I find this list of the sales numbers for Pitchfork’s top 10 albums of 2009 quite interesting.

It’s amazing to me to see how few albums a band such as Animal Collective actually sells. Merriweather Post Pavilion has only sold 131,000 copies through December 13th in the US. While they may be considered huge in the indie world, in the mainstream world they’re a speck on Susan Boyle’s ass (Boyle sold over 1.8 million copies of her debut album in the US in just three weeks.)

What’s this mean? Does it mean there’s a lot less hipsters than I thought there were? Or does it mean that the type of people who are most likely to appreciate Pitchfork approved music are less likely to buy music in the first place? Perhaps it’s some combination of these factors.

Although these indie sales numbers are lower than I would think they would be, it should be noted that overall albums sales are way down too. Only eight albums released in 2009 have sold over one million copies in the US with Boyle’s album likely to be the biggest seller of the year. In the ’90s and early ’00s it was routine for albums to sell many times more copies than they sell now. The best example is NSync’s No Strings Attached which sold 2.4 million copies in the US it’s first week of release in 2000 (this is the record for most copies sold in a week) and 9.9 million for the year (also a record.)

If you’re curious what those eight albums that have reached the million mark this year are then here you go: U2, Eminem, Hannah Montana, Jay Z, Andrea Bocelli, Black Eyed Peas, Rascal Flatts, & Susan Boyle.

2009, Pitchfork, Susan Boyle, Animal Collective

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