Album sales say a lot about an artists connection to the fans. One of the best album roll outs was J. Coles '2014 Forest Hills Drive'. Cole showed up to differents fans houses and allowed them to listen to album before its release. He hosted a listening party in his old home "2014 Forest Hills Drive" where fans where listening to the album on Headsets. By the time the album dropped it did numbers because the fans connected to Cole as a person. This is an example about numbers. New Subscriber from Cape Town, South Africa.....Peace!
I just don't get why rap fans care more about sales than the labels. Any constructive criticism of an artist or album is replaced by buzzwords and album sale statistics
You also have to keep in mind that there are albums that sold great when they first came out and are completely forgotten now. Sales don't guarantee you a legacy.
The narrative always changes now album sales don’t matter cause nobody came out to support mustard. But if Kendrick outsold Drake they would but if Drake does it doesn’t matter. The goal post gets moved on who a person likes
In that context it matters because a lot of fans especially Drake fans last defense was that Kendrick couldn’t beat drakes numbers, but he proved that to be false.
The reason I believe Kendrick stans would that is because its arguably the Drakes stans core argument against every artist. So they would "one-up" Drake stans with that narrative. My advice, just listen to the music Kendrick stans likely know sales don't mean shit, so it's just petty argument and not as serious as how perhaps a Drake stan would mean it (for some reason...)
I'm of the belief that all these niggas numbers fake. Whether that means buying thousands of physical copies or stream bots only these label heads got connections to. N I don't think some(maybe most) the artists know that's what their label is doing cz nobody with common sense is spending real money on this ass music 😂
They don’t matter when I’m in the process of listening to music. I don’t think about album sells when I listen to all eyez on me. I think about smoking to more music or going out for a drive somewhere.
I think if you're not someone that put money on the artist's album like record execs or the artist themselves that either put money on the album or has to recoup the investment, you shouldn't wory about the sales, for me it doesn't make sense. Let alone using it as metric to determine if the music is good or trash, the "numbers don't lie" merchants
Huge fan of the channel, I just want to say as an old head that you left out the first person to make album sales an argument for rap fans in the 2000's: It was 50 Cent. 50 was outselling everyone he was beefing with and made a point to let it be known in the 50 diss tracks he did in his career. I remember being in high school in 06 when people actively started talking about album sales in arguments, and thinking it was never about that before.
@@freezhollywoodThe idea being articulated here is that album sales do not dictate quality of music. An artist can be really "good" can flop numerically, thats just the modern landscape but "bad" artist can flop too. This occurrence is the a basis of this claim of numbers not dictating quality.
@@freezhollywoodAdditionally if your favorite artists didn't flop, depending on why listen to that artist, the numbers would be the last point of critique for their art. For better or worse the recent cultural event demonstrate a clash of the quality vs sales argument. In that one groups point was that one rapper has better substance critical acclaim across different cultures and the other just sold more And the other group saying one artist is far smaller commercially and thus irrelevant and "unsuccessful". The difference in perspectives and value of each perspective is the point of discussion essentially... I hope you get it.
If you are chained to a major label trying to work off a garbage contract you were pressured into signing, album sales are damn near life or death. Independents/fringe artists have to work to make it work, but it has always been this way in music.
IMO more can be got from album sales as a measure of the consumer opinion instead of artists. An artists high numbers should be taken as how relevant he is to mass audiences vs the quality of any of his music. I think Kendrick Lamar is actually the best example for this because DAMN was the biggest selling project in terms of first week etc but I think the majority of his fanbase will have one of his other projects as their favourites/his best work BUT in 2017 he was coming hot off of back to back critically acclaimed albums and his relevance was at it's peak so he sold more.
This is why social media hype ≠ album sales. After the Nicki and Meg beef, people were speculating about Megan's self-titled album. She'd do over 100k the first week, only for her to do 68k. Some may say that's typical numbers for her since she usually sells around that range; others would say that she's "independent," and that's why the numbers are so "low." Ice Spice had 3 major industry giant co-signs (hanging out with Drake, a collab with Taylor, and 2 collabs with Nicki), and everyone was gearing up to hear what her album was gonna be about, only for her to do 28k the first week. I feel like I see both ends of the argument. Just bc an artist does higher numbers, it doesn't mean that the album would be received well by the general public if the quality isn't there (like with Drake's CLB and Honestly, Nevermind) If the artist has that talent and skill (writing their own raps, producing their stuff, etc) and it can be seen on their previous projects, I can see why album sales matter. You're going to expect more from an artist who can bring a lot to the table.
