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Gennaro Castaldo Watch: U2 sales improve incredibly overnight
You might remember yesterday that Gennaro Castaldo was busily trying to talk up underwhelming sales for No Line On The Horizon:
"It's doing pretty well, both in Ireland and the UK, at what is traditionally a relatively quiet time of year for music retail," says Gennaro Castaldo, HMV spokesperson. "The key thing about this album is that it will sell consistently throughout the year, especially when the band start performing live in the summer."
Pretty well; doing better as the year goes on. It's a quiet time.
I'll bet Gennaro will have something to say to the guy who's in the Telegraph today suggesting that sales are stellar:
"Sales of No Line On The Horizon have exceeded our already high expectations, and the album has sold exceptionally well on all its formats and across all channels – in store, online and via downloads."
Hey, dude, HMV's Baron Fact reckons it's only doing so-so, so who are you coming round here saying it's outperforming even sky-high expectations?
HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo
Yes, somehow Gennaro has managed to conjure an album which is only doing pretty well, considering the time of year, into an exceptional seller, outstripping expectations. Perhaps there were an awful, awful lot of people who bought it during the Sunday trading hours.
Gennaro was talking to the Telegraph as U2 were being added to some sort of list making them one of the five-biggest selling acts in Britain.
"U2 are one of the very few bands who can reach beyond their core fan base to connect with a much wider audience – both through their music and their personality, and their achievement in matching the Rolling Stones' record of 10 number one UK albums reaffirms their iconic status as the world's biggest Rock group."
Is any of that true, Gennaro? Isn't the problem that their new album is only talking to their fanbase? And can you even meaningfully compare ten number one albums in the 90s/00s with ten number one albums in the 60s/70s? Isn't that like comparing the scores from Countdown when it was a thirty minute programme with those now its 45 minutes, and concluding that the contestants must be smarter as they score more points?
1 comment:
I know you aren't keen on the band, but 10 no 1 albums over a near 30 year period represents if anything a much greater achievement than the ones the Stones got largely in the first ten years or so of their 40 year career (2 no 1s since 1973).
Especially as, like it or not, there were more albums sold in the 90s/00s than there were in the 60s/70s. (2005 was the record year for sales in the UK).
By all means knock the coasting music U2 seem to be unfortunately making now, or even Bono's muddled political stances, but you have to admit that they've been one of the most succesful and enduring acts in music.
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