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Post by johnny on Apr 12, 2024 19:17:02 GMT
Hometine,yeah, you're right 10 ABBA singles in this week's Physical Singles Chart.
#1 Waterloo
#3 Honey Honey
#18 Ring Ring
#36 The Day Before You Came
#39 He is Your Brother
#40 Under Attack
#41 People Need Love
#46 Head Over Heels
#49 One of Us
#85 I Still Have Faith in You
The Singles Chart is of course streaming dominanted. In the small Singles Sales sector, sales tend to be downloads. For albums the Album Sales sector is mainly physical.
In the album sales chart
#30 GOLD
#44 Waterloo
#47 Voyage
I deduce from this that of Waterloo and Voyage are almost identical in sales. The former vinyl dominant and appealing to hard core fans who knew this edition was coming out.
The latter, CD dominant by casual fans who prpbably never knew it existed until all this chater about ABBA's career last week.
Sherlock Holmes
PS As a rule, in Album Sales Chart, #20 about 1000 copies. #50 about 500 and #100 abput 200 copies.
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Post by gary on Apr 12, 2024 21:49:46 GMT
That’s quite an unusual selection of songs.
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Post by johnny on Apr 12, 2024 22:12:35 GMT
Gary, yep an unusual selection at first sight.
But they are 10 of the last 11 vinyl releases.
Maybe people just delay in buying them - like up to 2 years! Or they have ordered and it takes so long.
Or just that's how the tiny singles market works.
I think it id significant that they are the most recent releases on vinyl.
Nice to see they are still selling - even in very small quantities.
Those 10 songs do look like a budget album - a couple of big hits and random album tracks..lol.
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Post by baab on Apr 13, 2024 3:46:52 GMT
I wonder about the general availability of the "physical Versions" of ABBA Albums and Singles is in the UK?
Here in Germany you see rarely picture discs or singles boxes in the shops. Vinyl Albums are also rare apart from ABBA Gold and some copies of the latest half speed master.
With CDs, it is also rare, ABBA Gold of course, and maybe ABBA 16 Hits as Budget CD (which should not be underestimated because it quietly got platinum recently!)
As for Voyage we know, it sold heavily in CDs, so the general ABBA listener still buys CDs. And here, Universal is Not doing a good Job. We do have the Album CD Box but the Albums on CD are hardly available. A Deluxe Version here and there, but I think it would be great to have new propper Versions of each Album on CD.
I guess most of the physical media which made the Charts now, the Vinyls are the ones which were preordered by the Fans anyway and now delivered.
But let's say the TV coverage of the Waterloo Anniversary leads to some appetite to buy ABBA CDs (maybe even the Waterloo Album on CD), there would hardly be an occasion to buy it in German Shops.
I have a friend who works at the biggest book and record shop in Berlin (Dussmann) and when Voyage came out, they had big displays of course and a very crowdy midnight sale, but speaking of the general ABBA catalogue she reported that Universal was not prepared to ship sufficient supplies of the general catalogue as buyers were demanding them...
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Post by gazman on Apr 13, 2024 7:06:22 GMT
johnny , Summer Night City got two different releases. The first in 2018 as a Record Store Day exclusive, and the second in 2019 as part of the reissue series in standard artwork picture disc. I’m assuming the charts company combined the two, as in your list it’s only shown in 2018? I’m assuming the chart placing shown is really for the 2019 issue, as the 2018 RSD version was much less widely available. Also, I’m assuming the two issues of Voulez-Vous (standard and extended, the latter with If It Wasn’t For The Nights as the b-side) were similarly combined? I notice the chart positions for The Visitors singles are lower than the others… guessing their December release meant there was more competition. And Waterloo’s position must be a combination of the English and Swedish versions (again, different b-sides). Yes, the sales of the 2 Voulez-Vous singles were combined. And Waterloo's current position is actually a mix of the English language 7"/Swedish language 7"/ 4-track 10" singles |
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Post by Alan on Apr 13, 2024 7:33:16 GMT
I wonder about the general availability of the "physical Versions" of ABBA Albums and Singles is in the UK? Here in Germany you see rarely picture discs or singles boxes in the shops. Vinyl Albums are also rare apart from ABBA Gold and some copies of the latest half speed master. With CDs, it is also rare, ABBA Gold of course… We only really have HMV as the one mainstream shop covering the whole UK but if I’m in one, I tend to check the ABBA sections. The emphasis is very much on vinyl now - you’re unlikely to see all nine vinyl studio albums at once, but there’s usually a good selection of them, plus, as you say, the latest half-speed remasters. Gold is also readily available, both in picture disc and coloured vinyl. In terms of CDs, you’re likely to see Voyage. The deluxe box thing is still available (so much for that being a limited edition!). Again, a selection of albums plus Gold, More Gold and a couple of budget albums (not 18 Hits but other cheapo ones). Gold appears to be back in its black artwork, after years of being reversed (black text on gold). I don’t think I’ve ever seen the picture disc singles in an HMV. The picture disc studio albums are only available online I think. |
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Post by johnny on Apr 13, 2024 8:30:00 GMT
BAAB - I think you mean 18 Hits (16 Hits was a German compilation back in the 70s). I8 Hits went triple gold recently.