First, I don't why ppl thought ppl were speculating that Meg would sell such & such 1st week because the beef between her & ol' girl didn't last but 2 weeks (mainly w/ ol' girl crashing out on social media) & that was back in Feb. Meg's album was just released last month. That was a 5 month period between now and then. Second, that beef wasn't the equivalent of the Kendrick and Drake beef. Ppl had long forgotten about it. Anyway, I'm in the group of people that say she's independent, because she *IS* independent - not "independent". Also, that's typical 1st week numbers for Megan considering she didn't have a hit song out at the time of the album's roll-out.
why do people care about first week sales. Teezo Touchdown's new album "How Do You Sleep At Night" sold less than 8,000 copies first week. I dont hear anybody talking about his album being ass. he also has been on three major albums. Travis scott, Tyler the creator, and Drake. I feel like its just a form of hate watching.
@dilloncooks I agree 100%. However, Teezo is also an indie artist. Unfortunately, most ppl don't even know he exists. Had it not been for YT, I wouldn't have found out about him myself.
@@TexasChick45 when you say indie are you talking about genre or popularity? because technically ny/bronx drill music isnt really a mainstream genre. also i discovered teezo 3 years ago on youtube but since then hes had cosigns from three of biggest rappers in the game plus a in my opinion good album and sold 8k first week
I would say that there needs to be some level of commercial success, but once people know who you are album sales do not matter. artists be out here wildly inflating numbers with multiple deluxes and multiple merch bundles to the point where you cant even get an accurate count of sales.
You said yourself. "Once we get past the 1st and 2nd week sales of an album, no really cares all the way up until that album maybe goes platinum then, that artist get their flowers..." My question is: Then, why do sales even matter other than to publicly humiliate artists for having "low sales"? That's all I ever see gappening nowadays.
5:35 the weirdest thing about mustard is, he’s a producer. Who even cares about his album sales? I think he succumbing to drake trolls because he did not like us
number matter but it isn’t everything. crazy how an album can have like 200k first week right but it out streams an album that got 400k first week that same year . example vultures had a low first week numbers but is still out streaming albums that sold more first week . longevity matter the most. utopia a year old getting 7 million plays daily still
lol at the end of the day This the music business Sales will always matter but these contracts are so layered on a case by case basis Denzel Curry can in theory make more money off of his music than drake It really depends on how your contract set up and how much you get . So I get why pppl say album sales shouldn’t matter to the PUBLIC
I agree that ticket sales should be used to determine who's larger and has more momentum. I like to use this example because of its relevance to Gen Z rappers canceling shows and tours last year. Artists like NF at most have sold 100k+ in first week sales whereas Lil Baby sells 190k first week or more. But when you look at tours last year, NF did a partial arena tour and sold almost 300k tickets whereas Lil Baby couldn't sell enough for an all-arena tour and sold 133k tickets. You'd think that Lil Baby would easily be able to do an arena tour but it's actually harder than people might think and rare to pull off. Of course, there are multiple factors between the two to consider, but you can make a reasonable argument NF is larger than Lil Baby in terms of following and momentum, despite not being as known to the general public or culturally impactful as Lil Baby. My point is that first-week album sales don't determine the quality of the art or are the singular way of showing how large the artist is.
1500 STREAMS TO GET ONE SALE WHILE YOU ONLY NEED TO LISTEN TO THE SONG FOR 15 SECONDS TO COUNT FOR A STREAM..BUT THE GAG IS YOU ALBUM SALE WONT COUNT UNLESS YOUR FANS ARE STREAMING ON A PREMIUM..
A lot of “rap” fans don’t like music they like people and aesthetics. They want their guy to succeed but when they drop they’re going to go with whatever the general consensus is on the album. Whole lotta red is the perfect example these kids think that album is impeccable now and they were probably killing it calling it trash the day it released. Sales matter with context but don’t correlate to quality at all.
What i hate about this conversation is people saying sales or numbers like they don't represent the people willing to spend money on music they think is hood hip hop fans has shown if the music is bad u don't sell much look at smokepurp he sold 6oo copies because people knew the music wasn't good so they won't spend on it ultimately fans decided what music is good or nah and who's music they wanna invest in by buying the album
You remember the meltdown i can only imagine when the day comes where she actually does fall off and she lands at like #5 instead of #1 or #2 she'll have a whole ass meltdown she has made her entire personality her sales and numbers its so sad
I remember when she had a meltdown over being #2 back in 2018 (behind Travis Scott's "AstroWorld" ). It was so embarrassing. I want her gone just do she can go away for good.
numbers show that people connect to your music or at least like it enough to buy it. If people are willing to but multiple albums at a high rate, with rising sale then you can assume the music is good. That doesn't mean everyone will like it.
