In what has become a hot-button issue, the second week numbers for Avenged Sevenfold's surprise release, The Stage, have been released, and they are nothing to praise.
Over the weekend, frontman M. Shadows took to social media to blast the media for labeling the new album a disappointment. Except, this site never labeled the album itself a disappointment (we gave it a 10/10 review), we said that the first week sales would be considered a disappointment, because they were half that of their previous release, Hail to the King. In an interview, last week, Shadows seemed to think that the album wouldn't suffer the typical 80% drop in week two saying:
“We also take a longer-term view. The average album following a three-month release model typically sees sales drop as much as 80% for the second week. We expect some drop off, too… but we also expect our album sales to continue over a longer period of time."
Well, some more disappointment for the suits at Avenged Sevenfold's new record label. While the album did not see a 80% drop in sales, it was damn near close.
In week two, Avenged Sevenfold's The Stage sold 16,000 copies – which is a 78% drop from the 72,000 copies the album sold in week one.
For comparison's sake, Hail to the King in 2013 sold 42,000 in week two, which was a 74% drop from their first week sales of 159,000.
Any way you slice it, from a strictly business perspective, this is disappointing, and proves that the band's experiment of a live release didn't result in the same type of sales as a traditional release. It is in no way an indication of the content on the album, simply a business matter.
[Huge thanks to Ryan Downey for pulling the numbers]
