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There's some useful information in the Amazon websites, which tell you the "Amazon sales rank" (ASR) for each item. Over a period of 5 days, I checked the sales ranks of the top pop/rock DVD-As on Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.com. All of this is public information, provided to customers as they navigate on the websites. These figures fluctuate up and down as new items move up ("movers and shakers") and, I believe, as time goes by. If you verify the figures, you will notice that they may vary from day to day.Caveat
As a caveat, this is by no means a scientific sample, nor is it an indication of total sales. The amazon methodology for these figures is not known, and we have no indication of the scale of these rankings (eg the sales position 5,000 could be only a few units away from 50,000). In other words, I don't believe the differences are meaningful for one title only, and for a small interval, but for a series of titles
To make things clear: the difference between the ASR 5,000 and ASR 6,000 for one title (or between 2 titles) may be negligible, as we have no indication of the number of units between these two ASRs. But the overall sample distribution in terms of ranking, and the comparative distribution of equivalent CDs, is probably meaningful.
I believe, in any event, that these figures indicate the success of several "mainstream" titles over one of the most visible Internet stores in Europe.
A total of 65 titles, primarily from Warner, were included, because they were available and were in the highest selling ranks. The sample was fairly similar on all 3 websites. There were only a few titles available on one site only (Bryan Ferry / Frantic, available only on Amazon.de). Only the UK website was missing several key references (somebody should give these guys a call).
Finally, I didn't do this as a scientific study, but as a "quick and dirty" and I may have ommitted some key titles. I did check for alternate editions when the ASR was extremely low or surprising, especially for the CD counterpart edition. The Bjork Vespertine DVD-A had two editions (Canada and UK), with very similar sales ranking (in the low 40,000).
Snapshot AnalysisWhen analysing these figures, the sales rank (Amazon.de-Verkaufsrang ) for the sample of 65 mainstream "pop/rock" DVD-A titles was consistently better than the rank on the UK and US sites.
- The DVD-A selection was the largest on Amazon.de, and only one mainstream title was not found (REM Reveal). The DVD-A edition was also more apparent on the website (the reference to the DVD-A edition was apparent on the page of the CD edition)
- BTW... DVD-A listing is a mess on the other websites. On the UK and the US website, you can only access some DVD-A titles by their ASIN number, they don't show up in the DVD-A search... nor on the Artist listing! (e.g. try to find the Philip Glass DVD-A on Amazon.com... it shows if you enter the ASIN: B00005M979 under the name "score" :)
- When compared with the UK website, the sales rank on Amazon.de was consistently better. The sales rank was better on the Amazon UK site for only 17 DVD-A titles, out of 65. The sales rank on Amazon.de was also consistently better than on Amazon.com
- Interestingly, Emylou Harris / Producer's Cut, which doesn't have a CD counterpart edition, had similar ASR on Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk (4,252 and 4,218 respectively). The sales rank for that title was 33,767 on the US website. Perhaps this is an indication of the "scale" of the respective rankings?
- For the total sample, the ASR for all DVD-A titles on Amazon.de was not great overall (19,149), but it was much better than on the Amazon UK (28,559) and much better than on the Amazon.com site (99,638).
- The ASR for the top 25 titles, however, was much better (4,559) and consistently higher than on Amazon.co.uk (19,409) and on Amazon.com (51,817) for the same titles. This figure of 4,599 is actually very good. Just as a point of comparison, the sales rank of the CD edition of the Doors LA Woman is 5,443 and the sales rank of the CD edition of the Corrs In Blue is 22,930 on the Amazon.de website. (see table)
- When looking into individual titles, Queen NATO is the top seller, with a very high sales rank (554), followed by Eagles Hotel California (771). A total of 8 DVD-A titles is below 3,000, and all top 20 titles were below 10,000.