We're really in a generation where rap fans care more about album sales, as if they'll get paid by em record labels too, SMH, more than the genres that are ahead of Rap? Sigh.
Right! It makes absolutely no sense. Pop and country music sells more than rap music, but everyone is out here keeping score only on 1st week rap sales. That's stupid.
I can see why u say album sales matter and they should but we live in a time where majority album sales come from streaming data that is usually manipulated depending on your hierarchy at the label and the labels relationship with the DSPs mainly Spotify. Whenever I say album sales don't matter it's usually cuz I'm an artist and have seen hundreds and hundreds of bot playlists filled with Drake Taylor Swift weekend etc. music. Which is why Spotify changed they rules to "90% artificial streams is where we draw the line" for paying artist
Album sales matter they just aren't as valuable of a metric as say ticket sales. We got artist that can do over 100k first week that are cancelling tours for low sales
My thing is, at the height of Mustards career I’m pretty sure he sold 36k? So it’s not like 18 is off the wall considering it’s post pandemic (everyone’s numbers have dropped) and Drake has the owner of umg in his ass cheeks. What you guys aren’t looking at is 1) the over and under on what these guys’ returns are on their projects cause I PROMISE you Mustard’s margins are better than Drake. Drake is signed to like 4-5 different entities. So yeah mustard isn’t making as much but he probably isn’t spending anywhere near CLOSE as much. This also comes to handy in sales. If the ceo of Spotify personally likes you, your face will be on every playlist thumbnail REGARDLESS of genre. This man Drake was on Indian Bollywood soundtrack playlist covers. 2) and this is a big one. Any artist battling for #1 albums or songs in the mainstream has easily 20-30% of their traffic faked. It’s literally written into the marketing budgets. This isnt used to blow a song up, they do it to already blown up songs, but this is to negotiate for larger sums during endorsement talks. The fact it gets them closer to a number 1 or a plaque just adds more of an incentive. Stop looking at the raw numbers , look at the cultural impact of the record and look at how it projects the artists’ career going forward.
this is the age of instant gratification. the same way rap fans complain about how long it takes to get a new album from their fav and then when they get it its the greatest thing ever for a week then they move on, that extends to an artists rise to fame and their falloff. people get so much joy out of both putting a new artist on AND taking an artist down once they get there, so they force artists to speed run their careers so they can get all the fun out of the beginnings and the ends as quick as possible. tell me im lyin. cause ice spice only been in the game for 2 years. she had a meteoric rise to go from a meme to one of the biggest artists on the planet. she has only ever dropped mid music. but the people went from gassing it on her ep to now clowning it on her debut. imo the music quality hasnt changed, people just got their fill and are ready for her to be a flop now. and its messed up, because at it means at the end of the day, nobody took her seriously, they just wanted her to get to the top just so they could see it happen and now theyre being realistic.
Love for the culture has died. That’s why people care about the sales. Most listeners aren’t even real hip-hop fans. They don’t understand it works differently than pop. Nas’ Illmatic didn’t sell 3 million until fairly recently, but it’s one of the most praised albums in all of hip-hop.
Illmatic was his first album so it is expected to sell less if it was his 3 or 4 then low sells then that would mean the albums before Illmatic were not that good. if the first album is fire the next will sell better because people will think that the next will also be fire.
@@jameslight4391 I understand that, although it seems people will still complain if it’s your first today. I mean isn’t that what they’re doing to Ice Spice and a lot of fem rappers especially?
@@therealcontentofficial true people need to realize that first albums will sell less then later albums. I think people think she should sell more because she had some hits. Hits don't mean you can make an album this stuff needs time. She should have done a mixtape they are good practice and less pressure and helps build a fan base. I have seen artist drop mid on their 3 albums but it sells high because the 2 was good so they expected the 3 to also be good because the 3 was mid the 4 album sells less even if it is better than the 3 not always but most of the time
honestly i feel sort of annoyed that they have ice spice 80k more units in her second week, and i say they bc i don’t think those were real units. i think her label saw her tanking and that 20/28k she did first week looked pathetic, so they quickly curried up a streaming farm to get her to 100k in her second week. bc that doesn’t even make sense. you have a massive platform and huge promotion. if your fans were genuinely excited about your music, you would have done 50k first week, MINIMUM. seeing someone get rewarded for their constant mediocrity is so irritating man
Right (especially since that girl manipulates the Top 200 charts by having 1,000 versions of her album covers - and her fans buy them all, too!😳). She also uses bot farms - allegedly.
