Pet Shop Boys - Chart History

[tottenhammattspurs]

I'm not surprised Yes has only sold half as much as Fundy did. Where was the TV advertising? Where was the music press advertising? Where was the billboard advertising? Where was the Love etc video shown? EMI, hang your head in shame!
Yes, or at the very least Love Etc should have been released the same week as the Brits performance. At the forefront of peoples minds, big media buzz, good itunes page, but no, EMI decide to wait another 6 weeks by which time the renewed interest had long since "sailed away". The Yes album should have been on merchandising stalls on the recent tour, so all those people who have rediscovered the Boys and going to the concerts, could buy it. No cds at any of the festival appearances either. Unacceptable.
it's intersesting that since the demise of Top Of The Pops, the boys have charted lower in the singles chart. Is I'm With Stupid really 5 places BETTER than Love Etc?...No, just that I'm with stupid got Top Of The Pops, so casual fans were made aware of a new release. TOTPs ends and Minimal scapes in, as does Numb. Love etc, would have been on TOTPs and with that extra bit of exposure would have dented the top 10.

Many bands, including Eras**e, Depeche, terrorvision, Howard Jones, Madonna etc sell cds on their merchadise stalls, and all of the previuosly mentioned artists sell live recordings of the gig you've just watched, within 10 mins of the concert ending! Missing a trick me thinks. Oh well. Only another 2 years and we'll have a ballet to watch, just hope EMI have nothing to do with that!

[NJTom]

I think part of the problem with selling cds at the mechandise stand is that it will reduce the amount of other memorabilia sold, because the lines will be longer and off putting. A lot of artists make up gift packs including a signed cd, key chain etc, to make it worthwhile handling the cds at the merchandise stand.

[Ramzy]

I'm not surprised Yes has only sold half as much as Fundy did.

Do we (1) know this to be true, (2) have the ability to see into the future? The only concrete figures of which I'm aware are the chart runs, which have been almost universally better than those of Fundamental.

[Rusty]

I'm not surprised Yes has only sold half as much as Fundy did.

Do we (1) know this to be true, (2) have the ability to see into the future? The only concrete figures of which I'm aware are the chart runs, which have been almost universally better than those of Fundamental.

I think the notion that Yes has sold half as much as Fundamental comes from this site which suggests that Yes has sold around 288,000 copies to date whereas Fundamental has sold around 600,000. The accuracy of these figures as actual sales is questionable although on a ratio basis they may be close to the truth. As stated in another thead album sales have been plumetting since 2006. As you say, Yes has charted better than Fundamental in almost every market and yet it still likely to have lower overall sales. This is true for all artists, not just PSB. And let's not forget the figures for Fundamental are after 3 years whereas for Yes they are for 4 months. In the long run it will certainly sell way more than half that of Fundamental.

As for the UK though, my guess is that Yes has sold close to if not more than Fundamental by now. The figure being bandied around for Fundamental is 66,000 to date (taken from UKMix Chart forum). Yes sold 50,000 copies in it's first 4 weeks and remained in the Top200 for another 10 weeks. I'd say it's figures are somewhere between 60,000 - 65,000. I think it will outsell Fundamental in the coming few months, especially if there is a third single.

[Rusty]

Just for the record, Discography remained in the UK Top200 last week, falling 175 to 189. It's 2009 chart run now is:

137 > 98 > 129 > OUT... > 149 > 136 > 165 > OUT ... > 185 > OUT... > 175 > 189

Not too shabby for an almost 20 year old album! God I feel old!

[kimphilby]

Just for the record, Discography remained in the UK Top200 last week, falling 175 to 189. It's 2009 chart run now is:

137 > 98 > 129 > OUT... > 149 > 136 > 165 > OUT ... > 185 > OUT... > 175 > 189

Not too shabby for an almost 20 year old album! God I feel old!

Thanks for the update, Rusty. Hasn't it spent around 130 weeks in the Top 200 since release?
The UK sales figures for Discography always seems a bit wooly. I've seen figures ranging from 320,000 to 775,000. I know it wasn't an amazing seller on its release (for some strange reason), so i'm presuming its somewhere in between those two figures.

[Rusty]

According to the UKMIX Chart forum these are the chart runs and sales figures for Discography:

Discography | 1991 (Best Of)
USA: 116-111-126-161-175-175-195-180-173-165-158-169-175-186-OUT VENTES: 1.100.000
Canada: 325.000
Brésil: 325.000
Argentine: 45.000
Japon: 200.000
Australie: 16-8-6-6-6-10-10-14-17-19-18-23-32-OUT
RE (12/09/1993:)35-OUT VENTES: 150.000

Europe: 1.960.000
-Allemagne: 29-21-26-24-28-27-34-41-46-54-70-59-78-89-OUT VENTES: 500.000
-Royaume-Uni: 3-5-12-14-19-22-19-16-13-19-25-26-32-35-45-37-63-62-OUT
(1993:) 71-85-88-OUT
(1994:) 39-39-32-52-64-92-96-OUT
(1995:) 146-117-124-124-105-144-OUT-113-120-124-129-OUT
(1996:) 141-100-107-113-133-OUT-142-OUT
(1997:) 124-97-112-130-135-174-179-179-OUT
(1998:) 195-173-OUT-74-66-118-165-OUT
(1999:) 65-68-96-156-OUT
(2001:) 159-125-100-96-133-120-50-66-102-130-OUT
(2005:) 168-169-84-80-103-119-83-104-119-187-OUT-157-140-166-OUT
(2006:) 190-177-OUT-134-95-124-136-160-OUT-196-149-100-78-98-163-168-OUT
(2007:) 124-139-169-190-192-OUT
RE(07/03/2009): 98 VENTES: 775.000
-France: 140.000
-Italie: 125.000
-Suisse: 27-27-35-37-OUT VENTES: 40.000
-Autriche: 38-37-33-OUT VENTES: 25.000
-Suède: 20-15-17-17-16-14-18-27-OUT VENTES: 120.000
-Espagne: RE(2007:)100-OUT
RE (2008:) 75-82-OUT VENTES: 150.000
-Finlande: 31.000