That is a bizarre album. Foreign language versions, sone big hits in, some excluded and album tracks. These budget albums are a bit weird. This 18 Hits one though has sold well.
Update: Waterloo (LP) re-enters German album chart at #36.
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Post by Alan on Apr 13, 2024 9:39:45 GMT
We do have the Album CD Box but the Albums on CD are hardly available. A Deluxe Version here and there, but I think it would be great to have new propper Versions of each Album on CD. I rarely see the albums CD box in HMV. It’s quite expensive anyway. The 2008 version was better. No Voyage of course, but the bonus disc had more tracks on. It was better value for money, sometimes retailing for £15. I’d like to see new versions of the studio album CDs too. The current ones are from 2001 and use the inferior and very loud Jon Astley remasters that have long since been discredited. What’s odd now is that the vinyls use the original Polar artwork while those CDs use modern artwork with standardised text and the ABBA logo (presumably because they thought at the time that more people would buy them if they all had the logo). If they can sell Ring Ring on vinyl without even the ABBA name then I don’t see why they can’t re-issue the CDs using the original Polar artwork as well. They could use a similar tracklisting to the deluxe CDs, but perhaps removing the Spanish versions (being as two deluxes didn’t include them anyway due to timing). However, the music industry isn’t interested in the CD format anymore. They begrudgingly keep it as it still sells. They try to force-feed vinyl on us and tell us it’s better sound quality than CD (even though, in the 1980s, they were telling us precisely the opposite). |
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Post by HOMETIME on Apr 13, 2024 11:39:14 GMT
After many years away, HMV returned to Dublin a few months ago and they have some of the studio albums on CD and vinyl. We've had Tower Records here for decades now - just in Dublin, I think - and they have most of the studio albums on CD and vinyl. The coloured album box set was available there, too. They have all of the picture disc albums on sale for about €27 each, which compares well with online outlets (in that there's no P&P to add on).
Our homegrown record shop, Golden Discs, has been enjoying a revival in fortunes in recent years. They have fewer of the studio albums on CD and vinyl, but they do have some of the picture disc singles (mostly those from The Visitors set, ranging from €13-€16 each), the odd picture disc album and even the Ring Ring singles box at a reduced price.
This year would provide a good opportunity to reissue new masters of the studio albums across the formats. Ideally, the jewel case editions would be phased out in favour of more eco-friendly digipacks. (I know, I know - they're less durable). If everything is being remixed for Dolby Atmos, does that mean they have to be issued as BluRay (he asked, ignorant of technical doohickery)?
The random compilations continue to confuse me. I know they still sell, but I would have thought it made more sense not to renew the licences when they fall due. That would mean that the casually interested would be forced towards the official catalogue for their listening pleasure. Those impressed by Gold could satisfy their curiosity with More Gold (in dire need of a vinyl edition) and/or the studio albums. Given that I never seek them out, I could be wrong - but there don't seem to be random budget-friendly compilations for The Beatles, Queen, David Bowie, etc. Time to make the ABBA brand a little more exclusive, IMO.
