Gimme Fiction debuted at #9 on iTunes, #44 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums, and #1 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums!

So, exactly how many albums are they selling? And does this mean they're finally making some legitimate cash for once? Are these chart positions surprising, or am I making too much of this?

45

you are looking too much into this......

I let you know today if they even show up on the Top 100 of Soundscan (sales chart)

Is there anyway for the public to see the soundscan #'s.

They are making money if they are selling out shows and moving merch at their shows. Album sales dont mean shit for making money......

The New Yorker had an excellent little one page article about this a couple issues back. It basically says that with the internet's ability to create buzz that bands are making money at their live shows. "Indie" bands are able to charge decidedly "unindie" prices and make money. See Wilco, The Shins, Modest Mouse, etc.

this is a business strategy that was actually developed by all those jam bands we used to overpay to see, Pagoda.

It ain't stupid, yo.

It also shows how downloading hurts the labels but may help the artists.

i bet the record drops significantly in the charts in the coming weeks, mainly because most people who are going to buy it already did.

(unless it ends up being another "Oh, Inverted World", which I think it is not)

No, you have to have a subscription. It's pretty f'n expensive. There are different types of subscription, but all are pricey.
If someone gave you their password, now that a different story.

So, does anyone here (Katie, perhaps) have access to pull the SoundScan numbers?

seriously. they're getting by on merch sales. when i've seen broken social scene, metric, and arcade fire recently, i asked the merch person if the prices were still in canadian dollars because they seemed so expensive. they just smiled and said, "no."

Soundscan is only US sales though. It doesn't include Canada or Europe or the rest of the planet.

That's the way they get by?

and it doesn't account for iTunes or Emusic or any other dnld. site. On top of that it only accounts for 85% of all sales through traditional outlets.

no... it's more like going out in stormy weather, rarely practicing discern, making love to some weird sin, and seeking out the taciturn. i believe that's the way they get by.

What about getting high in back seats of cars???

No joke. Three years ago I could pick up a t-shirt for $10-12 easy. Now it's at least $15-16. I think I'll go download the new Sleater-Kinney now.

Spoon - Gimme Fiction in 2 weeks of release has sold 29,604 records according to Soundscan.

Comparison:
Cowboy Troy in 1 week: 52,000
Mike Jones in 5 weeks: 435,820
Bloc Party in 9 weeks: 69,000
Bright Eyes, both records, have sold a total of 429,000
Ray Lamontagne - 36 weeks: 139,000
Arcade Fire - 31 weeks: 156,000
Decemberists - 9 weeks: 42,000
LCD Soundsystem - 13 weeks: 32,000

Those are not bad numbers for Spoon. Bright Eyes has been whored out nonstop by Best Buy, Circuit City, Tower, and well everybody.

Man, he is EVERYWHERE! There's a big spread on him in this week's issue of Time. It trips me out so much that I actually know him!

You will find info on Spoon's 1st week sales numbers at the below link. It's towards the bottom though....:

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/artic ... 1000926813

*edit*
Nevermind, someone beat me to it.

not bad for a virtually unknown british band's debut album.

haha SWISHAHOUSE PUSHING UNITS!