Michael Jackson must be smiling in heaven. Not only does he have the No. 1 movie, but he’s got the No. 1 album. And the No. 14 album, number whatever.
The companion album to Jackson’s “This Is It” sold about 385,000 copies this week, landing it at the top spot. What’s funny about this is that with the exception of two tracks, all of the music is already available. In fact, Jackson sold around 65,000 copies of his other CDs this week, including a greatest hits package.
Meantime, the other big chart news is that Sting’s “If on s Winter’s Night” — a classical album, certainly — landed in the top 10 with about 80,000 copies. And Rod Stewart’s “Soul Songbook,” the best covers package he’s put out in several tries, did just a smidge better than Sting. It’s full of Rod singing classic R&B songs. Go figure!
Is real music back? For the moment, at least.
Meantime, the Beatles have a huge headache. Their entire catalog has been put on a downloading site illegally. The owners of the site are selling the group’s albums for $3.99. This is absolutely unauthorized, and totally against the law. The problem is that the owners of the site have masked their Web address. I’m told lawyers are working feverishly on this.
The bigger question is how this particular site, Blue Beat, has been functioning so long. They have tons of music on there, all presumably without permission. You’d think that the RIAA’s dogs of war, the ones who sue grandmothers and schoolchildren, would be all over this.
At the same time, the Beatles announced, in a weird way albeit, that they’re going to be selling a USB stick next month with their whole catalog on it. How weird! After refusing to sell downloads through iTunes or Amazon, Apple Records is going to sell this stick — with a green apple — in limited editions in the U.S. and U.K. A great souvenir — but what’s the point? This should lead to massive file sharing, I would think. The 10,000-piece edition will likely sell for several hundred dollars per apple. (And boy — isn’t this a great way to get back at Apple Computers? Yes!)
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Forgive my possible stupidity- but what is the difference between purchasing all the music on a USB stick vs. a CD, other than time it takes to rip individual CDs?
If someone is going to share their music with friends, they can do it with a CD just as easily– well, slowly but easily, right? Or did I miss something?
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
@Cali MJ Fan
A USB stick is more convenient, most new CD players in cars now have USB ports, you can store much more on them than on a regular CD, can support higher quality music, and you can easily transfer the music much faster to any USB capable device.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
[...] post: bMichael Jackson/b: #39;This Is It#39; at No. 1; Beatles Under Siege | The b…/b [...]
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:25 pm
[...] that this film should win an Academy Award is because it helps rebuild Jackson’s reputation as a superlative performer. It depicts in perfect form the time and dedication that the King of Pop rendered in [...]
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:41 pm
No, Cali MJ Fan, you haven’t missed anything. It takes about 5 minutes to rip a CD. You could probably do the entire Beatles catalog in about 90 minutes and what’s laughable about this blog entry is that the Beatles songs have been massively shared online for years and years. Not sure what Roger Friedman is going on about exactly. I suspect he is a bit technically illiterate which is ironic since he got fired from Fox for downloading a movie.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Yeah, the fact that the Beatles are going to sell their songs on a USB stick isn’t relevant. Their songs have available online, for free, illegally since the internet began. Roger is either computet illiterate himself or is hoping his readership is, which seems quite unlikely in this day and age. It’s comments like that that make you realise how little he knows on some of these subjects.
November 4th, 2009 at 4:20 am
Anyone who has used the internet in any form would know the Beatles as well as all other artists songs have been available via internet. And there is no real way to stop it.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:13 am
The Beatles Apple itself comments on the whole issue here, http://blog.beema.com/2009/11/apple-holding-beatles-catalog-speaks-up.html
November 4th, 2009 at 6:15 am
So, Roger – you really think Michael is in heaven? Wow! That’s the first compliment you’ve given him since he died. It’s better than your usual taunting of a dead man who can no longer defend himself.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:26 am
michael was a good person contrary to what roger freidman says.rip mj
November 4th, 2009 at 8:15 am
What is the KEY point here is that Michael Jackson sells his music legally, officially and monstrously in the USA, EU… whole world.
