Current ARIA Hard Rock/Metal Chart

[Sydo]

The Aria charts are actually based on units sold, not units shipped. Although the figures are weight according to distribution patterns, the charts are generally pretty accurate.

On the other hand, the ARIA accreditations of gold and platinum are based on units shipped. All of which explains how an album like Kylie's can go platnium before it was even released, yet struggle to chart.

Remember that gold mean 35,000 and platinum is 70,000. So in theory, as long as you can get Metal Mayhem to stock 35,000 copies of your debut - YOU TOO CAN HAVE YOUR VERY OWN GOLD RECORD!

 

[Goreripper]

So Sydo, you're saying that Delta Goodrem really did sell 250,000 copies of one of her singles in a week.

 

[Sydo]

So Sydo, you're saying that Delta Goodrem really did sell 250,000 copies of one of her singles in a week.

No. Those kind of figures are impossible in Australia.
Where did you read that anyway?

 

[Goreripper]

Maybe I'm exaggerating; it could have been 25,000. It was a figure quoted in the Sydney Sun-Herald back in early January. Their half-baked 'music' journalist was doing some feature on the success of Australian artists and used that as an example. Mind you, the number of Australian acts represented in the Top 40 over the past decade has dropped off compared to the late 70 through to early 90s.

 

[Goreripper]

Come to think of it, I believe it was because her single went gold on pre-release; the article was written to make us believe it had actually already sold that many, but as you pointed out, gold records are awarded for units shipped, as opposed to units actually sold. I have considerable doubt that any artist could sell 25,000 units in a week in this country.

 

[Sydo]

Exactly. It's a crazy system that few really understand, and it can make certain artists appear far more successful than they really are.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Also, only certain stores are 'ARIA' stores. So if say Iced Earth's "The Glorious Burden" sold like a mofo from Metal Mayhem and other independant stores upon release, it wouldn't matter, and it wouldn't chart.

 

[Goreripper]

That's correct, and considering most chart stores a) wouldn't stock Iced Earth albums, and b) wouldn't tally any sales of their albums for chart purposes (unless they were specifically asked to by the record label), they won't ever chart. Also, a lot of albums that sell more than those on the charts don't chart even if they move from a chart store because only the sales of certain releases are tallied. Some are ignored.

 

[mattt]

Sanity in Townsville has the entire Iced Earth catalogue which is an Aria store.

 

[Goreripper]

Well I did say most chart stores. Actually I've found that Sanity and HMV have a lot of metal releases, even some you wouldn't expect, but I doubt that the amount of such items they actually sell would dent the chart calculations much because the figures would be quite small. Most sales of Iced Earth in Australia would most likely be made through not-chart stores like Utopia, Metal Mayhem, Red Eye, Impact and other independent stores. Also, I'd be interested to see how many copies they'd actually have in stock. Two of each maybe, if that? How many Cat Empire CDs do they have? Probably an entire row of them.

 

[mattt]

yeah i agree Brian.

 

[Goreripper]

A case in point: back when Magic Dirt was playing stuff that sounded like Sonic Youth rather than the Pretenders, they released an EP called "Life Was Better" that stayed on the 'independent' charts for 75 weeks! That's 18 months! Surely that would have represented more than enough sales for it to have made an appearance on the so-called "Top 40" at least once, but it never did, because most of the people who bought it got it from independent retailers. So in essence, the charts don't really mean much to anyone outside the marketing people at major record labels.

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

The Sanity stores in Melbourne have NO hard rock or metal really. There is one mini-section smaller than Koich's penis which just has stuff like Greatest Kiss and a couple of Metallica albums and AC/DC Live and stuff.

 

[Goreripper]

There is one mini-section smaller than Koich's penis

HA! Now you've turned an intelligent discussion about chart-rigging into a flame war.

 

[KoichCPA]

Yes trent, every cd section is smaller than my penis, because my penis takes up 4 city blocks.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

The Sanity stores in Melbourne have NO hard rock or metal really. There is one mini-section smaller than Koich's penis which just has stuff like Greatest Kiss and a couple of Metallica albums and AC/DC Live and stuff.

Thats what the two local Sanity stores here are like. One of them used to have an awesome metal section that spanned two racks and had a really good selection, and then it became one rack, then it was one rack mixed with hard rock stuff, then it was half a rack, and now it is two lines on a rack. Pathetic.

Also, my sister used to work in one of the local Sanity stores, and she said that at the time they weren't even an ARIA store, it was something you needed to apply for etc, and they were going through that while she was there. So even some mainstream music stores aren't ARIA stores, let alone the smaller independent ones.

When I bought 'The Glorious Burden' from Metal Mayhem, it had been out for around a week, and I was told from the guy working there that they had already sold out of two shipments worth, and only had 3 copies left. I don't know how many that actually is, but it sounds like alot from one store in less than a week.

 

[Sydo]

When I bought 'The Glorious Burden' from Metal Mayhem, it had been out for around a week, and I was told from the guy working there that they had already sold out of two shipments worth, and only had 3 copies left. I don't know how many that actually is, but it sounds like alot from one store in less than a week.

Probably around 100, which would be many copies shy of making any chart.

Then again, I'd say Dance Of Death probably only sold about 1000 copies in the first week to make #12 on the charts. Now as cool as that is, 1000 copies was never gonna be enough to bring a tour.

 

[Southy]

No amout Maiden sel wil EVER bring the bastards here