Jay-Z Scores 11th No. 1 Album, Sells 475,700 Discs in Debut Week

[westside159]

Raekwon 70k is a great thing ... 

[Shallow]

To argue that because we can get more music faster is the reason why we don't buy as much of the big name stars is absurd to me.

Its not absurd to me. I listen to way more music now then I did back in the 90s and early 00s. And back then I bought albums before I had heard them entirely, based on how many radio singles I liked. Now I limit my purchases to albums I really really like and have heard all the way through.

We used to be limited to what music we were exposed to by the radio. They played certain singles for several weeks in a row, or months. If they played enough songs on an album that I liked, I would buy the album. Now I listen to several albums a day and honestly I can't afford to buy them all. I can definitely see an argument there. I probably would have bought The Blueprint 3 if it were 5 years ago.

I think the real problem is how young you guys were before the internet era. Everybody I knew that loved hip hop had every rap album that came out by the major stars. I have every major West Coast release and some I have multiple copies. But I only purchased Doggystyle, Chronic, Regulate, Dogg Food and All Eyes on Me. Yeah they were shitty audio casette quality but we listened to them using shitty casette players on the street corner. Trust me, on those thngs there is no difference between CD and dubbed tape. When burners came out it was a lot easier. You know what's as good as the internet to most teenage music fans? The school hallways. All it took was 1 guy to have the real album in 1995 and everyone that wanted that album had it by the end of the week. And if you lived in a ghetto it was a lot easier.

Why would I buy an album when I have and exact CD replica of it? Because it's good enough to buy.

If Blueprint 3 was released 5 years ago you "probably" would have bought. What if it was released tomorrow and it was better than Blueprint 1?

There ya go right there. Like you say, everyone was buying every major release. People were buying everything during the 90s, regardless of its quality. Everyone on here tends to overrate the 90s like everything that came out then was golden...anything with the G-Funk label on it was guaranteed to go at least gold. In today's environment these same albums wouldn't sell. I think anyone can see that this is true.

From what you've said so far, your opinion seems to be that quality will make the album sell more. But this isn't true, because dope albums come out every year that sell terribly. Especially in hip hop, most of the quality music isn't found on the charts.

You talk about listening to cassettes on the street corners and sharing music, which brings up a good point. Back then everyone was listening to the same shit, bumping the same albums, so everyone liked the same shit and everyone knew what to cop. Music has become a lot more individual since then with the internet, mp3 players, etc. Most of the shit I listen to now, my friends haven't even heard of. I still take recommendations from them, but most of the music I listen to I find on my own. But maybe that's just me because I listen to a lot of indie stuff.

I didn't mean everyone bought a copy of the major releases. They all had dubbed or burned versions of them. I bought the ones I considered classics, in some cases years later, because of collection purposes. I'm not equating my reasoning for buying it with the masses. I'm equatign with the mindest of the board; the fringe west coast fans we all once were.

Quality of the album will help it sell with the hard core fans. Pop quality will help it sell with the masses. That was what I meant when I said appeal a few times in my post.

We all listen to different music now because we're older and have branched out, much like the 20 and 30 somethings did back then too. It's the teens that still listen as community though, for the most part. You can still find a group of teens bumpng Drake or Lil Wayne at the high schools. Just like we were bumping DMX or Nas.

[Shallow]

Plenty of artists have that kind of work ethic. They just refuse to release shitty material. Jay wanted 5 or 6 mediocre albums instead of 2 classics. So he released a bunch of tracks that would have been filler if he paced himself.

Like I said it doesn't mean I think he sucks or that he isn't relevant. It means he'd never go #1 all these times if albums were released market to market first then released massively.



My favourite artist is Bruce Springsteen. I love his old stuff and really dig his new stuff too. But he's hardly still relevant in the modern music scene or world. He got the Superbowl and all the Obama stuff because a lot of hard core Springsteen fans happen to be people in positions of power and keep begging him to come and do this and that just to show him off and see him themselves. Everytime he releases an album it goes #1 the first week and by week 5 it's barely in the top 50. He's got hundreds to thousands of tracks at home and he could package them into albums every 6 months and make sure they debut on slow weeks and end up with 2 #1 albums a year every year until his hardcore base all dies 25 years from now. But it wouldn't mean shit when compared to his first 3 #1 albums or the Beatles first 5.