Thank you! That girl manipulates Billboard Top 200 by having 1,000 different album covers & het fans buy them all.😳 She also uses bot farms - allegedly.
Album sales don’t matter no more. How when it was harder to get an album(physical) rappers did more and now it’s easier(streaming) everyone doing less??? Never made sense to me
Quality of music > Album Sales. Vanilla Ice outsold all these albums in 1990: Ice Cube: Amerikkas Most Wanted Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet Tribe: People’s Instinctive Travels Enough Said. Akademiks and other hip hop media outlets have plagued the community with sales numbers nonsense.
Album sales say a lot about an artists connection to the fans. One of the best album roll outs was J. Coles '2014 Forest Hills Drive'. Cole showed up to differents fans houses and allowed them to listen to album before its release. He hosted a listening party in his old home "2014 Forest Hills Drive" where fans where listening to the album on Headsets. By the time the album dropped it did numbers because the fans connected to Cole as a person.
This is an example about numbers. New Subscriber from Cape Town, South Africa.....Peace!
I think fans got so attached the business side rather than music lol
Fax
they got brainwashed. Plain and simple
The music is album sales lol. You think a no name is gonna sell 100K and we don't know about it?
@@djdspenceactually, a lot of rappers are doin numbers they’re not on Spotify tho
He means music quality vs statistics @@djdspence
I just don't get why rap fans care more about sales than the labels. Any constructive criticism of an artist or album is replaced by buzzwords and album sale statistics
I swear these niggas act like they'll be on the record label payroll if they don't.😂😂😂 Goofy shit, just enjoy the art man
I think it’s cause people are lazy it’s easier to say this album’s trash it sold 15k than actually listen and make valid criticism
@@iusedtobepay Facts on facts
Artists and numbers are easier connections to make than labels, nobody cares about labels they’re not marketable
Industry talk
I care more about the quality of the music than the sales
if the quality is there it will sell for the most part
@@jameslight4391 For the majority of the time that isn’t true. Thats how mainstream rap got to where it is now.
@@jameslight4391nah, there is a lot of good music quality wise that doesnt sell well.
@@jameslight4391Negative! How do you explain Drake for the past 15 yrs. *low quality, huge sales* ???
@@og_mante5138 it is true it is just not for you
You also have to keep in mind that there are albums that sold great when they first came out and are completely forgotten now. Sales don't guarantee you a legacy.
Fact: case on point Nicki Minaj's latest album.
@@TexasChick45 I was gonna say it's too early to tell, but then I realized I don't even know the name of the album.
@whym6438 It's not too early to tell. That thing came out, I think, back in Dec. - so nearly a year ago. I think It's called Pink Print 2.
The narrative always changes now album sales don’t matter cause nobody came out to support mustard. But if Kendrick outsold Drake they would but if Drake does it doesn’t matter. The goal post gets moved on who a person likes
In that context it matters because a lot of fans especially Drake fans last defense was that Kendrick couldn’t beat drakes numbers, but he proved that to be false.
Yep thats why I don't take the album sales narrative seriously.
The reason I believe Kendrick stans would that is because its arguably the Drakes stans core argument against every artist. So they would "one-up" Drake stans with that narrative.
My advice, just listen to the music Kendrick stans likely know sales don't mean shit, so it's just petty argument and not as serious as how perhaps a Drake stan would mean it (for some reason...)
EXACTLY
my boi is at 30k now good shit
Yessirrrr 🙏
30k album sales🎉
The audio quality is much clearer I definitely think the new mic was a great investment!
Hopefully it pays for itself 😭
subs went up, MIC GOING CRAZY! congrats on 30k solid videos every time
Thank you only you from here
Album sales don't matter... They aren't even actual album sales anymore... It's all corporate bs... It's just streaming numbers
You’re almost in my head I’m going to expand on a point like this
I'm of the belief that all these niggas numbers fake. Whether that means buying thousands of physical copies or stream bots only these label heads got connections to. N I don't think some(maybe most) the artists know that's what their label is doing cz nobody with common sense is spending real money on this ass music 😂
They don’t matter when I’m in the process of listening to music. I don’t think about album sells when I listen to all eyez on me. I think about smoking to more music or going out for a drive somewhere.
