Dave
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Post by Dave on Jun 19, 2013 17:20:01 GMT
Hi everyone, I wasn't sure which thread to post this in... but it's much closer to official than unofficial! Hushabye has entered the UK Official Midweek Update album chart at... no. 25This is much as I expected, given that the UK's two biggest supermarkets are not selling Hushabye this week. But when the final chart comes out on Sunday it could slip to a lower position unless Decca do some more adverts or Hayley appears on National TV again. If they do, it should climb into the top 20. Tesco and Asda buyers will probably be making their decisions on what to stock next week at least partly on this chart so let us hope they make the right decision! www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/update/albumsHOWEVER Hushabye if it figures in the UK classical chart will probably not be no. 1 as Hans Zimmer (Man Of Steel: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is in the Midweek top 10 so if it's classical, it will be no. 1 at Classic FM. Cheers, Dave
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Post by Dave on Jun 21, 2013 11:15:38 GMT
Hushabye as expected (because of no further TV promo activity and no Tesco or Asda) has slipped to no. 29 in the official midweek chart update (sales up to Thursday night).
If there are no ads today and no other TV, it will probably be in the 30s by Sunday - but I hope I'm wrong!
Dave
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jun 23, 2013 17:53:31 GMT
Hi everyone,
Hushabye is no. 35 in the UK official chart today.
Classical chart will be out soon.
Cheers, Dave
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Post by nicola on Jun 23, 2013 17:57:19 GMT
Hushabye entered the chart at number 35. :/ I wasn't expecting it to do well, but I was expecting her to hit somewhere in the mid 20s.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jun 23, 2013 18:51:38 GMT
Well Hushabye isn't in the Classical Artist Albums chart at all so at the moment it isn't considered to be eligible - not enough classical content I assume. Decca could appeal though, or correct any database error, as I assume they would have set it up to be eligible. We shall have to wait and see.
River of Dreams has re-entered the classical artist chart at no. 13 so at worst, Hayley will still have one album in the Classic FM chart.
Nicola, the lower entry is at least in part because Hushabye isn't currently stocked by Tesco or Asda, who together account for almost half of UK supermarket sales, and supermarket CD sales have always been Hayley's biggest sales outlet.
Perhaps Decca have a master plan for when the Royal baby is born, I hope so because otherwise, as I've said from the outset, a mid June release makes no sense for this album.
Cheers, Dave
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Post by nicola on Jun 23, 2013 20:49:00 GMT
I don't think Decca do have a "master plan". They put products out, spend two days promoting them, then abandon them. They expect the relevance of their product to do all the work. It's actually up to Decca to pitch Hayley's album to the supermarkets on week of release. They have failed to do that like they always nearly do. I'm not sure they even try.
Sorry to be negative, but it's not a good product and can only possibly appeal to a very niche market. As I've said before, I think Decca already knew this going in and they are unlikely to be surprised by how the album has performed so far.
I'm a fan of Hayley and I have no interest in this album. The promo videos they made actually turned me off. :/
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Post by Bamafan on Jun 24, 2013 3:08:37 GMT
Oh, well, this is disappointing. Why can't Decca ever seem to get their act together?! *sigh* -Taylor
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Jillian
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Post by Jillian on Jun 24, 2013 7:52:36 GMT
Hi all,
I would have thought that number 35 would have been a pretty good charting for Hushabye. After all, a lullaby album is a very niche product aimed at new parents, grandparents, relatives etc. Its never going to have the broad ranging appeal of an album like Pure or Paradiso. It's sort of generally a slow burning product that will sell slowly over a period of time on ITunes as people go searching for a version of Twinkle Twinkle or Hushabye Mountain etc
It's probably testament to Hayley's strong fanbase that she managed to chart a lullaby album so highly. Because I'm not sure how often an album like Hushabye would make the UK Top 40 - it couldn't be very often.
I don't really think its really promo issue, because aside from Hayley's fans (who have it already) there's only a specific group of people who want lullabies. It doesn't necessarily follow that just because people like the royal family that they'll want a lullaby album.
It may have been easier to try to promote and sell an album of love songs , but that's already been done with the royal wedding, I suppose.
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Jillian
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Post by Jillian on Jun 24, 2013 10:17:43 GMT
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Post by nicola on Jun 24, 2013 12:08:43 GMT
Celine Dion got a top ten position for her lullaby album in the UK (number 5).
But, you know, that's Celine Dion! XD But it's interesting that her lullaby album performed as well as her other albums.
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Jillian
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Post by Jillian on Jun 24, 2013 12:33:22 GMT
Celine Dion's Miracle album is beautiful - but it was a full blown David Foster produced job, which at times doesn't really even sound sound like a lullaby album. Also, I think that Celine and her husband had a terrible time trying to conceive, but eventually succeeded in having her first son in 2000 after a years of IVF treatment and her husband battling cancer. I would imagine Celine's star power and her personal back story with her son, her album 'Miracle' would have struck a chord with a lot of people. I think that 'Miracle' had a lot of personal significance behind it for Celine. You really can't compare Hushabye to that at all.
I would classify Miracele as being a bit like Josh Groban's 'Noel' album - technically a niche album that came in and sold like crazy.
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Post by susieverity on Jun 24, 2013 14:28:53 GMT
Hi everyone, I think 35 is a bit disappointing, despite the fact that Hushabye is a niche album, I always want to see hayley sell lots of albums. I think promo (or lack of it) is partly to blame, I suppose an album of lullabies was never going to go top 10, but I think that hayley is not on tv enough as I think it is TV appearances that help to sell albums like Hushabye as she will not get very much radio play with the songs, she was only on TV twice in the uk during the release week of the album and I think that that is not enough, which is why it only charted at 35. It is very annoying because other artists who do not have Hayley's talent sell so many albums.