- More interesting is the average position of the DVD-A edition compared with the CD edition: on the Amazon.de website, the average selling rank was better than the respective CD edition of those titles. While there are many exceptions to this, this proved true on the whole sample (average DVD-A rank 19,149 compared to 21,093 for the CD editions). One has to be careful with the CD sales rank, because there may have been several editions of those titles, and the figure probably refers to the latest edition only, which is considered a separate reference.
- On the sample of 20 top titles, however, the difference is telling. For several titles, the DVD-A editions outsell their respective counterpart CD editions. When excluding the two titles which had no CD counterpart edition (Jazz at the Movies and Harris Producer's Cut), the average position of the top 18 DVD-A titles was 3,669, compared with 15,617 for the respective CD edition. When excluding the Steely Dan / 2 Against Nature from the sample (the CD edition ASR is very low), the ASR of the top DVD-A titles (3,500) is still better than the CD counterpart (9 845).
(Sorry for the sloppy table, if someone could tell me how to make those, it would be useful)
Top Sales Rank of DVD-A titles on Amazon.de
(collected 30 april to May 3)Rank---Title--------------------------- DVD-A ------------ CD
1. --- Queen / NIght at the Opera ----- 554 -------------- 2 583
2. --- Eagles / Hotel California --------- 771 --------------- 410
3. --- REM Automatic ---------------- 1 315 ------------- 1 048
4. --- Faith Hill: / Cry ----------------- 2 386 ------------ 659
5. --- Jazz at the Movies -------------- 2 403 -------------(na)
6. --- Linkin Park / Reanimation -------- 2 594 ------------- 477
7. --- Fleetwood Mac / Rumours ------- 2 666 ------------ 255
8. --- The Nightfly --------------------- 2 849 ------------- 6 468
9. --- Foreigner / 4 ---------------------3 167 ------------ 57 433
10. --- Philip Glass / Koyaanisqatsi ---- 3 689 ------------- 24 738
11. --- Young Neil / Harvest ----------- 3 750 ------------- 139
12. --- Elvis / #1 Greatest Hits ---------- 4 011 ------------ 290
13. --- Metallica / Metallica ------------- 4 224 ----------- 780
14. --- Harris / Producer's Cut ----------- 4 252 ------------ (na)
15. --- Mana / MTV Unplugged --------- 4 653 ------------ 514
16. --- Clapton / Riding w/ King --------- 5 241 ------------ 6 364
17. --- Carly Simon / No Secret ---------- 5 250 ---------- 30 205
18. --- Band / The Last Waltz ------------ 5 651 ---------- 12 069
19. --- Steely Dan / 2 Against Nature ---- 6 549 ----------- 113 739
20. --- Corrs / In Blue ------------------- 6 722 -----------22 930Source: Amazon.de Website
Comment
Some of this analysis is simply common sense (DVD-A titles sell better than the CD edition of fairly old catalog titles), but it shows that top DVD-A titles are close to the level of key mainstream pop/rock figures on Amazon.de. While this is not entirely a surprise, it may be useful to remember that these products reach significant volumes when they are marketed correctly. It may also be useful to note that DVD-A may outsell the CD edition of some titles.
The differences in the sales rank between Amazon.de and Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk is very important, and there may be several explanations:
- there is a better selection of DVD-As on Amazon.de
- the DVD-A search is more easily accessible from the CD edition
- prices may be lower (I didn't check that :)
- the German Amazon site serves as a platform for other European countries, including Switzerland, Austria, and all of Central Europe, and is labelled in Euros, as opposed to the UK, which is in £.
- the German market is more receptive to DVD-A.Overall, I find it slightly disappointing that the more recent quality titles such as Bjork / Vespertine or Buena Vista Social Club are not (yet) in the top 20. The Emilou Harris Producer's Cut release is probably a good indication of the potential for a DVD-A only release.