The Jonas brothers could do the exact same thing over the next two or three years and end up with 15 #1 albums if the positioning was right. Def Leppard's Pyromania sold 6 million copies in just over 1 year and ended up going diamond but it was never #1. Because it was released during the Thriller craze. That one album sold almost as much as all of Jay Z's 11 albums. You want a modern example? Try Human Clay by Creed. It was released in September 99 (Napster was already big by then), spent two weeks at #1 in mid october and then never again, but the fucking thing was diamond by 2001.

People can blame whatever they want but if enough people like enough of the songs enough people will buy the album to make it go diamond, or near it anyway. If Jay can't get those numbers it's because the music isn't there.

  But Jay really know how to push an album. The records themselves may not be the greatest things out there but he knows how to sell them as that. He'll do the "Unplugged" or "VH1 Storytellers". Get the movie tie-in with "American Gangster". You look at "The Black Album" and it was like he turned it into some monumental record. He did the whole "99 Problems" video and took something like that whole shooting thing and sold it up when really it wasn't that big. But he made it seem like an event. He had the whole "Fade To Black" movie. He did a lot of shit to keep his name relevant. And I don't think just anybody could do it or more people would.

I don't buy your Jonas Brothers comment either. There isn't a chance they could squeeze out 15 #1 albums in three years. Even if they had the work ethic to churn out that much product, the public would grow tired of it after about five at most. The interest will not be there in a couple years. It's too many new, young stars to fill the void when they all turn 20. Ask Hanson. You might get that break-out solo act like a Justin Timberlake or Beyonce but even then, that many #1 albums is not a simple feat. And these are more mainstream pop artists. Jay-Z is a rapper who releases content that is geared toward a considerably more mature audience.

My argument is not that he cannot promote himself. he can. I'm saying he could not go #1 more than once or twice tops in the old system. His albums do not sell that well. They simply sell a lot first week because of over saturation, then they drop exponentially week after week, like almost everyone else.

I'll take your 5 #1 argument about the Jonas Brothers and say that Madonna has 6 number 1 albums. She was once a bonafide megastar snd still is. The Jonas Brothers are a teenie bopper clown crew. The fact you think they could even get to 5 shows the difference in the system.

To once again adress your work ethic comment; when album are recorded dozens of songs are written and recorded but only 10 or 11 make the cut. There's always a bunch of leftover. Jay simply releases more leftover. You want Work Ethic? Look at Frank Zappa he released an album a year every year from 1966 to 1980, sometimes two a year. He could compose for every instrument on the record and write every lyric. His total albums during his lifetime are over 50, but no #1s. I garaunteee of those 50, in this modern market he could have pulled off 10 to 15 #1s.

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

To argue that because we can get more music faster is the reason why we don't buy as much of the big name stars is absurd to me.

Its not absurd to me. I listen to way more music now then I did back in the 90s and early 00s. And back then I bought albums before I had heard them entirely, based on how many radio singles I liked. Now I limit my purchases to albums I really really like and have heard all the way through.

We used to be limited to what music we were exposed to by the radio. They played certain singles for several weeks in a row, or months. If they played enough songs on an album that I liked, I would buy the album. Now I listen to several albums a day and honestly I can't afford to buy them all. I can definitely see an argument there. I probably would have bought The Blueprint 3 if it were 5 years ago.

I think the real problem is how young you guys were before the internet era. Everybody I knew that loved hip hop had every rap album that came out by the major stars. I have every major West Coast release and some I have multiple copies. But I only purchased Doggystyle, Chronic, Regulate, Dogg Food and All Eyes on Me. Yeah they were shitty audio casette quality but we listened to them using shitty casette players on the street corner. Trust me, on those thngs there is no difference between CD and dubbed tape. When burners came out it was a lot easier. You know what's as good as the internet to most teenage music fans? The school hallways. All it took was 1 guy to have the real album in 1995 and everyone that wanted that album had it by the end of the week. And if you lived in a ghetto it was a lot easier.

