Lady Gaga - Born This Way (May 23)

[Black Jesus]

Epic artwork!

[dbhmr]

Those are all cool, but the third is my favorite.

[Fat Ass Kelly Price]

Some of those are kinda crappy. I wonder how they went about choosing, because I saw some better submissions.

[Deleted]

Jun 13, 2011 16:58:46 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/record-labels/how-lady-gaga-s-99-cent-born-this-way-sale-1005227962.story

How Lady Gaga's 99-cent 'Born This Way' Sale Hurt Interscope, Distributors

June 11, 2011

By Ed Christman, New York

Let's get one thing straight. The Lady Gaga 99 cent sale for 'Born This Way' was a great thing for the artist, and for Amazon. On a short-term basis, you could even make the case that it was great for the industry.

The 99 cent sale was big mainstream-media news, and that certainly benefited everyone, including other retailers. The album sold 1.1 million units--662,000 digital, 449,000 physical--in its debut week ending May 29, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The story lasted all week in the press. It worked the same way that Target and Best Buy circulars work: driving traffic to everyone's stores, not just those two big-box chains, or, in this case, Amazon's site. I'd argue that the glitch arising when Amazon's overwhelmed servers couldn't satisfy customer demand was a good thing, too, since it made the sale even bigger news. Given Amazon's impeccable service reputation, that blip won't hurt it long term.

For the cost of $3.3 million-that is, $8.40 wholesale minus 99 cents retail times 443,000 scans during the two-day sale-Amazon put itself on the map as a digital music merchant, in a way that the same amount of money spent on traditional advertising could never have bought.

But whether the sale helps Interscope remains to be seen. First, Interscope and Universal Music Group Distribution (UMGD) shipped 2.1 million album units before street date. If they knew in advance of Amazon's sale, you can bet they would've cut back on the initial CD allotment.

As is, Interscope has an inventory liability, with some merchants saying they need to return product. And if some of that talk comes from a few retail accounts being miffed over the Amazon deal, some is also due to simple math. The CD album sold 449,000 units of the 2.1 million shipped, for a 21.4 percent sell-through. Second-week sales are at 174,000 units (136,000 CDs), or 27.8 percent sell-through.

A decade ago, major-label shipment formulas called for shipping three units for everyone expected to be scanned in the first week. Nowadays, with a more efficient inventory replenishment, the ratio has dipped under 2-to-1.

But in Lady Gaga's case, UMGD shipped 4.7 units for each first-week scan. Even another big hit single, which would ensure a sooner sell-through of all 2.1 million units, won't stop merchants now from returning the album to improve their cash position. Interscope is probably looking at a few hundred thousand returns, depending on whether the label comes up with a sweetener to keep inventory in stores.

Competing labels and distributors may be even angrier than merchants about the sale. "This was a really bad move," the head of an independent distributor says. "Ninety-nine cents is almost free."

"If this happened in the 1990s, there would have been a big hue and cry from retail, even bigger than what it was this time," the head of sales at a major label says.

But these are different times. And in the digital world, "there are going to be times when music is the toy in the Happy Meal," a UMG executive says. Another Universal exec adds, "If Amazon tries to turn 99 cent superstar albums into a regular thing, I would be outraged."

Yet, some suggest that a few label marketers themselves may now start pushing such a pricing strategy to break an artist, or get an album into the No. 1 spot. Others say that, in the '90s, that inevitably would've followed-but not in today's market, when profit trumps chart success.

For all the talk about how the industry has evolved, though, former distribution executive Jim Caparro says, "It is shocking how consistent the industry is with the past. Today, it is almost parallel to how traditional music retail acted back then, with big accounts looking to steal market share by pricing."

But one executive familiar with Amazon's thinking says the Gaga pricing won't hurt the industry.

"Of course 'Born This Way' is worth more than 99 cents," the executive says. "That's why it created such retail excitement and buzz, when it was offered for 99 cents ... If it wasn't actually worth more, no one would have cared."

Very interesting.

I still think Amazon should have given Interscope a heads up about their plans because I figured the 2-day deal would have hurt them in terms of them overshipping it and forcing merchants and distributors to most likely have to returns a ton of copies back because of the loss in sales.

It worked out well for Gaga and the whole crossing-a-million thing and I guess Amazon though but Interscope is probably feeling a bit sh*t rn.

