Pitchfork Top 50 album sales figures

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 6:47 pm

I don't know if some of you will find this as interesting, but I thought it was pretty neat.

via Marathonpacks

Quote:

The sales numbers for Pitchfork’s 2010 top 50 albums, as represented by the January 12 Soundscans (some weren’t present, of course). Erykah Badu and Hot Chip I ballparked based on the last charts they appeared on a couple months ago. Otherwise: listicle without commentary!

50 Wavves – King of the Beach (18,563)
49 Wild Nothing – Gemini (8,773)
44 Kylesa – Spiral Shadow (7,778)
43 Tame Impala – Innerspeaker (15,101)
42 Drake – Thank Me Later (1,219,473)
39 Best Coast – Crazy For You (48,296)
38 Rick Ross – Teflon Don (541,299)
35 Gorillaz – Plastic Beach (385,454)
34 Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (39,368)
33 The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt (35,524)
29 The Fresh & Onlys – Play It Strange (3,633)
28 The National – High Violet (211,615)
27 Four Tet – There Is Love in You (22,228)
26 Twin Shadow – Forget (10,985)
25 Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz (100,405)
24 Hot Chip – One Life Stand (~30k)
22 Girls – Broken Dreams Club EP (10,266)
21 The Walkmen – Lisbon (39,159)
18 Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh (~300k)
17 Caribou – Swim (33,803)
16 Sleigh Bells – Treats (94,478)
15 Robyn – Body Talk (23,869)
14 Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (33,574)
13 No Age – Everything In Between (13,802)
12 Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid (129,152)
11 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (459,083)
10 Titus Andronicus – The Monitor (26,090)
09 Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today (25,942)
08 James Blake – The Bells Sketch EP / CMYK EP / Klavierwerke EP (511/4,091/na)
07 Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me (48,754)
06 Vampire Weekend – Contra (454,914)
05 Beach House – Teen Dream (104,217)
04 Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (208,747)
03 Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest (59,879)
02 LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening (126,288)
01 Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (915,391)

Grape Ripple · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:12 pm

Wow. The Big Boi album only selling around 200K is the most shocking figure on the list for me.

Z · **Joined:** Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:38 pm **Posts:** 7979

i'm pretty surprised by 35k for the tallest man on earth. that seems way high, especially compared to other things on the list.

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

i don't have the slightest idea who Drake is but he/they apparently sold over 1.2. OHG WEG OLG.

Other than that I'm more surprised by things like Walkmen barely outsold Tallest Man On Earth and was outsold by more than 10X by vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire than any rekkid's own sales figures. I wouldn't have been shocked that they only sold 38K or if you told me they sold a lot more. Just the ratios seem surprising to me.

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 8:58 pm

I bet Drinky will be mad that the National sold over 200k.

shiv · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:03 pm

billy g Wrote:

i don't have the slightest idea who Drake is but he/they apparently sold over 1.2. OHG WEG OLG.

a shitty "rapper".

Stop Breathin' · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:34 pm

Yail Bloor Wrote:

I bet Drinky will be mad that the National sold over 200k.

Senator LooGAR · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:42 pm

Oh man, black people buy stuff. Dalen is about to go all Loughner at this revelation.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:52 pm

Stop Breathin' Wrote:

Yail Bloor Wrote:

I bet Drinky will be mad that the National sold over 200k.

You think I care about album sales? I think The National sold about as many albums as Kings of Leon. Sounds about right.

thisotherkingdom · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:57 pm

Drinky Wrote:

Stop Breathin' Wrote:

Yail Bloor Wrote:

I bet Drinky will be mad that the National sold over 200k.

You think I care about album sales? I think The National sold about as many albums as Kings of Leon. Sounds about right.

Say what? I bet KoL sold that many albums in their first week.

Stop Breathin' · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:32 pm

thisotherkingdom Wrote:

Drinky Wrote:

Stop Breathin' Wrote:

Yail Bloor Wrote:

I bet Drinky will be mad that the National sold over 200k.

You think I care about album sales? I think The National sold about as many albums as Kings of Leon. Sounds about right.

Say what? I bet KoL sold that many albums in their first week.

In my tiny brain, The National of this week is the KoL of last week. Not a shot at you, Drinkster, I think I know where you were going.

Thee Incident · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:34 pm

billy g Wrote:

i don't have the slightest idea who Drake is but he/they apparently sold over 1.2.

A little insight/context...

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/ ... tubbs.html

south pacific · **Posted:** Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:39 pm

Does this include physical and digital sales?

Quote:

29 The Fresh & Onlys – Play It Strange (3,633)

you would think someone could sell easily 3,000 albums from the back of his car

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Sat Jan 15, 2011 1:29 am

I surmised it to be only physical soundscan sales.

mutty · **Posted:** Sat Jan 15, 2011 2:25 am

I am surprised how small all of these numbers are. The state of the biz, I guess.

ptrck · **Joined:** Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:55 pm **Posts:** 5568

these must only be US numbers, I would imagine that Robyn album is pretty huge elsewhere

Lrr · **Posted:** Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:48 am

mutty Wrote:

I am surprised how small all of these numbers are. The state of the biz, I guess.

Yeah, this says a lot. Though most pitchfork readers are probably on the digital side of things and not brick and mortar.

Twilightkid · **Posted:** Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:10 am

I could I have sworn that I read within the last year, that they are now counting full album sales on itunes within the soundscan numbers.

toots · **Posted:** Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:52 am

soundscam, more like

we used to be honest when we filled ours out at the end of the night, then we realized we were getting blown away by shittier bands with a greater propensity to lie.

a tragedy, because soundscans are used for so much more than just Billboard articles. they influence what tours you get asked to be on, how much support your label/the press gives you, etc

Twilightkid · **Posted:** Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:01 pm

It was never a truly accurate system.

When I cared about soundscan in the beginning of my label, I only sold to select mom & pop shops (the ones I knew that were weighted).

Vintage Vinyl in Jersey is a weighted store. Each sale is equivalent to 8 in soundscan's eyes.... makes up for all the stores that don't report...not a very accurate syste, but it made our initial numbers look a lot more impressive then they really were.

Pitchfork Top 50 album sales figures

Who is online