A blog about Bloomsbury Academic's 33 1/3 series, our other books about music, and the world of sound in general.

Monday, June 12, 2006

An updated sales chart

We haven't done one of these in a while. Here's your chance to see how the books are stacking up against each other, in terms of global sales.

Of the new titles, the Paul's Boutique book is off to the best start. I'm still puzzled by the (relatively) low standing of the books on R.E.M., Elvis Costello, Zeppelin and James Brown. Any ideas?

Got the manuscript today for the Guided By Voices book, so maybe we'll post a bit of that later in the week.

1. The Smiths
2. The Kinks
3. Pink Floyd
4. Joy Division
5. Velvet Underground
6. The Beatles
7. Radiohead
8. Love
9. Neutral Milk Hotel
10. Neil Young
11. Rolling Stones
12. Dusty Springfield
13. Beach Boys
14. Jimi Hendrix
15. DJ Shadow
16. The Band
17. The Replacements
18. Led Zeppelin
19. Prince
20. David Bowie
21. Jeff Buckley
22. The Ramones
23. Bruce Springsteen
24. R.E.M.
25. Elvis Costello
26. Beastie Boys
27. Abba
28. James Brown
29. Jethro Tull
30. The Pixies
31. The MC5
32. Sly and the Family Stone
33. The Stone Roses

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow... that is interesting. That REM book is great.

Shallow Rewards said...

McGonigal will sit atop this list by November, rest assured.

J.D.S. said...

I'd assume there is some correlation between length of time in print and number of copies sold. But there might also be a relation to the album title and how well the book is doing.

Because the artist (which is how these are often shelved, rather than by author) is not listed on the spine, and because many of these books are likely to be the only title by that band/artist, I'm guessing that casual browsers may just not make the connection.

On the other hand, a rabid fan base starved for new material (welcome Neutral Milk Hotel fans!) may seek out and drive certain titles past others with a Hammer of the Gods already in the canon.

You should solicit some informal feedback from this site's visitors: next time you visit your local 33 1/3 retailer, note where you find the titles (if at all), and whether they are filed by artist or author or album title.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the top 33 list! However, can anyone provide the figure on how many copies have been sold of each of the titles in the top 33?

How many copies has the most successful book in the series sold?