Photo: Richard Beland
The first week sales numbers for Nickelback’s Feed the Machine are out, and they’re, well, not amazing. The album sold a relatively respectful 47,000 copies, debuting at #5. That’s 43,000 in pure album sales, and again, doesn’t seem bad at all – until you compare it to their sales history. Just three years ago, their last album, No Fixed Address, sold 80,000, which is 41% less than the 43,000 in pure album sales their new one did. Go back to 2011 for their Here and Now album, their last one for Roadrunner, and that sold 227,000 copies it’s first week.
Granted, there are plenty of factors as to why Feed the Machine had such a big sales dropoff. Streaming is likely the biggest faction. It’s become the preferred choice for many to consume music, even among Nickelback fans that are likely late adapters of newer technology. Also, by this time, the band usually will have a song in the top 40, but that’s not the case this time. And perhaps the band’s fallen out of favor, although 43,000 copies sold first week suggests they still have their fans. It’ll be interersting to see how Stone Sour’s Hydrograd does it’s first week, given the beef that’s flared up amongst Chad Kroeger and Corey Taylor. It’s doubtful that the Stone Sour album will sell as much as Nickelback did, but we’ll see. At least we’ll always have this:
https://youtu.be/sIlNIVXpIns
