I've said it before, if you only follow one musician on Twitter, make it Randy Blythe, frontman of Lamb of God (@lambvox). The guy is constantly spitting out good knowledge. For example, Marilyn Manson's comeback album, Born Villain charted this week with about 40,000 records sold. This was Manson's first release that wasn't on a major label. He self-released it with a small vinyl label. Blythe used this to show why he thinks the music business is in the shitter. Here is his full rant:
“So Marilyn Manson’s new record debuted at #10 w/just over 38k sold, including iTunes. He released it independently on his own record. This is a guy with 3 platinum records, 3 gold, 5 top 10 debuts including two NUMBER ONE RECORDS in the US.
He also has a HUGE CULT FOLLOWING. A #10 record? 38,000 sold first week for arguably one of the biggest “underground” type acts? IT’S FUCKING PATHETIC. The industry is DYING.
All the people who argue about not feeding the record labels, the corporate machine, etc, about how artists should just release their albums THEMSELVES and THE FANS, THE REAL UNDERGROUND FANS will back them to support the artists? There is your fucking answer.
I don’t listen to MM but dude has cred for making his own artistic choices. He hasnt released a record in 3 years & his fans, his HUGE ASS FAN BASE, could only chart 38k records? That’s fucked up- MM is a MUCH LARGER BAND than LOG, & we outsold him by over 10k 1st week.
Not because we have gotten bigger, but because we had a label, a promotional machine behind us. So so much for the “release it yourself & we will support the artist” “and not the greedy corporate label pigs” theory. Amazing.
MM is rich as fuck, & this won’t put him in the poorhouse by any means, but if a huge-ass rockstar like him can only sell 38k records 1st week, RELEASING IT HIMSELF, then how are the bands putting out their FIRST record when nobody knows who they are supposed to survive? Don’t cry for me, Argentina- I can tour til the cows come home & pay my bills.
But I feel sorry for the young bands. Good luck guys & gals- yer gonna need it. “Support the artists no the labels…” GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE.”
Randy makes it a point to say he is not saying that Lamb of God's music is better than Manson's… he's just talking about the business side of things. While I fully respect his argument, one thing I think Blythe fails to take into consideration is Manson's falling relevancy. He is nowhere near the superstar he was 15 years ago, when he was constantly on MTV, and all the news shows blaming him for the latest shooting (which is complete bullshit). As far as promotional push, I can tell you firsthand, that there were just as many ads for Manson on our site as there were for Lamb of God. The small label Manson hired definitely threw a lot of money at his PR campaign. At the same time, one has to question how much royalties each act is getting. Maybe Manson has a ridiculously sweet deal to the point that he actually ends up on top, even with less sales. Ultimately, Manson has basically become a legacy act, with his best years behind him, whereas Lamb of God are still moving forward, climbing that mountain of mainstream success.
But let it be known, that in 2012, Lamb of God outsold Marilyn Manson. I guess something is right with the music business?
