The 4th Album - FORTRESS - Discuss The Album Here!

[Ubik]

Although that said, it's actually doing really well on the amazon pre-order chart.

[Inconquerable]

Yes ^

Post of the year candidate. =P

I think Fortress will do well. Unfortunately rock is not the major thing in music in North America though so we won't see the album light the world on fire despite how much we all want it to. I still feel though that it'll be pretty successful sales-wise. Will it outsell Apocalyptic Love? It's hard to say but I'm leaning towards no simply because Slash is a bigger name than AB. But like Anguyen said, I would love to be wrong here.

Hopefully that didn't sound too pessimistic. I'm very optimistic about AB and the album but you have to be realistic about what sells the most in North America and rock isn't the genre right now.

[anguyen92]

Yes ^

Post of the year candidate. =P

I think Fortress will do well. Unfortunately rock is not the major thing in music in North America though so we won't see the album light the world on fire despite how much we all want it to. I still feel though that it'll be pretty successful sales-wise. Will it outsell Apocalyptic Love? It's hard to say but I'm leaning towards no simply because Slash is a bigger name than AB. But like Anguyen said, I would love to be wrong here.

Hopefully that didn't sound too pessimistic. I'm very optimistic about AB and the album but you have to be realistic about what sells the most in North America and rock isn't the genre right now.

How hard is it to sell 40,000 copies in one week? Skillet did 60k copies in their 1st week with Rise. Shinedown did 100k copies. A7X is going to do 175k. Granted, all of those bands are so much bigger than AB and has played more arenas shows than theaters as oppose to the other way around for AB, but still.

All right, realistically, Fortress might do the sales that Halestorm's The Strange Case Of… did which was 24,000 copies. I just wished there was like a better way to see how many people actually listened and liked the album.

[Timotheus]

I'm not sure they'll top Apocalyptic Love in the US. Apocalyptic Love sold 38K in its first week, AB III 28K. I expect Fortress to be somewhere in between. It would be great if they came close to AL's numbers though.

[Andy92]

It'd be a pretty good success if they topped 40k. I'd be happy with anything higher than AB III though.

[One Drew Remains]

Anyone know how many copies the first three have sold?

[Decay]

This is what Wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter_Bridge_discography

[Andy92]

I think that's pretty accurate. ODR certified gold in the US. I think it's somewhere around 750,000 worldwide.

But part of this shows how much the industry has changed. Getting gold or platinum is a huge deal in today's industry compared to what it used to be.

[anguyen92]

Anyone know how many copies the first three have sold?

They have sold approximately one mirrion (doing the Dr. Evil pinky on the lip bit).

Ok, I think worldwide they probably have sold about 1.2 million copies and about 3/4ths of that was from ODR, a time where people can sell an album and do 500k copies easy within a year or so. Has any other band sold less than that amount and manage to do a headlining arena tour in England?

[AB23]

Its really tough to judge album sales in todays society when a pretty large proportion just gets it illegally

[Decay]

That is sad but true. But you can't stop it, really.

[One Drew Remains]

Wow. I'm saddened by the lack of sales for ABIII.

One of my other favorite bands (since I was ten) is Def Leppard. They haven't made an album since 2008. One of the guitarists was asked if we can expect a new album soon, and he said that they can't justify recording costs. Hearing this, I thought he was full of shit. But if a good album with a #1 song like ABIII only does 60K, then maybe he has a point.

[Ubik]

That was only at the last point any data was released, pretty sure it'll be a fair bit above that now. Similar to Blackbird at a guess.

[Roneit]

It is sad, but, realistic discussion...

My theory is: beyond the whole new direction that the music industry is going, we have a problem with the gender. People who likes pop music just like music in general. If is on the radio, if is all over the news (aka E! or something like that), they just like it, just because.

BUT, with our gender, we form this kind of "tribes", where we say, "my band is better than yours", "they are good, but they arent 'insert a name of any fanboy band' good", "i dont have time to hear new stuffs"...

My point is: we care so much to the band(s) that we like it, that most of us dont have interest to hear anything new. I have showed AB to a lot of people that I know have great taste in music, but, they just dont care to hear more. And almost nobody of these people said anything bad about AB, they just are in their confort zones, or, they are very very judicious when comes to bands that are not the ones they idolized.

