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Old 07-03-2014, 05:17 PM
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Default I know we're disappointed on her Cd sales.

There is a major change in the Music industry going on and as the singer Bob Dylan says, Times are a changing.

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Hello people over 30. You had record collections, tapes, CDs. Then you downloaded music into your computers or devices. Well, guess what? Kids today don’t want any of that. They’re happy to pay an annual fee and “stream” it all. They are not buying CD or downloading anything. What the heck am I supposed to do with twenty boxes of 45s and a room full of CDs????

According to Nielsen, during the first six months of 2014, sales of all albums both physical and digital were down 14.9%. And sales just of digital downloads (from iTunes mostly) were down 11.6%.

But dig this: sales of CDs were down 19.6%.

What was up? Streaming jumped 50%. And sales of vinyl LPs were up 40%.
Music-biz-alarm-all-albums-down-14-1st-six-months-2014-streaming-way-up-kids-dont-want-to-own-the-music

Her older fans who are 40 and over, may make her uneasy because she doesn't understand the fascination they have with her, are the same ones that are physically ordering and buying her Cd's.
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Old 07-03-2014, 05:39 PM
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I think we all know the situation in music industry changed much, and still changing. And of course all singers feel it, including Alizée.

But in case of Alizée, this is not the main reason.
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Old 07-03-2014, 07:39 PM
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While the younger generation is more reluctant to pay for music, this is a problem that should affect all artists more or less equally on a percentage basis. Other artists still have successful CD sales despite a trend towards streaming, so there must be something more unique to Alizée's situation that is causing disappointing sales. A lack of popularity is the most convenient answer, but the reason for this decline in popularity is harder to pinpoint. Perhaps older fans have lost interest (as suggested by negative critical reception of Blonde), and new younger fans are harder to gain because they've already missed 14 years of Alizée history and there are newer artists who are more likely to catch the media spotlight.
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Old 07-03-2014, 09:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ALS View Post
Her older fans who are 40 and over, may make her uneasy because she doesn't understand the fascination they have with her, are the same ones that are physically ordering and buying her Cd's.

ALS

Just curious but i can't recall her ever saying that she feels uneasy about fans over 40?? Is there a direct quote of that somewhere that i've missed?
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Old 07-04-2014, 06:24 AM
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Well to be sure, cd sales are more than ever affected by streaming and piracy. But I think they made a couple of major mistakes with this album, an album that I think has ( at this point it's more like had) potential. The purpose of rushing this album out was to take advantage of her new found popularity gained from her performance on DALS. Well shouldn't they have come up with some more videos of her songs featuring her dancing? I think they should have come out with at least 3 music vicdeos from that album which should have been released at least by the time of the album release if not earlier.

Another mistake they made was the same one they made with Psych and putting too much focus on the theme song of the album, a song that was not the best on the album. You add to the fact that it wasn't that good a video and it's no wonder the album isn't doing well. They did some performances of Alcaline, a very good song in my opinion, but these were very forgetable performances. I thought the dance routines were good, but it was wasted by the way she looked. Were we really supposed to be amused when she sprayed water on that i phone? Now I really would have liked it if that woman had got up and the two of them started kick boxing. That would have made for an interesting video as opposed to the boring one it was.

She hasn't learned a thing since she left MF/LB and has too much say in her own career and is running it right into the ground. All she should do is sing and dance and leave all the choreography, all the planning and especially all the costume design to someone else.

I think Sony has done a lot to promote her, but they are going about it the wrong way. While they are putting lots of effort into promoting the lack luster "Blonde" and promoting the good song Alcaline, although it in a forgetable way, the rest of a good album is being left behind.

Like I said, they should have had at least 3 videos made for this album. Alcaline was a great song and would be the strongest candidate for one. I think K.O. too would have been another good one, maybe even featuring some scenes of her boxing. I'd love to see that.

So I think it's a good album and sales should have been much better, if they had done a better job in the way they promoted it to the public.
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Old 07-04-2014, 11:21 AM
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“Blonde” is more mainstream pop. The type of audience that Alizée gained from DALS is not necessarily into mainstream pop. I have a feeling that her DALS popularity has not significantly contributed to sales of “Blonde”. Looking at the numbers, sales of her new CD appear to be about what you would expect from her small but loyal fan base that has stood with her through it all. Hopefully, the DALS audience will show up for the live performances where she has promised to do a lot of dancing.

When Alizée burst on the scene, she was a phenomenon. A combination of the right girl, the right music and the right timing, along with many other factors, allowed it to happen. When you look at sales from her second album, you can see that the phenomenon was already starting to fade. You can’t engineer a phenomenon because there are too many variables out of your control. All you can do is to do your best and hope you hit the timing right. Of course, the changing realities of the music industry are also playing a big part in all of this. And unfortunately for me, the whole "Blonde concept" promo has not been very inspiring for me.

The public generally does not like returning someone to the pedestal that they once occupied previously. They prefer someone new. That’s why DALS was such a good thing for Alizée because it exposed her to a different subset of the public that was willing to look at her as if she was new. I just don’t think her album has appealed to this subset of the public. As I mentioned before, hopefully her concert tour will draw these people out. But my guess is if they come, they will come for the dancing, and not as much for the music.

The last thing I will say is that I have liked Psyche, UEDS, 5, and the current music. They are all different styles, but I have found things to like in all of them. My interest has always been mainly for the music and I would defend all of her albums as having been worth the effort.
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Old 07-04-2014, 01:43 PM
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If the idea of producing this latest album was in any way prompted by a desire to cash in on her DALS success then, in my opinion, it was a fairly dumb idea to completely change her image in the process.

I think it's probably true that 'older' people buy more CDs than 'younger' people. I buy them because I have a decent hi fi system to play them on and I'm not interested in the low quality of an Mp3 download.

As for the disappointing sales more generally I don't know why that should be but I think Blonde is by far the worst album she has made to date. It doesn't sound 'new' or 'fresh' to me at all. It is stacked full of pop music cliches and sounds extremely derivative and 3rd rate to me.
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Old 07-04-2014, 02:12 PM
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I think too that we are all perhaps 'getting ahead of ourselves' a little?
Sales have been disappointing so far there is no denying that but we have to remember that the tour doesn't start until..what...November.
I've no doubt whatsoever that the tour will increase sales significantly. That's what tours do.
Have a little patience.
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Old 07-04-2014, 08:46 PM
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In the old days I would buy multiple copies of Alizée's album ( atleast 15 copies ) cuz believe it or not in 2001/2002 when I first discovered her here in the UK I thought I was the only one here who was actually buying her Gourmandises album lol. Anyway there was something very special about that time as I felt I was doing something good for her and didn't really care too much if anyone else was buying her album cuz I kinda wanted her all for myself as she was my rare gem and my angel from Corsé.

Subsequently though, I joined forums such as MF International and lurked on AF for years and I realized that many fans there were also buying multiple copies of her albums such as GMD and MCE and so I realized she was special to many and wasn't just my rare gem.

Well to get to the point I still never believed back then that she would be recording albums ten years on as she is and it's great for her.. the only difference for me is I have only purchased one copy of Blonde but I hope she will be OK with that.
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Old 07-04-2014, 11:40 PM
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I can tell you that Sony is expecting to make there money off the tour and the merchandise sales from the tour. The CD is mostly an ad for the tour to get attention. Any sales on the CD is just a bonus. The real concern is not really the CD sales as much as the sales of the up coming tour. If they fail to not sell out those shows, it's not going to be a good thing.
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