Neilstein Soundscam: Deafheaven and Scale the Summit Duking it Out

An argument erupted in the comments last week (actually two weeks ago) about my use of Facebook likes to measure a band’s popularity in this column. I agree that Facebook likes aren’t a great way to measure a band’s true popularity, which is why instead I focus on how many of a band’s fans are “talking about this” on Facebook, not just how many “like” them. The resulting percentage (“talking about this” divided by total # of likes) is a good measure of how engaged a band’s supposed fans actually are, the higher the better, and disregards the multitudes of people who “like” a band on Facebook and rarely if ever interact with them there. Yes, it’s still an imperfect measure, but it’s meaningful nonetheless. Unfortunately Twitter doesn’t have an equivalent to “talking about this,” which is why I don’t report Twitter stats.

Anyway, onward! Since I skipped last week I’ve included in brackets debut numbers for albums that came out last week where applicable. There were some pretty big ones.

More sales numbers available this week and every week at Metal Insider.

1. ↔ The Black Dahlia Murder / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 1 / Weeks On: 6

Albums sold last week: 3,050 (Everblack, week two [Debut: 13,025])
Facebook Fan Engagement: 1.8% (993,589 likes · 1,021,227 likes · 18,703 talking about this)
YouTube: 374,000 (“Into the Everblack” premiere)

One of the biggest bands in metal right now, end of story.

2. ↑ Black Sabbath / Peak: 2 / Last Week: 9 / Weeks On: 2

Albums sold last week: 45,525 (13, week two [Debut: 154,900])
Facebook Fan Engagement: 3.1% (7,798,485 likes · 246,179 talking about this)
YouTube: 3.0 million (“God is Dead?” official stream)

The only people buying this record are over 50 years old.

3. ↔ Queens of the Stone Age / Peak: 3 / Last Week: 3 / Weeks On: 2

Albums sold last week: 12,450 (…Like Clockwork, week three)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 3.0% (2,140,708 likes · 64,223 talking about this)
YouTube: 645,000 (“…Like Clockwork” official video)

This album is still selling like a boss.

4. ↑ Amon Amarth / Peak: 4 / Last Week: 6 / Weeks On: 4

Albums sold last week: 0 (Deceiver of the Gods, June 25)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 7.4% (469,210 likes · 34,738 talking about this)
YouTube: 552,000 (“Deceiver of the Gods” official premiere)

That Facebook Fan Engagement percentage of 11.4% certainly wasn’t sustainable, but 7.4% is still pretty friggin’ good. Maybe it’ll see a release week spike.

5. ↑ Deafheaven / Peak: 5 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1

Albums sold last week: 990 (Sunbather, week two [Debut: 3,720])
Facebook Fan Engagement: 9.5% (22,938 likes · 2,181 talking about this)
YouTube: 70,000 (“Dreamhouse” unofficial stream)

Holy crap, didn’t see that first week coming! What’s interesting is that this record sold basically the same number as Scale the Summit (below) first week, but sold significantly more second week.

6. ↑ Scale the Summit / Peak: 6 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1

Albums sold last week: 760 (The Migration, week two [Debut: 3,700])
Facebook Fan Engagement: 4.7% (55,033 likes · 2,562 talking about this)
YouTube: 65,000 (“Odyssey” official premiere)

Band is doing all the right things right now. Album release tour with Intronaut is doing well.

7. ↓ Children of Bodom / Peak: 3 / Last Week: 3 / Weeks On: 2

Albums sold last week: 2,300 (Halo of Blood, week two [Debut: 8,400])
Facebook Fan Engagement: 0.6% (2,256,278 likes · 14,036 talking about this)
YouTube: 586,000 (“Transference” official video)

Look at that FB percentage… so low. The band’s hardcore fans bought the record, but aren’t otherwise engaged.

8. ↓ Alice in Chains / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 2 / Weeks On: 7

Albums sold last week: 7,150 (The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, week four)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 1.4% Fan Activity (3,653,010 likes · 54,614 talking about this)
YouTube: 1.24 million (“Stone” official video)

FB Engagement actually rose 0.4% over last week’s and the album is still selling, but I feel like the label has kind of given up promoting it now that it’s out. Where’s a new single / video / song / anything?

9. ↓ Megadeth / Peak: 4 / Last Week: 4 / Weeks On: 2

Albums sold last week: 5,100 (Super Collider, week three)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 0.8% (6,318,192 likes · 55,072 talking about this)
YouTube: 684,000 (“Super Collider” official stream)

Super-low FB Engagement, though to be fair the total # of likes is massive.

10. ↓ The Dillinger Escape Plan / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 5 / Weeks On: 8

Albums sold last week: [no data] (One of Us is the Killer, week six)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 5.1% Fan Activity (191,549 likes · 9,862 talking about this)
YouTube: 337,000 (“When I Lost My Bet” official video)

The magic carpet ride is ending for Dillinger, but they’ve still got a lot of juice left in ’em with Summer Slaughter on the horizon.