Why would I buy an album when I have and exact CD replica of it? Because it's good enough to buy.

If Blueprint 3 was released 5 years ago you "probably" would have bought. What if it was released tomorrow and it was better than Blueprint 1?

There ya go right there. Like you say, everyone was buying every major release. People were buying everything during the 90s, regardless of its quality. Everyone on here tends to overrate the 90s like everything that came out then was golden...anything with the G-Funk label on it was guaranteed to go at least gold. In today's environment these same albums wouldn't sell. I think anyone can see that this is true.

From what you've said so far, your opinion seems to be that quality will make the album sell more. But this isn't true, because dope albums come out every year that sell terribly. Especially in hip hop, most of the quality music isn't found on the charts.

You talk about listening to cassettes on the street corners and sharing music, which brings up a good point. Back then everyone was listening to the same shit, bumping the same albums, so everyone liked the same shit and everyone knew what to cop. Music has become a lot more individual since then with the internet, mp3 players, etc. Most of the shit I listen to now, my friends haven't even heard of. I still take recommendations from them, but most of the music I listen to I find on my own. But maybe that's just me because I listen to a lot of indie stuff.

I didn't mean everyone bought a copy of the major releases. They all had dubbed or burned versions of them. I bought the ones I considered classics, in some cases years later, because of collection purposes. I'm not equating my reasoning for buying it with the masses. I'm equatign with the mindest of the board; the fringe west coast fans we all once were.

Quality of the album will help it sell with the hard core fans. Pop quality will help it sell with the masses. That was what I meant when I said appeal a few times in my post.

We all listen to different music now because we're older and have branched out, much like the 20 and 30 somethings did back then too. It's the teens that still listen as community though, for the most part. You can still find a group of teens bumpng Drake or Lil Wayne at the high schools. Just like we were bumping DMX or Nas.

While age has something to do with it, there are also a lot of teens who listen to underground shit, which wouldn't have been possible during the 90s. Underground music is easy to find these days, back then you were basically confined to your region.

IE Joe Budden, Crooked I's internet fans. A lot of these rappers wouldn't have careers without the internet.

[ikke]

SHallow you started comparing 1984 with 2009, now you're comparing the nineties with 2009, which is a completly different story.
In the eighties you couldn't bootleg music, and casettes don't count they don't last.

[Shallow]

Ikke; tell that to all those Metallica fans that bootlegged concerts all through the 80s and made the band famous. Springsteen fans were trading bootlegs through newsletters as far back as the 70s. Yes they were in the know fans and they're weren't as many, but guys over estimate how many people really know where to get music on the net. I can find 90% of all music released inthe last 50 years through torrents, blogspots or forums. Most people cannot. What they can find is the major releases but they could always find them. When tape dubbing started the industry was flipping out. If not for the huge 80s sales they may have made it an issue. The same thing when CD burners became available and record compaines started copy protecting their shit. You think they spent all that for money doing it for nothing?

rapsodie; you're talking to a kid from canada who grew up with dubbed copies of the Twinz - Conversation and No One can Do It Better by D.O.C.

Go find a bunch of dudes in their 40s, real music fans, not fly by night pop fans and ask them what they were listening to 20 years ago and how they got their music illegally. I think you'll be surprised by their answers.


Is it easier now? Yes, but to most people that buy, bought, or ever will buy music, it doesn't mean as much to them as you'd think.

[Escrooge]

Apparently, Jigga is counting Street is Watching as having 11 number 1 albums

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

Ikke; tell that to all those Metallica fans that bootlegged concerts all through the 80s and made the band famous. Springsteen fans were trading bootlegs through newsletters as far back as the 70s. Yes they were in the know fans and they're weren't as many, but guys over estimate how many people really know where to get music on the net. I can find 90% of all music released inthe last 50 years through torrents, blogspots or forums. Most people cannot. What they can find is the major releases but they could always find them. When tape dubbing started the industry was flipping out. If not for the huge 80s sales they may have made it an issue. The same thing when CD burners became available and record compaines started copy protecting their shit. You think they spent all that for money doing it for nothing?

rapsodie; you're talking to a kid from canada who grew up with dubbed copies of the Twinz - Conversation and No One can Do It Better by D.O.C.

