madhatter88 wrote:I would guess that they will be ok because of their back catalogue.
Which back catalogue? The one that has just been milked to death with 6 re-issued albums and a poorly marketed Greatest Hits collection? That one? The back catalogue that EMI will still keep the rights of, after dropping PSB?
I don't want to sound harsh, and I'm not saying it *will* happen, but the chance of Pet Shop Boys getting dropped on EMI one day *is* growing. Fortunately they have a loyal fanbase; that helps. Oh, and they're currently producing a new album with a rather expensive producer... - I can't imagine EMI would want to miss out on the profits.
Pet Shop Boys are to EMI what economists refer to as a "cash cow". A product that is beyond its prime, but is generating solid profits without much need for advertising or product development. I am not sure how many copies "Release" sold world wide, but a very conservative estimate is that any "real" Pet Shop Boys album will sell 750,000 to a million copies without any significant promotion or radio air play. When you have such a product, you don't throw it out.
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The acts that are constantly in danger of being dropped are relatively new pop acts. The reason why they get dropped, is that the career span of these acts is usually very short. If they cannot generate solid to huge sales from the get-go, they get dropped after the first album, since the record company knows that unless the act gets consistent top 10 or even top 5 hits, they are likely to flop with their second album. These kind of pop acts need BIG singles to sell albums.
Lots of old bands are still around making albums every three years and doing quite well for themselves. Record companies spend very little time or effort on these bands, they just reap the benefits, even if they aren't great. Loads of bands have been around for ages and are doing considerably worse commercially compared to PSB.
Also remember that lots of bands, particularly teen pop acts, which seem to be rather big, infact sell LESS albums than PSB. This is due to the fact that the pop act in mention might only sell albums in the UK, for instance. If a pop act sell 300.000 albums in the UK they're rather big in the UK. PSB sell nowhere near that amount in the UK, but far exceeds that number worldwide. There are great benefits to being famous all around the world. PSB aren't really "big" anywhere anymore, but they're a known act everywhere. Even in the US, PSB sell around 100.000 copies everytime.
madhatter88 wrote:I would guess that they will be ok because of their back catalogue.
Which back catalogue? The one that has just been milked to death with 6 re-issued albums and a poorly marketed Greatest Hits collection? That one? The back catalogue that EMI will still keep the rights of, after dropping PSB?
I don't want to sound harsh, and I'm not saying it *will* happen, but the chance of Pet Shop Boys getting dropped on EMI one day *is* growing. Fortunately they have a loyal fanbase; that helps. Oh, and they're currently producing a new album with a rather expensive producer... - I can't imagine EMI would want to miss out on the profits.
How was PopArt poorly marketed? It received *tonnes* of promotion, a series of prime time TV ads, two singles with very expensive videos both of which were play listed on most video channels, Neil and Chris performed them in tonnes of music TV shows, Miracles was hammered by Radio 2 relentlessly. PopArt has sold about 300K copies in the UK alone, which is perfectly acceptable considering their last 3 studio album were poor sellers.
The back catalogue of an act with a career of 20 years that has had tons of hits is never fully milked. A CD like Discography is always a nice little seller.
I hope PSb are dropped by EMI, then they would be off with a more suitable company.
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Ya sold crack to my sister, and now she's sick.
But if she happens to die, because of your drug;
Im puttin' in your culo, a .38 slug!
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Zeus On The Loose wrote:
two singles with very expensive videos both of which were play listed on most video channels
not in the UK they didn't, did they get a lot of play aoound the world ?
Flamboyant rotated heavily. In dotmusic com's chart forums, some were praising PSB for reaching number 12 without any radio play while others opposed that its video was frequently aired.
The CELL by Stephen King instantly hit number 1 in New York Times Bookseller Lists selling well over 200 thousand copies in three weeks. This affirms my opinion: People really need an occassional good horror read...
Zeus On The Loose wrote:How was PopArt poorly marketed? It received *tonnes* of promotion, a series of prime time TV ads, two singles with very expensive videos both of which were play listed on most video channels, Neil and Chris performed them in tonnes of music TV shows, Miracles was hammered by Radio 2 relentlessly. PopArt has sold about 300K copies in the UK alone, which is perfectly acceptable considering their last 3 studio album were poor sellers. The back catalogue of an act with a career of 20 years that has had tons of hits is never fully milked. A CD like Discography is always a nice little seller.
I'm not going to redo the entire PopArt marketing discussion, but the album was only properly marketed in the UK, Germany and -for some weird reason- Norway. In most other European countries, the album wasn't promoted at all. I didn't complain about PopArt sales, but you have to face that most of PSB's back catalogue HAS been milked now. It doesn't mean it won't sell anymore, but people won't continue to buy old PSB stuff forever.
Nearly all PSB singles are available on PopArt, most of their albums have been re-issued. There's not much left to milk! Nightlife and Release; two albums that didn't really generate big European hits (I'm not even talking worldwide). As said before, PSB are a solid act who still sell a decent amount of albums, thanks to their fanbase. That's what keeps their position safe.
Psb sell a lot of singles and records like compilations and cds like "disco 1,2 or 3" don't cost too much. So I think they will continue with EMI.
I think with Very, PSB were the strongest pop group of EMI. The company supported their job with a massive marketing. ¡Golden Days!
Probably if PSB have a massive hit with the same feeling of Go West, they could come back in some way. I think EMI gave the chance to PSB after listening Go West.
