I wonder if anyone in the Stones organisation ever thought of having a 2 or 3 dollar off coupon on the ticket stub for a purchase of 'A Bigger Bang'? THAT would have perhaps sent a lot more concert-goers to the store to buy the album, don't you think, who may not have done so otherwise, and die-hards would buy it at least twice...once when it came out, and again with the coupon on the stub (if you aren't one of those people like me who have to save your stub for posterity).
It's too late for that now, of course, but they COULD hand out SEPARATE discount coupons on a puchase of the album to concert goers as they come in from here on out...it's worth a try, I think.
The Stones are off for a week, so I think they could get this worked out before the next show.

Maybe they could sell the album in the venue they play.

No, this wouldn't work because as others have pointed out, those sales would not count towards the BILLBOARD chart position and the record stores would not be happy about them selling the album at the show.

The trick would be to get concert goers to a retailer. like bestbuy, with their ticket stubs, to drive traffic--that way the retailers are happy and the Stones are happy and the concert goers and album buyers are happy.

If they have to resort to that tactic,it would not be a good sign.They probably have too much pride for that.

I thought for Prince's last tour, every ticket included a copy of the CD, and that counted in billboard as units sold. It's one of the reasons his last album had decent sales, because everyone who saw him live "bought" a copy as part of the cost of the concert

From what I have read, and I could certainly be wrong, the rules were changed after Prince did this and albums sold at the venue or included with a ticket no longer count towards chart sales.

I just wish there was some way to translate ticket sales into better album sales...there's SOME interest there obviously...there just needs to be that extra little push. I KNOW if people who went to the shows heard the album they'd LOVE it!

I hate the fact that 'A Bigger Bang' might only go gold, which hasn't happened to a studio album since, well, I don't know when. Yet there's over, what...a million or so people seeing them in North America?

Is is puzzling.

And I bet you next week(if it's not Disturbed), either Barbra Streisand or Bon Jovi (who's new single is a hit, of course) have a #1 album in the U. S.

Sheesh.

somebody did that but the catch was you had to give them the stub. i saved all my stubs including 11 stones.

The Prince CD's that were handed out were all marked promotional and inside a cardboard slip sleeve. No linernotes, packaging, etc...

As for bands selling CD's at their shows...in some cases venues take 40-50% of merchandising cuts, in some cases a lower % for pre recorded music. Would you pay $25-$30 for a CD at a concert, when you could just go to Best Buy and buy it for under $15 or download it from Itunes (like I did for $13)?