And, finally, I think that if I was in charge of a DVD-A record label, I know exactly where I would try to get my products referenced in Europe :)
Best
Eric
Follow Ups:
Still in a "low-tech" presentation (sorry Metralla), here's the top 25 DVD-Audio on Amazon.com ranked by ASR, as of 4 May 2003.I think this deserves an update, because my post on Amazon.de was incomplete. In my previous post above, I indicated that the average ASRs were much lower on Amazon.com than on Amazon.de. This is true, but only for pop/rock releases. When I investigated a little further, the major difference on the US website is that there are 7 classical releases within the top 25 DVD-Audio titles.
So if you inlude classical releases, the Top 25 DVD-Audio titles also outsell their CD counterpart on Amazon.com
Even if you exclude classical releases that do not have a CD counterpart, the average ASR of the top DVD-Audio titles is still better than the average ASR of the CD counterparts (although by a smaller margin)
Note: I re-checked the ASRs on Amazon.de, and if you include classical titles in the sample, only one title makes it to the Top 25 (Beethoven Barenboļm Symph 9, at the 23rd position), all the other classical titles floating in the lower ranks. So the sales of DVD-Audio on the German website reflect a more pop/rock audience, while sales on the US website reflect a more balanced audience, with both pop/rock and classical.
Rank Artist / Title DVD-A CD
=================================================================
1. Yes / Fragile 976 6,159
2. ELP / Brain Salad Surgery 1,099 7,546
3. Immersion DVD-Audio 1,292 (na)
4. Fleetwood Mac / Say You Will 1,950 6
5. Fleetwood Mac / Rumours 2,016 610
6. Metallica / Metallica 3,547 475
7. Beethoven / Barenboim Simph 9 4,177 (na)
8. Blue Man Group / Audio 4,328 637
9. Deep Purple / Machine Head 5,544 3,644
10. Fourplay / Fourplay 5,592 23,298
11. Doors / LA Woman 6,044 8,346
12. Faith Hill: / Cry 6,140 338
13. Dvorak / Harnoncourt / Simph 9 6,369 50,147
14. Mahler / Zubin Mehta / Symph 2 6,943 94,787
15. Eagles / Hotel California 7,454 1,196
16. Bach / Koopman / Organ Spectacular 7,746 (na)
17. REM / Automatic 8,146 912
18. The Nightfly 8,786 2,937
19. Beethoven / Barenboim Simph 1+2 8,860 (na)
20. Cooder Ry / Buena Vista Social Club 9,673 177
21. Queen / NIght at the Opera 9,675 2,395
22. Beethoven / Barenboim Simph 7+8 10,246 (na)
23. Foreigner / Foreigner 10,484 17,718
24. Tchaikowski / 1812 Ouverture 11,055 (na)
25. Parsons / I Robot 11,105 4,104
===================================================================
Average (Top 25) 6,370 11,865
Average (top 50) 14,043 8,114
Average (79 refs) 82,624 11,180
Close followers
Rank Artist / Title DVD-A CD
=================================================================
26. Coltrane / Blue Train 11,917 3,759
27. Steely Dan / 2 Against Nature 12,745 6,979
28. Elvis / #1 Greatest Hits 13,977 203
29. Beethoven / Barenboim Simph 3 14,131 (na)
30. Merchant N / Tigerlily 14,713 1,897
Source: Amazon.com website
I hope this is useful to someoneBest
Eric
Happy to see that using the PRE tag enables you to make far more readable layouts. What you have done is quite fine and you can now concentrate on getting the data - which is the way it should be. I'm all froth and bubble.
Regards,
Metralla
and the Billboard will look cheap in comparison.: )
Thanks again
Hey Eric, Excellent work. At least it shows that people are interested in purchasing the high-rez material. I have to wonder if it is simply representative of the fact that finding high-rez is difficult unless you go on-line. Picking up CDs at the local shop is very easy.The new Fleetwood Mac is likely one of the best recordings to follow as it is a new release in both CD and DVD-A with a loyal fan base. It would be interesting it see if the proportions that are sold in high-rez are larger then those of Rumours. On-line this seems to be true.