Worldwide Estimations: 4.700.000

According to this Discography has sold 775,000 in the UK. How accurate those sales figures are is anyone's guess. 1.1 million in the US for an album that never cracked the Top100 seems a bit sus to me.

Weeks on the chart up to last week adds up to a grand total of 114, although it looks like prior to 1995 only the Top100 was counted. Almost 5 million worldwide is pretty impressive. It's their second biggest selling album after Actually apparently.

[NJTom]

Discography has been a very steady seller here, and is the only release that had a very wide distribution physically, since the early days. It was certified gold (500K) by the RIAA in the 90s, and apparently the scanned sales do suggest that number is about right, tho I don't remember where I saw them listed.

In fact I remember checking amazon.com during the Pop Art release and promotion, and for the most part, it was still selling better than Pop Art.

[Patrick Bateman]

It's hardly surprising that Discography still outsells PopArt. I imagine that The Immaculate Collection outsells GHV2 too.

[Undertaker]

Discography is the greatest single disc release of all time. A collection of tunes that pisses all over anything else.

I'd say that 'Yes' must be pretty close to overtaking Fundamental in terms of sales, if it hasn't already. Yes seems to have bettered Fundamentals chart placings in a lot of Countries. It's hung around in Germany for nearly 20 weeks, hasn't it?

Maybe the figures for Fundamental are units 'shipped' and the figures for 'Yes' are units sold. So an unfair comparison if true.

Did Neil say Fundamental went Gold? According to the figures on page 1, Fundamental's figures for the U.K are 100,000. I'd find that hard to believe with a chart run of 5-22-47-73-144-OUT-190-OUT-169-176-161-196-OUT. The first 4 weeks would have spawned around 60,000 sales? Then the other 6 weeks are positions inside the top 140. Which would be around 500 sales per week x 6 = 3,000. Now that would leave another 37,000 sales needed in 3 years. Maybe i'm wrong here but i can't see that happening. Infact, those figures are a bit older, so 37,000 in 2 years would probably be more accurate. Can't see it to be honest.

[NJTom]

Well fundamental certainly wasn't certified gold, but adding the fundamentalism units, it could be possibly close to 100k shipped in total, though I'm sure there are a big pile of them in a warehouse somewhere.

As far as accuracy of the sales figures for fundamental and yes, they do become clearer over a couple of years as more solid sales figures come into the public domain. In the last year or so estimates for fundamental sales seem to have dropped an awful lot, especially as the usa numbers came into the public domain, and I will concede that these chart gurus may be low balling Yes to some extent based on the real performance of fundamental.

It is very clear though that sales are way down in general for complete albums, so the better chart positions don't mean all that much. Though in germany it does seem to be doing better, but in other markets not as well.

[Undertaker]

Album sales are down but it's only really noticable if you are a million seller and maybe a lesser act who sells to a fanbase would achieve a chart position of 15, instead of the usual 25+.

If Fundamental was compared to 'Yes' in Britain, the figures would have been very similar. 30k in week 1 etc.

2009 must be PSB's biggest selling year for ages, with PopArt achieving a new high and Discography hanging about.

[kimphilby]

Then the other 6 weeks are positions inside the top 140. Which would be around 500 sales per week x 6 = 3,000. Now that would leave another 37,000 sales needed in 3 years. Maybe i'm wrong here but i can't see that happening. Infact, those figures are a bit older, so 37,000 in 2 years would probably be more accurate. Can't see it to be honest.

Its chicken feed, but i think you've under-estimated the sales outside the Top 75. It changes weekly, and depending on the time of year, but 3 years ago albums positioned 150-200 were selling about 800-1500 per week. Positions 75-150 would have been 1500-2500 sales. Fundamental may have sold a few extra thousand than you estimated during those periods.
I also recall the album being sold super cheap at one time and it may have sold enough to get in to the Top 200 but not qualified for the chart because the pricing was too low. These would still register as sales, however.
Of course, even when albums aren't in the Top 75/ 200, they still registering valid sales. Fundamental/ism wont be that far away from 100,000 UK sales, and, eventually, neither will Yes.

[Undertaker]

Thats a fair point but after 4 weeks in the chart, the highest Fundamental got was 144, unless there has been a re-entry since the chart history was posted.

I'd still think 'Yes' isn't far behind already and with another 3 years sales, it will easily pass Fundamentals sales, especially when you see the sucess of 'Yes' in the internation chart thread

[NJTom]

When all is said and done in a couple of years, I'm sure Yes will eventually get close to the total of fundamental. But sales of pop art and discography are much higher now than in the Fundamental era, and maybe more to come as the tour returns to the uk arenas. So all in all, not bad.