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Grammys, Holidays Boost Music Sales
02/15/2004 8:46 PM, Reuters
Ed Christman
With Grammy Awards-inspired sales,
two big releases and a gift-buying holiday to boot, business
was booming for music retailers last week.
In addition to the Feb. 8 awards show driving traffic to
stores, shoppers were lured in to scoop up the latest Norah Jones album, "Feels Like Home," and Kanye West's "College
Dropout," which both arrived Feb. 10.
The titles are enjoying strong sales. Most industry
executives project that combined, those two albums will easily
top 1 million units for the week ended Feb. 15, when data are
issued Wednesday.
With Valentine's Day on Saturday, merchants were feeling
pretty upbeat about the week's sales prospects. But they also
pointed out that sales will be compared to a strong week last
year, when 50 Cent's sales were exploding, along with in-store
debuts by two strong video titles, "Sweet Home Alabama" and "My
Big Fat Greek Wedding."
"This year we have the Grammys , Valentine's Day and a few
new releases that are performing extremely well," says Jerry
Kamiler, music division merchandise director for the 955-unit
Trans World Entertainment chain in Albany, N.Y.
"But we are up against 50 Cent and two huge video titles,
so it remains to be seen how well this week will perform."
Nonetheless, this year has the added boost of the Grammys,
which historically was broadcast later in February. While no
act from the show is "going through the roof," Kamiler adds
that those acts that were expected to get "a nice pop" in sales
have done so. He cited OutKast, Evanescence and the White
Stripes as enjoying big increases.
At the Musicland Group in Minneapolis, company spokeswoman
Laurie Bauer reports that Grammy winners and performers
combined enjoyed a 60% increase in sales. "The strongest
increases are those who performed," she reports.
Like other merchants, Musicland had a Grammy display
in-store, which was also featured in the chain's advertising.
MAJOR WINNERS SCORE BOOSTS
Columbia artist Beyonce Knowles was the night's biggest
winner, taking home five Grammys.
At the 26-unit Music City chain in Nashville, VP of
merchandising Scott "Perk" Perkins reports that some of the
chain's stores had already experienced a run on her solo debut,
"Dangerously in Love," and were now out of stock.
Other winners included OutKast, which won the album of the
year award for "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below." The Arista set
also won best rap album, and its single "Hey Ya!" won for best
urban/alternative performance. Song of the year honors went to
Richard Marx and Luther Vandross for writing Vandross' "Dance
With My Father." Vandross, who is recovering from a stroke, won
or shared in four awards.
Evanescence took home two awards, including best new
artist. Other multiple winners included Alison Krauss, with
three, and Justin Timberlake , the White Stripes, Eminem and the
late Warren Zevon with two each. In a surprising upset, Capitol
act Coldplay took record of the year for "Clocks."
Of the artists who were featured one way or another on the
show, most retailers cited OutKast as enjoying the greatest
increase in sales.
"Those OutKast kids got sales going on big," says Carl
Mello, music buyer at 24-unit Brighton, Mass.-based Newbury
Comics.
Kevin Cassidy, executive VP of sales, operations and
product at 93-unit West Sacramento, Calif.-based Tower Records,
reported that OutKast's sales after the Grammy broadcast were
"enormous. It was almost equal to the first-day sales of Kanye
West."
But looking over the total slate of Grammy-related
releases, he says the bigger increases were
"performance-driven." Cassidy says that Tower saw "great
increases" for the White Stripes' "Elephant," Black Eyed Peas'
"Elephunk," Alicia Keys ' "The Diary of Alicia Keys" and Sarah
McLachlan 's "Afterglow."
"And although it wasn't a performance," Cassidy says, "we
had a great increase in Luther " for his album "Dance With My
Father."
Trans World's Kamiler proclaimed the White Stripes'
appearance as an "eye-opening, awareness-raising performance,"
and while their album may not have had the biggest jump in
sales on a unit basis, on a percentage basis it was probably
the highest for the company.
As merchants compared the sales of Grammy artists, they
also debated which of the new albums would have the biggest
debut week.
"Norah Jones is doing pretty good, but Kanye West is the
biggest seller" at Gallery of Sound, says Joe Nardone Jr., VP
at the 11-unit, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-based chain.
At Trans World, Kamiler says that after the first day of
availability on the Jones and West albums, "it remains to be
seen which will be No. 1 at our chain." He says West did
fantastic, and Jones proved she will not have a sophomore jinx.
At Tower, things were more clear-cut, with Jones winning by
"a long shot," according to Cassidy. Also, he noted that the
new album had boosted sales on her first set, "Come Away With
Me."
Looking at projections, Saul Shapiro, VP of sales at EMI
Jazz and Classics, says sales for Jones could wind up anywhere
between 600,000 and 700,000 units. Most industry
prognosticators cite a number north of 600,000.
In addition to Jones and West, Melissa Etheridge had a
decent opening day with her "Lucky" album, while two metal side
projects -- Damageplan (by former members of Pantera) and
Probot (an event record led by Grammys performer Dave Grohl and
filled with guest artists) -- also did better than expected.
Estimates on the West album range from 400,000 to 480,000,
Etheridge from 100,000 to 120,000, Damageplan and Kylie Minogue
from 50,000 to 70,000, Courtney Love from 35,000 to 50,000 and
Probot from 35,000 to 40,000.
Also, some suggest that OutKast could have another
200,000-plus week, while Vandross might do 50,000 units and the
White Stripes 40,000 units.
Reuters/Billboard
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