The whole CD/vinyl thing is wild. Although I have renewed my love affair with vinyl, I can't agree with the current "vinyl sounds better" assertion, because that comes with too many conditions. Vinyl does sound great if you have a great turntable and amp. But even cheap CD players offer great sound. CD sound is not compromised by the added ambience a turntable brings: pops, crackles, static, needle-on-vinyl surface noise. CDs are not as vulnerable to scratches as vinyl records. I saved up for a decent system and, yes, vinyl does sound amazing on it. But so do the CDs, because the amp and the player are as decent. But my old record player was a sonic disaster, meaning the CD versions were lightyears ahead in terms of sound quality. Vinyl is enjoying a massive marketing moment, but it's much more expensive to produce. I wonder how the profit margins might look...
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Post by Alan on Apr 13, 2024 13:03:48 GMT
Interesting that you have the picture disc studio albums available in shops, HOMETIME. If I saw them in HMV or Rough Trade or whatever, and at that price, I might be tempted. At least the odd one or two anyway. |
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Post by jj on Apr 13, 2024 15:45:49 GMT
Interesting that you have the picture disc studio albums available in shops, HOMETIME . If I saw them in HMV or Rough Trade or whatever, and at that price, I might be tempted. At least the odd one or two anyway.
I thought I might throw in a quite unrelated question into this thread without going to the trouble of creating a whole new thread for it, and I hope you'll oblige me, Alan. A simple question to you (a brief Yes or No will do, and then it can disappear unnoticed inside this topic) :
If you have a partner/spouse, are they, or have they ever been, critical or negative about your hobby of collecting ABBA records, and of your adding items to your collection? (Not that it should be their business anyway, as long as it makes you happy and it doesn't affect your ability to put food on the table every week.)
I'm not a collector myself, and I'm just curious.
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Post by Alan on Apr 13, 2024 16:35:21 GMT
jj - Ha! No not really. He doesn’t take much interest in it but sometimes remarks that they look nice. I don’t tell him how much I pay for some things - the recent I Have A Dream Dutch pressing for instance - but he knows it’s not excessive. Anyway, I’m planning to stop next year once the ABBA album picture discs/coloured vinyl box are in my hands Unless an original Epic Ring Ring single turns up at a reasonable price of course.
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Post by HOMETIME on Apr 13, 2024 23:39:36 GMT
Interesting that you have the picture disc studio albums available in shops, HOMETIME . If I saw them in HMV or Rough Trade or whatever, and at that price, I might be tempted. At least the odd one or two anyway. For sure. Sometimes I wish I was more patient: if they were reliable about stocking these things, it'd be a cheaper way of collecting. |
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Post by baab on Apr 15, 2024 4:50:19 GMT
johnny: Yes, sorry I meant ABBA 18 Hits. We had some more strange collections in the past, like the "ABBA international" CD in 1988. This collection had some songs which were not available on CD before, like the German Versions of Ring Ring and Another Town Another Train or Chiquitita in Spanish, Waterloo in french (The Cassette had 5 songs more in ChromeDioxite) As Hometime already stated, it needs a good equipment to make vinyls sound great. I also wash my vinyls, that way they stay prestine. But many ABBA Fans I know who collect Vinyls, do not even have a record player! So the fascination around the records cannot be the sound in this case.
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Post by johnny on Apr 15, 2024 17:35:03 GMT
The increased popularity in vinyl in recent years is down to a great deal by the music industry. The bottom line is they are on average 3x the price of CDs.
It's not the sound - as many buyers don't even have a record player. But other srnses sight, touch and maybe even smell! A vinyl album regardless of sound quality LOOKS and FEELS better than a CD.
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Post by johnny on Apr 19, 2024 17:09:31 GMT
Waterloo (single) drops from #1 to 7 on Vinyl Chart and #11 on Physical chart.
Only 5 singles in physical single charts after last week's 10.
Voyage and Waterloo drop out Sales and Physical charts.
Gold dips 12 to 14 in Main Chart.
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Post by johnny on Apr 26, 2024 17:37:20 GMT
After last week dipping a couple of places despite greater sales, this week sales are slighly down but GOLD GREATEST HITS rebounds 14 to 10.