[Love Plastic Love]

Supposedly around 105K for her third week. That leaves her total close to 1.4 million. She most likely will pass 1.5 million in her fifth week. 1.5 million SOLD in just over a month is not bad at all-decent for a huge disappointing flop ;)

Her total worldwide was around 2.5 million for two weeks. She should cross the 3 million mark in a month or come close. Once again, not bad to be already at the 3 million+ mark in a month. We will see what happens in the future. I am hoping the explosive original sales are not the end. I would love for her to get another hit or two under her belt and pass 5 million worldwide and 2 million easily in America.

[jazzyskye10²]

Lady Gaga Sings on X Factor France

[sbk]

She did great although I'd rather have a full TEOG performance, or TEOG + BTW, rather than Judas. The ending was amazing though

[Love Plastic Love]

I am glad her performances are back to being top-notch. I love Judas live, but I would also prefer full EOG or EOG/BTW or even EOG/some other song from the cd. She loves Judas though and it is fun live.

Oh...and dat ass!!!!

[Deleted]

She slayed on X Factor and looked sexy as hell.

[discoloser]

Word is GaGa will be a guest judge on SYTYCD usa this season.

blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2011/06/lady-gaga-joins-kristin-chenoweth-megan-mullally-as-sytycd-guest-judges.html

[HolidayGuy]

Disco C, there is no "ax to grind" at Billboard. It's a news/factual piece, looking at the subject from that side of things. Billboard has published articles on the matter, looking at all sides- if it looked at everything from the celebratory/plus/profitable side, it wouldn't be much of a trade/business publication.

[lum]

I love her new hair, esp. when it's long. It'll look way better if it was more natural looking though.

[jazzyskye10²]

X-Factor With Lady Gaga Backstage

[when the pawn...]

"The Edge Of Glory" video is premiering tomorrow on So You Think You Can Dance's result show (8pm EST).

[jazzyskye10²]

Lady Gaga Appears on Le Grand Journal

[fhscott100]

The album is #3 in Canada with 12 000

[areyoureadytojump]

GaGa scans 100k:

SOUNDSCAN (WEEK ENDING 6/12/11)

1) Adele 21 114,314 (After 16 weeks 2,209,533)
2) Lady Gaga Born This Way 100,255 (After 3 weeks 1,385,313)

[freeman]

Jun 15, 2011 19:03:52 GMT -5 jazzyskye10² said:

Lady Gaga Appears on Le Grand Journal

Awesome performance. I wonder if this is somewhat of a preview of the music video since Gaga is a mermaid at first and Laurie Ann Gibson was quoted as saying the video will be "Fishy".

[$uperb@tDuDe]

I love the Cher inspired ass pants

[Black Jesus]

Great sales! Probably gonna drop below 100k next week :(

[jink]

Jun 15, 2011 20:09:33 GMT -5 Black Jesus said:

Great sales! Probably gonna drop below 100k next week :(

Who knows, maybe the video could spark some interest in the album.

[QAF]

I wonder of the unprecendendent amout of promotion money actually paid off; especially given the gimmick of the .99 Amazon sale to get her over a million in the first week.

[Love Plastic Love]

I doubt it was unprecedented and Amazon paid full price to the record label so Amazon would have been the one who lost money and not Gaga/the label.

[discoloser]

IF retails DO send back the physical product, or enough of it, it might loose money. However, if she can keep a significant amount of sales week by week, it may make it up with time.

Also...

JosephKahný: I did NOT direct Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory" video. Lady Gaga did

via twitter.

So, Laurie-Ann is wrong again? Guess they didn't agree or wonder if they worked together but not as director? All i know is he wants to do his vision, and she wants hers. Maybe they couldnt agree? Who knows!

[Deleted]

Well, that's interesting that Kahn didn't direct the video.

[discoloser]

The Edge of Glory?



/via tumbler/omfgmusicblog.


EDIT: Here comes the always lovely Laurie-Ann (@boomkack)

sorry guys there was a slight turn of events on Set

listen u disrespectful f*** they had an issue on set i dont lie!!!

I edited out who she tweeted though.

[QAF]

Still, the amount of promotion and the money spent on it was enormous to say the least. Unlike I have ever seen for any other artist. Even Michal Jackson I don't remember it being as big. I just can't help but wonder if expectations were met or if they are disappointed a bit.

[HEADOFTHEPACK]

Jun 15, 2011 22:19:07 GMT -5 Love Plastic Love said:

I doubt it was unprecedented and Amazon paid full price to the record label so Amazon would have been the one who lost money and not Gaga/the label.

...and the estimates for its opening week kept increasing. I very much doubt they're disappointed. Negativity for the sake of it, as ever.

[kmbgs]

Joseph Kahn and Gaga got into it?

:iwannaseethereceipts:

[when the pawn...]

Makes me nervous for the TEOG video