The Smiley Smile Message Board

Does anyone know how MiC is selling? In the U.S. U.K.? Worldwide?

I've been searching the board for info but haven't found anything.

Significant because sales of MiC could affect future releases?

We'd like to see it do well, anyway.  :)

I can't help with the figures but I'm just back from Glasgow, Scotland and couldn't find a copy of the box in several record stores (including a few of the big chains like HMV and Fopp).  One Independent was selling it (the same one which had POB on vinyl when it came out a few years ago!).  It also annoys me that they have all these box sets by other artists and not the Beach Boys.  The same goes for vinyl.  All the big groups are well represented, yet someone can't actually go in and purchase a still-in-print version of "Pet Sounds" or any of the other 180g releases.  Surely some of these vinyl albums should always be in print?  I'm ok 'cause I have all the stuff and know how to track it down.  How could the box set be for anyone other than hard core fans if record shops aren't stocking it?  So why bother including all the stuff we have several times over on it?  I know the last point has been debated already!

Does anyone know if it charted in its initial week?

It's not on the current billboard 200, but I'd be surprised if it didn't chart its first week

To go gold it'd need to sell 83,333.333333333 copies in the U.S. Platinum would require sales of 166,666.66666666667 copies.

I think the highest it got on Amazon's sales rank was the mid-60s?  Last I checked, anyway.  That's not that good, considering the bilge that did better.  The deluxe Dylan box was much, much higher (top 12 or so) and pretty close in price.  Clearly, a properly marketed rarities set would have been the right decision.  But I like the boxset a lot for what it is.

Even though it's been 20 years since the GV Box -- there's still just such an over-saturation of career retrospectives for this band.  And as such, a $120-140 set was pretty bad marketing decision -- I would think.  Even though it's a pretty darn good retrospective.

YES. I don't care how many times it's been said.

I think Bruce's Rock Cellar Magazine interview showed why this was always likely to be a hard sell.

Bruce: 'The general public is not gonna sit through and listen to a box set.'

I think this IS the 2-CD rarities set.

Look at it this way: We got a 60-track rarities set. The amount of money put into the box was probably not much more than what would have been put into a rarities set. Most anyone who was interested in this type of release forked out $120, about 6 times the cost of what a 2-CD set would have been. And as a bonus, anyone else who bought it for the 'box set' appeal simply provided extra profit. Capitol would really have gained nothing by going the 'rarities' route.

Yeah, it's basically a three-disc box set of rarities in disguise. It's also the largest single plundering of the vaults since the Smile box AND larger than any other single plundering of the vaults except said Smile box.

A 53 minute disc of actual new(ish) unreleased tracks, a 53 minute disc of new live tracks, and a 78 minute Hawthorne-esque disc of demos/stereo remixes/alternates/a cappellas/backing tracks. Not too shabby. Sure, we could nitpick and wonder why we didn't get another 26 minutes on each of those hypothetical first two discs, but hey. I'm satisfied with it. I'll buy the set when I get the money, sure. I have a CD burner. I can make my own compilations. It's not a botch job. They did us pretty good. 39% of this set can't be found anywhere else.

DonnyL/TRBB -- yeah, all true.  That's a great way of looking at it.  It's an excellent 2/3 disc rarities set -- plus a swank 12x12 book.

Sure, we can nitpick - I don't think we needed disc 6 to be loaded with 17 minutes of retreads that we already had, but it's a minor nitpick. This might be the last large-scale release that happens unless the band is sitting on a fuckton of stuff we don't know about or Beach Boys Central is about to be trojan horse'd onto us with a laundry list of fanboy wet dreams available for purchase...

well, I was kind of meaning it as a criticism ... but hey, that's business. I think the '93 box is basically better across the board (sound quality, track selection, liner notes, etc.) with the exception of Dennis being better represented on MIC.

I'm yet to be persuaded. I looked at it in a store today and thought - do I really need it? I'd have bought the 3-CD rarities version, natch. Without the 2-second delay.

GV release disproves that. But this is 20 years further down the line and most of the material is widely available. No internet back then meant a dude like me would have to buy the box, now I can hear it on spotify, soundcloud etc.

Not sure how this factors in but the unboxings of MIC uploaded to YouTube are nil especially when compared to the number of "SMiLE Sessions" unboxings on there.

