In a year that saw almost a 10% drop (9.9) in overall country album sales last year (from 76.905 million to 69.311 million) the flagship stars at several labels played overpowering roles in keeping the ships of state afloat, notes Music Row magazine.

Dreamworks/Nashville's TOBY KEITH is a good example. According Music Row, Keith's SHOCK 'N Y'ALL CD was the top seller of the year with 2,324,437 units sold (making him the only country act in the all genre top ten sellers list at #9. Dreamworks Nashville benefited from Keith's hearty 89% contribution to its share of Top 100 country album sales.

AT OTHER LABELS:
Rascal Flatts was responsible for 100% of Lyric Street's Top 100 unit sales. Shania provided 71% for Mercury. Alan Jackson scanned 62% for Arista. And the Dixie Chicks floated 60% of the Sony boat.



from countrystars



-Chris

__________________
Shania's Place
Shania: often imitated, never duplicated!!

"...Living, Loving, Laughing and Dreaming....."-Shania Twain

Yet, Shania gets no respect.


-Chris

__________________
Shania's Place
Shania: often imitated, never duplicated!!

"...Living, Loving, Laughing and Dreaming....."-Shania Twain

:LMAO :LMAO :LMAO :LMAO :LMAO

I find this the most hilarious thing I've read about Mercury. Those sad, pathetic record execs....

What is the percentage than for the rest of the roster???


Steve Azar
Terri Clark
Billy Currington????
Tom T Hall????
James Otto (no album yet)
Julie Roberts [new female artist on label]
Anthony Smith????
Hank Williams
Mark Wills

-----------------------

I think the only performers on the entire roster are Shania, Hank Williams, and Mark Wills.

Terri tanked, Steve disappeared..


-Chris

__________________
Shania's Place
Shania: often imitated, never duplicated!!

"...Living, Loving, Laughing and Dreaming....."-Shania Twain

Chris

From those figures you mentioned it looks like Shania Twain was the only one that kept Mercury profitable otherwise they would have gone under like a lot of labels have been going under last year...I guess Mercury owes Shania Twain big on that one issue alone...It seems that they should acknowledge her in some way just for that fact alone...

Benjamin

__________________
In This Awesome Universe of ours, sometimes we only have each other !!!

WOW! 71%!!! If Shania leaves Mercury, they are in BIG troubles...talking about a one person company...lol..

__________________
Getting ready for it....just wait and see...

I bet Luke wanted to just disappear when he got that phone call from Shania in 2001.


-Chris

__________________
Shania's Place
Shania: often imitated, never duplicated!!

"...Living, Loving, Laughing and Dreaming....."-Shania Twain

yeah, imagine what happening when Shania is in break....

I bet, if she would put out every year-year and a half a new album they would like her better...

[Money makes the World go around, the World go around...]

__________________
DOWN WITH BASHVILLE!!!

"Ka-Ching"

When Shania is off, I guess they don't get bonuses..lol

-Chris

__________________
Shania's Place
Shania: often imitated, never duplicated!!

"...Living, Loving, Laughing and Dreaming....."-Shania Twain

Considering that, wouldn't you think they use every trick in the book to promote Shania.

Yes, one would think... yet....

__________________
Signature on holiday.

They have a 71% return on no investment


-Chris

__________________
Shania's Place
Shania: often imitated, never duplicated!!

"...Living, Loving, Laughing and Dreaming....."-Shania Twain

LOL!!! Good point!

__________________
Signature on holiday.

Mercury doesn't want to have such a heavy reliance on Shania (71% wow!), so they are spending their time and money trying to raise their other artists' percentages. Otherwise, when Shania goes on a break (or leaves Mercury altogether) the company will go bankrupt. They don't care about raising Shania's 71% and making it higher; that isn't what they think will help the company right now. They are fighting for survival.

And with 71%, I bet that Mercury is almost scared of Shania's power. She practically owns the record label!

Yeah, but no one is interested in their no name newbie artists, they are all cookie cutter country. We are not talking about raising Shania's percentage, we are talking about what little they spend on Shania, and she is at 71%. Look at Dreamworks, Toby is almost at 90%. They seem to spend very little on Shania, so where is the money????

The label does nothing for her. Where are the ads, in the trade magazines, the commercials, etc.??

Mercury made a HUGE mistake sending Otto out with Shania. He is a huge mismatch for Shania's audience. By the time I saw him three times, I wanted to scratch my ears off. He was very boring. If Mercury wants to start new artists making them tag along with Shania, then they better be up to her fans standards, and maybe be interesting enough for us to buy their albums.

Terri, is usually a good decent seller, except this cd seems to have died. If they want their new artists to sell, they need to stand out on their own.



-Chris

__________________
Shania's Place
Shania: often imitated, never duplicated!!

"...Living, Loving, Laughing and Dreaming....."-Shania Twain

I agree with you completely. Its just that now it makes a bit more sense to me why Mercury doesn't do more for Shania. I'm not defending Mercury in any way (they are absolutely horrible to her!), but now I can understand maybe what they're thinking.

Shania should get away from Mercury and go to a stronger label.



I definitely agree with that too! I'm sick of all the newbies...