KISS and Michael Buble Battle for Number 1

Next week's Billboard 200 chart will either house a first-ever No. 1 album from iconic band Kiss, or pop singer Michael Buble may crash the group's rockin' party with his new set, "Crazy Love."

You can read more at the following link:

http://www.billboard.com/#/news/kiss-buble-battle-for-no-1-on-billboard-1004020441.story

Go KISS!

It's hard to believe that Psycho Circus is their highest charting album.

tohostudios wrote:

It's hard to believe that Psycho Circus is their highest charting album.

That report is sort of confusing. It says, "If the set sells that much, it will also mark the group's best sales week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991." Some of their 70's albums shipped Platinum.

True.

Wow.....I couldn't care less

ultmetal wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

It's hard to believe that Psycho Circus is their highest charting album.

That report is sort of confusing. It says, "If the set sells that much, it will also mark the group's best sales week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991." Some of their 70's albums shipped Platinum.

Soundscan is actual sales via a computer system that debuted in the early 90's and that is how all albums are charted these days. Before, they used a different method.

Looks like Michael Buble won this round. Blabbermouth sez that KISS will debut at #2 on the Billboard chart (still their highest chart position ever). Apparently SONIC BOOM sold around 108,000 copies in its first week.

A few days ago Blabbermouth quoted some "industry insiders" who were predicting that it would sell between 170-180,000 copies in its first week. With that in mind I would think 108,000 is kind of a disappointment.

Then again, in this day and age where hardly anybody actually buys CDs, that's a pretty decent showing for first week out of the box. I'm sure KISS don't care either way. I'm sure Wal-Mart already paid'em for the CDs, now selling 'em all is Wal-Mart's problem.

AC/DC sold 6x that amount. Of course WalMart put a TON more marketing into AC/DC too.

Still, not a bad showing for the first week.

I wonder how Ace's CD did in comparison.

thejokeriv wrote:

Soundscan is actual sales via a computer system that debuted in the early 90's and that is how all albums are charted these days. Before, they used a different method.

As I recall, it was simple polling of store owners, which lead to lots of bands being screwed out of high chart positions, particularly if they weren't mainstream pop acts.

ultmetal wrote:

AC/DC sold 6x that amount. Of course WalMart put a TON more marketing into AC/DC too.

I was thinking the same thing. Wal-Mart didn't pimp the KISS release at all. Last year when BLACK ICE was about to come out, I went into a Wal-Mart a week or so prior to the release date and they had posters all over the store, promotional ads for it on the in-store TV displays, and a butt load of AC/DC shirts, CDs and other merch prominently displayed in the midway aisle. You couldn't miss it.

Someone else picked up my SONIC BOOM disc for me so I haven't seen the Wal-Mart display for it myself, but the guy who bought it for me sez (in the store he visited at least) there was only one small end cap near the electronics/music dept. with copies of the CD and a couple of the KISSOLOGY DVD sets on it. No posters, no signage, and no trace of the supposed "KISS KORNER" that was supposed to be in every store with the shirts, M&Ms, Halloween masks, Bobble Heads, and other swag.

If I were Gene I think I'd be p*ssed. Sounds like WalMart's dropping the ball on this thing!!

ultmetal wrote:

I wonder how Ace's CD did in comparison.

I forget the exact amount but I believe Blabbermouth said it sold around 15 thou in its first week, which was good enough for a debut of #26 (or thereabouts) on Billboard.

15,000 copies is excellent for an independent release, even for an artist as well known as Ace.

I saw a stack of Ace CDs at my local Wal-Mart, so I grabbed them all and put them in the KISS KORNER display.

My local Wal-Mart has all the Kiss crap, but not nearly what they had for AC/DC.

ACDC also had the advantage of being still comprised of a classic, high-selling lineup. KISS is now two members who have sold a lot of albums in their heyday plus two more cats.

How did GNR do when they debuted?

ultmetal wrote:

I saw a stack of Ace CDs at my local Wal-Mart

When I bought the new Megadeth at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago I looked for the new Ace while I was there. They didn't even have Ace's CD.

sheets wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

Soundscan is actual sales via a computer system that debuted in the early 90's and that is how all albums are charted these days. Before, they used a different method.

As I recall, it was simple polling of store owners, which lead to lots of bands being screwed out of high chart positions, particularly if they weren't mainstream pop acts.

There was a lot of payola involved in the "old" system of charting album sales. Nowadays each CD's UPC code gets scanned and it goes to a central database somewhere which tallies up accurate sales figures/charts.

Temple of Blood wrote:

How did GNR do when they debuted?

Chinese Democracy debuted at #2 or #3 (I'm pretty sure it was the latter).

Chinese Democracy did 261,000 it's first week.

My Wal-Mart just has a corner rack with a boombox playing the Klassics disc. From the looks of it they haven't sold very many. They did have Ace's album out on the big end-cap thing with the new releases. So in a way his release got a better slot. The only other stuff they have out are the M&Ms at the front and a couple of shirts in the clothing section. Nothing like AC/DC got.

I do love Michael Buble though. Never heard his stuff or could tell you what type of music it is but a couple of years back our library had a book sale and at the end it was everything you could fit in a bag for a buck. They had a few cds so I just stuffed them into the bag figuring I could sell them to the local Hastings. Michael Buble's was a cd/dvd deal and I was shocked when they gave me twenty for it plus another five for taking store credit.

Michael Buble also had the advantage of appearing on Oprah. I'm sure Oprah mind tricked her followers, directing them to buy the new Michael Buble CD.

And with eyes glazed over they went to their computers and local retailers to purchase this CD of which Oprah speaks.

ultmetal wrote:

I saw a stack of Ace CDs at my local Wal-Mart, so I grabbed them all and put them in the KISS KORNER display.

Did you stop by my local Walmart and do it here too? I noticed Ace had his own spot here as well! I don't think Gene & Paul would appreciate that.