Gotta disagree here old Bean, Hawthorne CA was a rarities set and I'm pretty sure it sold quite badly. It is my stance that if MiC had been a rarities set the only people who would have bought it would be the people who frequent this board, the blueboard and maybe a few thousand others. 

It just amazes me how much work and money it seemingly takes to release music the Beach Boys recorded decades ago. It shouldn't be that hard, but somehow we're given the impression that it's a monumental undertaking.

I think one of the (perceived) problems is that there's not enough unreleased material on MIC. In truth - as has been stated above - there's loads (roughly three discs worth) however because it's all largely concentrated on the final two CD's it seems therefore that we're forking out money for 3+ CD's of music we already own. Which we are of course, but then we were with GV as well, which remains positively revered!

In hindsight, I think the compilers should have had the rarities scattered chronologically throughout the entire set, then the live tracks and BBC tracks on CD 6. We'd have had the exact same amount of unreleased tracks but at least then the impression would've been that there was more. I mean, there's much more unreleased material on MIC than on GV, but it doesn't necessarily seem that's the case when looking at their respective track listings.

Personally I love listening to CD's 1, 2 and 3, despite already owning 95% of the material. The compilers have really put everything together incredibly well, to the extent that even the familiar sounds fresh!

Actually, when you think about it, a third of both the Good Vibrations box and Made In California is unreleased material. That's none too shabby.

So I guess no one's heard anything about the sales?

I gather there have been some, yes.

Not read any bad MIC reviews in the press: Mojo (****), Uncut (*****), Record Collector (****, and a great, insightful review!)

Hopefully it'll sell well in the UK at least, what with all these decent reviews and the ever-growing love for the band over here...

Well, I'll take everyone's word for it -- the 2-disc Hawthorne set may not have sold well -- but without the sales figures, we're not sure that MiC did any better.  Case in point -- as you said, everyone on here (more/less) and then some, bought Hawthorne.  But there's some on this board who didn't buy MiC.  Perhaps they were made-up-for with sales to them "regular" fans.   :-\

Also, I don't think Hawthorne had any sales momentum behind it.  No 50th year extravaganza tie-in.  It was dropped cold.  It wasn't particularly "on brand" either.  No Beach Boys logo or summer-drenched orange (or other related Beach metaphor) -- to the extent that that matters.  I don't think too many fans were familiar with the "Yard Work Session."

On the other hand, MiC had to compete it's own 50th anniversary compliation -- 50 Big Ones.    :thud

That depends on what you mean by rarities I suppose...

Hawthorne had 2 genuinely unreleased songs in Lonely Days and A Time to Live in Dreams. Stuff like Party songs without overdubs were never going to be that desirable...

Any word on sales yet?

Would be a real shame if it doesn't sell well...

I'm kind of wondering if the folks who bought MIC is a group limited to people who frequent this board, the blueboard and maybe a few thousand others, too. :(

It was definitely dumped on the market, without much promo. Kind of a disappointing end to the 50th reunion celebrations.

Still a nice set, though.

Disappointing? I thought MIC was by far the best aspect of the entire 50th anniversary celebrations! Give me WIBNTLA and Where Is She over TWGMTR or a live show any day of the week... I just don't get why it wasn't more heavily promoted.

It was a year too late.

MIC itself is great. But I think the problem is the lack of fans. They're simply not nearly as many fans as there are with other classic rock bands.
Once again, it's their long-suffering image problem.
The front cover didn't help either. There should have been a much better cover, instead of a gold/orange cover with a wave which did little more than make people say stuff like "oh the horror", or "No more bubblegum crap" or "Surfin' Bullshit".
It's a shame, as it's a fucking great box set

I like the cover. Simple and bold.

Agree.

What chance does it have if the only chain left in the UK isn't stocking it in the shops for some reason?

By the same measure, what chance does the only chain left in the UK have if it doesn't stock what we want for some reason?

I bought the new Franz Ferdinand CD in there yesterday on a whim. It can't be dead yet, though it only seemed to be stocking Pet Sounds [mono/stereo], Pet Sounds [2012 mono/stereo] and Friends/2020 two-fer. And Pet Sounds. And one copy of The Very Best Of The Beach Boys.