Susie
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Post by comet on Jun 24, 2013 20:48:37 GMT
I wish people would stop putting the words lullabies and babies in the same sentence as the album title HUSHABYE. May I point out that when someone (a "non dedicated" Hayley fan who is not aware of HWI and the Official Forum etc.) walks into a supermarket and sees HUSHABYE by Hayley Westenra on a rack, There is no mention of lullabies on the front, there are no pictures of babies, cradles, toddlers or expectant mothers on it.. they will most likely pick it up and flip it over for the track listing, depending on their age and listening experience, they will recognise some of the song titles, The may be amused or bemused to see Twinkle Twinkle listed there. At the moment they may be totally unaware of the album's association with the Royal baby. They may have heard Dream a Little Dream on the radio and spot the song in the track listing, one good enough reason for buying the cd, especially if it is under a tenner, they may remember or know Hushabye Mountain or some of the other tracks, That is how people buy cd's. Nobody expects to see a listing of all songs they know or like in front of them. They will judge it on what they see in their hand, if they already have and like other Hayley cd's they will most likely buy this one as well, don't you think ? They will be totally unaware of what went on before the album was released all the early names for it and the non existant or ficticous artwork that we here are aware of. the people here on HWI represent only a fraction of one per cent of the people who may buy HUSHABYE. People will hear tracks on the radio and for some people that will be enough to make them buy it. What may be interesting is what will they do with Sleep On when the baby is born, Let's say Release it as a "Single". A picture of the happy couple and a union jack on the cover and donate part of the proceeds to a suitable baby charity (Which promotes sales and goodwill anyway) and it could be a major success, could it not ?
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Jillian
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Post by Jillian on Jun 24, 2013 21:07:00 GMT
I wish people would stop putting the words lullabies and babies in the same sentence as the album title HUSHABYE. May I point out that when someone (a "non dedicated" Hayley fan who is not aware of HWI and the Official Forum etc.) walks into a supermarket and sees HUSHABYE by Hayley Westenra on a rack, There is no mention of lullabies on the front, there are no pictures of babies, cradles, toddlers or expectant mothers on it.. they will most likely pick it up and flip it over for the track listing, depending on their age and listening experience, they will recognise some of the song titles, The may be amused or bemused to see Twinkle Twinkle listed there. At the moment they may be totally unaware of the album's association with the Royal baby. They may have heard Dream a Little Dream on the radio and spot the song in the track listing, one good enough reason for buying the cd, especially if it is under a tenner, they may remember or know Hushabye Mountain or some of the other tracks, That is how people buy cd's. Nobody expects to see a listing of all songs they know or like in front of them. They will judge it on what they see in their hand, if they already have and like other Hayley cd's they will most likely buy this one as well, don't you think ? They will be totally unaware of what went on before the album was released all the early names for it and the non existant or ficticous artwork that we here are aware of. the people here on HWI represent only a fraction of one per cent of the people who may buy HUSHABYE. People will hear tracks on the radio and for some people that will be enough to make them buy it. What may be interesting is what will they do with Sleep On when the baby is born, Let's say Release it as a "Single" donate part of the proceeds to a suitable baby charity (Which promotes sales and goodwill anyway) and it could be a major success, could it not ? Hi Comet, Yes, that's certainly true. And the track listing of Hushabye is very distinctly a lullaby album. There's no mistaking what this album is about. So people who want lullabies know that it's just the thing for them and people who don't like lullabies know that it's not their product. Also a lot of people see things on Itunes and listen to samples these days too. With the lengthy 1:30 samples it gives people plenty of time to decide whether they like something before they buy it. I always thought Sleep On would do well as a commemorative single. I think in an interview Hayley said that was what it was originally intended for and then they later decided to make the album around it. I'm not sure how Hushabye couldn't be classified as a lullaby album. Once the royal birth has been and gone and the attempt to mass market the album finished, it is very likely that Hushabye will gradually get most of its sales actually as an album for newborn babies and young children. Cheers, Jillian
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jun 24, 2013 21:27:13 GMT
What may be interesting is what will they do with Sleep On when the baby is born, Let's say Release it as a "Single". A picture of the happy couple and a union jack on the cover and donate part of the proceeds to a suitable baby charity (Which promotes sales and goodwill anyway) and it could be a major success, could it not ? Hi Paul, That's the kind of thing I was referring to when I said I hope Decca have a plan, because if they don't, it's madness to release this particular album in mid-June. I am also intrigued by its absence from Tesco and Asda, halving the potential UK supermarket sales and probably slicing at least a third off the total week one sales. Some people are clearly being driven to order the CD from Amazon as unusually, it's doing better there than anywhere else (still in the top 20 there after over a week). Add to that the lower level of promotion than last time (no daytime TV performances & nobody has reported any ITV adverts for it except at the time of her Monday morning ITV interview) and it's not hard to see why it's had perhaps half the sales it could otherwise expect. So, I hope they have held back on Tesco and Asda for when the Royal birth is announced, with another burst of promotional activity including perhaps Sleep On as a single to promote the album. Otherwise, the mid June release makes no sense at all so fingers crossed. Incidentally, the report that Jillian posted (originally taken from Music Week's official charts analysis) may have been a bit misleading when it said Hushabye is Hayley's lowest charting album - it meant of her top 40 albums (in the UK). However, the special edition of Pure peaked at no. 60 in December 2004, and Winter Magic peaked at no. 95, in December 2009. Just thought I'd mention that. Cheers, Dave
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