Sales figures for Self Titled

[Pingfah]

Hello everybody. High Rise has finally shown up on the HDD release schedule, and it also gives the total sales for their previous release.

Stone Temple Pilots sold a grand total of 156,000 copies to date.

Ouch.

[stp4ever]

Do we know if AoA outsold STP self-titled?

[Pingfah]

No, it sold about 90,000 copies, but still, not THAT far off.

I think the big difference is when they went out touring as AoA they could only draw crowds of a few hundred, compared to thousands for STP.

Just to put this in the context of their 90s contemporaries, Backspacer which came out 7 months earlier sold 189,000 copies in it's first week.

[STEAK]

No, it sold about 90,000 copies, but still, not THAT far off.

I think the big difference is when they went out touring as AoA they could only draw crowds of a few hundred, compared to thousands for STP.

Just to put this in the context of their 90s contemporaries, Backspacer which came out 7 months earlier sold 189,000 copies in it's first week.

I'm not a fan of Pearl Jam, but they really did take care of their fans better than any 90's era band. They always seemed to do the right thing in terms of music, media, shows, merchandise, etc...  it's no wonder they still have the loyal following they have.  Aside from the obvious, that was STP's biggest flaw.... poor management.


The only reason AoA came that close to S/T was because of TWO advantages (BOTH STP & Filter's fan base)... yet they still couldn't capitalize. 

[Pingfah]

Agreed, PJ and STP saw similar levels of popularity in their heyday, just imagine where we might be now if STP had played all their cards right. That said, PJ have traded on being a damn good, but relatively unadventurous classic rock band, I don't think STP would have continued to pump out that sort of accessible music if they had plain sailing career wise. As well as Scott's problems and the lack of touring, I put a fair amount of their commercial decline down to the fact that their music is too eclectic and daring for the typical hard rock audience. I mean, can you imagine PJ recording a song like And So I Know, or Adhesive?

Filter was commercially a spent force by the time AoA came out though, The Amalgut was a major bomb compared to their earlier albums, and they'd been in hiatus for 4 years by the time AoA came out. I don't think that album ever had much of a chance.

[DankoJones]

PJ has a huge cult like following and no matter how avrg there album is, although backspacer was decent, itll still sell pretty good and there shows will be sell outs.  They have huge brand loyalty as they say, STP does not, at least not to the mainstream I think ill add to the S/T total  as my copy desnt play the first four songs w/o crackling noise and skips

[IMJ]

PJ has a huge cult like following and no matter how avrg there album is, although backspacer was decent, itll still sell pretty good and there shows will be sell outs.  They have huge brand loyalty as they say, STP does not, at least not to the mainstream I think ill add to the S/T total  as my copy desnt play the first four songs w/o crackling noise and skips

PJ is also less of a rock band and more of a folk cult machine. They went the route of Phish and Dave Matthews band if you really look at how they did things, and who their core following is.

[StoneTempleBrett]

The AoA/STP sales comparison is off because 2006 and 2010 were different times for music sales wise.  AoA probably would have sold 8-10,000 copies first week in 2010, like Weiland's solo album did in 2008.

Also with STP there is no brand loyalty, too many hiatuses to maintain the popularity they had in the 90's.  They would have needed an 'American Idiot' type album to move a lot of copies.  I loved self-titled though and could care less how much it sold.

[lovemachine97]

No, it sold about 90,000 copies, but still, not THAT far off.

I think the big difference is when they went out touring as AoA they could only draw crowds of a few hundred, compared to thousands for STP.

Just to put this in the context of their 90s contemporaries, Backspacer which came out 7 months earlier sold 189,000 copies in it's first week.

Not that it would have closed the gap, but wasn't Backspacer a Target exclusive, guaranteeing a good first week?

[NakedSundayCrackerman]

As much as Scott Weiland was the key to the Stone Temple Pilots uprising, he was also their downfall.


If he had not been an addict, had he stayed sober or even just sober enough to keep touring strong, STP could've been as big as Pearl Jam now, even bigger maybe. But the band didn't tour nearly enough. The biggest fact contributing to this: Scott Weiland. As a result of this, the Pilots fell off the radar as a mainstream band as far as their "new" music went. We all saw how Shangri bombed compared to any of their other albums prior, this was not because Shangri was a particularly bad album. Sure it wasn't as commercial, but it had its fair share of songs that could've been huge. I do agree the management and marketing for STP wasn't great either, but say you're a major label giant, you've got this band that already made you enough money with its early stuff, that now has an unreliable junkie lead singer. Would you continue to push this band as hard as you could? When the band failed to tour properly for Purple, that is when things slowly started going downhill...

