High airplay, low sales?

[Dielawn]

How does this happen? And why? I kinda understand how a song can have low airplay and high sales, but I dont understand the reverse with low sales but high airplay...?

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

With radio being so corporately controlled and labels often giving some incentives/benefits for stations in exchange for airplay, that can happen.

Or in some cases an artist tends to sell more albums versus digital singles. Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" is one of the most notable examples of a song that had massive, record-setting airplay but its digital sales were not. The song genuinely resonated with the public, had great callout, etc. The sales of the album that had the song on it did very well though.

I also remember Mario Vazquez's "Gallery" in 2006 had gotten strong radio airplay (I can't remember where it peaked, but I'm thinking it was either top 10 or top 15), but its sales were extremely low and its album flopped very hard. The single peaked in the 30s on the Hot 100.

[kc98]

Mirrors has only sold a bit over 2 million despite insane radio updates, and over 200 million AI peak

[Deleted]

Alive by Krewella is a good example of this. Despite being a top 10 pop hit with a high audience impressions total in contrast to its chart position, it has sold disappointingly and peaked at a mere #32 on the hot 100. I think the main reason is that only an extended version was available for purchase while the radio edit was unavailable for purchase.

[Dielawn]

What about songs like The other side? Are there songs that ppl for some reason like hearing on the radio but dont wanna buy for some reason?

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

Jul 20, 2013 21:04:38 GMT -5 kc98 said:

Mirrors has only sold a bit over 2 million despite insane radio updates, and over 200 million AI peak

And the album has also sold 2 million copies in the U.S.

[Dielawn]

[quotmillionr="🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾" source="/post/4422793/thread" timestamp="1374383791"]

Jul 20, 2013 21:04:38 GMT -5 kc98 said:

Mirrors has only sold a bit over 2 million despite insane radio updates, and over 200 million AI peak

And the album has also sold 2 million copies in the U.S. [/quote]

200 million Al peak? What's al

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

Jul 21, 2013 1:12:48 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

[quotmillionr="🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾" source="/post/4422793/thread" timestamp="1374383791"]

Jul 20, 2013 21:04:38 GMT -5 kc98 said:

Mirrors has only sold a bit over 2 million despite insane radio updates, and over 200 million AI peak

And the album has also sold 2 million copies in the U.S.

200 million Al peak? What's al[/quote]

AI is audience impressions.

[kc98]

Jul 20, 2013 22:27:07 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

What about songs like The other side? Are there songs that ppl for some reason like hearing on the radio but dont wanna buy for some reason?

The Other Side is #12 on iTunes, so that's pretty good. Also - other good examples include Ke$ha's C'mon (top 10 pop radio, less than 800k downloads) and Demi Lovato's Give Your Heart A Break (#1 pop radio with a very slow rise to the top, yet only 1.8 million downloads)

[Kishi KCM]

Most radio listeners don't buy singles or albums. So there are many songs that suffer from low sales.

[velaxti]

Here in the UK, there's an adult contemporary station called Radio 2. It's the biggest radio station in the country, but the songs it playlists hardly ever do anything in sales, whilst smaller radio stations like Radio 1 and Capital FM, songs shoot up in sales when they get played on those stations (even just one play on Radio 1 can boost a song into the top 100 on iTunes here).

So it seems it depends partly on the audience I think. It seems the audience to rhythmic radio in the US don't download much, compared to the audience on pop and HAC. I think that explains Mirrors's "low" sales, and also those of Rihanna's hits, Let Me Love You by Ne-Yo, Don't Wake Me Up by Chris Brown and a multitude of others. There's obviously many exceptions, but that generally seems to be the case.

Some radio stations/formats probably are more beneficial for album sales, or even selling tickets for the artists's tour.

[Spidey]

Jul 20, 2013 21:08:45 GMT -5 @drag27 said:

Alive by Krewella is a good example of this. Despite being a top 10 pop hit with a high audience impressions total in contrast to its chart position, it has sold disappointingly and peaked at a mere #32 on the hot 100. I think the main reason is that only an extended version was available for purchase while the radio edit was unavailable for purchase.

I always thought it was add they never put the radio edit on iTunes. I think that is a primary reason the song did not sell as well as it could have.

[Deleted]

Payola.

And there are always tons of artists who have high airplay no matter what the song is, simply because the said artist could sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and have it shoot to #1.

[EvanJ]

Jul 20, 2013 20:10:27 GMT -5 🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾 said:

I also remember Mario Vazquez's "Gallery" in 2006 had gotten strong radio airplay (I can't remember where it peaked, but I'm thinking it was either top 10 or top 15), but its sales were extremely low and its album flopped very hard. The single peaked in the 30s on the Hot 100.

www.allmusic.com/artist/mario-vazquez-mn0000978231/awards says it peaked at Number 35 on the Hot 100 and it doesn't list a position on Billboard Adult Contemporary.