7:35 LMAOOOOOOO oh I can tell you were doing real research in the stan trenches, salute to you!!! its crazy out there 😭
I be in the Stan trenches it gets wils
I think if you're not someone that put money on the artist's album like record execs or the artist themselves that either put money on the album or has to recoup the investment, you shouldn't wory about the sales, for me it doesn't make sense. Let alone using it as metric to determine if the music is good or trash, the "numbers don't lie" merchants
Exactly!
50 cent was the first to really brag about his sales and it was also his downfall
Right, that and beefing with every single NY rapper known to mankind.
Huge fan of the channel, I just want to say as an old head that you left out the first person to make album sales an argument for rap fans in the 2000's: It was 50 Cent. 50 was outselling everyone he was beefing with and made a point to let it be known in the 50 diss tracks he did in his career. I remember being in high school in 06 when people actively started talking about album sales in arguments, and thinking it was never about that before.
Yes I believe he read out people’s sales on the radio and that was one of the first major public mention of sales
@@iusedtobepaytrue because when The Game was beefing with Gunit he read Banks album sales as well saying "he flopped"
Him and CamRon
@@iusedtobepay holy shit you replied to my comment 💪🏾🙏🏾
Ironically Hov made it a thing with his NUMBERS DONT LIE line. It’s ironic because DMX, Eminem, and Nelly outsold him. Basically everyone did.
Hate when ppl say sales don’t matter meanwhile artists get dropped for flopping. Soooo i think it kinda matters. You’re in the record BUSINESS.
That is not what people mean when they say sales don't matter.
@@Antifrustrated if ya favs didn’t flop this wouldn’t be a debate or a convo. Deal with it.
@@freezhollywoodThe idea being articulated here is that album sales do not dictate quality of music. An artist can be really "good" can flop numerically, thats just the modern landscape but "bad" artist can flop too. This occurrence is the a basis of this claim of numbers not dictating quality.
@@freezhollywoodAdditionally if your favorite artists didn't flop, depending on why listen to that artist, the numbers would be the last point of critique for their art.
For better or worse the recent cultural event demonstrate a clash of the quality vs sales argument.
In that one groups point was that one rapper has better substance critical acclaim across different cultures and the other just sold more
And the other group saying one artist is far smaller commercially and thus irrelevant and "unsuccessful".
The difference in perspectives and value of each perspective is the point of discussion essentially... I hope you get it.
@lungilemake8424 This, the argument is b.s. imo.
If you are chained to a major label trying to work off a garbage contract you were pressured into signing, album sales are damn near life or death.
Independents/fringe artists have to work to make it work, but it has always been this way in music.
my boy, you look… wealthier. good on ya
IMO more can be got from album sales as a measure of the consumer opinion instead of artists.
An artists high numbers should be taken as how relevant he is to mass audiences vs the quality of any of his music.
I think Kendrick Lamar is actually the best example for this because DAMN was the biggest selling project in terms of first week etc but I think the majority of his fanbase will have one of his other projects as their favourites/his best work BUT in 2017 he was coming hot off of back to back critically acclaimed albums and his relevance was at it's peak so he sold more.
Mustard is independent with a BMG distribution so hes getting majority of the revenue
Cool watching your channel grow
This is why social media hype ≠ album sales. After the Nicki and Meg beef, people were speculating about Megan's self-titled album. She'd do over 100k the first week, only for her to do 68k. Some may say that's typical numbers for her since she usually sells around that range; others would say that she's "independent," and that's why the numbers are so "low."
Ice Spice had 3 major industry giant co-signs (hanging out with Drake, a collab with Taylor, and 2 collabs with Nicki), and everyone was gearing up to hear what her album was gonna be about, only for her to do 28k the first week.
I feel like I see both ends of the argument. Just bc an artist does higher numbers, it doesn't mean that the album would be received well by the general public if the quality isn't there (like with Drake's CLB and Honestly, Nevermind) If the artist has that talent and skill (writing their own raps, producing their stuff, etc) and it can be seen on their previous projects, I can see why album sales matter. You're going to expect more from an artist who can bring a lot to the table.
