The Beatles - Chart Data- Sales Stats & Other Info

[r&b]

there is also a cassette edition re, Now and Then/Love me Do 2023.

Good one here by A Beatlefull Life, bless her !

Cassettes are making a comeback

Why are cassettes making a comeback and CDS arent? My new Barnes & Nobles opened last week with a very small entertainment section which consisted of mostly vinyl and some blu-rays and one shelf of cassettes. Cassettes are really an outdated format IMO. Cars cant play them and who has a cassette player at home anymore? I cant remember seeing new models in stores for years now. I would think CDs should be more dominant.

[emjel]

there is also a cassette edition re, Now and Then/Love me Do 2023.

Good one here by A Beatlefull Life, bless her !

Cassettes are making a comeback

Why are cassettes making a comeback and CDS arent? My new Barnes & Nobles opened last week with a very small entertainment section which consisted of mostly vinyl and some blu-rays and one shelf of cassettes. Cassettes are really an outdated format IMO. Cars cant play them and who has a cassette player at home anymore? I cant remember seeing new models in stores for years now. I would think CDs should be more dominant.

It is reckoned that vinyl sales are now overtaking CDs. As for cassettes, I cannot understand the attraction. As you say, who has a cassette player at home, especially a decent one that could be linked into a decent sound system. And would you want to take this cassette and play it in a car even if you had a player. It would offer around 5 minutes of entertainment before having to be ejected. And if the tape gets snagged around the drive spindle, then it’s effectively a write off. They were fine decades ago for the portability factor etc, but now…..Next we’ll be getting told that Super 8 movies are making a comeback and superseding Blu-Ray.

[r&b]

there is also a cassette edition re, Now and Then/Love me Do 2023.

Good one here by A Beatlefull Life, bless her !

Cassettes are making a comeback

Why are cassettes making a comeback and CDS arent? My new Barnes & Nobles opened last week with a very small entertainment section which consisted of mostly vinyl and some blu-rays and one shelf of cassettes. Cassettes are really an outdated format IMO. Cars cant play them and who has a cassette player at home anymore? I cant remember seeing new models in stores for years now. I would think CDs should be more dominant.

It is reckoned that vinyl sales are now overtaking CDs. As for cassettes, I cannot understand the attraction. As you say, who has a cassette player at home, especially a decent one that could be linked into a decent sound system. And would you want to take this cassette and play it in a car even if you had a player. It would offer around 5 minutes of entertainment before having to be ejected. And if the tape gets snagged around the drive spindle, then it’s effectively a write off. They were fine decades ago for the portability factor etc, but now…..Next we’ll be getting told that Super 8 movies are making a comeback and superseding Blu-Ray.

Or 8 tracks!! Cassettes have always been my least favorite form of media, from the cheap packaging to the sound, and as you point out the snaggling. When I tell people I still play CDs they ask me what is this the 90's? Well if I see a person with a new cassette, I can change the 90's to the 70's. Good grief.

[Walter Hale 4]

there is also a cassette edition re, Now and Then/Love me Do 2023.

Good one here by A Beatlefull Life, bless her !

Cassettes are making a comeback

Why are cassettes making a comeback and CDS arent? My new Barnes & Nobles opened last week with a very small entertainment section which consisted of mostly vinyl and some blu-rays and one shelf of cassettes. Cassettes are really an outdated format IMO. Cars cant play them and who has a cassette player at home anymore? I cant remember seeing new models in stores for years now. I would think CDs should be more dominant.

It is reckoned that vinyl sales are now overtaking CDs. As for cassettes, I cannot understand the attraction. As you say, who has a cassette player at home, especially a decent one that could be linked into a decent sound system. And would you want to take this cassette and play it in a car even if you had a player. It would offer around 5 minutes of entertainment before having to be ejected. And if the tape gets snagged around the drive spindle, then it’s effectively a write off. They were fine decades ago for the portability factor etc, but now…..Next we’ll be getting told that Super 8 movies are making a comeback and superseding Blu-Ray.

