Eminem Sales Thread

[Francesco]

^ man its always possible for em, the question is how likely it is.

I don't doubt Em, I never did. It simply is about how he little by little is getting further & further from the general masses of buyers who statistically are 10 to 14 years olds. Would it even be possible for that Korean dude to sell that many records with that messy kids anthem of his if it wasn't about masses of kids buing? lol

[Francesco]

I can see Eminem doing 1 million first week. His music was exposed to a much larger audience during the Recovery era. If he capitalizes on that, he can definitely do 1 million first week. It'll be tough, but not impossible.

It all depends on the single tbh. I think what really helped MMLP and TES sell so much first week (on top of his buzz obviously) were the singles. The Real Slim Shady and Without Me. I remember every single kid in my elementary school (MMLP) and middle school (TES) loving those songs and if you didn't buy Eminem's CD when it came out, you were pretty much a loser. The kids who listened to rap were buying it and the kids who listen to rock were buying it. Look at acts like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, their albums sell so much due to the young demographic.

Sure, Eminem is 40 years old, but that doesn't mean he can't capture the interest of the youth, especially if he is successful at making a good modern day Without Me type of record. Add all the loyal fans and stans that will always buy Eminem's record, the casual listener who will most likely buy Eminem's album, and the youth who has recently been exposed to Eminem with Recovery, and you have a recipe for huge success. If Taylor Swift sold 1.2 million first week, I don't see why Eminem can't.

I agree if EM did another crazy funny, goofy song he'd catch the attention of kids but I doubt he's gonna do that. People always underestimated those singles but just like you said, I remember how those videos were on TV stations for like up to 6-8 months & kids were laughing at the people EM makes fun with in the videos. Obviously EM was not just a rapper but an actor as well in those videos.

It's kind of awkward for EM to be as goofy as he was back in the day, exactly cuz's he's in his early 40's & he's definitely shown some maturity. I'm not saying he hasn't dropped bombs in his songs as of late but he has shown some maturity... which is the exact reason he's slowly but surely getting further from mass of buyers who are kids at that age.
On another note that Skylar Grey video was goofy but it didn't really work that well, yeah it wasn't that funny & it wasn't EM single but it kinda was out of place.

I mean I do expect him to sell crazy like 850k or whatever... but to top ''Recovery'' with that much so he'd get to a millie I don't expect it. Yet again I am not saying HE CAN'T, it is just my expectations.

[Francesco]

I know, I didn't call them silly... all of them are goofy as video singles but I agree they are good songs too & a lot of them have had damage impact on some big level.
You were saying yesterday, EM helped the boy bands to be trashed but they were leaving anyway çuz the music was just bad... I disagree 'cuz EM first brought down Backstreet Boys with that kiss he delivered in ''TRSS" but then Justin & his peeps came right after Backsteet Boys were outta here... so EM turned at N-Sync esp. since Justin was Britney's boy... This is not like real dissing but it has huge damage effect... people don't realize how as goofy song as ''Just lose it'' damaged Madonna & MJ... yeah it's just fun & EM doesn't even go at them as they are enemies, but then it's like up to 6-8 months those songs are on TV & kids laugh at whoever EM is going at which obviously have damage effect. That's why Madonna was really unhappy from day one even though "her" part in video was little.
If Gaga wasn't Interscope's cash machine she'd definitely be in ''We made you'' with her competition EM was bitch slapping in, but obviously more or less that would have damaged her rep as well.

[NeverSincerely]

Why are you guys so hung up on first week sales? It's the total album sales that count in the long run. Lil Wayne did about 950k first week in 2011, and has only sold 2million copies in total. Compared to Adele who did about 300k her first week and has sold 10 million in total.

[Francesco]

Why are you guys so hung up on first week sales? It's the total album sales that count in the long run. Lil Wayne did about 950k first week in 2011, and has only sold 2million copies in total. Compared to Adele who did about 300k her first week and has sold 10 million in total.

First week sales are really important for hip-hop albums, while pop acts have different strategies 'cuz they keep putting radio singles & their albums hang way longer with bigger numbers...it's always like that. Most of the pop divas don't put out the biggest single first as well 'cuz of that strategy.
Even though EM's albums hang the longest they still do it how other hip-hop albums do it in general... strong first one or few weeks sales, then big fall & constant slowing down.

I've seen some pop or R&B artists (Whitney, Mariah, Beyoncee, Katy Perry, Adele, Britney, etc. etc.) to keep up the same numbers for 4 months straight & even to have big bumps in those periods but that never happens to hip-hop albums. It was kind of different with EM (MMLP, TES) & then 50 (GRODT, TM) but those days are gone.