Go find a bunch of dudes in their 40s, real music fans, not fly by night pop fans and ask them what they were listening to 20 years ago and how they got their music illegally. I think you'll be surprised by their answers.


Is it easier now? Yes, but to most people that buy, bought, or ever will buy music, it doesn't mean as much to them as you'd think.

I'm a real music fan, I don't need to go find anyone. I grew up on music from the 90s, my brothers and sisters grew up on music from the 80s. I had dubbed music sure. But at least one person in my family or among my friends had the album. Now no one has to buy the album, everyone has it downloaded on their computer. Its an entirely different setting now.

Did you cop Blueprint III, or wait for one of your friends to cop Blueprint III and listen to it? No of course not....we all listened to it online when it leaked, before its even in stores, all the way through.

[Shallow]

Ikke; tell that to all those Metallica fans that bootlegged concerts all through the 80s and made the band famous. Springsteen fans were trading bootlegs through newsletters as far back as the 70s. Yes they were in the know fans and they're weren't as many, but guys over estimate how many people really know where to get music on the net. I can find 90% of all music released inthe last 50 years through torrents, blogspots or forums. Most people cannot. What they can find is the major releases but they could always find them. When tape dubbing started the industry was flipping out. If not for the huge 80s sales they may have made it an issue. The same thing when CD burners became available and record compaines started copy protecting their shit. You think they spent all that for money doing it for nothing?

rapsodie; you're talking to a kid from canada who grew up with dubbed copies of the Twinz - Conversation and No One can Do It Better by D.O.C.

Go find a bunch of dudes in their 40s, real music fans, not fly by night pop fans and ask them what they were listening to 20 years ago and how they got their music illegally. I think you'll be surprised by their answers.


Is it easier now? Yes, but to most people that buy, bought, or ever will buy music, it doesn't mean as much to them as you'd think.

I'm a real music fan, I don't need to go find anyone. I grew up on music from the 90s, my brothers and sisters grew up on music from the 80s. I had dubbed music sure. But at least one person in my family or among my friends had the album. Now no one has to buy the album, everyone has it downloaded on their computer. Its an entirely different setting now.

Did you cop Blueprint III, or wait for one of your friends to cop Blueprint III and listen to it? No of course not....we all listened to it online when it leaked, before its even in stores, all the way through.

Of course you're a real music fan. But 20 years ago you were a kid. Not a twenty something music fan to the level you are now. If you were you would have had plenty of albums you never bought. In 1975 every time a new album came out it was played entirely on FM radio and was played a few times over for the first few weeks. Anyone that currently has the money to spend hundreds to thousands on a PC and hours upon hours on the net searching blogspots and torrent sites had the time and money back then to get a very solid recording device hooked up to the radio in their basement and gotten every new album that came out. My father had a reel to reel recorder that grabbed from FM Radio as well as any home recorder of that time and his own fucking vinyl lathe. My Dad used it for Greek music. His brother loved American music and recorded everything that was released on the local stations. When Led Zeppelin's Physical Grafitti was released the very same week my uncle had a master laquer and cut at least 30 copies for his friends and friends of friends. I remember him telling me the story. I still have reels in basement from album no one has listened to twice.

Now it's true that compring having something like that to having a PC isn't the same but I'd bet most of us on this forum now would have been those guys 30 years ago. Just like we would have been short wave enthusiasts 100 years ago.

For The Record; I haven't even heard Blueprint 3.

