Britney Past Her Shelf Life - LOCKED VIA REQUEST

[sjok]

Guys, this is just a topic that has been recurring on this forum when comparing sales figures of Britney with other newer artistes. People say things like "Gaga is selling less than Britney who is almost 20 years into her career." 

The thing I wanna know is if there are any truths to a pop star's sale decreasing with the time span of their career. This really is a recurring topic and I actually wanna do it for my master thesis with empirical analysis. Hence, it would be nice if people who say such statements could shed some light on those statements or where it even originate from. 

Thank you! 

[Camilo]

This thread is going to be a mess, and good. 

[RafaelSoares]

It's pretty normal for any product to decline in sales after it hits it's peak. There's a cycle to every brand and product, superstars aren't any different.

[sjok]

1 minute ago, RafaelSoares said:

It's pretty normal for any product to decline in sales after it hits it's peak. There's a cycle to every brand and product, superstars aren't any different.

Are you then saying that pop stars or singers can be seen as just any other products? Then are all their shelf lives the same? If you look at certain brands, the power stay relatively strong for a long time and are sometimes even gaining more market share e.g. Apple. 

Are members really justified then to use this excuse to comfort themselves about the low sales figure of Britney? 

[RafaelSoares]

Just now, sjok said:

Are you then saying that pop stars or singers can be seen as just any other products? Then are all their shelf lives the same? If you look at certain brands, the power stay relatively strong for a long time and are sometimes even gaining more market share e.g. Apple. 

Are members really justified then to use this excuse to comfort themselves about the low sales figure of Britney? 

Apple launches new products that rise, peak and then inevitably decrease. Imagine Britney as a brand, her bubblegum pop, r&b influenced pop and Dance Pop as products. They all somewhat had rise in popularity, peak and decline. And those products impacted Britney's brand accordingly. Understand now?

[sjok]

Just now, RafaelSoares said:

Apple launches new products that rise, peak and then inevitably decrease. Imagine Britney as a brand, her bubblegum pop, r&b influenced pop and Dance Pop as products. They all somewhat had rise in popularity, peak and decline. And those products impacted Britney's brand accordingly. Understand now?

As you mentioned, it is the products that experiences peak and decline. If Britney were the brand then her albums should be her products. It is expected that sales of her previous album would decrease once a new album comes out (like new iphone). However, if we take the case of Apple, the sales of each new iPhone gets stronger and the brand gets stronger. Britney on the other hand as a brand declines. Is this a natural progression for all pop stars in general? 

[sjok]

Sorry but please lock/ delete this thread. I realize that it's a mistake posting it on Exhale  

[Guest I Think I'm Ready Now]

It's true, some artists are just one hit wonders. Or two hits wonders, and then they just disappear. 

Pop industry is ruthless and is changing constantly. Popstars are treated like products and once they're too old, or once people don't want them anymore, we replace them with younger popstars.

Madonna and Mariah have been through that, and now it's Britney's turn. 

[BraveGraphics]

When you live in the age of "online streaming" & "digital media" of course sales will decline and for a very simple reason and that is the e-commerce and how it is easy to hack into any data base. Back in the 90's the internet was very different and less people had thier hands on it, but now it is a different time! Simply just anyone can access the internet and illegally download music hence the decline of the sales. Unfortunately yes Nobody buys albums anymore It's all about downloads, downloading the MP3/M4A files is more practical nowadays, given that you can have all your favorite music with you everywhere you go. carring an iPod/iPhone ..etc is far easier than carrying a portable CD player.  Besides labels are actually benefiting from this packaging the physical album is costly and far more expensive than just uploading it on iTunes or Spotify however hacking and illegally downloading and sharing got a bigger effect on sales decline.

That said, I don't think it's just CD's that are going through a popularity crisis but the whole concept of full length albums in general I sometimes would rather preview an album and download the few tracks that I love the most rather than buy the whole album only to skip half the tracks a week after I purchase it. That is why iTunes despite its domination in the singles marekt is not a huge force in the album's market. Noone downloads albums recently, could be the artist fault that they don't bother with cohesion and quality anymore and just put together a collection of catchy tracks hoping 3 of them are surefire hits but the mentalities of the consumers have changed too. It's not cool to buy albums anymore.

So it isn't about the longevity or who has been in the music business more, it has to do with how technology affects the music industry, I'm not saying that it is bad sure making music is easier now thanks to technology however there are some bad sides as well to it and I think one of the biggest problem is that we don't have enough security nor control over it. 

[Noname2022]

Britney is a brand. She is not selling anymore, because they need to invent new products

[sjok]

2 minutes ago, BraveGraphics said:

When you live in the age of "online streaming" & "digital media" of course sales will decline and for a very simple reason and that is the e-commerce and how it is easy to hack into any data base. Back in the 90's the internet was very different and less people had thier hands on it, but now it is a different time! Simply just anyone can access the internet and illegally download music hence the decline of the sales. Unfortunately yes Nobody buys albums anymore It's all about downloads, downloading the MP3/M4A files is more practical nowadays, given that you can have all your favorite music with you everywhere you go. carring an iPod/iPhone ..etc is far easier than carrying a portable CD player.  Besides labels are actually benefiting from this packaging the physical album is costly and far more expensive than just uploading it on iTunes or Spotify however hacking and illegally downloading and sharing got a bigger effect on sales decline.

That said, I don't think it's just CD's that are going through a popularity crisis but the whole concept of full length albums in general I sometimes would rather preview an album and download the few tracks that I love the most rather than buy the whole album only to skip half the tracks a week after I purchase it. That is why iTunes despite its domination in the singles marekt is not a huge force in the album's market. Noone downloads albums recently, could be the artist fault that they don't bother with cohesion and quality anymore and just put together a collection of catchy tracks hoping 3 of them are surefire hits but the mentalities of the consumers have changed too. It's not cool to buy albums anymore.

So it isn't about the longevity or who has been in the music business more, it has to do with how technology affects the music industry, I'm not saying that it is bad sure making music is easier now thanks to technology however there are some bad sides as well to it and I think one of the biggest problem is that we don't have enough security nor control over it. 

Thank you but that's pretty off topic. No one is debating about the decline of sales in music and its factors. The question is "Do pop stars actually have a shelf life?"

[BraveGraphics]

1 minute ago, sjok said:

Thank you but that's pretty off topic. No one is debating about the decline of sales in music and its factors. The question is "Do pop stars actually have a shelf life?"

If making music was like it used to be in the 70's & 80's I would say no, because it used to be really interesting & cool to make music but technology sort of ripped that coolness from the artists these days because simpley ANYONE can make music these days and there is so much going on that I can't even keep up with what is going on in the industry, so yeah in this generation's artists they do have a shelf life.

If that makes sense to you and sorry for my bad grammar English isn't my mother language.