Nowadays if you know the hip-hop artist statistically, first week sales could tell you what numbers he's gonna do for the whole year & most of the time even overall. For instance if EM next album did like 350-500k first week, he most likely is gonna go to somewhere in between 2-2,5 mills in like a year/year & a half. If he did 700-850 he could get to 4-4.5 for the same period, while if he hit over a mill first week he'll def pass 5 mill & could go further. Then again it all depends on the singles & on that EM could still surprise you. Most of the other rappers though can't surprise you so you could even be more precise with how far they're gonna go after you get their first week sales.

[NeverSincerely]

Why are you guys so hung up on first week sales? It's the total album sales that count in the long run. Lil Wayne did about 950k first week in 2011, and has only sold 2million copies in total. Compared to Adele who did about 300k her first week and has sold 10 million in total.

First week sales are really important for hip-hop albums, while pop acts have different strategies 'cuz they keep putting radio singles & their albums hang way longer with bigger numbers...it's always like that. Most of the pop divas don't put out the biggest single first as well 'cuz of that strategy.
Even though EM's albums hang the longest they still do it how other hip-hop albums do it in general... strong first one or few weeks sales, then big fall & constant slowing down.

I've seen some pop or R&B artists (Whitney, Mariah, Beyoncee, Katy Perry, Adele, Britney, etc. etc.) to keep up the same numbers for 4 months straight & even to have big bumps in those periods but that never happens to hip-hop albums. It was kind of different with EM (MMLP, TES) & then 50 (GRODT, TM) but those days are gone.

Nowadays if you know the hip-hop artist statistically, first week sales could tell you what numbers he's gonna do for the whole year & most of the time even overall. For instance if EM next album did like 350-500k first week, he most likely is gonna go to somewhere in between 2-2,5 mills in like a year/year & a half. If he did 700-850 he could get to 4-4.5 for the same period, while if he hit over a mill first week he'll def pass 5 mill & could go further. Then again it all depends on the singles & on that EM could still surprise you. Most of the other rappers though can't surprise you so you could even be more precise with how far they're gonna go after you get their first week sales.

I mean, talking about first week sales like they're more important than overall album sales. I understand that hip-hop album sales, and album sales in general are extremely front loaded, and that most don't have any longevity. But the same can't be applied to Eminem's album sales. He had more consistent week to week sales with Recovery than every artist you mentioned in your example had with their most recent albums other than Adele.

I have to disagree with using first week sales to predict his overall sales. His first week sales are usually similar in range. If you take into account the overall decrease of sales in the album market with all of his album sales while keeping the first week sales the same, his biggest selling albums in order would be TES, MMLP, then Recovery. These three albums had the most consistent week to week sales out of all of them. The MMLP might have had the bigger first week sales by about 400k, but TES had more consistent sales. Despite the fact that Encore had bigger first week sales than Recovery, it had no longevity. It was out of the billboard 200 within a year. Even with the same first week sales of 800-900k, it would have sold less than Relapse which was still in the charts a year after it's release.

I think it's ridiculous to put such a large emphasis on his first week sales, since with him it isn't a clear indicator of his overall sales.

[Francesco]

Feel free to disagree but you're way off.
I told you ''TMMLP'' & ''TES'' days are gone both for EM himself & for general sales overall. Of course ''Encore'' didn't have the longevity but started on a bigger scale, that's the point, the whole industry was changing & the pattern I wall telling you about went more vivid from there on. Since that period of time it's always like that... if you wanna sell better, hype up the album for the first few weeks & that's the base of the general sales.

Of course ''Recovery'' is the definition of album that lasts but it's still the way I was talking about... it started fantastic, lasted for like a couple of months with the so called big numbers & then went slowing down. Basically for the last year and a half it has always been in Top 200 but those numbers just add, they don't grow fast so that doesn't count for the prediction you would do.
After the period of time when rappers could still go diamond, all of them that have been close or over a million first week (Kanye, Wayne, Drake, Eminem, Jay) have had the same pattern & even though starting with bigger numbers than the pop artists, have slowed down fast after the first few weeks & went to similar overall number which is like from near 3 up to 5 mills. Pop artists though who have gone near 3 or over like 5 mills have all started with way smaller numbers than the ones rappers have started with but have kept the momentum going with for instance like 50-70k a week for like 3 or more months or so (Katty Perry, BEP, Gaga, Susan Boyle, Adele etc.)

Since you mentioned the word ''ridiculous'', let me tell you what that is... to get two random albums from two different genres, put their sales against each other & to generalize the whole music industry based on that.

Believe it or not, agree or disagree a lotta people would know nearly what EM is gonna do in total after the first week sales & would clearly know it after the first few weeks. There are plenty on this very forum who'd know actually.

This is the reason why rappers' boundary & a dream if I can say so, is like 5 mills nowadays, even money machine rapper like Eminem in that matter. While even new pop artists have gone further than that & one or two have even doubled that number. Statistics don' lie & it's not even a rocket science to know hip-hop & pop albums have totally different strategies to sell.