Hi Rod,
I don't think these figures reflect what happens in the brick & mortar channels at this point.To be sure, this is not a representative sample, but merely an indication of the fact that DVD-A editions can outsell CD editions.. even if it's in a very specialized distribution channel. I was also interested to see that the US market is interested in classical titles.. and that the German market in pop/rock (I would have thought the opposite).
I'll be honest, the fact that Yes / Fragile appears to be #1 on Amazon.com, and Queen NATO #1 on Amazon.de is a bit disappointing to me, I would have hoped that a more recent title leads in sales. But Warner's strategy to re-issue old classics seems to work : )
I guess my main conclusion would be: if you have a small or medium sized record company with a DVD-A product line, it's probably easier to concentrate your marketing effort on trying to get your products positionned on Amazon (and in particular Amazon.de), than through a brick & mortar retail network (with a lot less inventory). Easier said than done, I guess..
Of course, all the audiophile websites are also a natural target.
Perhaps it would be interesting in the future to do this 'snapshot ' analysis on a regular basis (say, every two or three months), and see what happens.
Best
Eric
Artist Title Sales Rank
DVD-ASales Rank
CD1. Queen Night at the Opera 554 2,583 2. Eagles Hotel California 771 410 3. REM Automatic 1,315 1,048 4. Faith Hill Cry 2,386 659 5. Jazz at the Movies 2,403 (na) 6. Linkin Park Reanimation 2,594 477 7. Fleetwood Mac Rumours 2,666 255 8. Donald Fagen The Nightfly 2,849 6,468 9. Foreigner 4 3,167 57,433 10. Philip Glass Koyaanisqatsi 3,689 24,738 11. Young Neil Harvest 3,750 139 12. Elvis #1 Greatest Hits 4,011 290 13. Metallica Metallica 4,224 780 14. Harris Producer's Cut 4,252 (na) 15. Mana MTV Unplugged 4,653 514 16. Clapton Riding with the King 5,241 6,364 17. Carly Simon No Secret 5,250 30,205 18. Band The Last Waltz 5,651 12,069 19. Steely Dan 2 Against Nature 6,549 113,739 20. Corrs In Blue 6,722 22,930 If you are still interested, tell me and I'll follow up with instructions.
Regards,
Metralla
how can I can do that?
BestEric
All there is to now about html tags:Have fun.
Frank
First, let me remind you how HTML tags work. These work in pairs. The first turns on the interpretation and the second turns it off. If you forget to use the second, you will affect all that follows, so you have to remember. An HTML tag is a word (or words) in angle brackets. If it's a word that is understood by the browser, then the action is performed; if not, then it does not appear.For example, I can go to into bold text with the < STRONG> tag and come back out with it's matching termination tag < /STRONG> . And if I do this correctly , my text is bold. But if I made a spelling error and spelt the HTML tag as < STRING> , then it would not work. So if I write < STRING> correctly < /STRING> , you just see
correctly .I tend to put HTML tags in upper case, although the engine is not case sensitive. And for XML and XHTML, lower case is the standard. Upper case makes them a little easier to see in this tutorial.
HTML tags sometimes consist of a number of words. The first word is the tag itself, and what follows are called attributes. These typically consist of a keyword, the equals sign, and something in double quotes. For example < TABLE BORDER="1"> is an HTML tag to start a table, and it says that the borders of the table have a width of one "border unit". If we used zero, the borders would be invisible.
1. A Table that's not a table
Because most browsers render text in a proportional font, attempts to line up columns of text or do ASCII art will not work unless you use a fixed width font. For example, I can tell the browser not to format my text using the < PRE> tag, draw my diagram, and then tell the browser to carry on formatting with the < /PRE> . I have to make sure I use spaces and not tabs to align the columns, but it does work fine. Like so:< PRE>
Rank Title DVD-A CD
---------------------------------------------------
1. Queen / Night at the Opera 554 2,583
2. Eagles Hotel California 771 410
< /PRE>
2. The building blocks
Here are the HTML tags you need to know in order to write a simple table:
- TABLE - this tag starts and finishes the whole table
- TR - table row. Your table has a number of rows.