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

Ikke; tell that to all those Metallica fans that bootlegged concerts all through the 80s and made the band famous. Springsteen fans were trading bootlegs through newsletters as far back as the 70s. Yes they were in the know fans and they're weren't as many, but guys over estimate how many people really know where to get music on the net. I can find 90% of all music released inthe last 50 years through torrents, blogspots or forums. Most people cannot. What they can find is the major releases but they could always find them. When tape dubbing started the industry was flipping out. If not for the huge 80s sales they may have made it an issue. The same thing when CD burners became available and record compaines started copy protecting their shit. You think they spent all that for money doing it for nothing?

rapsodie; you're talking to a kid from canada who grew up with dubbed copies of the Twinz - Conversation and No One can Do It Better by D.O.C.

Go find a bunch of dudes in their 40s, real music fans, not fly by night pop fans and ask them what they were listening to 20 years ago and how they got their music illegally. I think you'll be surprised by their answers.


Is it easier now? Yes, but to most people that buy, bought, or ever will buy music, it doesn't mean as much to them as you'd think.

I'm a real music fan, I don't need to go find anyone. I grew up on music from the 90s, my brothers and sisters grew up on music from the 80s. I had dubbed music sure. But at least one person in my family or among my friends had the album. Now no one has to buy the album, everyone has it downloaded on their computer. Its an entirely different setting now.

Did you cop Blueprint III, or wait for one of your friends to cop Blueprint III and listen to it? No of course not....we all listened to it online when it leaked, before its even in stores, all the way through.

Of course you're a real music fan. But 20 years ago you were a kid. Not a twenty something music fan to the level you are now. If you were you would have had plenty of albums you never bought. In 1975 every time a new album came out it was played entirely on FM radio and was played a few times over for the first few weeks. Anyone that currently has the money to spend hundreds to thousands on a PC and hours upon hours on the net searching blogspots and torrent sites had the time and money back then to get a very solid recording device hooked up to the radio in their basement and gotten every new album that came out. My father had a reel to reel recorder that grabbed from FM Radio as well as any home recorder of that time and his own fucking vinyl lathe. My Dad used it for Greek music. His brother loved American music and recorded everything that was released on the local stations. When Led Zeppelin's Physical Grafitti was released the very same week my uncle had a master laquer and cut at least 30 copies for his friends and friends of friends. I remember him telling me the story. I still have reels in basement from album no one has listened to twice.

Now it's true that compring having something like that to having a PC isn't the same but I'd bet most of us on this forum now would have been those guys 30 years ago. Just like we would have been short wave enthusiasts 100 years ago.

For The Record; I haven't even heard Blueprint 3.

I sincerely doubt it. Even if we didn't have the internet, I for sure wouldn't buy recording equipment and spend my time on the radio waiting for them to play songs. I used to record a song here and there on tape, but cmon, recording whole albums?

You're missing the point. No one buys a computer to look for music. Everyone already has a computer. And no one has to spend hours searching blogs. Its a very simple process to find music now. Much easier than buying equipment specifically to record albums off the internet. I don't even know anyone who did that back then. Yet almost everyone gets their music off the internet nowadays. Its definitely not comparable at all.

Not to mention the huge difference in music. On the radio you hear the same 10 songs over and over again. On the internet you google hip hop albums and get millions of results.

[Shallow]

Ikke; tell that to all those Metallica fans that bootlegged concerts all through the 80s and made the band famous. Springsteen fans were trading bootlegs through newsletters as far back as the 70s. Yes they were in the know fans and they're weren't as many, but guys over estimate how many people really know where to get music on the net. I can find 90% of all music released inthe last 50 years through torrents, blogspots or forums. Most people cannot. What they can find is the major releases but they could always find them. When tape dubbing started the industry was flipping out. If not for the huge 80s sales they may have made it an issue. The same thing when CD burners became available and record compaines started copy protecting their shit. You think they spent all that for money doing it for nothing?

rapsodie; you're talking to a kid from canada who grew up with dubbed copies of the Twinz - Conversation and No One can Do It Better by D.O.C.

Go find a bunch of dudes in their 40s, real music fans, not fly by night pop fans and ask them what they were listening to 20 years ago and how they got their music illegally. I think you'll be surprised by their answers.


Is it easier now? Yes, but to most people that buy, bought, or ever will buy music, it doesn't mean as much to them as you'd think.

