Big Surprise: The Tragically Hip’s Man Machine Poem is Off to a HUGE Start
The Tragically Hip released their Man Machine Poem album on June 17 and as you might guess, sales traction was immediate. It sold 20,000 copies, pushing it straight to the top of the Canadian album charts. Of that, 1,200 were vinyl–but since there are plenty of indie record stores that don’t report to SoundScan, the actual number is much higher.
Digging deeper, I see that 350 albums were sold in Kingston. Please discuss.
Interesting, too, that the album debuted at #66 on the American SoundScan charts, selling 4,000. That’s the best they’ve done south of the border for years. (Betcha most of those sales were in places like Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and other border towns.)
We’re about four weeks away from the start of the tour. All 15 shows are long sold out and FYIMusic.ca estimates that the gross will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $24 million. By the time the tour wraps up in Kingston on August 20 with the big live broadcast on every single CBC platform (save the news channel), sales will continue to be steady for both the new album and everything in the Hip catalogue.