- TD - table cell. Each row has a number of cells
- TH - like a cell but the text will be bold, so used for table headings.
When you have the table working correctly, remove all the carriage returns and select all, copy, and paste into your AA message window.
It's important to use the preview button in AA to check that everything is working correctly, and that you have not omitted a closing tag.
< TABLE>
< TR>
< TH> Artist < /TH> < TH> Title < /TH>
< /TR>
< TR>
< TD> Queen < /TD> < TD> Night at the Opera < /TD>
< /TR>
< TD> Eagles < /TD> < TD> Hotel California < /TD>
< /TR>
< /TABLE>
Artist | Title |
---|---|
Queen | Night at the Opera | Eagles | Hotel California |
< TABLE BORDER="1">
< TR>
< TH> Artist < /TH> < TH> Title < /TH>
< /TR>
< TR>
< TD> Queen < /TD> < TD> Night at the Opera < /TD>
< /TR>
< TD> Eagles < /TD> < TD> Hotel California < /TD>
< /TR>
< /TABLE>
and we get
Artist | Title |
---|---|
Queen | Night at the Opera | Eagles | Hotel California |
What do we notice? Well, the table sizes itself automatically to the widths of the columns. The text in the heading cells is center aligned while in the table cells it's left aligned.
Just one more thing, when using borders and you have a cell with nothing in it, you should put a "non breaking space" between the TD tags, or the borders will not be drawn around that cell. A non-breaking space is written like this:
& nbsp;
So when we come to the "Jazz at the Movies" disc, with no artist, we need to make a table cell for the artist with a non-breaking space inside it. Table now becomes:
< TABLE BORDER="1">
< TR>
< TH> Artist < /TH> < TH> Title < /TH>
< /TR>
< TR>
< TD> Queen < /TD> < TD> Night at the Opera < /TD>
< /TR>
< TD> Eagles < /TD> < TD> Hotel California < /TD>
< /TR>
< /TR>
< TD> & nbsp; < /TD> < TD> Jazz at the Movies < /TD>
< /TR>
< /TABLE>
and we see
Artist | Title |
---|---|
Queen | Night at the Opera |
Eagles | Hotel California |
Jazz at the Movies |
Obviously, this is just a start to the wonderful world of HTML tables. They are a lot of fun and I could rave on for hours. The best thing is, they are simple to practice with as you have the decoding engine you need - it's your browser.
Regards,
Metralla
.
Good basic introduction to HTML tables. Just one nit-pick:"The important thing to note is you must count correctly, and each row must have the same number of cells. Or you will see an error in the display."
Not necessarily, let's not forget the colspan and rowspan parameters within TD instructions (although I appreciate you were deliberately keeping things simple).
Indeed - COLSPAN is most effective. You also guessed my motives accurately.
Regards,
Metralla
ThanksThis is better than anything I found when I searched the Web for an introduction on HTML tables.
Best
It's a bit hard for me to write the tags so you can see them, and I messed up.I omitted the TR tag to start the row with "The Eagles" in it (twice), and I used a /TR tag to start the row with "Jazz at the Movies" in it.
Apologies - but you get the idea. You have to try it for yourself.
Regards,
Metralla
That last table should have looked like this:
Artist Title Queen Night at the Opera Eagles Hotel California Jazz at the Movies When using the preview message button, your non-breaking spaces will be converted to spaces and displayed in the message window, and then when you submit, they are gone. It's an issue.
Regards,
Metralla
Thank a lot MetrallaI'll practice these codes and try to include "professional" tables in my posts in the future, although the < PRE> option looks as an easy option for starters.
I'll do my best
(Geez, this place is like work now :)
Best
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