By Jim McCarthy Jul 1, 2009 0 comments

Michael Again…But There’s a Good Reason!

If there weren’t news to discuss here, I would have moved on from the Michael Jackson story, but something happened that’s extremely relevant to Live 2.0, so I want to share and comment on it.  Then I promise we’ll move on.

Yesterday, Billboard announced that for the first time in history a “catalog” album (meaning one that’s more tha 18 months old and entered and subsequently left the top 100 at some point) has outsold the current bestsellers.

In fact, it’s more than that.  Eight of Michael Jackson’s catalog albums have done that this week.  Eight!  In fact, 9 of the top 10 albums are either by Jackson (in the case of eight of them) or include him (there’s a Jackson 5 record in there too.)

By itself, this is remarkable.

But in combination with other facts, it’s even more remarkable.  First, the best selling of the MJ recordings will sell about 108,000 copies, whereas Thriller at its height was selling closer to 500,000 per week, without the endless promotion of tragedy coverage and powerful nostalgia.

Second, it’s not just that MJ’s stuff is selling well, it’s that the current popular number 1 (The E.N.D. by the Black-Eyed Peas) is weak, selling just 88,000 copies.  That’s not weak by 2009 standards, but by historical standards, it’s anemic.  But it has on the other hand become the norm for the number 1 album to sell less than 100,000 copies.

In essence, all of this is a testament to the weakness of value capture in recorded performance.  Yes, I’ve said that a lot, but it’s worth pointing out a lot because I’m working against a deeply embedded belief.

So to restate the big picture: in the past, recorded or broadcast performance was valuable and live performance was a marketing tool for that; now and into the future, live performance is valuable and recordings or broadcasts are a marketing tool for it.

Let that soak in if it hasn’t already…

This week’s MJ sales are a testament to the fact that the biggest musical nostalgia occurrence since Elvis’s death are barely big enough to recapture some of the way it used to be.

So thank your lucky stars you’re in the live business!

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