The Petra Zone

So what do you think? Will this be another Revival and sell between 40 - 50K? Or will the number of concerts, Christmas season and general sentimentality of Farewell kick it into Gold status?

What is gold anyway? 100K or 500K? I may have to fix this poll.

it's 500,000. I LOVE Petra but 50,000 is my vote.

It doesn't look like it's going to let me add another category. I don't think anyone would go with 500,000 anyway.

If Petra could squirt a gold record, they wouldn't be retiring this year. It isn't going to happen. There is too much bootlegging going on, and not enough interest around the world for sales to be that high.

How is it that Petra can go to third world countries, and everyone knows their songs at the shows, and there is little to no radio? 300k people have bootlegs, that's how.

Where are you getting your statistics Brent? We have radio here and they never have been very supportive of Petra, and fans here know their songs too. The stuff they play on Christian radio is garbage for the most part, I sort of lost interest in it a long time ago.

I doubt the farewell CD will go gold either. You never know though, sometimes unexpected things happen.

We are talking about two distinctly different markets. In the US, bootlegged copies are illegal. Overseas, it is common.

in Brazil for example, there are companies that bootleg the CDs, copyinig every detail so that the packaging looks very legit. But, because the distribution is so limited, they jack up their prices, so that the CD's cost $30-40 dollars. So people will buy one, make copies, and distribute them to their friends.

I was talking to John about this. The spanish records real sales just covered the cost of doing the production, yet they know that thousands of people have it in South America. It is seen by most major bands. The reason that the people know the songs is because of all of the illegal copies. The record company isn't seeing the sales that would allow the kind of crowds that Petra sees at shows to know the band, lyrics, etc.

The same thing happened to Rush with Rio. They had no idea that they had the fanbase there, because the sales were not legal, trackable sales. So when they heard that they had a fanbase there, the went there to do a tour and get some cash out of the deal. Then they filmed the event as well.

Well, that makes sense. What a way to find out you have fans you didn't know you have. I don't condone bootlegging at all, but I can sort of understand how that happens overseas. It's a shame they lose that money they could have gotten from CD sales.

I hope people "STEAL" my music. What an honor that is...LOL...meaning people would actually seek out my music to listen to it. If they REALLY liked my music, heck, they'd even by the album or come to my shows. But most importantly, I want people to like the music I write. So, I hope my music gets circulated (when I finally get a band). Hopefully legally but I would still be just as happy if they got INTO my music illegally. You can't put a pricetag on spreading the gospel and the truth.

Sorry, but unfortunately the "Golden Times" are over. I love PETRA but we have to accept that the interest in PETRA isn't big enough to reach a gold record.

brent wrote:The spanish records real sales just covered the cost of doing the production, yet they know that thousands of people have it in South America. It is seen by most major bands. The reason that the people know the songs is because of all of the illegal copies. The record company isn't seeing the sales that would allow the kind of crowds that Petra sees at shows to know the band, lyrics, etc.

Just to keep things in context, let's examine why this is a pervasive problem in South America.

1. Demand is high. People want quality Christian rock in South America. They hear songs on the radio just like we do, and they want to own the music.

2. Distribution is atrocious. The record companies have done a terrible job of getting the product down there. I get emails frequently from South American fans who cannot find an outlet that carries Petra.

3. In those places where legit CDs *are* available, they are so expensive that regular people cannot afford them.

So, it's not like people are *trying* to stick to Petra and other bands. If the CDs were readily available at an affordable price the way they are here in the U.S., piracy wouldn't be the problem it is right now.

--Josh

How well did Jekyll & Hyde sell? I'm thinking Farewell will be around in that range, though it could get a boost from being the last Petra album. However, it certainly won't go gold. Face it, folks, Petra's glory days of the 90's were a long time ago.