Those PAWS sales figures

The totals vary slightly as the figures are boosted to allow for lost sales by a percentage and rounding up and down can lead to a small discrepancy (stats nerd). Online sales and downloads are allocated to a region and the DIG figure at the end are those that couldn’t be allocated. So 28 people in London went in a shop, had it delivered to their address or downloaded it. There were 43 sales in Scotland.

There were 121 DBs (download bundles) and 11 sales in indies. 74 CDs were sold and no vinyl as it missed the release date. SPEC includes everybody from HMV to Amazon.

These are the figures the music industry sees. These are the figures that are used to see if the current situation is sustainable. How many are sold at launches or on tour or not declared by the label has no relevance to them. As one senior industry person said to me “it is just a case of whether we are all fucked or just most of us”. I think we know the answer there when it comes to XL and the Beggars Group !

To put this in perspective the first Broken Records album sold 105 copies week one just in our Cockburn Street shop.  

For artists wanting to operate outwith the system of labels and distribution and shops then that is completely up to them but those who choose to be a part of it should play the game or not play at all as other local/Scottish band figures bear out.