I Do, I still keep my old cassette and CD player and all of my commercial tapes of famous albums and comps, including the old 120 minute Radio Shack (also known as Tandy) tapes

[Walter Hale 4]

The Beatles Blue and Red compilations has fallen to #17 and #23 over in the UK Album chart, this week. What's going on over there ? It's even worse in australia where the two albums aren't in the ARIA top 50

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/

[minkahed]

Apparently, The Beatles just scored their 35th Top Ten hit on the Billboard charts with, Now And Then. It debuted at #7 and has also just hit #1 on the Airplay chart as well.

[emjel]

The Beatles Blue and Red compilations has fallen to #17 and #23 over in the UK Album chart, this week. What's going on over there ? It's even worse in australia where the two albums aren't in the ARIA top 50

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/

Well it’s to be expected really. Both of the originals have sold pretty well in the U.K. since 1973 with the Red amassing around 1.7 million and the Blue closer to 2 million and those numbers are pretty good for double albums but I’m not sure that adding a dozen or so extra tracks to each album offers good value for money if the selling price goes up accordingly. The originals could be bought for around £15 and these new versions £24.

In the three weeks since the release of these new incarnations, sales of the Red album is around 33k whilst sales of the Blue is around 40k and as mentioned, these sets aren’t particularly cheap to buy - nearly £50 for both. The other thing that needs to be considered is that their "1" album contains a pretty high percentage of tracks that can be found on these double albums, and the fact that the "1" has sold around 4 million copies in the U.K. it’s going to be slightly off putting for the average person who perhaps owns the originals and the 1 album too and isn’t that bothered by remixes.

In the US, sales of the Blue are around 60k and the Red around 48k and sales of the originals are over 8.5 million and 7.5 million respectively and whilst the new mixes may be a blessing to Beatles fans, just like the U.K., the average person is unlikely to be that excited, especially if they own the "1" album too which is currently approaching sales of over 14.5 million in the US. Global sales for that album are now close to 33 million so I’m sure that’s going to have a bit of an effect.

In Japan, the numbers are slightly closer together with the Red at 34k and the Blue at around 37k. But it still means that global sales of the Red is approaching 133k and the blue is just over 150k. I would imagine Apple are reasonably pleased with those numbers and certainly happy with sales of the single in the U.K. which will be approaching 170k by the end of next week.

But the question has to be "is there much of a really big attraction especially as the artwork is identical to the originals excepting the additional track listing". I know that they are meant to represent the 50th anniversary, and Apple didn’t want to move away from the original artwork, but it was an opportunity to present the overall packaging in a different way whilst retaining the front of the sleeves. So instead of just running with the basic 5" digipak, they should have gone with either a 7" or 8" slipcase with a decent booklet so that even fans felt they were getting value for money. I, along with many other fans felt that the artwork/sleeves for the vinyl was bordering on a budget kind of release with albums 2 and 3 being put into one sleeve, but the price was certainly not budget.

So whilst sales have been okay, I think they could have been better had the presentation been better.

I think what I am surprised at is the fact that whilst the Red album is the one with all the unreleased remixes, the Blue album has outsold it - something that has happened since 1973 regardless of the variants put out.

[Walter Hale 4]

the Blue and red albums has taken a nose-dive this week on the american billboard albums charts at #37 and #50 respectively. Not good

https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200/

[emjel]

the Blue and red albums has taken a nose-dive this week on the american billboard albums charts at #37 and #50 respectively. Not good

https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200/

Well this week they’ve dropped to 60 and 85 respectively. As I wrote above, it’s no surprise and to be expected although they both sold a further 13k and 10k. Dolly Parton’s recent album dropped from #3 to #28 which could be considered a bigger kind of nosedive for an album of new material and one that plays for much longer than either of those Beatles albums and has a lower price tag too.

Personally, and as I wrote before, I think Apple have got the sales strategy completely wrong especially with the pricing and what is being offered, a bit like some of the FTD releases.

Both albums are still in many European charts and overall sales across the globe for each album will eclipse 160k by then end of the year which won’t be bad for 6 weeks worth of sales. Elvis’ recent new releases couldn’t generate close to that kind of number in one year - as I understand it, those two Nashville sets are currently around 37k for the first one and 31k for the second one. .

[emjel]

Official Albums Chart Top 100 UK: 8 December 2023 - 14 December 2023

TW LW WoC Artist Title
22 17 63 - The Beatles - 1967-1970
29 23 38 - The Beatles - 1962-1966​

[emjel]

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Four BPI U.K. Awards so far for 2024.