe 2 millions. So worldwide, it would be 4-6 millions. This is my bet.

[makane]

First things first, i hate Metallica, & love Gnr so im not being biased but how can you ppl say "CD will DOUBLE sales of death magnetic" metallica is outdated.
GNR has not released a cd of original material since 1991. since then, Metallica has released numorus albums, staying in the spotlight.
some ppl on these boards just don't have their head on their shoulder and think that just cuz they love GNR means the album will go f**king triple platinum in 12 hours.
Get real people. I love GNR, but what have they done in 15 year to stay in the public eye? NOTHING

Oh please. They've had huge news coverage everytime a little bit of info comes out. Even the last tour showed us there is still massive interest in Guns N' Roses.
Metallica has slowly but surely become a joke. Yes, they've released "numerous albums and stayed in the spotlight" which has essentially made them corny and boring.
Sure they are still popular, but it's nothing compared to the hype train of Chinese Democracy which has steadily gone on now for fifteen years.

Metallica only had their fans getting the album, Guns N' Roses have a bigger than expected "fanbase" and a huge crowd of potential curiouse buyers.

What have they done for the last 15 years? They've made the album for 15 years(not really), which is probably the best advertising you could ever have.