[NeverSincerely]

Feel free to disagree but you're way off.
I told you ''TMMLP'' & ''TES'' days are gone both for EM himself & for general sales overall. Of course ''Encore'' didn't have the longevity but started on a bigger scale, that's the point, the whole industry was changing & the pattern I wall telling you about went more vivid from there on. Since that period of time it's always like that... if you wanna sell better, hype up the album for the first few weeks & that's the base of the general sales.

Of course ''Recovery'' is the definition of album that lasts but it's still the way I was talking about... it started fantastic, lasted for like a couple of months with the so called big numbers & then went slowing down. Basically for the last year and a half it has always been in Top 200 but those numbers just add, they don't grow fast so that doesn't count for the prediction you would do.
After the period of time when rappers could still go diamond, all of them that have been close or over a million first week (Kanye, Wayne, Drake, Eminem, Jay) have had the same pattern & even though starting with bigger numbers than the pop artists, have slowed down fast after the first few weeks & went to similar overall number which is like from near 3 up to 5 mills. Pop artists though who have gone near 3 or over like 5 mills have all started with way smaller numbers than the ones rappers have started with but have kept the momentum going with for instance like 50-70k a week for like 3 or more months or so (Katty Perry, BEP, Gaga, Susan Boyle, Adele etc.)

Since you mentioned the word ''ridiculous'', let me tell you what that is... to get two random albums from two different genres, put their sales against each other & to generalize the whole music industry based on that.

Believe it or not, agree or disagree a lotta people would know nearly what EM is gonna do in total after the first week sales & would clearly know it after the first few weeks. There are plenty on this very forum who'd know actually.

This is the reason why rappers' boundary & a dream if I can say so, is like 5 mills nowadays, even money machine rapper like Eminem in that matter. While even new pop artists have gone further than that & one or two have even doubled that number. Statistics don' lie & it's not even a rocket science to know hip-hop & pop albums have totally different strategies to sell.

I wasn't implying that the state of the music industry hasn't changed since 2000-2003. Encore only started off with big sales because it was riding of the type of TES/8 mill soundtrack. Hyping up sales and getting a big first week then falling off the charts isn't the way to sell albums either, despite the fact that people do it. For a 2004 album, Encore's sales are disappointing coming from an Artist as big as Eminem was at the time.

Recovery doesn't follow the pattern you were talking about. It didn't sell the way it did because of first week sales, but because of it's overall longevity. I never stated any where in my prediction that any numbers "grow fast". So how does Recovery not follow the kind of prediction I'd do? If we use your method, then Wayne should have outsold Recovery with his 2011 album since he sold 950k first week while Em only did 740k. Or he should have outsold Recovery with his 2008 album since that sold 1million it's first week. Point is, he didn't. If you take the first 4-5 week sales of all of the albums and compare them, you'll be able to tell that Recovery would be the one to sell the most. While Wayne outsold Recovery's first week with both of his album's first weeks, Eminem outsold Wayne's 2nd, 3rd,4th, and 5th week and so on.

The fact that Recovery is still in the top 200 and neither of Wayne's albums that I mentioned are proves my point further. He had steadier sales, while Wayne only had front loaded sales as most hip-hop albums do.

You can't even compare Kanye's, Wayne's, or Jay Z's album sales to Eminem's. They follow the pattern you were talking about, big first week sales that basically make up 1/3 or in some cases 1/2 of their overall sales. If we were talking about them, I would have no argument against you're method. Since it would be fairly accurate in predicting their overall sales. Plus non of them have been able to sell over 2million copies since 2008. No where near the 3-5million you mentioned.

I only compared albums of two different genre's once, and that was only to show that big first week sales aren't everything and sometimes aren't important in the long run. I never generalized the sales of the entire music industry based on that, so you obviously missed the point of my comparison.

I have read the Recovery sales threads made on this forum, and most people here don't know much about album sales. And out of the ones who did know something about how album sales work non of them were thinking Recovery would sell as much as it has based of it's first week sales. They still didn't know after it's first 2-3 weeks either. So there goes your argument.

I've also read Recovery sales threads on other forums, mostly chart forums, and most of the people there also underestimated it's total sales when just looking at first week sales. Most people were thinking it would end up selling 3 million. Only after 4-5 weeks did the people start saying it "might" sell over 4 million in the long run.

It isn't just rappers who can only dream of selling over 5million, it's out of reach for every music artist regardless of genre. The only person who has done it recently is Adele. No album since 2009 has sold over 5million. No doubt that pop artist have been selling better than Rappers. Especially as of late, seeing as no rap albums from 2012 sold over a million.

Funny you're talking about music sales statistics when you don't know much about them considering you said even new pop artist have sold past 5 million while non other than Adele has. Non have even come close. Unless you're talking about WW, and just haven't bothered pointing it out.

