In and Out: Soundscan the Horizon

Yesterday, another edition of sales figures hit the record labels. While there were some surprising turn-arounds (like Korn debuting at #2 and moving more than 100k in the first week), there are still some shocking, maybe even depressing, numbers about indie bands getting tons of press.

Interpol sales were down again (this time 22%) and came in at #65 on Billboard. With just over 120,000 albums sold in four full weeks, things don't look great for them. But, that's major label

business and major label problems.

Let's look deeper at some of the bands bloggers and indie-kids can't stop talking about. These are last weeks sales figures (numbers of albums sold) for some of the "hottest" and "most talked about" records in the indie community.

Editors: 1,911

St. Vincent: 1,811

Polyphonic Spree: 1,002

John Vanderslice: 947

And perhaps more troubling, Editors have only moved 10,000 copies of their album in the first 3 weeks and St. Vincent only a little more than half that. Vanderslice? Just over 2k in the first two weeks. So if everyone is talking about these albums and (by most accounts) if they are quality music, where are the sales?

Sad truths: Indie kids don't buy enough albums. Indie kids have too many blogs. Indie kids might - just might - be the epitomy of sound and fury signifying nothing. Believe it or not, just picking up an emusic.com account or supporting your favorite bands with a few record purchases makes a huge difference if it happens on a community-wide basis. Enough talk. Enough bullshit. Enough hype.

There is buy and not buy. There is no listen.