Where are the Beatles albums? No chart success, no “record” sales…, gee… 14 albums and none of them in the chart!!!
Michael is the REAL King of Music, the one and only, no The Beatles, No Elvis, but Michael Jackson, his Majesty.
November 4th, 2009 at 8:20 am
This is nonsense. of course the Beatles are in the World Charts just as MJ is. See:
http://www.mediatraffic.de
The new chart isn’t in yet (officially out on Friday) but it is by far the best estimation of World Sales.
November 4th, 2009 at 9:49 am
@ A.G. … hmmm, where are the Beatles? I cant find a track of them…, the beatles are so overrated, its impossible how desperate some of the journalists are to boost them, and they dont sell. (Elvis is out of it literally.)
I really wonder if such a huge global success is going to be reported about Michael, because if its not a tabloid shit or a lawsuit media dont inform about Michael Jackson – the artist and his success, despite the facts that he overcomes the Beatles and Elvis for decades.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:22 am
http://www.mediatraffic.de/albums.htm
here is the link..somehow MJ fans have lost the ability to think and research properly LOL…
Anyway the This is it CD is not on No. 1 in any other country than the US. By next week we will see whether this was indeed a strawfire or not if next week’s figures are in.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:34 am
I click on every album page… but I cant see them there…, even they would be there, the box set and albums of the beatles were released a month ago (I think), and they disappeared…
anyway, I am following the charts for my web (in terms of MJ), so I can assess the results…
Not being number one doesnt mean failure, you can be at top 10 for more week and sell more albums than be no.1 for a week and then out of the top 10.
thats the point.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:42 am
This is it is No.1 in Japan, Australia, and several countries in EU… so far.
but dont quarrel about that, we do know the point of this.
the sad thing is that the illegal download is without punishment…, and some servers provide Beatles box set for free and thats the same for MJ, so… I do understand that, but Michael has very united fan community…. and they buy the albums…, which shows the power of MJ.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:50 am
@AG – There’s really no need to categorize people as having “lost the ability to think and research properly LOL…” Looking at the first link you provided, The Beatles come up by name twice on the entire page. One would have to search to find your original point. Your second link more accurately points other readers to worldwide Beatle singles’ sales.
You are comparing the new re-mastered and special box sets of the Beatles to MJ’s companion soundtrack, which has little new music– and more a sentimental purchase of a few demos, a spoken poem and one song likely recorded back in the 80’s. Those are not apples and apples.
When you consider those facts with MJ’s soundtrack, the sales are still fantastic.
Some of us *do* read, think and research properly and yet still proudly claim to be MJ fans. Don’t be rude.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:54 am
@Brandon
In case you haven’t seen this– here’s this week’s Billboard 200 for This is It.
http://www.billboard.com/news/michael-jackson-hits-no-1-on-billboard-200-1004032886.story#/news/michael-jackson-hits-no-1-on-billboard-200-1004032886.story
November 4th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Sorry– my bad– http://www.billboard.com/news/michael-jackson-hits-no-1-on-billboard-200-1004032886.story#/news/michael-jackson-hits-no-1-on-billboard-200-1004032886.story for direct link to story.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:13 am
No, the second link I provided leads to worldwide album sales..not singles. Or is it totally unknown that e.g. The Beatles White Album is in fact an album and not a single?
this is worse than I thought….;-)
November 4th, 2009 at 11:19 am
You’re right AG. I really didn’t pay that close attention to the titles, just saw they were on the charts repeatedly so assumed (and didn’t read) the word album. I don’t remember album names to begin with so don’t use me in your case study. LOL
November 4th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
mj is the best he ousells beatles & elvis any day. he has the most loyal fans wordwide no matter how the tries to rain on his parade. love you mj rip.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Get It Mike…You were the best, always will be!
You BAD!!!!!!! Shamone!