First, I don't why ppl thought ppl were speculating that Meg would sell such & such 1st week because the beef between her & ol' girl didn't last but 2 weeks (mainly w/ ol' girl crashing out on social media) & that was back in Feb. Meg's album was just released last month. That was a 5 month period between now and then. Second, that beef wasn't the equivalent of the Kendrick and Drake beef. Ppl had long forgotten about it. Anyway, I'm in the group of people that say she's independent, because she *IS* independent - not "independent". Also, that's typical 1st week numbers for Megan considering she didn't have a hit song out at the time of the album's roll-out.
why do people care about first week sales. Teezo Touchdown's new album "How Do You Sleep At Night" sold less than 8,000 copies first week. I dont hear anybody talking about his album being ass. he also has been on three major albums. Travis scott, Tyler the creator, and Drake. I feel like its just a form of hate watching.
@dilloncooks I agree 100%. However, Teezo is also an indie artist. Unfortunately, most ppl don't even know he exists. Had it not been for YT, I wouldn't have found out about him myself.
@@TexasChick45 when you say indie are you talking about genre or popularity? because technically ny/bronx drill music isnt really a mainstream genre. also i discovered teezo 3 years ago on youtube but since then hes had cosigns from three of biggest rappers in the game plus a in my opinion good album and sold 8k first week
I would say that there needs to be some level of commercial success, but once people know who you are album sales do not matter. artists be out here wildly inflating numbers with multiple deluxes and multiple merch bundles to the point where you cant even get an accurate count of sales.
Only thing ion like is wen artist quote on quote flop Dey say Dey don’t care but wen Dey don’t they be all happy on social media
I'm already lost 1:28 in cause I've never had a debate about who's a better rapper and start pulling up sales. That's ass from the start
As an audience. I don't give single flying fuck about sales. It's great for the artist so they brag about it but I don't really care.
You said yourself. "Once we get past the 1st and 2nd week sales of an album, no really cares all the way up until that album maybe goes platinum then, that artist get their flowers..." My question is: Then, why do sales even matter other than to publicly humiliate artists for having "low sales"? That's all I ever see gappening nowadays.
Loved the video all the way from South Africa 🇿🇦
I agree. It does matter but I feel like it doesn’t matter as much as it did in 2000, 2004 and 2010.
fw the glasses unc
5:35 the weirdest thing about mustard is, he’s a producer. Who even cares about his album sales? I think he succumbing to drake trolls because he did not like us
Yeah he’s just getting overwhelmed by Aubrey’s angels
number matter but it isn’t everything. crazy how an album can have like 200k first week right but it out streams an album that got 400k first week that same year . example vultures had a low first week numbers but is still out streaming albums that sold more first week . longevity matter the most. utopia a year old getting 7 million plays daily still
Fax but nobody tracks these things it’s all first week sales
@@iusedtobepayWhich is some b.s.! The longevity of an album is what should matter.
50 Cent is the one who introduced album sales to the hip hop lexicon
I think sold out shows matter more album sales just corporate number game
AK didn’t want to talk about Gordo’s numbers but he ragged on Mustard. Selective criticism.
Pay, get a mic stand and put the mic directly to you. And look into proximity effect. And yea
lol at the end of the day This the music business
Sales will always matter but these contracts are so layered on a case by case basis Denzel Curry can in theory make more money off of his music than drake
It really depends on how your contract set up and how much you get .
So I get why pppl say album sales shouldn’t matter to the PUBLIC
Justice, your glasses🥲
my boi gettin that Shure money now!
Kdot could've did a song or a verse for mustard so it could chart! damn
They only matter to critics, I am not a critic.
btw you aren't either just a guy in your room making content you enjoy :)
I agree that ticket sales should be used to determine who's larger and has more momentum. I like to use this example because of its relevance to Gen Z rappers canceling shows and tours last year. Artists like NF at most have sold 100k+ in first week sales whereas Lil Baby sells 190k first week or more.
But when you look at tours last year, NF did a partial arena tour and sold almost 300k tickets whereas Lil Baby couldn't sell enough for an all-arena tour and sold 133k tickets. You'd think that Lil Baby would easily be able to do an arena tour but it's actually harder than people might think and rare to pull off.
Of course, there are multiple factors between the two to consider, but you can make a reasonable argument NF is larger than Lil Baby in terms of following and momentum, despite not being as known to the general public or culturally impactful as Lil Baby. My point is that first-week album sales don't determine the quality of the art or are the singular way of showing how large the artist is.
Ticket sales aren’t a great indicator because artists only go where their audiences are
1500 STREAMS TO GET ONE SALE WHILE YOU ONLY NEED TO LISTEN TO THE SONG FOR 15 SECONDS TO COUNT FOR A STREAM..BUT THE GAG IS YOU ALBUM SALE WONT COUNT UNLESS YOUR FANS ARE STREAMING ON A PREMIUM..
i feel like you should talk about travis his run since 2023 has been ridiculous
You sound great, but you’re out of focus, brother. Your glasses glare might be doing you dirty❤
Yeah ik it did me dirty but I wasn’t re-recording 😭
"Numbers don't lie"
- Jay Z
He was lying when he said that, btw. lol Who make up numbers?...- men & women.
