Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Ashlee Simpson's debuts at #4, sells less than 50K

Ashlee Simpson's new album Bittersweet World comes in at #4 on the Billboard charts this week with only 47,497 sold. Less than 50 thousand sold yet still #4 on the charts and with Timbo all over the album. It's a point I bring up to prove that even with Timbaland on your album, even with 6 tracks, you are not guaranteed a hit record. My question is though, why is that? Is it really the production itself? People have criticized Simpson's album saying the beats are weak but is that enough to translate to bad sales? Is it the label? Promotion? The state of the music industry today?

Though there have been many more hits for Timbo the last couple years then misses, what about those misses. Redman's "Put 'Em Down" failed to jumpstart his new album, Lloyd Banks made "My House" into promo single versus the intended official first single as it too did not go over well with fans. I'm still not sure if Matt Pokora's album has been officially released in the States but know it has not faired well in Europe despite it's A list producers. This is not to say anything against those who helped create the music or the artists themselves, all of the above are more than talented.

Timbaland is arguably the best if not the most globally popular producer in the world right now, Danja is right there too, of the only 13 Royal Court productions released, half have been singles, Hannon is starting to make a name for himself, and when it comes to writing and vocal ability and ingenuity it doesn't get much better than Jim Beanz. So with such amazing talent as well as the talents and name sake's of the artists themselves, what makes the difference between selling less than 50 thousand in your first week and selling a million? Is it simply production or deeper than that? Just think if Ashlee Simpson got the "4 Minutes" beat and Madonna had "Outta My Head" would it have made a difference?

Discuss...

34 comments :

  1. if Madonna had "Outta My Head", it would have been even bigger than "4 Minutes", I guarantee.

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  2. nah it's just because the beats were terrible

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  3. its actually not produced by timbaland himself...he let the camp ghost! royal court king logan and etc. etc.

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  4. The Ashlee Simpson album is amazing, I just got it delivered from the US today. (it wasn't released in the UK :() Fuck sales, they account for nothing. Chad Hugo, Timbo, Kenna, Santogold, Royal Court, Jim Beanz and everyone else on the album did the damn thing. I mean they made me LIKE AN ASHLEE SIMPSON ALBUM!

    Cop it peeps its awesome!

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  5. Madonna could've gotten "Outta my head" and gone #1 with it, but I don't think Ashlee could've gone #1 with "4 minutes". Madonna being Madonna gets her shit to #1 and being affilated with Timbo and Timberlake helped her that extra bit.

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  6. nobody really wanted to buy an Ashlee Simpson album

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  7. Mediocre artists get mediocre beats (not in *all* cases, but it's true enough). Even though the producer is the one mainly responsible for the sound, if an artist isn't bringing anything to the table, you're more likely to get a so-so result.

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  8. maybe cos tim probably had nothin to do with the ashlee simpson tracks...and the royal court are garbage lately...plus ashlees just straight up SHIT anyway.

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  9. ^^^ lol well said mate

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  10. I agree with jerome everyone that really knows that royal court did those songs you can tell tims influence on all the tracks he has co-producers on with danja,hannon,storch you can always tell who did what.

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  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2E7GtD53Fc&feature=related#

    new Timbo production

    "Move On" -Varsity (produced w/ Akon)

    i'm pretty sure Tim worked on this because u hear voice in the song.

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  12. Its All About Promotion and Marketing, They Did a Poor Job With Her Album.

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  13. iDannny Timbaland AND Akon doing production on 1 track, does that sound right? Nope.

    And it's not Timbaland OR Akon rather some other producer for Konvict music.

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  14. I love how everybody nowadays thinks Tim is a musical genius and you'll get a hit if you have him on board. Number 1 he is NOT a musical genius. Number 2 he won't always give you a hit...FACT

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  15. That's why a number of his productions last year weren't even released... imagine the T.I./Timbo never released, or the SisQo/Timbo never released, or the Bjork/Timbo never released (you see where I'm going here)... and Bjork's album was short as hell, so she must not have thought the songs worthy enough (which is a shame)

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  16. I know this is a "Timbo stan" site and stuff, but let us stop making him seem like Jesus. The most known producer (not the best) in the world is Pharrell. It might not even be because of his music, but that is arguable and its not the point. Timbaland is only NOW becoming HUGE worldwide (he was fairly well known but not HUGE before). Pharrell however, has always done his thing in London, France, Japan.... the countries that make up "the world" outside of the U.S.