In the other side, pop fans just like what is new, what is fresh. The artists come and go, but, while they are fresh, they sell out.

In short, we are too picky.

[anguyen92]

It is sad, but, realistic discussion...

My theory is: beyond the whole new direction that the music industry is going, we have a problem with the gender. People who likes pop music just like music in general. If is on the radio, if is all over the news (aka E! or something like that), they just like it, just because.

BUT, with our gender, we form this kind of "tribes", where we say, "my band is better than yours", "they are good, but they arent 'insert a name of any fanboy band' good", "i dont have time to hear new stuffs"...

My point is: we care so much to the band(s) that we like it, that most of us dont have interest to hear anything new. I have showed AB to a lot of people that I know have great taste in music, but, they just dont care to hear more. And almost nobody of these people said anything bad about AB, they just are in their confort zones, or, they are very very judicious when comes to bands that are not the ones they idolized.

In the other side, pop fans just like what is new, what is fresh. The artists come and go, but, while they are fresh, they sell out.

In short, we are too picky.

Hmmm, I used to be like that and, then, all of a sudden, I felt too saturated with Rock music that I decided to watch this Blues and Jazz festival, which I enjoyed. Heck, I even wanted to watch a live stream of Lady Gaga, yesterday, but iTunes screwed the stream up so no dice.

AB, pretty much, does not really appeal to the main masses and that's fine. If people want to hear good music and understand their approach and what they are going for and it connects the people in some way, then that's all what AB wants. That said, it would always be nice if the fans, in the US, showed a huge statement to say to AB and the rest of the world that they do care and that there's always an audience for AB to play and entertain.

Luckily, this forum and fanbase is pretty wide-open in getting into pretty much any music which is always nice to find new music and acts to enjoy.

[Decay]

Yup, it really sucks AB isn't appreciated in the States as much as they are in Europe.

''Hmmm, I used to be like that and, then, all of a sudden, I felt too saturated with Rock music that I decided to watch this Blues and Jazz festival, which I enjoyed.'' - Yeah, totally. I listen to all kinds of music now. I've been 'stuck' into the rock genre and decided to mix it up, and it's really good. I love every genre now.

[anguyen92]

Yeah, totally. I listen to all kinds of music now. I've been 'stuck' into the rock genre and decided to mix it up, and it's really good. I love every genre now.

Indeed. I took a couple of shots at listening to Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience. Sure, he does not like sound like AB or anything, but he offered something different to the table that, for the most parts, can be enjoyable to hear and does connect to millions of people and I can appreciate it that.

In return, that helped me to open up to listening to more proggy stuff like Rush and Dream Theater and more pop rock stuff like Paul McCartney and they offered something different from the table away from AB, Shinedown, etc.

In all honesty, all the bands, I've got in my spotify playlist has something different to offer from any other bands on the playlist.

And like I say before, what makes this forum great is that we all like the same bands or different bands and that most of us appreciate it. Some of us might have "constructive thoughts" on certain bands, but at least, we can see why people like it very much.

[Dolo]

Yeah, totally. I listen to all kinds of music now. I've been 'stuck' into the rock genre and decided to mix it up, and it's really good. I love every genre now.

[/quote]


I went in completely opposite direction. For the last 12 months I have stopped listening to huge spectrum of rock/metal music and I focused on progressive/atmospheric genre. I'm fine with it.

[Roneit]

Well, I was talking about people in general. At least, from my experience (or, from people which I have contact with). Of course, if you think individually, we all have our idiosyncrasies, but that wasnt my point.

Because rock is not mainstream gender of music anymore, there are a few people (few, if you compare with the past) that are still into. And those people are, if you think in a sense of a group, closed mind about what they like it. So, in this small group of people that still likes rock (compared with pop, for example) we have all these differents "tribes", and just a few people transits between the groups.

So, you have the whole industry problem, rock music is not mainstream anymore, people who likes rock separeted themselfs in tribes and, in those groups, a few people are open mind enough to hear and buy something new (plus, AB is becoming darker and heavier, which doesnt appeal to the large population).

That's my theory why ABIII didnt sell that much and why Fortress probably wont too (and I hope I am wrong).

[One Drew Remains]

I would agree with that. I kind of stick to "my bands." Once in a while I'll break out and discover someone new. But you aren't going to see me listen to Timberlake or Gaga or anything in rap genre. I just don't care what they have to offer.