I say "sales" it's almost all streaming.
#7 in the Streaming Chart - sandwiched between Fleetwood Mac and Elton John. Nowhere in either Sales or Physical Top 100's
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Post by johnny on May 1, 2024 17:58:25 GMT
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Post by baab on May 3, 2024 6:26:59 GMT
^
Well with 3 Taylor Swift Albums in the lead not a bad result! I wonder how many of the "Swifties" do own a record player at all? (OK, also some ABBA fans don't play vinyls these days)
Universal was smart to calculate with the ABBA Super Fans. If they would have issued e.g. only 1 or 2 vinyl versions, the vinyl sales would have been considerably lower. Also, I remember well, that the Universal online shop worked with contingents, pretending that several items sold out fast, which truly wasn't the case.
But I guess this strategy is used for other artists as well.
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Post by johnny on May 10, 2024 16:18:21 GMT
Gold is back in UK Top 10 - at #9
1,149 weeks in the chart.
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Post by johnny on May 17, 2024 18:21:39 GMT
Gold holds at #9.
1,150 weeks in the chart
About 6,000 sales this week, which is of course mainly streaming equivalent. Actual sales I guess mid hundreds. Not bad for an album that's been around since 1992 and in the age of streaming.
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Post by johnny on Jul 21, 2024 8:10:39 GMT
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Post by gary on Jul 24, 2024 16:59:18 GMT
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Post by johnny on Jul 25, 2024 10:59:15 GMT
Interesting article. Some of us have discussed the charts on here.
They don't seem relevant now. It's interesting that only 53% of Chart rundown are under 35 - so 47% are over 35 (good at maths hehe). I can't imagine that "back in the day"
Real sales are only 1% in the Singles Chart and 15-20% I'm the Album Chart. Where they are important, and has been described is first week sales for the #1 ALBUM.
In the case of ABBA, Voyage got to #1 on huge sales of over 200k, almost all physical. It hasn't stayed around the charts due to a lack of streaming.
Gold Greatest Hits has obviously had most of its sales on the physical format - released in 1992. But since around 2017 the 'sales" are Streaming based not real sales.
Perhaps we need to move away from notion of 'sales" - the OCC itself refers to "Chart units".
With diminishing album sales and non-existent singles sales you cannot go back to Sales Only Chart as the Official Chart.
The Singles Chart is essentially streaming (apart from the awful Christmas Number Ones)
A song being placed on a Play List is crucial for its - and album success. Perhaps only on people's own playlists should be included.
Any comments?
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Post by foreverfan on Jul 25, 2024 18:45:21 GMT
It's all a far cry from yesteryear.
I know there are a few on here that have no interest in the charts and that's ok.
In my case I used have immence joy on whatever the release day of the charts were, to see in most cases where Abba was, or even the disappointment of a drop especially in the case of HOH, stalling at 25.
The singles chart does seem to be irrelevant these days, but we move with the times and we have what we have, tracks that hang around for eternity, months and months some approaching years.
The album chart is slightly more interesting and of course without streaming Abba would not appear. So some small mercies. That said you get an act that gets to number one on week one then drops to oblivion out of the top 200 in the second week, where a Greatest Hits hangs around for years, Gold being a case in point.
So for me the singles charts have very little interest, the Albums only because of Gold... is it an age thing ? Of course it's a technology thing on how we listen to music....
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Post by richard on Jul 26, 2024 15:13:08 GMT
In the past, I occasionally took an interest in the charts, but nowadays that interest is practically zero. And as my tastes in music over the years have changed and widened, many of my favourites tracks - had they been chosen for singles - would likely have been gigantic flops! So the idea that whatever got, or gets, high in the charts is somehow 'better' - other than an 'in-this-moment' appeal that may not last - means very little to me now. And I wonder how many lovers of TDBYC, for example, might share this view? (Not one of my top ABBA favourites, by the way, though I rate it far higher than I used to.)