I'm a real music fan, I don't need to go find anyone. I grew up on music from the 90s, my brothers and sisters grew up on music from the 80s. I had dubbed music sure. But at least one person in my family or among my friends had the album. Now no one has to buy the album, everyone has it downloaded on their computer. Its an entirely different setting now.

Did you cop Blueprint III, or wait for one of your friends to cop Blueprint III and listen to it? No of course not....we all listened to it online when it leaked, before its even in stores, all the way through.

Of course you're a real music fan. But 20 years ago you were a kid. Not a twenty something music fan to the level you are now. If you were you would have had plenty of albums you never bought. In 1975 every time a new album came out it was played entirely on FM radio and was played a few times over for the first few weeks. Anyone that currently has the money to spend hundreds to thousands on a PC and hours upon hours on the net searching blogspots and torrent sites had the time and money back then to get a very solid recording device hooked up to the radio in their basement and gotten every new album that came out. My father had a reel to reel recorder that grabbed from FM Radio as well as any home recorder of that time and his own fucking vinyl lathe. My Dad used it for Greek music. His brother loved American music and recorded everything that was released on the local stations. When Led Zeppelin's Physical Grafitti was released the very same week my uncle had a master laquer and cut at least 30 copies for his friends and friends of friends. I remember him telling me the story. I still have reels in basement from album no one has listened to twice.

Now it's true that compring having something like that to having a PC isn't the same but I'd bet most of us on this forum now would have been those guys 30 years ago. Just like we would have been short wave enthusiasts 100 years ago.

For The Record; I haven't even heard Blueprint 3.

I sincerely doubt it. Even if we didn't have the internet, I for sure wouldn't buy recording equipment and spend my time on the radio waiting for them to play songs. I used to record a song here and there on tape, but cmon, recording whole albums?

You're missing the point. No one buys a computer to look for music. Everyone already has a computer. And no one has to spend hours searching blogs. Its a very simple process to find music now. Much easier than buying equipment specifically to record albums off the internet. I don't even know anyone who did that back then. Yet almost everyone gets their music off the internet nowadays. Its definitely not comparable at all.

Not to mention the huge difference in music. On the radio you hear the same 10 songs over and over again. On the internet you google hip hop albums and get millions of results.

First let me just say we got way off topic. The point initially was it's easier to get a #1 album now than it was before. That's a fact and no one has refuted it.

Secondly, if you yourself weren't the one with the shit it would have been someone you know. Like I said, 30 people connected to my uncle alone got it from him. Who knows how many people they dubbed it for. For all I know 300 people have copies of Physical Grafitti because of my father's cutter.

The other thing you aren't getting is the concept of FM Radio. In the 70s, and before, hit radio was AM Radio. FM was used for obscure or local stuff that would play entire albums when they came out. It would be something like "All Albums All Night Friday". You walk into your recording room at 8 PM on Friday Night, hit record on the reel to reel and then go out for the night, and you'd get 5 or 6 albums recorded and ready to be pressed or dubbed by the time you got home. It wasn't rocket science. High school kids would do this and then sell them in the school parking lot at 50 cents a piece or whatever, or free if you provided the medium. It was real fucking easy to get cheap bootlegged shit back then. A lot of times the albums would be released to your radio station before your small market town ever got them in stores. So it wasn't even like you had to wait longer to get the album.

[herpes]

I'm pretty sure Shallow disagree with people just for the sake of disagreeing sometimes.

[Detox Iz Not Active]

always sad to see these trash albums sell like this

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

I'm pretty sure Shallow disagree with people just for the sake of disagreeing sometimes.

for real....dude ain't even listened to the album yet

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

Ikke; tell that to all those Metallica fans that bootlegged concerts all through the 80s and made the band famous. Springsteen fans were trading bootlegs through newsletters as far back as the 70s. Yes they were in the know fans and they're weren't as many, but guys over estimate how many people really know where to get music on the net. I can find 90% of all music released inthe last 50 years through torrents, blogspots or forums. Most people cannot. What they can find is the major releases but they could always find them. When tape dubbing started the industry was flipping out. If not for the huge 80s sales they may have made it an issue. The same thing when CD burners became available and record compaines started copy protecting their shit. You think they spent all that for money doing it for nothing?

rapsodie; you're talking to a kid from canada who grew up with dubbed copies of the Twinz - Conversation and No One can Do It Better by D.O.C.

