The Great Unanswered Question

[Preacherman777]

Now that the smoke has cleared on Jekyll and Hyde and we are moving on to the Farewell album, isn't there someone who could finally tell us how well Jekyll and Hyde sold. If not the exact number, could we at least know whether or not it sold better than Revival?

[executioner]

I feel that it sold alot better than Revival, but that is just feeling. I've seen them 3 times since JAH has come out and it seems that it goes pretty fast over at the merchants table. I know alot of people were asking for it at the last show that I was at and they were told that they sold out.

[bennile]

Hi!
Jekyll and Hyde was sold over 2000 times in Germany and that is really a high number, at every concert since J&H was available I was it was sold out very fast and they always had not enough CDs there. At the official Distributer the CD is sold out and is not available, but there are others who still have the CDs to sell!

[Jonathan]

I though this was about Santa. And my answer is a confident no, as far as his existence is concerned.

[Petrapraise]

My guess is that if hit a mark like 'gold' then we'd know, otherwise we'll probably never know.

[Petrapraise]

Jonathan said:

I though this was about Santa. And my answer is a confident no, as far as his existence is concerned.

What about the great pumpkin???!!!

I always thought it was funny on SNL when the church lady said, "what word do you get when mix the letter of santa around - 'satan'".

[Mountain Man]

I'm guessing that sales were probably relatively good considering where Petra was in their career, but obviously it didn't sell well enough for them to commit to another studio project or two (Farewell notwithstanding).

[Kirkman]

I feel that it sold alot better than Revival, but that is just feeling. I've seen them 3 times since JAH has come out and it seems that it goes pretty fast over at the merchants table. I know alot of people were asking for it at the last show that I was at and they were told that they sold out.

As of May 2005, that was not true.

* Revival- 49890
* Jekyll & Hyde - 45324
* Jekyll & Hyde En Espa�ol - 434

These figures were provided by Inpop. I had hoped to put together an article tracking all of Petra's album sales back when the retirement news came out. However, Word has refused to divulge sales figures to me.

--Josh

[Edward]

Neilson SoundScan is what you need. Inpop can also tell you what Words sales are. Wayne can tell you. SoundScan reports all to everyone that subscribes.

[BForm]

This shocks me. The Revival numbers were about what I expected, but I thought Jekyll & Hyde would have done at least 10,000 better than Revival. I'm sure sales at their concerts will boost both of those numbers up; especially in Europe. And the 434 Spanish versions.....what is up with that? They have all those concerts coming up in Brazil, but isn't that Portugese?

[Kirkman]

Neilson SoundScan is what you need. Inpop can also tell you what Words sales are. Wayne can tell you. SoundScan reports all to everyone that subscribes.

Actually, I have the SoundScan numbers, though I got them through a source without paying for them, and therefore I can't publish them without fear of being forced to pay a hefty fee.

However, the SoundScan numbers themselves are pretty worthless for most of Petra's stuff in the early and mid-90s, since SoundScan wasn't around then.

As far as Wayne goes, I'll ask him after the tour is over.

--Josh

[Kirkman]

This shocks me. The Revival numbers were about what I expected, but I thought Jekyll & Hyde would have done at least 10,000 better than Revival. I'm sure sales at their concerts will boost both of those numbers up; especially in Europe. And the 434 Spanish versions.....what is up with that? They have all those concerts coming up in Brazil, but isn't that Portugese?

I was also shocked by the 434 number, given the huge demand for the album. But the problem is distribution. As I pointed out in a previous thread where Brent was dissing third world countries for rampant piracy, distribution to those countries is horrendous. I constantly get emails from people who want to buy Petra stuff in South America, but it isn't available. Record companies here have done an extremely poor job of making their product available down there.


--Josh

[Petrapraise]

Those numbers are suprising. I was hoping J&H was higher. I'm actually surprised they told, but it always pays to have connections. We should all pray Farewell can beat those numbers.

[Dan]

Neilson SoundScan is what you need. Inpop can also tell you what Words sales are. Wayne can tell you. SoundScan reports all to everyone that subscribes.

What is this SoundScan Brent? is this shop sales or current printed copies?

[Edward]

SoundScan numbers often does not include the sales generated at concerts, or sales overseas. CD outages at shows only means that they are selling inventory on hand. It is not necessarily indicative of high unit sales.

Petra has always outsold the US, as most rock band do, at a ratio of 3:1.

As for distributors in foreign countries and distribution...I am dealing with that right now. There are few retailers and distributors to sell to, especially honest ones. The ones that are there have a monopoly. When shipping some CDs to one foreign country (PR), CDs were "stolen" from the delivery site. So, we ate the cost of a few hundred units and shipped more. However, the sum total of all CDs sold includes the "stolen" units.
They there, the band, management and label are here. Bootlegging is HUGE is Asia, South America, etc. Check the news. Major networks are running stories about this as I type.

There is demand. Some people have access to internet. They could buy CDs to resell themselves. Petra's management could have teamed up with the Methodists and Southern Baptists, which have a huge presence in some of these countries, and given them CDs to sell in markets with a supporting economy.

Ed