Testament Record Sales

[Necroshine95]

I'm talking to a guy who's in soundscan and he's gunna gimmie the Souls of Black sales figures as well as a couple of Overkill ones\,,/

 

[one man]

Right on, man! I assume it won't qualify as reliable source for Wikipedia, but it will be priceless knowledge for the fans. Wondering why he chose this particular album (Souls). I've know idea how the soundscan databases are built and how does an insider access the info stacked therein, to be honest.

 

[Necroshine95]

Right on, man! I assume it won't qualify as reliable source for Wikipedia, but it will be priceless knowledge for the fans. Wondering why he chose this particular album (Souls). I've know idea how the soundscan databases are built and how does an insider access the info stacked therein, to be honest.

I asked em for Souls of Black. And I explained that they got it from Soundscan and showed where they cited Soundscan as their source so it does now!

 

[one man]

Cool. Once you get Souls of Black, you'll ask them about the Ritual and Practice, and then we'll call Atlantic Records to move their a**es and apply for the gold certifications finally, right?

 

[Necroshine95]

Cool. Once you get Souls of Black, you'll ask them about the Ritual and Practice, and then we'll call Atlantic Records to move their a**es and apply for the gold certifications finally, right?

We can do that? Rofl okay. I don't wanna ask for too much though otherwise it'd seem like we're being greedy

 

[one man]

I know, I was joking. It's wise of you to do that. It'll be great to have whatever they give. And the Atlantic Records probably don't give a shit about what their ex-bands' fans write.

 

[Necroshine95]

I know, I was joking. It's wise of you to do that. It'll be great to have whatever they give. And the Atlantic Records probably don't give a shit about what their ex-bands' fans write.

Lol Its a shame all the care about is profits. The minute a band doesn't live up to their expectations, they drop em

 

[Necroshine95]

He says it's gunna be a couple of days

 

[Necroshine95]

I don't know about u but I think Dark Roots of Earth is on its way to over 100,000 copies in the USA easily

 

[one man]

I don't know about u but I think Dark Roots of Earth is on its way to over 100,000 copies in the USA easily

Like I said, since Formation exceeded 100k, Dark Roots surely will hit it some time too, although it probably won't happen within a year as of the release (as they sell 500-700 copies a week only now and that number will be slowly decreasing). Still, it will reach that level sooner than Formation (I think it was over 3 years before it got there). Anyway, 100,000 - although a big acomplishment in this day and age - shouldn't be the goal for Testament. The goal should be gold and I'm sure they'll reach it one day. I'm wondering how many copies of the old albums (New Order, Practice, Ritual, etc.) are being sold every week. Is it a 100 or less?

They surely will, although most likely not within a year after the release. After all the less successful Formation broke 100.000 some time ago. Hopefully, DROE will hit it way faster. Still we probably won't see it certified gold in the States in many years to come, unless something really unusual happens (like the next album, followed by 3 videos, TV appearances, a Grammy and Metallica + AC/DC tours, helps them reach the mainstream and drags the sales of the previous efforts ;-).

 

[Necroshine95]

Like I said, since Formation exceeded 100k, Dark Roots surely will hit it some time too, although it probably won't happen within a year as of the release (as they sell 500-700 copies a week only now and that number will be slowly decreasing). Still, it will reach that level sooner than Formation (I think it was over 3 years before it got there). Anyway, 100,000 - although a big acomplishment in this day and age - shouldn't be the goal for Testament. The goal should be gold and I'm sure they'll reach it one day. I'm wondering how many copies of the old albums (New Order, Practice, Ritual, etc.) are being sold every week. Is it a 100 or less?

True. I have noticed that people recognize Testament more though cuz whenever I wear my The New Order shirt I'll occasionally have 1 or 2 people say somethin. So it's a step in the right direction

 

[one man]

Yeah, they're definitely bigger than, say, 10 years ago (especially among younger people). Since they are also more market-conscious and mature as friends as songwriters, there's bright future ahead, provided that health stays good.

 

[one man]

Necroshine95, any chance of getting the below up there on Wiki?

Ok, I'll try to be more specific about this:

-->1. If you go to the main Testament discography page here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_discography

you will see that the chart (table) showing the chart positions in various countries for each album has not been updated, i.e.:

1.A. There are still only 10 columns there (US, AUT, FIN, FRA, GER, NLD, NOR, SWE, SWI, UK), which means that the columns for JPN (Japan), POL (Poland), CAN (Canada), ESP (Spain), CZE (Czech Republic), HUN (Hungary), BEL(Belgium)-Flanders, BEL-Walloonia, DEN (Denmark), ITA (Italy) and WORLDWIDEhave not been added, and thus the chart positions of "Dark Roots of Earth" for these 11 markets cannot be displayed on the main Testament discography page.

