A Debut Sales Week to Remember

A Day to Remember aren’t really a metal band, but they have strong ties to the metal world, and besides, given the current state of the record industry, this is a fascinating story.

So. You may or may not have already heard about A Day to Remember’s legal mishegas with their former label, Victory, but long story short, the band ended up releasing their new album, Common Courtesy, on their own. Now, obviously, bands release albums on their own all the time, but, uh… well, here, read the press release:

“Today Neilsen Soundscan verifies that the band sold 40,550 copies through their own digital direct to fan presale as well as 52,324 albums through traditional retail outlets such as Best Buy, iTunes and Hot Topic. In total, the new album has sold 92,874 copies in the US alone. The album will not debut on the Billboard chart this week due to the untraditional nature of this release but the band is very thankful for the overwhelming support and loyalty of their fans. Had Common Courtesy been eligible the band would have had a Top 10 debut this week.”

Holy shit, that’s insane! Do you know how many bands would kill to sell that many albums? The entirety of my 2013 year-end list combined may not have sold that many records altogether.

Now, granted, a Day to Remember were already a very popular band. And given how public their dispute with Victory became, their fanbase may have felt an extra-strong urge to buy the album in (relative to 2013) droves. But still! Tony Brummel must be fuming.

It will be interesting to see where ADTR take it from here. Trent Reznor has said that his own attempt to go without a label was ultimately a failure, and his final independent release, The Slip, sold about 98K copies in its first week of release in 2008. I guess we’ll have to wait to find out if ADTR feel differently.

[via Lambgoat]