Go find a bunch of dudes in their 40s, real music fans, not fly by night pop fans and ask them what they were listening to 20 years ago and how they got their music illegally. I think you'll be surprised by their answers.


Is it easier now? Yes, but to most people that buy, bought, or ever will buy music, it doesn't mean as much to them as you'd think.

I'm a real music fan, I don't need to go find anyone. I grew up on music from the 90s, my brothers and sisters grew up on music from the 80s. I had dubbed music sure. But at least one person in my family or among my friends had the album. Now no one has to buy the album, everyone has it downloaded on their computer. Its an entirely different setting now.

Did you cop Blueprint III, or wait for one of your friends to cop Blueprint III and listen to it? No of course not....we all listened to it online when it leaked, before its even in stores, all the way through.

Of course you're a real music fan. But 20 years ago you were a kid. Not a twenty something music fan to the level you are now. If you were you would have had plenty of albums you never bought. In 1975 every time a new album came out it was played entirely on FM radio and was played a few times over for the first few weeks. Anyone that currently has the money to spend hundreds to thousands on a PC and hours upon hours on the net searching blogspots and torrent sites had the time and money back then to get a very solid recording device hooked up to the radio in their basement and gotten every new album that came out. My father had a reel to reel recorder that grabbed from FM Radio as well as any home recorder of that time and his own fucking vinyl lathe. My Dad used it for Greek music. His brother loved American music and recorded everything that was released on the local stations. When Led Zeppelin's Physical Grafitti was released the very same week my uncle had a master laquer and cut at least 30 copies for his friends and friends of friends. I remember him telling me the story. I still have reels in basement from album no one has listened to twice.

Now it's true that compring having something like that to having a PC isn't the same but I'd bet most of us on this forum now would have been those guys 30 years ago. Just like we would have been short wave enthusiasts 100 years ago.

For The Record; I haven't even heard Blueprint 3.

I sincerely doubt it. Even if we didn't have the internet, I for sure wouldn't buy recording equipment and spend my time on the radio waiting for them to play songs. I used to record a song here and there on tape, but cmon, recording whole albums?

You're missing the point. No one buys a computer to look for music. Everyone already has a computer. And no one has to spend hours searching blogs. Its a very simple process to find music now. Much easier than buying equipment specifically to record albums off the internet. I don't even know anyone who did that back then. Yet almost everyone gets their music off the internet nowadays. Its definitely not comparable at all.

Not to mention the huge difference in music. On the radio you hear the same 10 songs over and over again. On the internet you google hip hop albums and get millions of results.

First let me just say we got way off topic. The point initially was it's easier to get a #1 album now than it was before. That's a fact and no one has refuted it.

Secondly, if you yourself weren't the one with the shit it would have been someone you know. Like I said, 30 people connected to my uncle alone got it from him. Who knows how many people they dubbed it for. For all I know 300 people have copies of Physical Grafitti because of my father's cutter.

The other thing you aren't getting is the concept of FM Radio. In the 70s, and before, hit radio was AM Radio. FM was used for obscure or local stuff that would play entire albums when they came out. It would be something like "All Albums All Night Friday". You walk into your recording room at 8 PM on Friday Night, hit record on the reel to reel and then go out for the night, and you'd get 5 or 6 albums recorded and ready to be pressed or dubbed by the time you got home. It wasn't rocket science. High school kids would do this and then sell them in the school parking lot at 50 cents a piece or whatever, or free if you provided the medium. It was real fucking easy to get cheap bootlegged shit back then. A lot of times the albums would be released to your radio station before your small market town ever got them in stores. So it wasn't even like you had to wait longer to get the album.

I wasn't around during the 70s, so I wouldn't know the criteria it took to get a number one album. I haven't even brought that up. At some point you began talking about how the internet and digital media haven't affected music sales, so I responded. Because it simply isn't true.