what do the stones fans think? We have been in hell waitin for new cd from our
fave band and we get brilliant cd has been doing well in europe but not in UK
OR USA,what is the reason for this,have lot of the fans have moved on to new
music or new bands OR DOWNLOADING AND BUYIN THE CD WHEN ITS CHEAPER?I hope
the stones get the message and bring out new music every couple of years rather
than 8 years gap.we want the stones,we want the stones,keep on rockin boys.kish

I find the style of your post very entertaining.

Anyway, the downloading, that would go for all other candidates right? If not more, because
a) older Stones fans are less liable to download stuff, new artists seldomly have older fans;
b) Stones records are meant to be collected in a way, records of artists that are bound to be forgotten soon don't have this value.

So there, the downloading can hardly be the problem.

It won't get much cheaper either. My copy was 12 Euros.

The KEY on this days is the promotion, Green Day's previous album flopped big time and Virgin fired them because they only sold 1.5 m. copies worldwide and they were "irrelevant". A few months after, Universal/Reprise picked them and they put a lot of effort on their new album, with strong promotion, videos, tv appearances...
The "irrelevant" Green Day according to the SMART PEOPLE on Virgin, now is an act that has sold more than 13 millions of their last album with 3 Top 20 hits in US.
Many others artists had sales peak during the last year due smart marketing moves: U2, Prince, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith's last blues album spent 12 weeks in the US Top 100 and got a #7 hit on the Billboard rock chart...all with a bunch of cheap covers!
Virgin is the WORST record company of the world, all the acts under this label have problems selling albums and is the company with less albums on the charts, I'm so sure that the sales of ABB would be the double if the record company is other, excuse me, ANY OTHER company except Virgin.

you call that hell??

we've had well over 250 concerts by the band in the 8 years between BTB and ABB where theyve played on almost every continent and we've all had ample chance to see them. Would you have thought that possible 10 or 20 years ago? Whilst I think they should have reasonably knocked out another album or two in that time, we havent done too bad

To paraphrase AC/DC, if thats hell, it aint a bad place to be

When you picked this band to follow instead of all the others, youve ended up getting a good run for your money overall. Most bands last no more than a few years before imploding. For pretty much all of us, these ol' bastards have been around for all of our lives

the album has hardly been a flop. In the UK, I think its probably sold more than BTB did by this point. Whether it stays in the charts for months on end of not is hardly going to cause anyone sleepless nights, lets face it

The album sells very well everywhere, except the two "capitals" of the music industry: USA and UK. The reason for this is so obvious... No promotion, a just decent promotion. No videos yet! God... In 2005 (not in 1965 or 1975!), if an album goes worldwide at #1 during the first two weeks and at #3 on the third, if sells 1.4 million copies in 27 days WITHOUT being supported by any elementary promotion, that means:

(á) The artist or the band is really popular (as the Stones are, even after 43 years of career).
(b) The album is truly very good, if not marvellous (as ABB is)
(c) The top executives of the company are idiots (i can't imagine that), or indifferents (i can't believe that a company has no regard for the chance to buy not 2,5 or 3 but 4 or 5 million copies, especially in these, so difficult for the music industry, days), or ... Or are planning something "big", now, having strange timetable. It's very late for that? I don't know. Maybe not, if you think the pre- Christmas period of the marketing.

Having worse promotion (in fact, "zero promotion") than in 80s, ABB is going to sell clearly better than "Undercover" or "Dirty Work", perhaps better than "Emotional Rescue" too! The tour helps but it isn't enough. Virgin, where the hell are you??

Agree with Gaza : "you call that hell??". During 43 years, 8 years without an album isn't a tragedy. Tragedy would be to do nothing, or to make horrible albums. 1982 -1989: No tours, but albums. 1997-2005: No albums, but a lot of concerts. In both cases we got good indemnifies...

Gazza, we often agree in the last days. Do you ...worry about that, or the whole world has now more hopes??

THAT fact is what is causing me sleepless nights, not the record sales! ;-)

limbo stone your post make sense but i think what your overlooling is how many teenagers are down loading abb for ther parents.my son offered and i politely refused,but atleast 15 people i know(who love the stones)told me there kids are or already hooked them up with a burnt cd.hence lost sales.i'll prove my point with a did you buy abb,or get a download post.

john scialfa