Look, all this cross promotion non-sense such as the NFL, Days Of Our Lives, American Music Awards and God forbid...the Super Bowl (YIKES!!!!) does absolutley nothing for record sales.

The have millions of fans who will pay extrodinary amounts of money to see them live but who have no interest in putting down $15 bucks on a record store counter to get the new CD...that's the fact.

All die hard Stones fans will purchase the record in the first 2-3 weeks max...and that's it...the record disappears...just like the band KISS and there die hard fan base.

Does it ever occur to anybody that the STONES make more money in just one night at a Stadium show than they would ever see on triple platinum album sales?

The days of this business have surely changed (and for most acts)...The Stones used to make albums and go on the road to sell the record...now they make albums as an excuse to sell concert tickets, t-shirts etc...

If they made $160 per CD sale...boy...I wonder what the music would sound like?

PECMAN

Very well said Pecman. I totally agree and the reason to me is simply pride, that they want to show the world they can still sell records and have hits but those days are gone simply because of the time elapsed, not the quality of the music. It's nice for us to have a new album though, especially a very good one IMHO. On another note, I had a hard time here in Toronto finding that Rarities disk yesterday before finally going to a Starbucks and buying it there. Very nice packaging, informative booklet, great sound but I'm dissapointed so much is already available. Couldn't find the special edition ABB and I'm pissed that they didn't put it out at the outset (like Neil Young always does). It means I end up buying it twice (good marketing on their part I guess).

I don't think they have millions of fans.

JumpingKentFlash

JumpingKentFlash Wrote:
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> I don't think they have millions of fans.
>
>


would you believe dozens?

I think it's more like in the hundreds of thousands to be honest.

JumpingKentFlash

>>>>don't think they have millions of fans.<<<<<<

there must be actually about 3 because this is the amount of copies they usually sell for shure of a new record.(except the live stuff)

Jumpingkentflash,

That's my point...they have hundreds of thousands of REAL fans...and millions of casual fans who pay a pretty penny to see them live...the fact is there a millions of people in those seats on any particular tour...but they could care less about buying a new CD from the STONES...so why bother with all this stupid promotion that does nothing to rope in new fans and just embarresses the REAL ones.

PECMAN

Well, maybe they play the new songs to please us hardcore fans. Who knows?

JumpingKentFlash

<<<Well, maybe they play the new songs to please us hardcore fans. Who knows?>>>
well i think ABB was just pleasure and history and sentimentalism and ups all of a sudden they added another milestone record to their cataloge just by that..B2B was hard work..nice record but hard work.
and Pecman for Jagger its important to show how important he is..even Keith is interested in that...if they would care about the REAL fans they would play ABB + the two new ones or the entire Exile or whatever..in small venues..how is that?
And: who the @#$%& would dare to play in front of millions of tv watchers such a crap..:-)..I like that! Its so funny nowadays all this high professional standards even live and then the only real active band from the 60s show up and play like almost amateurs...I love them for moments like this.

Mick in particular clearly says he doesn't want to be a Chuck Berry/Beach Boys type oldies act - he wants to make new work, which is why he's done a solo set & soundtrack since '01, as well as the '02 RS stuff and 18 (19?) new RS songs this year. "I want hits," he said to Billboard. The legacy, the pride, the unfathomable feelings he must get from performing & connecting...The conservative Jagger perhaps conflicts with the Jagger/Stones who did 3 new ones in a row after Hillburn struck a nerve.

judging by this website, i'd say they have 4 fans.and 2500 whiners and complainers!

john r Wrote:
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> Mick in particular clearly says he doesn't want to
> be a Chuck Berry/Beach Boys type oldies act - he
> wants to make new work, which is why he's done a
> solo set & soundtrack since '01, as well as
> the '02 RS stuff and 18 (19?) new RS songs this
> year. "I want hits," he said to Billboard. The
> legacy, the pride, the unfathomable feelings he
> must get from performing & connecting...The
> conservative Jagger perhaps conflicts with the
> Jagger/Stones who did 3 new ones in a row after
> Hillburn struck a nerve.


I took that anti-nostalgia attitude from Mick at face value until 2002 when the band decided to tour behind a greatest hits album instead of new material and played only one new song in the space of 117 shows.

The tour was a financial success and the album one of the most commercially successful of their career. I think he realised that it was quite evident that there was a lot of money to be made on nostalgia.

problem with that is once youve done such a tour and it has been a success where do you take it next? Obviously they cant keep touring behind repackages and compilations. The new album may have (deservedly) got their best reviews in decades, but commercially it has underperformed. Which is especially surprising and disappointing considering the amount of people still coming to see them in concert and paying huge amounts of money to do so. Their target audience (ie the corporate one who own 40 Licks and little else) seemingly isnt interested in new songs or anything beyond a nostalgia orientated greatest hits show, so effectively the Stones have allowed themselves to be backed into a corner where they play it safe and keep those type of people satisfied. Mick and Keith even admitted about 2 years ago that they were unenthusiastic about making new records because it was quite obvious the audience werent that interested in them (To their credit they made one and did so with great enthusiasm and renewed inspiration)

The dilemma is - do you try and reach a new audience and also test your existing audience by pushing material on them that many were previously either unaware of or too lazy to discover? Or do you play it safe with what you've achieved to date and take the easy option by playing a greatest hits show for an audience who you know isnt that interested in anything else but who are paying a lot of money to hear your most familiar material which they bought on that greatest hits album 3 years ago?

Its quite obvious which path theyve chosen. Its certainly the easier choice from a financial viewpoint but the less satisfying from an artistic one.