CreedFeed Community - View Single Post

Mrprophetman · 10-30-2005, 01:30 PM

Quote: (Originally Posted by Creed7352) i just want to say something else here cause my neighbor works for sony...she's in sales and distribution. she sells artists albums to stores, i.e. "hey, we just got *insert artist name here*'s new album, how many units do you guys want for the store stock." now, if the label is selling them to the stores, that's still an album sold. therefore, gold status IS valid because the label got their money for them, they were sold.

i'm curious because i've seen people say such things about other artists as well, where are you getting the info from that says how many were sold and such? cause if they're certified gold by the RIAA, which i think is the organization that is giving those statistics out, would it not reflect that they've sold enough to be gold or diamond or platinum (for any artist here)? i don't get it.

The way it was told to me is that the label ships 750,000 and retailers can return 15% of CD's shipped. That apparently gives someone 500,000 CD's shipped. But that doesn't mean that all those CD's were sold. And what I am reading is that Alter Bridge hasn't sold 500,000 copies. Those statistics are coming from SoundScan. They actually track the number of units SOLD and not shipped. And their numbers aren't accurate. Some retailers over report...as much as three or four CD's for every one that they sell in order to make up for the retailers that don't report sales to SoundScan.

I've come to the conclusion that the awarding of a Gold Record is pretty much a joke if all you have to do is ship enough copies to qualify for it.

10-30-2005, 01:30 PM	#47
Mrprophetman USER INFO » Status: Naked Toddler Posts: 231 Joined: Sep 2005 Currently: Offline	Quote: (Originally Posted by Creed7352) i just want to say something else here cause my neighbor works for sony...she's in sales and distribution. she sells artists albums to stores, i.e. "hey, we just got insert artist name here's new album, how many units do you guys want for the store stock." now, if the label is selling them to the stores, that's still an album sold. therefore, gold status IS valid because the label got their money for them, they were sold. i'm curious because i've seen people say such things about other artists as well, where are you getting the info from that says how many were sold and such? cause if they're certified gold by the RIAA, which i think is the organization that is giving those statistics out, would it not reflect that they've sold enough to be gold or diamond or platinum (for any artist here)? i don't get it. The way it was told to me is that the label ships 750,000 and retailers can return 15% of CD's shipped. That apparently gives someone 500,000 CD's shipped. But that doesn't mean that all those CD's were sold. And what I am reading is that Alter Bridge hasn't sold 500,000 copies. Those statistics are coming from SoundScan. They actually track the number of units SOLD and not shipped. And their numbers aren't accurate. Some retailers over report...as much as three or four CD's for every one that they sell in order to make up for the retailers that don't report sales to SoundScan. I've come to the conclusion that the awarding of a Gold Record is pretty much a joke if all you have to do is ship enough copies to qualify for it.