    It's just annoying how people make Timbaland seem as if he is up in sum planet on his own, as if he has bridged the gap between hip hop and "pop" music on his own. Please stop and think about how much the Neptunes helped him out in this quest. The Neptunes worked with rock/pop artists before the solo-Timbo, No Doubt, Garbage, Rolling Stones, Daft Punk, Sade.... I mean really people. Timbaland is a legend, but stop making it seem like he is THE only person. There were times when te neptunes were doing much much more with all sorts of people, and they did not get half of this bullshit credit.

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  17. agree with that^^

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  18. no one's taking credit away from The Neptunes, they got credit back when they were consistently good. arguing that Pharrell's as ubiquitous as Timbo right now is more than a little off considering his output in the last couple years

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  19. Ashlee Simpson sucks

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  20. ashley simpsons is talentless !!! This album sucked ....and timbo isnt god, he cant make miracles , thats for shure !

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  21. Timbaland and his camp are losing wind...

    Best producer? ha.

    Basement Jaxx(to me) still hold that record..Tim cant touch them.

    I love Timbaland. I really do. Been a fan since I was a kid. But he needs to disappear for two years again.

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  22. Artist 'X' could have an album entirely produced by Timbaland/Neptunes/Dr Luke/B.Cox etc .. any of the aforementioned producers and if the artist does not have a loyal fan base, the album will not sell.

    The case here is simple; things didn't fall into place for Ashlee to put up big first week numbers, despite the fact they have been doing everything possible to have her in the headlines over the past month. Add to this that its super important for most artists to have a single @ Rhythmic or Top40 Mainstream Radio leading up to release.. something Ashlee did not have.

    "Outta My Head" was a great song. "4 Minutes" was an OK song. I think if Madonna had either she would have had been #1.. Madonna could have the worst song ever, it'd still go #1. If Ashlee had "4 Minutes" it would have tanked.

    Besides all this, are we forgetting that Ashlee Simpson is still the same Ashlee Simpson who messed up Lipsyncing her single on SNL? She was pretty much considered a joke before the news of this so called "Timbaland" album was announced around the MTV awards.

    The album is mediocre.. "Murder" is quite good along with a couple other songs. Most of the so called 'Timbaland' tracks are garbage. I'm sorry, I don't feel like the Ashlee deserves higher first week numbers.

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  23. Her last two albums have sold over 1.5million in the US alone!! and her last 2 albums debuted at 1 so it has something to do with the album not ashlee

    But we will probably get a re-release some new Timbo tracks maybe or did we get all of them


    bittersweet world is more european outta my head is doing good in the UK and all round europe and has done good in australia

    so she's having success internationally and she never did that good internationally so timbo/chad made her an international star so it is a plus+ fcuk THE US YOUR MUSIC IS WAACK SOULJA BOI WTF ,love in this club music is defintly coming to an end
    There's rarely hits being made anymore your never going to have a BIG HIT that remains on everyone for there life like it used to be it died with KELIS'S milkshake that is probably the biggest hit in the 2000s and will never be forgotten timbaland makes simple music its just getting him money$$$$$

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  24. Her last two albums have sold over 1.5million in the US alone!! and her last 2 albums debuted at 1 so it has something to do with the album not ashlee

    But we will probably get a re-release some new Timbo tracks maybe or did we get all of them


    bittersweet world is more european outta my head is doing good in the UK and all round europe and has done good in australia

    so she's having success internationally and she never did that good internationally so timbo/chad made her an international star so it is a plus+ fcuk THE US YOUR MUSIC IS WAACK SOULJA BOI WTF ,love in this club music is defintly coming to an end
    There's rarely hits being made anymore your never going to have a BIG HIT that remains on everyone for there life like it used to be it died with KELIS'S milkshake that is probably the biggest hit in the 2000s and will never be forgotten timbaland makes simple music its just getting him money$$$$$

