Whitechapel’s Alex Wade Rants On The Importance Of First Week Album Sales
Whitechapel guitarist Alex Wade has taken to his Twitter to rant on the importance of first week sales. The missive emerged in light of today’s (June 19th) release of the bands new self-titled album.
“Alright i’m going to go on a Randy Blythe style rant and it will be the only time I do it, so sorry in advance. The reason why bands hound their fans to buy their CD the first week it comes out is not because of money, it’s for the numbers. No bands make money off of CD sales these days, it’s not a source of income like it used to be for older bands.
Bands like us make income to keep our band going through touring. The music business deems a bands worth by album sales, the more albums they sell, the more people that like them, it’s not rocket science. For whatever reason, someone deemed it that whatever a band sales in the first week is what’s most important, so that’s why bands want you to buy their album in the first week it is out. I don’t want you to buy our CD because it’s going to make me rich, far from it.
I want you to buy it because the more albums we sell, the betters tours and opportunities we will get to play shows for you, our fans. So please, if you have the intention of buying our CD, skip a shitty fast food meal this week and use that $10 to pick up a copy to help our career, not our wallets. Thank you!”
COMMENTS
That was the best possible way he could’ve prefaced this.
you want me to buy it, i want it to be good. nobody gets what they want any more, i suppose.
that was too fast, painless, sensible and lacking in caps lock to be a true randy rant.
OK. So since i’m not planning on buying this CD, Does that mean I should Mcdonalds the day this CD comes out instead? Easy enough.
Mmmm….Big Mac’s.
While I appreciate that he is being honest, he isn’t telling the whole story. True, a band the size of Whitechapel isn’t making much money on album sales (probably only a few thousand a year if they don’t blow it all on tour support) but they still want to make money. They want to get on bigger tours to increase their fanbase which will make them more money on merchandise, guarantees, and maybe eventually album sales. He tries to frame it as being for the fans but in the end bands don’t want to get on bigger tours for the die hard old fans. They do it to gain new ones. When they get on a bigger tour the die-hard fans usually end up bummed because the band gets slated early in the tour and only plays a few songs. If they really only cared about the “faithful few” and weren’t concerned about the money then they would headline constantly, and play a super long set, regardless of what it paid even if they are only playing for 50 people. But if you have ever been in a touring band you know that will eventually suck every ounce of life out of you.
So with the changing of times in music, is this what we have to look forward to? I’m tired of hearing bands constantly whine about shit. You want me to buy your album the first week, here’s what it takes: dont be pussies (this band), make sure the album isnt cookie cutter bullshit (this band), dont tell me to buy it the first week (this band).
Your whining about his whining cancels out the whining.
Agreed on this here…shit i preordered Ex-Lives Deluxe Edition, only listened to one track of this whitechapel disc, and while i didnt mind it, its not going to make me run out and grab it. But if you are a fan of whitechapel, own all the discs, looking forward to this, by all means, go support your music or it won’t be there when you are looking for the next installment.
How’s about I just skip over the shitty fast food meal AND the shitty metal album?
So, hes basically not whining about piracy, which is cool. But, hes whining about people not buying albums the first week. I’m not going to pirate or buy this crap. Crying about it in the form of “let me explain something to you”, is pointless.
If you have good promotion, and the music is good, you wont need to tell people why and when you want them to buy your album.
Absolutely, good music speaks for itself and finds a fan base because it cannot be ignored. Especially in an industry where bands are a dime a dozen, to the point that no matter what neat phrase or cool idea i might have for a band name for my own band, i go search the internet and realize its already taken by 4 or 5 bands. K Maybe im just not that great at coming up with a unique band name, but thats why i stick to guitar, not words!
Being in a signed, touring band myself (as well as being friends with the guys in Whitechapel), everything that Alex has said is true and could not have been put better. First week album sale numbers honestly do determine a bands worth. It is what determines the type of tours they get, the amount of advertisement they will have, and most of all, how much their label will push them.
If a band only sells 1000 units the first week and then sells 3,000 every week after, it does not matter in the labels eyes. First week sales determines how much hype the band has. Labels look at bands like they do to a product. If the band has hype and the label thinks that they can make money from investing in them, they will do so. It is the reason why even established bands fade off the map somewhat over time.
I understand where you are coming from, and it is understandable to want to put these thoughts into consumers minds, but i don’t think its going to push anyone over the edge that is waffling about whether or not they intend to buy an album. As i said before, good music stands on its own, and people that are excited to get their hands on it will go and get it. People that buy it down the road are either not that excited about initially or were not all the familiar with the band when the disc was released and got into it later, or very possibly it was poorly advertised and the consumer did not know you had a new album, which i feel has happened to me a lot. Thats more of a commentary on the label advertising it, or my complete lack of reading music magazines/visiting bands websites/twitters/facebooks, i just dont do that. If it aint on the PRP, i generally dont know about it (good job Wook!) I mean, we as consumers are not idiots (well…some are), we realize purchasing your album the week it comes out is the best praise we can give to our favorite artists for the most part.
Even though I would hate to compare these two subjects, buying an album during the first week it has been released is like voting. Every unit counts.
You do raise a very valid point that “good music stands on its own” however, there are two issues regarding this:
1.) Many people do not like good music. I know this is opinion based and subjective, but look at all the horrible bands that are as big as they are (ie. Hollywood Undead, Black Veil Brides, Escape The Fate, and every other cookie cutter band, etc…). They don’t get big overnight. People buy their albums and like their music, it is an unfortunate reality.
2.) You can’t ever expect to hear about good bands/music without some promotion. Though both the PRP and Metalsucks (just to name a few sites) do a great job a giving bands of all calibers some needed promotion, these sites only appeal to a certain crowd with certain tastes.
There are a few exceptions to this, however, it is a sad and shitty reality.
it’s sad that someone who has devoted their life to metal gets so much heat for asking fans to buy their latest release solely for the reason that they might get good tour offers. If you don’t like it, then don’t bitch about how it’s their fault for not catering your YOUR tastes. If you aren’t a fan, then his rant probably doesn’t pertain to you anyways, so why the fuck even open your mouth.
So what I got from this is that if you want an album that has been out for over 1 week, you may as well pirate it.
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