A lot of “rap” fans don’t like music they like people and aesthetics. They want their guy to succeed but when they drop they’re going to go with whatever the general consensus is on the album. Whole lotta red is the perfect example these kids think that album is impeccable now and they were probably killing it calling it trash the day it released. Sales matter with context but don’t correlate to quality at all.
What i hate about this conversation is people saying sales or numbers like they don't represent the people willing to spend money on music they think is hood hip hop fans has shown if the music is bad u don't sell much look at smokepurp he sold 6oo copies because people knew the music wasn't good so they won't spend on it ultimately fans decided what music is good or nah and who's music they wanna invest in by buying the album
this took the words right out my mouth
You remember the meltdown i can only imagine when the day comes where she actually does fall off and she lands at like #5 instead of #1 or #2 she'll have a whole ass meltdown she has made her entire personality her sales and numbers its so sad
I remember when she had a meltdown over being #2 back in 2018 (behind Travis Scott's "AstroWorld" ). It was so embarrassing. I want her gone just do she can go away for good.
numbers show that people connect to your music or at least like it enough to buy it. If people are willing to but multiple albums at a high rate, with rising sale then you can assume the music is good. That doesn't mean everyone will like it.
30K 🔥
Yessir🔥🔥
@@iusedtobepay new mic b4 da plaques…essgetit
I think it’s just different with rap because of the flexing. If you say you’re the biggest thing, and the numbers don’t show, you look a little crazy
who tf is buying albums any more or are we talking about streams converting to sales
We're really in a generation where rap fans care more about album sales, as if they'll get paid by em record labels too, SMH, more than the genres that are ahead of Rap? Sigh.
what genres are ahead of rap?
@jameslight4391 Right now, it's pop and country music
Right! It makes absolutely no sense. Pop and country music sells more than rap music, but everyone is out here keeping score only on 1st week rap sales. That's stupid.
Vulture 2 need your review
Dear lord😭😭
Bro upgraded from the hyperX lol
I can see why u say album sales matter and they should but we live in a time where majority album sales come from streaming data that is usually manipulated depending on your hierarchy at the label and the labels relationship with the DSPs mainly Spotify. Whenever I say album sales don't matter it's usually cuz I'm an artist and have seen hundreds and hundreds of bot playlists filled with Drake Taylor Swift weekend etc. music. Which is why Spotify changed they rules to "90% artificial streams is where we draw the line" for paying artist
Album sales matter they just aren't as valuable of a metric as say ticket sales. We got artist that can do over 100k first week that are cancelling tours for low sales
I remember when a rapper selling 100k first week was a flop. Hip Hop is such a dying genre
My thing is, at the height of Mustards career I’m pretty sure he sold 36k? So it’s not like 18 is off the wall considering it’s post pandemic (everyone’s numbers have dropped) and Drake has the owner of umg in his ass cheeks. What you guys aren’t looking at is 1) the over and under on what these guys’ returns are on their projects cause I PROMISE you Mustard’s margins are better than Drake. Drake is signed to like 4-5 different entities. So yeah mustard isn’t making as much but he probably isn’t spending anywhere near CLOSE as much. This also comes to handy in sales. If the ceo of Spotify personally likes you, your face will be on every playlist thumbnail REGARDLESS of genre. This man Drake was on Indian Bollywood soundtrack playlist covers.
2) and this is a big one. Any artist battling for #1 albums or songs in the mainstream has easily 20-30% of their traffic faked. It’s literally written into the marketing budgets. This isnt used to blow a song up, they do it to already blown up songs, but this is to negotiate for larger sums during endorsement talks. The fact it gets them closer to a number 1 or a plaque just adds more of an incentive. Stop looking at the raw numbers , look at the cultural impact of the record and look at how it projects the artists’ career going forward.
this is the age of instant gratification.
the same way rap fans complain about how long it takes to get a new album from their fav and then when they get it its the greatest thing ever for a week then they move on, that extends to an artists rise to fame and their falloff.
people get so much joy out of both putting a new artist on AND taking an artist down once they get there, so they force artists to speed run their careers so they can get all the fun out of the beginnings and the ends as quick as possible.
tell me im lyin. cause ice spice only been in the game for 2 years. she had a meteoric rise to go from a meme to one of the biggest artists on the planet. she has only ever dropped mid music. but the people went from gassing it on her ep to now clowning it on her debut. imo the music quality hasnt changed, people just got their fill and are ready for her to be a flop now. and its messed up, because at it means at the end of the day, nobody took her seriously, they just wanted her to get to the top just so they could see it happen and now theyre being realistic.