They did have the TWGMTR LP though!

Yeah, I agree.  I think a rarities set that focused primarily on unreleased but more or less finished tracks would sell a lot better than Hawthorne did.  With this box I think the problem might have been more the lack of promotion, and the fact that it came out so long after everything else in the reunion apart from the underwhelming C50 live CD.

Which is a shame, because it's a great box that presents their career effectively while still including enough rarities to make it enticing to people like us.

John you are right about that.  I did manage to get Today, Smile and TWGMR on vinyl in there about a year ago. Great feeling to see those lps in there.  Freddie, they also have a Pet Sounds T-shirt! Pity it wasn't black or I'd have bought it.  FOPP had a Smile one about 6 months ago.

Can't say I'm particularly surprised.

I think Wirestone meant it was disappointing it had been dumped on the market with little promotion.

That was, indeed, my point.

The price was also just way too high for this kind of thing. I know it breaks down okay, and I didn't mind paying it, but it surely turned people off.

If so - then they really should have made it a 3-CD rarities box. I was dithering about buying it as I don't need 70% of the tracks, and with all this about the 3rd disc I really can't be bothered to spend £70 ($100+). Also, for us UK buyers, I mean - what is a "high-school yearbook" ?   ::)

Ah, point now understood!

Anyway, we're all talking as if we know MIC hasn't sold well, but does anyone actually know...?

It's a yearbook. From, like, highschool.  ;D

Whether MiC had been an all-rarities set or simply a greatest hits package it would've helped if it had been readily available in STORES. Finding the darn thing caused a lot of stress that Tuesday afternoon. I realize that there's a generation that's grown up purchasing mp3's or whatever online, but I like to go into a record store, plunk down my cash and walk out with my purchase. A lot of people were denied that experience with this fiendishly hard-to-find box set. Moreover, had it been sitting on shelves in Wal-mart, Best Buy and Target that would've goosed sales. It was like the box set that didn't exist. I know someone will rail against that and say "but you just could've ordered it on Amazon". Believe me, there are more people 45 and up who don't order anything online than you might think.

The second downfall was the price. I swallowed hard and paid it but whenever a friend or co-worker asked about the box set (after I showed it to them because they didn't even know it was out) the conversation went like this:

Friend/Co-Worker: Hey, that looks cool. Maybe I'll stop off at Best Buy on the way home and buy that myself.

Me: Sorry, it's not on sale in any of the major chains.

Friend/Co-Worker: Oh...well, how much was it?

Me: $135

Friend/Co-Worker: What?? That's insane! Oh, forget it.

we may know how bad they were if they start discounting them to $75.00 or less.

It's not a "lack of fans", the beach boys still sell very well. Also they still put asses in Seats on tour.

The problem is no advertising, bad timing, no promotion from the band and the fact it was way too expensive.

Look how well smile did, that's because it got a average advertising campaign. MIC got simply no promotion, it just got randomly released

MiC also didn't get a single mention by anyone at the BW-JB show in Houston, which is inexplicable to me.  I am not a big Mike Love fan, but I must admit he plugged the heck out of TWGMTR during the C50 show, and all copies at the venue were sold out.

Since Brian, Al, and David are not allowed to use the Beach Boys' name, does that also mean that they would not be allowed to sell copies of MiC at their shows?  I assume that they could still plug the box, but plugging is less effective when they don't have physical copies of the box with them to sell.  Even so, for the life of me I don't understand why they wouldn't be encouraging people at their shows to buy it.  Even if one or more of them has a grudge against one or more people currently playing under the name of "The Beach Boys," poor sales for this boxed set hurts everyone.

Bit late to this aspect of the discussion which is now upthread a ways, but... John, you mean HMV/Fopp, right? When I was trying to work out if I would be able to get MiC in my local Fopp in Cambridge, they said that they, ie. the HMV/Fopp chain corporately speaking, weren't allowed to order from Universal at the moment (this was in mid-August - don't know if that's still the case). The guy said it was a 'business thing' but would not elaborate. Without any inside knowledge and based purely on guesswork, I assumed that either a) Universal are still pissed at HMV for how they went into receivership and were or are still owed money from that, or b) the resurrected HMV/Fopp has got into trouble AGAIN and was on 'stop' with Universal for new orders at that time. That's not good in either scenario, considering HMV/Fopp are the only UK bricks and mortar record chain left and Universal are now pretty much the only major label left following all the EMI/Sony/Warners mergers.