Just my two cents


~A drunk 8 pm rant from NSC

Edit: For the record, I don't hate Weiland, I love him just as much as you guys, but it is what it is

[STP92]

In regards to Pearl Jam, they had noncommercial albums in the early 2000's as well (Binaural & Riot Act), but they never cared about the sales and just trudged on and supported it, which I think kept them a lot of fans in the long run. I always got the impression that STP cared more about sales and success of their albums, and kind of bailed and stopped playing new songs after they saw that Shangri wasn't as successful as the other albums. Same thing with the Peace album. They abandon the new stuff and go back to playing it safe with the old, more successful stuff, whereas Pearl Jam never did that.

[Unglued812]

As much as Scott Weiland was the key to the Stone Temple Pilots uprising, he was also their downfall.


If he had not been an addict, had he stayed sober or even just sober enough to keep touring strong, STP could've been as big as Pearl Jam now, even bigger maybe. But the band didn't tour nearly enough. The biggest fact contributing to this: Scott Weiland. As a result of this, the Pilots fell off the radar as a mainstream band as far as their "new" music went. We all saw how Shangri bombed compared to any of their other albums prior, this was not because Shangri was a particularly bad album. Sure it wasn't as commercial, but it had its fair share of songs that could've been huge. I do agree the management and marketing for STP wasn't great either, but say you're a major label giant, you've got this band that already made you enough money with its early stuff, that now has an unreliable junkie lead singer. Would you continue to push this band as hard as you could? When the band failed to tour properly for Purple, that is when things slowly started going downhill...

Just my two cents


~A drunk 8 pm rant from NSC

Edit: For the record, I don't hate Weiland, I love him just as much as you guys, but it is what it is

As much as id like to agree with you, you are missing a point here.... STP wouldnt have been STP without the junkie Scott.

Heroine, cocaine, alcohol, lsd...any drug, you name it. These demons were the fuel to our loved Scotty to bring the performances and songs he did.

[wickedgarden23]

I loved self-titled though and could care less how much it sold.

Pretty much how I feel.

I used to care about album sales, and I'm not putting down anyone who still cares about them, but I'm gonna like what music I'm gonna like regardless of how popular it is. It's clear three years later that self-titled wasn't some massive mainstream success...I don't need a 6 digit number to tell me that

[NakedSundayCrackerman]

As much as Scott Weiland was the key to the Stone Temple Pilots uprising, he was also their downfall.


If he had not been an addict, had he stayed sober or even just sober enough to keep touring strong, STP could've been as big as Pearl Jam now, even bigger maybe. But the band didn't tour nearly enough. The biggest fact contributing to this: Scott Weiland. As a result of this, the Pilots fell off the radar as a mainstream band as far as their "new" music went. We all saw how Shangri bombed compared to any of their other albums prior, this was not because Shangri was a particularly bad album. Sure it wasn't as commercial, but it had its fair share of songs that could've been huge. I do agree the management and marketing for STP wasn't great either, but say you're a major label giant, you've got this band that already made you enough money with its early stuff, that now has an unreliable junkie lead singer. Would you continue to push this band as hard as you could? When the band failed to tour properly for Purple, that is when things slowly started going downhill...

Just my two cents


~A drunk 8 pm rant from NSC

Edit: For the record, I don't hate Weiland, I love him just as much as you guys, but it is what it is

As much as id like to agree with you, you are missing a point here.... STP wouldnt have been STP without the junkie Scott.

Heroine, cocaine, alcohol, lsd...any drug, you name it. These demons were the fuel to our loved Scotty to bring the performances and songs he did.

I don't ENTIRELY disagree


But if you look at Weiland of 1992, during the Core tour, he's sober, yet still extremely energetic, with a killer voice and a presence not as good as the one we know and love, but still one that's damn good.


Anyways, can't change the past but it's fun to think

[StoneTempleBrett]

People forget that Weiland was clean and sober for the No. 4 tour in 2000, right after he got out of prison.