Good news for Sacramento’s own CAKE band, whose new album “Showroom of Compassion” opened at #1 on the Billboard charts for the week! However, it did so by selling only 44,000 copies, the lowest high sales mark in Billboard history (beating out Taylor Swift). McCrea and co shouldn’t get too comfortable in that spot as you know the record won’t last. But still, that’s great for their “comeback album” to get some interest.
I know that I have not bought a compacted disc since the Clinton administration, but I’m also not sweating it. The only development of the new music industry paradigm that worries me is that bands now have to do almost anything but focus on selling records if they want to make money, which could lead to more selling out. For example, there is no way in hockey sticks that Vampire Weekend didn’t have a discussion of whether J Crew or Old Navy commercials would be better suited for their song “Holiday.” (Or is it much less sinister than that? Does Old Navy just go through the record label to purchase a song for their winter launch?)
P.S., yes, I know I used Cake and death in the title of the post. Wasn’t that like 4 years ago now though?
The Sac Rag 
Selling “records” never made the artists money. It lines the record companies pocket books. Touring is what makes artists money. Recording contracts are written in a way that totally removes any monetary reward for the artist, at least in the beginning. I am sure Cake sees a few pence more per album but they bring home the bacon touring. The record gets people interested and the tour brings in the cash.
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Album sales make a pittance, touring makes some money, but Strategic Marketing and Licensing (movies, commercials, TV) is where the real money comes from.
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That’s a good point–it’s the labels driving the changes in the industry now that nobody buys albums anymore, not so much the artists.
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Well, that dubious honor didn’t last long…
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