To sum up, what I'd asked for was extending the chart table over the next eleven positions (columns) concerning those 11 additional markets.

1.B. In addition to the foregoing the chart positions for the older albums in some of the existing columns have not been indicated there, and there is "-" (as in: "not charted"), where a chart position should be. These are the German (GER) positions for Practice what you preach and New Order [I've noticed you added them in the respective albums' subpages, i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_What_You_Preach and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Order, but they are not on the main discography page, please see also item 3 hereinbelow]. Also the Japaneese (JPN) positions are not there, but to supplement them one needs to create the relevant (JPN) column in the chart (table).

-->2. I've also asked you to update the subpage devoted to the "Dark Roots of Earth" album: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Roots_of_Earth

2.1. This page indicates only 16 charts (Austria through US Hard Rock). It does not show other markets where the album has charted (Worldwide charts #9, Poland #8, Norway #11, Italy #27, Denmark #29, Czech Republic #45, France #46, Japan #56, Spain #57, US Independent Albums #1, US Tastemaker albums #1, UK Indie Top 40 #3, UK Rock Top 40 #3, Sweden Rock #1, Ireland Indie #13).

So my request was to have these 15 additional charts added to the 16 already included at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Roots_of_Earth.

2.2. Additionally, the chart positions for 2 markets that are included there are wrong:

a) Belgium-Flanders: it says #86 is the peak position, whereas it is only the entry position, as the album peaked the next week at #54;
b) Belgium-Walloonia: it says #40 is the peak position, whereas it is only the entry position, as the album peaked the next week at #29.

Therefore, my request concerned correcting these positions and replacing 86 with 54 and 40 with 29.

-->3. Finally (this is the least important thing), also the sub-pages for some of the older albums are incomplete chart-wise:

- The New Order (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Order) shows only the US and German charts, but does not show the NLD (#66) and SWE (#49) charts;
- Practice What You Preach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_What_You_Preach) shows only the US and German charts but does not show the NLD (#57), NOR (#20) and UK (#40) charts;
- Souls of Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souls_of_Black) shows only the US and JPN charts, but does not show the UK charts (#35);
- The Ritual (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ritual_(Testament_album)) shows only the US and JPN charts, but does not show the GER charts (#73);
- Low (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_(Testament_album)) shows only the US and JPN charts, but does not show the SWI charts (#39);
- Formation of Damnation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Formation_of_Damnation) shows only the US, FIN, GER, SWE, JPN charts, but does not show the AUT (#23), FRA (#95), NLD (#47), NOR (#29), SWI (#33), UK (#122), CZE (#47), HUN (#49), BEL (#71), ITA (#87), DEN (#90), CAN (#94) charts.


OK, I hope now this is as precise as it can be. I appreciate your patience, hopefully you'll manage to have this info added. BTW, any luck finding sales data for Overkill and Testament?

 

[one man]

It looks like Chicago Tribune proves useful once again and provides some great info about Practice. According to an article following the release of The Ritual (1992):

Whether the tour and album will finally push Testament over the gold-record mark (500,000 copies sold) remains to be seen. ``We almost hit it with `Practice What You Preach,``` says Skolnick, referring the 1989 album that sold 450,000 copies.

If the album had sold 450,000 back then already, there is no way it didn't sell another 50,000 in the next 20 years. I thought the 450,000 figure was a late 90's estimated sum of pre- and post-SoundScan sales, but it appears they sold that many albums promptly upon the release. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-06-18/features/9202240080_1_alex-skolnick-guitars-band-members. I think it's safe to put it on Wikipedia, because the source seems credible (so is their information on the 232,000 copies of the Ritual sold in 1996).

BTW, I highly recommend the article to everybody. It's a good read that reflects the state the band was at in 1992.

Here's another great source for Practice sales. Take a look at the following fragment of this book by Ian Christe:

Changing MTV’s approach, Headbangers Ball at least nodded to the emerging thrash metal genre by occasionally squeezing one or two clips into a three-hour episode. “MTV was a joke,” says Megaforce Records’ Maria Ferrero of getting Overkill and Testament played. “There was no outlet except Headbangers Ball, and even that was political. It was hard. It wasn’t payola, it was getting a video to them that somebody liked, and the stars being aligned properly so they’d say, ‘Okay, I guess I’ll do it.’” Jumping through those hoops could pay off handsomely—after MTV briefly embraced Testament’s Practice What You Preach, sales of the LP zoomed to 285,000 copies.

