How Paul McCartney Landed First No. 1 Album in 36 Years
*By Conor White*
Paul McCartney is celebrating his first number-one album in nearly four decades.
"Egypt Station," released on September 7, sold 153,000 copies during its first week, including an impressive 147,000 in physical sales. And it's not the 76-year-old former Beatle's core Baby-Boomer fan base behind his latest success ー it's streamers.
Daily Dot managing editor Austin Powell says those numbers are certainly the ones to watch.
"'FourFiveSeconds,' \[McCartney's\] track with Kanye and Rihanna ー that's been streamed nearly 500 million times on Spotify," Powell said Thursday in an interview on Cheddar.
"So he has this other audience that he can tap into and that Spotify can push his music towards as well."
Powell noted that with physical album sales dropping from over half a billion in 2007 to just 169 million last year, artists have sought help from the very platforms that damaged their sales in the first place ー McCartney, for instance, recorded a live performance specifically for Spotify.
To date, "Egypt Station" has been streamed over 6 million times across all platforms, and that number will only continue to grow.
"I'm sure he got a nice push from Spotify itself ーgiving those notifications, letting people know the new album was available to stream," Powell said.
Spotify's power and influence continue to spread, as does that of its rival, Apple Music. The two services now account for more than 80 percent of paid streaming subscribers in the United States, leaving their competitors to fight for meager scraps.
And those smaller players ー including industry pioneer Pandora ー don't have great odds, according to Powell.
"I think there are only two that stand a fighting chance, and that's Google via YouTube, and that's Amazon," he said.
"They can bundle streaming into an existing service," he said.
For full interview [click here] (https://cheddar.com/videos/streaming-nation).
Howard Lorber, chairman, president, and CEO of Douglas Elliman Inc., and Scott Durkin, CEO of Douglas Elliman Realty, joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to talk about the real estate brokerage company's recent IPO launch on the New York Stock Exchange following the spinoff of its tobacco subsidiary Vector Group. "There are many investors that cannot buy tobacco because of their mandates," said Lorber. "And therefore splitting off Douglas Elliman the real estate, and there's a lot of people looking for real estate investments, so they'll be able to buy Douglas Elliman, and those that want tobacco can buy Vector alone." The pair also discuss the future of New York real estate and the auxiliary business the property broker sees as growth prospects.
Despite a champagne shortage ahead of New Year's Eve, adult beverage retailers are staying optimistic about 2022. Cathy Lewenberg, COO at online alcoholic beverages platform Drizly, joined Cheddar to talk about the sunny outlook for next year and the current state of the industry. She noted a 20 percent higher demand for champagne year-over-year has led to the holiday's shortfall and that the spirit category is continuing to thrive with tequila on pace to outsell vodka for the first time. "Tequila has just been on fire on our platform. It's grown 13 percent in share on our platform over the last couple of years where vodka obviously had been the leader," she said. "Tequila is the top thing in addition to bourbon that retailers are looking to give more shelf space to in 2022."
Travel expert Francesca Page joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to break down how the omicron-fueled COVID-19 surge of cases on cruise ships is impacting the industry, as the CDC is actively monitoring at least 92 ships for outbreaks. Page also talked about the upcoming expiration of the CDC's conditional sailing order mandating mask-wearing and addressed passenger concerns. "Everyone is asking, financially, should I cancel my cruise should COVID surges keep going, which it looks they are, and to a large degree I think that decision is very personal and is based on one's own risk tolerance," she said.