But as I say, that's ALL based on me extrapolating from what the guy said, and might all be smoke on my part. Perhaps it was a temporary supply thing that, six weeks later, is already ancient history.

Needless to say, I didn't buy MiC from Fopp  ;)

(Amazon Germany got my coin, as I said here at the time)

...and to comment back firmly on topic, ie. regarding sales, it seems to me that a BB rarities set could only ever appeal to the hardcore fanbase. The powers that be know that the numbers prepared to shill for such a release are not that impressive... as I recall, worldwide sales of the Hawthorne set were WELL under 100,000, maybe even under 50,000. Certainly it had shifted about 30,000 six months after release, and one could reasonably assume that the major flow of sales would be finished by then.

So they probably didn't want to go there again. Hence the MiC format - all the hits PLUS rare stuff, in a bid to pull in the casual consumer or floating voter who wants to look into the band seriously for the first time, and wants a handy, catch-all set to do that with.

It's fair to say that making it the price it was in the States probably knocked the willingness of BOTH potential groups of customers to buy it. The floating voter decides to investigate another big rock group of history instead with another, cheaper set, and some of the hardcore fanbase, annoyed by the price, decides to wait or rely on rips or Spotify etc. Whether that's what actually happened, I don't know, but I can see that it could have worked out like that. If that's what happened, then you can postulate a scenario where the set didn't catch fire in terms of selling to the general public, and not all of the hardcore fanbase bought it either, which means it would have sold even less overall than a Hawthorne-type set. But lest this be thought of as me adding to the voices saying 'they shudda dunn a raritez-ownly sett, doodz'... what I'm saying is that a rarities set wouldn't have sold well either (see Hawthorne, California). Or at least not in the numbers that the group/record label like to think of as successful.

A more positive outcome that may yet come to pass is that this set is a strong long-term seller, like the GV box was. That is, it doesn't fly off the shelves in chartbusting quantities straight after release, but sells respectably over the coming years as the go-to 'one-shop stop' release for those wanting to get into the band's back catalogue. However, it may be harder for boxed sets to achieve that kind of status these days, when people can nab a torrent of pretty much anything for free in no time.

Despite all of that doom-saying, MiC remains a fantastic set, and, at the price I paid for it in Europe (84.48 Euros, or just over 113 US dollars and £74.20 on my UK bank statement), I felt it was an absolutely worthwhile purchase. I loved the physical package, *and* I thought it sounded good overall. I know there were lots of complaints here about the overall sound, the new mixes, etc (which was the usual cross-section of on-line fun: 'it's bass light!', 'it's TOO bassy', 'there's NO bass on mine... oh wait, I have a Spotify rip at 28 bitz/s', 'it's too dull-sounding!' 'it's full of sibilence!' etc etc), but whether it's because I've got tin ears or whatever, I personally thought it sounded great on my old-fashioned stereo system and there wasn't a new mix I didn't like; your mileage, of course, may vary.

And for me, it wasn't just 'skip to the rarities and don't play the rest' — as I detailed here in the days after receiving it, I thought it makes for a great listen-through as an entity, which was something of a surprise, given how well I know some of the tracks already. I was just going to rip the new/unreleased stuff to my iPod, but I ended up putting the whole set on, as it's a terrific listening experience *as one thing*. It's a belter on long car journeys!

But as a chartbuster... I can see why it wouldn't be re-writing the rules on sales rankings. It's a long-term respectable seller, at best.

I guess the most negative follow-on from this way of looking at the release is that it doesn't bode well for future 'deep-cut' sets. I think we can all give up hope of an Adult Child de luxe box set... if any of us really thought that would happen anyway. Or indeed, gave two hoots for such an idea to start with...!

Uh, but it looks like it was made in MS Paint. lol

Actually it's still £63 odd from Sainsbury's so I may eventually be tempted.

TWGMTR was for sale at the merch booth for the BW-JB show (but not cheap - $20), so apparently they aren't prohibited from selling BB product.  Maybe MiC was too expensive for them to buy copies to take on tour.  :lol