I know pop and rap have different sales strategies and I've never said otherwise. They have different sales patterns and I haven't said they don't. I've just been saying that Eminem's sales patterns for the most part don't follow that of the rap genre, so you shouldn't be using the same method you do for rap albums for comparing his album sales.

[Emadyville]

All i can say, to add to this, is that album sales now are hard to judge. I mean encore did big numbers and fucking halted at 5 mill. Relapse did big first week numbers and hasnt even sold 3 mill yet (I think). Recovery did big first week and with its singles has it close to 5 mill, which is encore numbers.

Album sales now are hard to judge, because so many people buy singles and thats it, so a huge single might mean huge single/billboard hot 100 numbers but not overall huge album sales numbers.

I just wonder what would happen if em had a single that was meh, say like a "just lose it" now, in addition to the fact he's 40, that would make even decent em fans say fuck the album idc. Which is why i assume em has to come with some big shit as a single, assuming a street single and freestyle accompany the first single, to do big numbers by em fan standards.

[Sam.]

Another EmBase?

[Francesco]

@NeverSincerely
Dude you're confused & don't even get what I'm saying. You talk about different things on any of your next posts.

Of course I don't compare Kanye's, Wayne's or Jay's sales to EM's or put it like if you sold more records first week then you'd sell more in total than whoever else sold less first week. I'm not talking about mathematics.
That's why I said if you know the statistics of the GIVEN artist then you should know what he's gonna do. Which means they have the same pattern but go different ways. I judge or I'd predict by the given artist's statistics, no by the general sales of all rap artists. Plus for the first few weeks you'd know how good the album & the singles are & what the reaction of the public is. AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

Eminem's sales are unique & nobody can touch them, but even though on bigger scale... Eminem's sales, the same as the rest hip-hop acts have the the same pattern, just with bigger numbers from the other rappers. No rapper can touch him sales wise & the thing you said about Kanye & Wayne even proves my theory. All rappers hype up their albums with the biggest single & huge promo at fist because unlike pop acts the first weeks are crucial. It still does depend on how good the album & the singles are but it uses the same pattern. As for now even rappers who have some longevity still go down every week & at some point numbers just add 'cuz they are too small go change the general total number if we speak millions. Eminem's pattern is the same but on a bigger scale than the rest rappers. STILL MOST OF THE TIME HIS SALES DECREASE every week while the strategy of pop acts is to hang & hold similar or even increasing numbers for months, esp. if the given pop act has more than 3-4 singles.

I was only explaining to you the difference between rap & pop albums 'cuz that was the example YOU INITIALLY PUT. Meaning you compared Wayne's sales to Adele's. What's so hard to get? From the beginning I'm explaining to you the difference between rap & pop acts' sales can't be compared WEEK BY WEEK & HOW THEY GET TO THEIR TOTAL NUMBER exactly 'cuz they do not have the same strategies/pattern. Your example was out of place, first of all not just because they are two random albums but 'cuz they're from different genres that use totally DIFFERENT STRATEGIES to sell. So yeah Wayne had bigger first week than Adele & yeah she got way bigger number in total but that's pretty normal. DUH! Whoever predicts Wayne's numbers after his first few weeks would know how & by how many his numbers are gonna start going down. If he started with small numbers as he did with ''Rebirth'' & ''I'm not a human being'' means he's not gonna have big total number & if he started big the way he started with any of the ''Carter'' series means his number in total is gonna be be big. Nowadays IT IS IMPOSSIBLE for a hip-hop act to start & finish the ways Adele did. Even Eminem can't do that the way she did. This is the whole point & I mean nowadays.

I did talk about WW sales in general & esp. when we talk about pop acts because WW sales is something it fits better to their strategies

Bottom line is... FUCK YEAH first week sales are hella important & the first few weeks are always decisive to what would be the total number for a HIP-HOP act, no matter the individual sales of given artists, Eminem on a bigger scale but still in that matter! That makes the Adele example you put out irrelevant. GET IT?

[Mikey1990]

Billboard 200

#146 Recovery 3,212 - 4,404,648

Catalog Albums

#50 Curtain Call 2,572 - 3,681,975

#69 Marshall Mathers LP 2,274 - 10,677,367

#91 Eminem Show 2,059 - 10,155,062

Hot Digital Songs

#136 Lose Yourself 14,471 - 5,291,915

#183 C'mon Let Me Ride 11,097 - 113,423

[Francesco]

Thanks Mikey
Damn ''Come on let me ride'' kind of took off & keeps going little by little... interesting after the really slow start.

[TheGentlePlayer]

I want Em to be the last rapper to do 1 milli first week.

[Francesco]

Yo Mikey, if you stumble on other Shady artists' sales this week could you bring it up along with the weekly EM sales, homie?
I'd be glad if I could see the current total sales of whatever 50 album/track... then BME, Yela & SH would be dope too!