adamisacson:

perpetua:

1. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 131k
2. Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca 48k
3. the xx xx 35k
4. The Flaming Lips Embryonic 75k (estimate)
5. Raekwon Only Built For Cuban Linx Part II 141k
6. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest 132k
7. Bat For Lashes Two Suns 36k
8. Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 205k
9. Fever Ray Fever Ray 23k
10. Girls Album 19k

I don’t know the economics of this at all, but it’s hard to imagine an indie band even paying its grocery bills with such measly record sales. If we assume Animal Collective cleared $3 per album, then each member of the band would have got about $100,000 from US sales of Merriweather Post - less than what a mid-level Senate staffer makes.

And we can safely say that no mid-level Senate staffer made anything nearly as great as Merriweather Post this year.

I wonder what the Pitchfork Effect looks like and what the sales numbers will be a month from now.