Pitchfork Top 10 Albums, In US Sales

perpetua:

1. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 131k
2. Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca 48k
3. the xx xx 35k
4. The Flaming Lips Embryonic 75k (estimate)
5. Raekwon Only Built For Cuban Linx Part II 141k
6. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest 132k
7. Bat For Lashes Two Suns 36k
8. Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 205k
9. Fever Ray Fever Ray 23k
10. Girls Album 19k

Sales figures are from Soundscan through December 6th, 2009. I was hoping to get data for the entire Pitchfork top 50 and reshuffle the list to reflect sales, but that’s looking to be a tall order. Here are sales numbers for other albums on the list:

12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs It’s Blitz 184k
20. Real Estate Real Estate 3,400
21. Neko Case Middle Cyclone 169k
26. Bon Iver Blood Bank EP 89k
34. Passion Pit Manners 282k (best seller on top 50)
37. Antlers Hospice 13k
41. Baroness Blue Record 12k
45. Mountain Goats The Life of the World to Come 14k
48. Doom Born Like This 4,300

To get an idea of context, here are some sales figures of some other artists who did not make the Pitchfork list.

Wilco Wilco (The Album) 243k
Lily Allen It’s Not Me, It’s You 250k
Metric Fantasies 76k
Andrew Bird Noble Beast 126k
The Gossip Music For Men 19k
Silversun Pickups Swoon 193k
Muse The Resistance 292k
Lonely Island Incredibad 266k
Owl City Ocean Eyes 384k
Pearl Jam Backspacer 394k
Arctic Monkeys Humbug 72k
Matt & Kim Grand 64k
U2 No Line On The Horizon 1m
Paramore Brand New Eyes 327k

These numbers are crazy to me. It is sad to see where we are at for album sales these days. It is good to see so many indie artist selling well but sad to see some of the number so low.

Source: perpetua

212 Notes/ Hide

  1. grindsports reblogged this from perpetua
  2. borobudur reblogged this from perpetua
  3. wolfboyswisdom reblogged this from adamisacson and added:
    Hola quiero que Adam Isacson sea mi tio o algo asi D: adamisacson:
  4. banale reblogged this from perpetua
  5. gerhardstephanus reblogged this from perpetua
  6. stuartinwashington reblogged this from petervidani and added:
    SIW commentary on all this: First, artists don’t make very much on their albums. That’s always been the case. But they...
  7. manyinwonderland reblogged this from perpetua
  8. robbiemitchell reblogged this from perpetua and added:
    units (albums) sold,
  9. spangley reblogged this from rickwebb and added:
    agreed. artists/bands don’t make a living off of record sales. also - if i made $100K a year doing what i love that...
  10. rebeccalando reblogged this from petervidani
  11. rickwebb reblogged this from petervidani and added:
    Well… for starters, $100k a year is no slouch. Then there are sales in the rest of the world - figure another $100k...
  12. saladfork reblogged this from singwithourheros and added:
    1. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 131k 2. Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca 48k 3. the xx xx 35k 4. The Flaming...
  13. clintisiceman reblogged this from girlcyborg and added:
    Umm…since when is $100,000 not a lot of money? I haven’t made anywhere close to $100,000 in four years, much less one...
  14. illustratedexample reblogged this from openareas and added:
    I agree with most all of what inthefade said. My only opposition is that when you “sell out” you still want to maintain...
  15. openareas reblogged this from essdogg and added:
    This is why I hate the term “sell out” and why I hate when people start throwing stones at bands for either selling...
  16. perpetua posted this