No, I think they just hyped her up just to clown her when she flopped, which you eluded to.
7:42 Dart chatta anyone?
Love for the culture has died. That’s why people care about the sales. Most listeners aren’t even real hip-hop fans. They don’t understand it works differently than pop. Nas’ Illmatic didn’t sell 3 million until fairly recently, but it’s one of the most praised albums in all of hip-hop.
Fax people just like to be on the team
Illmatic was his first album so it is expected to sell less if it was his 3 or 4 then low sells then that would mean the albums before Illmatic were not that good. if the first album is fire the next will sell better because people will think that the next will also be fire.
@@jameslight4391 I understand that, although it seems people will still complain if it’s your first today. I mean isn’t that what they’re doing to Ice Spice and a lot of fem rappers especially?
I saw "The Chronic" was like 4x platinum and was like whaaaat I thought it was diamond haha... Illmatic classic
@@therealcontentofficial true people need to realize that first albums will sell less then later albums. I think people think she should sell more because she had some hits. Hits don't mean you can make an album this stuff needs time. She should have done a mixtape they are good practice and less pressure and helps build a fan base.
I have seen artist drop mid on their 3 albums but it sells high because the 2 was good so they expected the 3 to also be good because the 3 was mid the 4 album sells less even if it is better than the 3 not always but most of the time
It does matter nicki minaj ❤ told you she haves a loyal fan base that actually buys her music and she still breaking records sold out tours
True
@@iusedtobepay I love your opinion about albums do matter because you can't call your self the shit and then be flopping
Megan dropped an album??!!
exactly
Unfortunately yes
🔥♥️🔥♥️🔥♥️🔥
honestly i feel sort of annoyed that they have ice spice 80k more units in her second week, and i say they bc i don’t think those were real units. i think her label saw her tanking and that 20/28k she did first week looked pathetic, so they quickly curried up a streaming farm to get her to 100k in her second week. bc that doesn’t even make sense. you have a massive platform and huge promotion. if your fans were genuinely excited about your music, you would have done 50k first week, MINIMUM. seeing someone get rewarded for their constant mediocrity is so irritating man
Anyone bringing up numbers to me in music debates loses all credibility. Focus on the quality. Leave the numbers for the labels
Album sales should not determine if an album id good or bad. Nobody is gaslighting me into thinking Taylor swifts music is the best
Right (especially since that girl manipulates the Top 200 charts by having 1,000 versions of her album covers - and her fans buy them all, too!😳). She also uses bot farms - allegedly.
Thank you! That girl manipulates Billboard Top 200 by having 1,000 different album covers & het fans buy them all.😳 She also uses bot farms - allegedly.
exactly and i like some of taylors songs
Album sales don’t matter no more. How when it was harder to get an album(physical) rappers did more and now it’s easier(streaming) everyone doing less??? Never made sense to me
ov ov ovho
Quality of music > Album Sales. Vanilla Ice outsold all these albums in 1990:
Ice Cube: Amerikkas Most Wanted
Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet
Tribe: People’s Instinctive Travels
Enough Said. Akademiks and other hip hop media outlets have plagued the community with sales numbers nonsense.
Yo wsp pay
No lie
Sales don’t matter
Double plastic Triple aluminum 😂
Sales don’t dictate as much as quality does
Drake still corny tho..🤡👀
First in 15 secs
Why would u compare a pop artist to a producer 😂 that makes no sense
Numbers wise they’re never gonna compete
Just a thumbnail bruh
Never heard of Mustard since 10years ago. Even at his peak he wasnt top3 hiphop producers at that time. Why are we comparing his albu sales to Drake?
first
Drake the goat
Hip hop is dead
This a hip-hop channel if it’s so dead why are you here? Go to a pop or country channel
Nah that ain’t the case
Rage bait obviously this comment so old when people say Hip hop is dead when it clearly isn't
@@JosephDuplessis-m7y look at its numbers & influence from 2020 and earlier compared to now lol
@@JosephDuplessis-m7y Not dead but definitely hurting/in a lull period. Mainstream-wise there isn't much to care about outside the beef