One needs to find when the video was aired for the first time to see what week after the release we are talking about here. Source: http://pl.scribd.com/doc/123464620/Sound-of-the-Beast.

Given the above it seems obvious that when combining the sales before 1991 and after that year Practice has sold enough to be gold. If only Atlantic Records cared enough to verify that and let the band get their plateaus.

EDIT: after digging in further in the Chicago Tribune archives there's some more info on Practice sales as of March 1990 (8 months after the release).

``We got to play before 60,000 people for each of two shows, which was probably more people than had seen our entire previous tour,`` Skolnick said. Their reputation was made, and Testament`s latest album, ``Practice What You Preach`` (Megaforce), has sold nearly 300,000 copies, twice as many as their 1987 debut. While those figures can`t compete with Kiss or Cooper`s, they`re doubly impressive because Testament-like many of its younger peers-is making a commercial impact without benefit of radio airplay.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-03-18/entertainment/9001220684_1_pop-albums-heavy-metal-alice-cooper/2

One can wonder if releasing Souls of Black so early didn't hurt Practice sales. On the other hand, they wouldn't have got the Clash of the Titans slot had they not released it in 1990.

 

[Necroshine95]

WHAT???? Ok Atlantic is DEFINATLEY holding out on giving them their Gold record on PWYP! Also cool I got sales for The Legacy, 150,000 ain't too bad in 3 years makes me wonder how much its sold by now. I those are both up on Wikipedia. As for the charting parts for TFOD, where are the links confirming it? Its needed in order to have it be deleted

 

[Necroshine95]

Those are both up on wikipedia*

In order to NOT have them be deleted*

 

[one man]

As for the charting parts for TFOD, where are the links confirming it? Its needed in order to have it be deleted

I didn't write about TFOD but DROE. All the links are in this post: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/83241-testament-record-sales-5.html#post10548557

And here are the details of what specifically needs to be added:

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/83241-testament-record-sales-6.html#post10553911

It's nice you put the sales info out there already.

If you want the TFOD data - it's under the same links as DROE in most cases. Once you put all the DROE info up, I'll try to verify what needs to be updated for TFOD and give you the links and everything.

 

[Necroshine95]

I didn't write about TFOD but DROE. All the links are in this post: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/83241-testament-record-sales-5.html#post10548557

And here are the details of what specifically needs to be added:

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/83241-testament-record-sales-6.html#post10553911

It's nice you put the sales info out there already.

If you want the TFOD data - it's under the same links as DROE in most cases. Once you put all the DROE info up, I'll try to verify what needs to be updated for TFOD and give you the links and everything.

I'd rather not then because if the look here they'll be all like "it's you man! Fuck you we're totally gunna wipe all the stuff that's been put up recently because we think it's you and we'll ban everyone that touches Testament and Overkills pages blahblahblah!" so I'd rather get the links

 

[one man]

Well, you've got ALL the links for Dark Roots in this post: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/83241-testament-record-sales-5.html#post10548557 so I don't see why anybody would question that. In some cases there is more than one source per chart.

This post contains an instruction as to what needs to be updated: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/83241-testament-record-sales-6.html#post10553911.

So there you have complete, reliable DROE data backed up with sources. You can put it out there without fearing someone will take it down.

As for TFOD - I'll collect the data later (life's been pretty hectic lately for me) and post here a similar complete info, sources and guidelines. I wasn't asking you to add it to Wikipedia without links/sources of course. You'll put it out there later, once I give you all the reliable sources (next month or so). For now DROE is more important.

 

[Necroshine95]

Well, you've got ALL the links for Dark Roots in this post: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/83241-testament-record-sales-5.html#post10548557 so I don't see why anybody would question that. In some cases there is more than one source per chart.

This post contains an instruction as to what needs to be updated: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/83241-testament-record-sales-6.html#post10553911.

So there you have complete, reliable DROE data backed up with sources. You can put it out there without fearing someone will take it down.

As for TFOD - I'll collect the data later (life's been pretty hectic lately for me) and post here a similar complete info, sources and guidelines. I wasn't asking you to add it to Wikipedia without links/sources of course. You'll put it out there later, once I give you all the reliable sources (next month or so). For now DROE is more important.

Alright than I will. And I'm sorry to hear that about ur life