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  25. well all i kno is that when producers become more focused on celebrity their music tends 2 spiral downward... i think perhaps Timbo might b starting 2 suffer from over-exposure and i kno 4 a fact that not every artist feels the Tim sound every time... and its interesting 2 hear stories about how Tim handles sumthin when artists aren't feelin it...lol

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  26. neptunes had the same success and credit that tims getting now. tims beats are amazing BUT they are getting too predicatble now. we need anotehr big time producer to come out of nowhere with fresh inovative and no danja is not that person to do so. i like his beats too but they are heavily influence by timbo with just better layering of sounds in the beats.

    the thing thats surprising to me is that the ebats he done on his own before danja and royal court existed are alot better then his beats now, i mean just listen to hey papi, get your freak on and many of ginuwine's classic tunes and you will see what im talking about.

    Unreal the up and coming producer is the future. his beats are on par with danja's stuff and thats at a very early tender age of his production career

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  27. and not 2 mention i think there's sum nice ish on Bittersweet... but the 1st single/video was a really lackluster choice imho... :( I actually think that Kenna/Chad pulled out better stuff and sounds like Ashlee is singin better rather than trynna pose... but those a&r see the numbers Timbo has been pulling in and badaboom!!! that becomes the 1st single... but if u told me that Tim was gonna do a joint like that back when Aliyah was around i'd LMAO never think he'd attempt punk rock and use those gawdawful GM distorted gtr patches... :(

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  28. Wow so Tim is going to go on a drought that the neptunes have been on for years I like the tunes but dont act like they been the go to producers since 2002 tim has always been visible or heard of or didn't put much work in but you heard news or productions from him from losing beatclub,to developing danja and hannon,beef with storch,losing weight and being refreshed and to take over the production world one more time i dont see where all this critism is so tim should fall back two years are you serious what an idiot tell the artists to quit asking for him. I have other producers im a fan of toomp,danja,mannie fresh,polow etc but would never say they need to fall back some of yall lame for suggesting that.

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  29. Honestly..Forget the Production Side and who is who, who produced etc etc..marketing and all of that Foolishness..I believe it is something deeper than that..I'm guess that one mistake when she got Caught Lip Syncing too a song and the Record Messed up thats what mashed her up. Just Look at what Millie Vanilli Did back in the Day..and it was all over the media. Just Remember..R-Kelly Had Mad Trials and Tribulations with the stuff he was accused of; and all of his Albums Sold Like Crazy After wards. As well as Michael Jackson!.

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  30. i think that the production from tims camp and the tunes were great.... but whenever i talked about ashlee simpson people still bring up her SNL incident... i don't think she has a great following anymore. i sould be wrong but i think the album is great... better than madonna's.... i don't know.... i think it was the bad promo and the fact that she had to announce an engagement and deny pregnancy rumors to "promote" her cd didn't help... she wasn't getting any help from the label so she had to put herself out there. LABELS SUCK!!!

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  31. Madonna's album is great love the production on both sides.

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  32. It's just the fact that it's Ashlee Simpson... not everyone goes and researches who's produced each track on an album, and who's been involved in the writing and all that. What it boils down to, for most people, is "would I rather buy an Ashlee Simpson album or a Madonna album?"

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  33. In the age where people like Soulja Boy can have a gold selling album off of meaningless material sets the presidence for the state of music in general. No longer is people looking for album quality instead they look for that smash, catchy hit record. Every album (nor song) are going to (nor meant to) be a hit. Album sells reflect everybody that is involved. So to say that it's just Timbo and camp's fault or the label didn't promote it right isn't right neither is it fair. Personally i feel that she didn't have any push for the album when it came out. It seems like people care more about her personal life than her music. All in all it's what she does after this is what is gonna tell whether she really cares about not just her album but her music.

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  34. i think the days are gone where albums are looked at like they used to. artists today and lables look for that hit record.something that can sell millions of singles digitaly. the crap timbo did for ashlee he did just with her in mind. if i was ashlee i would not have been happy with the beats and would have said no thanks to it.

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