Chinese Democracy (Album) - Charting

[ShotgunBlues1978]

1,854,300 as of January 25th, accord to musicharts.net

[Evolution]

Just thought I'd add that Guns N' Roses: Greatest Hits is currently #10 on the UK Itunes album chart.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

1,854,300 as of January 25th, accord to musicharts.net

Is that a worldwide number?

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Axl Rose Interview = $$$

[RoCoKiN]

The local Classic rock station in Halifax put CD into the #5 position for the top Albums of 2008.

Please forgive the Nickelback placement...

http://www.q104.ca/index.asp?mn=7&id=306&cc=5

[duga]

Sweden:

#15 - Greatest Hits
#19 - Chinese Democracy - finally GOLD (20k)   

#22 this week. 

#47 this week 

[acompleteunknown]

To all the naysayers...I have a question.  How many units would CD have to sell to be considered a success?  In the first week?  In a month?  In a year? 

You keep saying that the current number isn't enough...so what number is enough?  What is your magic number? 

And most importantly...why is that number so critical?

[SLCPUNK]

Nice ^

[waxlrick]

To all the naysayers...I have a question.  How many units would CD have to sell to be considered a success?  In the first week?  In a month?  In a year? 

You keep saying that the current number isn't enough...so what number is enough?  What is your magic number? 

And most importantly...why is that number so critical?

It's understandable that fans are disappointed with the chart position. CD has often been called "one of the most anticipated rock albums ever". And us fans want/wanted to believe that. We had hoped this album (after all these years of waiting) would be promoted right, go to number one and stay there.

Lets not try to sugar-coat what has, in many ways (apart from the music itself) been a lame comeback attempt by the so-called "New Guns N Roses". So far anyhow.........

[acompleteunknown]

Lame attempt?  Having an exclusive song in Rock Band is a lame attempt?  Visiting online fan forums to talk to fans is a lame attempt?  What other bands have ever done that?  none that I know of.

What would your rather them do?  Have a guest spot in Grey's Anatomy?  Maybe they could do a duet with Hannah Montana.

[Chief]

how are itunes sales going anyone care to venture a guess?

i know they're not included in the regular charts / sales figures....

[waxlrick]

Lame attempt?  Having an exclusive song in Rock Band is a lame attempt?  Visiting online fan forums to talk to fans is a lame attempt?  What other bands have ever done that?  none that I know of.

What would your rather them do?  Have a guest spot in Grey's Anatomy?  Maybe they could do a duet with Hannah Montana.

Yeah! Thats exactly what I was think of...how did you know? What a stupid reply. Are you a complete idiot?

[faldor]

Lame attempt?  Having an exclusive song in Rock Band is a lame attempt?  Visiting online fan forums to talk to fans is a lame attempt?  What other bands have ever done that?  none that I know of.

What would your rather them do?  Have a guest spot in Grey's Anatomy?  Maybe they could do a duet with Hannah Montana.

Yeah! Thats exactly what I was think of...how did you know? What a stupid reply. Are you a complete idiot?

I think you just topped him.  Straight to the insults, that's classy.

[acompleteunknown]

And considering bands featured in Grey's get a huge sales boost...and Hannah is one of the top selling artists in America...they're actually sound ideas...

My point was, do we want GNR to be the band that does those things?  Those are the things that works in today's market.  The usual things don't work the way they used to.

Video don't do shit for sales anymore.  I've used this example before.  Last year, Weezer had 16 million hits on their "pork & Beans" video (number one video on youtube)...only sold 300,000 copies of the album. 

Touring?  Sometimes helps.  But last year, Madonna had the highest grossing concert tour making over 100 mill.  Yet her album from last year (Hard Candy) has only sold 700,000 copies in the US...3 mill worldwide.  Her last album sold 10 mill worldwide.

So...geniuses of the music industry...what should GNR be doing differently?

[ppbebe]

  Those are the things that works in today's market.

not for a masterpiece like cd.

[D]

Here is my take as far as sales are concerned.

For me, it isn't necessarily the fact CD hasn't exploded, it is just how the album release has been handled.

I just thought when CD was released, Everything would be ready.

So much time and effort was put into CD, I figured when it finally came out, GNR would be back.

I don't know if that makes a lot of sense, but Axl seems to have always been a marketing genius for the most part.

The fact CD came out the way it did with so much mishandled stuff, was shocking to me cause I thought CD wouldn't come out till everything was perfect and ready to go.

Just seems sort of a let down that after 13 years, this release could be so mismanaged.

That isn't to blame anyone, I think the label got a can't pass up deal, they had the album, and they just rush released it.

This was the most anticipated rock album probably ever, and it deserved a better release strategy.


once again, im not blaming anyone in particular, I am sure once the label had it, Axl had no more control over it. seems he even could've been misled by the label.

[Butch Français]

^ Im sure if it was up to Axl alone, he would have made sure was the release was much bigger promotionwise.
we should really be happy to have the album, cos Axl being the perfectionist he is, finally releasing the album to us is huge. especially when everything is not 100% yet. most big artists who's spent this long on an album wouldn't release it unless he knew it would be on every news event on tv every day for the next 6 months and fully backed up by every single person in the music world.
he's showed us a sign of trust, and we should give the man respect in return and be grateful to him.

and the way this all has happened, just shows us that he's just one man with a band making good music. he's not superman, he can't have control over everything.

[acompleteunknown]

For me, it isn't necessarily the fact CD hasn't exploded, it is just how the album release has been handled.

I just thought when CD was released, Everything would be ready.

So much time and effort was put into CD, I figured when it finally came out, GNR would be back.

I don't know if that makes a lot of sense, but Axl seems to have always been a marketing genius for the most part.

The fact CD came out the way it did with so much mishandled stuff, was shocking to me cause I thought CD wouldn't come out till everything was perfect and ready to go.

Just seems sort of a let down that after 13 years, this release could be so mismanaged.

But in what sense?  What was mismanaged?  the only thing that wasn't great was the Best Buy deal.  But no one could have predicted that wasn't the best idea.  I thought it would be a great idea.  Most people did.  turns out, Best buy's not the best place to have an exclusive release.  But that's not a mismanaged part.   It was a good idea that didn't prosper. 

Also, we're in a massive recession right now.  Sales for everything are way down.  It's not GNR's fault that the economy imploded. 

But the big thing...the album's selling fairly strong.  600,000 copies sold is a decent number.  All it'll take is one song to break trhough and the album can still take off.  that might happen when the Best buy deal is over and they do a massive re-launch and tour to co-incide.

[D]

once again, u are so stuck on towing the company line, u can't even comprehend what I am saying.


most bands are ready to roll as soon as the album is released with  video,tour, promotion, something

CD was released with some tv commercials and that was it.


as much as a perfectionist as Axl is, I am shocked CD came out with no release plan and before it was ready.

I know that wasn't Axl's doing but the label's doing, but that is what I am saying.

If GNR were out there working their asses off and doing what bands do when they have a new album out, I wouldn't care if the album sold 40k copies.  The fact that the album to this point has been handled the way it has, is just really surprising when u factor in how much time they took to get it right.  Why would u then mess up the release of an album u worked so many years to make just right?

[younggunner]

as much as a perfectionist as Axl is, I am shocked CD came out with no release plan and before it was ready.

D, I have mentioned this for a few years now. The most surprising/disapointing thing to me in this whole journey was that Axl didnt have a "comeback" plan, or has not been able to execute anything smoothly  for any period of time. That to me is shocking because he has had years to forumulate a plan and demand that it be carried out.