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Wow. Madonna’s critics really have their knives out this week. But she might end up having the last laugh.
As you might have heard, sales of her latest album, MDNA, suffered the biggest second-week drop in chart history. Since the news broke, the highly regarded Lefsetz Letter has stated bluntly that Madonna has lost touch with her audience. Forbes contributor Roger Friedman blames Madonna for creating boring songs and not caring. The problem is that her naysayers are measuring the wrong metric. Especially for multi-media brands like Madonna, sales of compact discs don’t count for much anymore – and haven’t for about 10 years. The real action for the Madonnas, U2s, and Bruce Springsteens of the world comes from sales of tickets and merchandise. We won’t be able to assess the health of the Madonna brand until the sales results are known for her 2012 World Tour, which begins on May 29 in Israel and comes to North America on August 28. So far, reports of preliminary ticket sales have been largely positive, but it’s best to wait until actual revenues are reported.
Ironically, MDNA was engineered to realize a sales drop – certainly not to the magnitude that Madonna probably expected, but a drop was indeed part of the plan. As Billboard reported, “MDNA’s” large fall was expected, as its debut was bolstered by sales gained from a concert ticket/album promotion as well as pre-orders from iTunes.” In other words, the CD supports the tour, not the other way around — a strategy that makes perfect business sense for a well established act.
By the way, do you know who previously held the record for the biggest second-week sales drop in history?
Someone by the name of Lady Gaga for Born This Way.
I love that Roger Friedman thinks Madonna\’s album is DEAD (in 2 weeks) and that it\’s largely because Madonna swears a lot on it. Journalism is dead. Madonna will be irrelevant once people don\’t bother to write articles arguing that she is. Yours, by the way, is right on the money—literally! Her tour will be a smash. And even people who \”don\’t care\” were stopping in their tracks at Macy\’s last night hoping to get a glimpse of her…
Thank you — great points. By the way, I noticed my 10-year-old daughter dancing in our living room to \”Give Me All Your Lovin\’.\” And we didn\’t even tell her, \”This song is by a famous artist named Madonna!\” She was drawn to the music naturally. It\’s always a good sign for an artist when our children find their music and carry the torch.
MDNA #1 GLOBALLY last week, #3 GLOBALLY this week = WIN.
Amen, Matt R. So much interest and talk about someone who supposedly isn\’t relevant. But, that\’s par for the course anytime Madonna has a new album out- been happening for a couple of decades or so.
i dont get the criticism that cd\’s included with ticket purchases are a trick/sham to inflate sales. those same cd\’s would have been purchased had they not come with the ticket. i got a cd with my ticket therefore i did not have to get it elsewhere which i would have done. i agree the entire marketing was way off….a single is supposed to drive the cd and that single, weak as it is, was released 2 months before the cd. That song should have simply been a Super Bowl number and another song should have been the lead single…Turn Up The Radio
biggest cd sales of the year vs sold out concerts of the year
no-brainer
madonna will win again
see forbes\’ list next year
radio u.s. does not play madonna anymore so how can she fairly compete with cd sales
MDNA\’s worldwide 2-week sales reached 920,000+ copies
now, are there many who can compete with that?
MDNA is the best Madonna album in years. And who cares if cd sales were from ticket sales? The tickets were sold first and of course the people that bought tickets were going to get the cd also. Were they going to buy an extra cd or on itunes after that????
Critics and haters will find anyway to put the negative on all of this. Says so much about their lives.