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Post by HOMETIME on Jul 26, 2024 15:42:05 GMT
The charts have become all but meaningless. Streaming has undone them and the industry really hasn't found a way to make them feel relevant or exciting. But we also have to remember that while we fixated on positions and durations in their golden era, they were only ever about sales. We used them as a form of vindication or a glib tribal supremacy: if our favourite act/songs hit the upper reaches, it was "proof" somehow that the act we championed was better than the rest. Likewise, if a song by someone we hated "flopped," it was "proof" that we were "right" and that the public had shunned them. Now that the charts are an anachronistic, mojo-free zone, we look at streaming numbers as a means of bolstering our opinions. But do charts or streaming figures really mean that much? Liking the most- or least-streamed song on an album or by an act means nothing other than whether you like the song or not. Broadly related, this long-read article is a good essay on how streaming stripped the value from music: www.fastcompany.com/91159227/how-music-lost-its-value-eminem-documentary-cds-90s-napster |
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Post by johnny on Sept 6, 2024 14:29:39 GMT
GOLD is currently the 8th best seller (mainly streaming) album this year with "sales" of 180,000.
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Post by onlyabba4meagain on Sept 7, 2024 21:50:19 GMT
The UK Albums Chart began on W/E 26th July 1956.
The latest UK Album Chart is Dated W/E 12th September 2024.
In the latest UK Album Chart, 'ABBA Gold' has become the Artist Album
with the 'Most Top 20 Weeks'. Also, the 3rd Album, of any type, that have
the 'Most Top 20 Weeks'.
[/b]
UK ARTIST ALBUMS -- THE MOST TOP 20 WEEKS
01. ABBA Gold : Greatest Hits - ABBA - 264 Weeks
02. Ed Sheeran - ÷ (Divide) - 263 Weeks
03. Elton John - Diamonds - 250 Weeks (No.2 Album)
04. Fleetwood Mac - 50 Years : Don’t Stop - 249 Weeks (No.5 Album)
05=Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water - 195 Weeks
05=Queen - Greatest Hits (One) - 195 Weeks
07. The Weeknd - The Highlights - 179 Weeks (No.2 Album)
08. Eminem - Curtain Call : The Hits - 177 Weeks
09. Ed Sheeran - X - 175 Weeks
10. Buddy Holly - The Buddy Holly Story - 155 Weeks (No.2 Album)
UK ALBUMS -- THE MOST TOP 20 WEEKS
01. South Pacific (Soundtrack) - 313 Weeks
02. The Sound Of Music (Soundtrack) - 281 Weeks
03. ABBA Gold : Greatest Hits - ABBA - 264 Weeks
04. Ed Sheeran - ÷ (Divide) - 263 Weeks
05. Elton John - Diamonds - 250 Weeks (No.2 Album)
06. Fleetwood Mac - 50 Years : Don’t Stop - 249 Weeks (No.5 Album)
07. The King And I (Soundtrack) - 201 Weeks
08=Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water - 195 Weeks
08=Queen - Greatest Hits (One) - 195 Weeks
10. The Weeknd - The Highlights - 179 Weeks (No.2 Album)
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Post by onlyabba4meagain on Oct 2, 2024 10:27:50 GMT
Yesterday - to amuse myself - I decided to work out the Male/Female Acts, with
'The Most UK Top 10 Weeks' - Singles Chart + Albums Chart.
So far, I've only managed to find 71 such Acts, with 16 - or more - Top 10 Weeks.
ABBA are - by far - the most successful such UK Chart Act.
Some Brotherhood Of Man, and Bucks Fizz Fans, go on, as if those 2 Groups are
as big as ABBA. In fact, ABBA have spent 263 Weeks, in the UK Albums Chart
Top 10. Compared to 3 Weeks, for Brotherhood Of Man, and just 1 Week, for
Bucks Fizz!
Here's where the 3 Groups are, in my Male/Female Acts List.
Showing their UK Top 10 Singles, and Albums, Weeks...
01).. ABBA -- SINGLES -- 115 + ALBUMS -- 263 -- TOTAL = 378 WEEKS
47).. BROTHERHOOD OF MAN -- SINGLES -- 29 + ALBUMS -- 3 -- TOTAL = 32 WEEKS
55).. BUCKS FIZZ -- SINGLES -- 27 + ALBUMS -- 1 -- TOTAL = 28 WEEKS
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