WTF that's awesome!

Salocin | September 10, 18:37 CET

Top 40!

ETA: "Evil Genius Infiltrates Hitsville"

[ edited by Pointy on 2008-09-10 18:46 ]

Pointy | September 10, 18:39 CET

That's certainly quite an achievement. Congratulations to the entire team.

redders | September 10, 18:45 CET

Wow, that is GREAT!

Way to go, guys!

UnpluggedCrazy | September 10, 18:47 CET

Well I'm one of those 12,000. This is fantastic news for a production that never hit the theaters or television. Maybe with Dr Horrible and The Guild being so popular we'll see more great things like this gain some notoriety. I'm loving listening to it on my computer at work now without having to minimize or hide the video behind seven other windows.

h0stile17 | September 10, 18:53 CET

Anybody have any idea how the economics of this work? Record companies usually lose money on most recordings, no? What's the break-even point for them, and then, when would Joss and company start pulling in some profit?

shambleau | September 10, 19:16 CET

Well, as I understand it:

(1) Steal underpants.
(2) ???
(3) Profit!

The One True b!X | September 10, 19:21 CET

This article claims the record companies get 65 cents or more to the dollar for each iTunes track sold. Of course, they have production costs that the Whedon crew did not have to pay because they recorded it at Joss' personal studio. If you assume 6.50 from each $9.99 album goes straight back to Mutant Enemy, it looks like they just made back maybe around half the production budget (assuming $150k) in soundtrack sales alone. Obviously we don't know what the participation/profit sharing among crew and talent involves, but those are pretty numbers for the Dr. Horrible team no matter how you look at it.

White Tiger | September 10, 20:04 CET

Very happy with these numbers. I hope the ratios of earning are the same for overseas itunes - given that £7.99 is currently a wee bit more than $9.99, I hope the Whedons benefit from it!

skittledog | September 10, 20:39 CET

That's really awesome!

xander fan | September 10, 21:01 CET

That's incredibly cool.

I'm ready to contribute, soon as they give us the hard copy option.

Actually I've been thinking lately...I don't own an mp3 player (partly not wanting to spend the $25 on a cheap one and partly just resisting the new technology, which usually isn't me)...but I guess it would be more environmentally friendly to give up on the plastic, metal, and paper (not to mention the power and waste to produce all that) that goes into a CD with case & booklet. I've considered...but I'm still sorta attatched to the piece of shiny realness that you can hold in your hand, hmmm...

Kris | September 10, 22:06 CET

AU$16.99 for me, but considering I intend to buy a hard copy so I can put it in my car, i only bought a few tracks. But 12,000 is a lot. One would have to presume that there was at least that many episodes also sold by itunes right? Only a percentage of watchers of musicals will go out and buy the soundtrack.

If we assume also that those 12,000 are probably only itunes US, which kinda makes sense, and the album made it to the number one spot in both the UK and Aussie itunes... I think its probably fair to say Joss is probably at least very close to breaking even from itunes alone, when combining music and show downloads. $78k from US sales of soundtracks is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

I hope we can start getting some number soon about how many units of the actual blog were downloaded at itunes.

Ivalaine | September 11, 00:00 CET

I have no idea about the break even/profit situation but this is awesome news. Yea Team Horrible!

deadbessie | September 11, 00:28 CET

Where is Casey Kasem when we need him? If he showed up would he be purple? ... all questions are rhetorical not direct, no rule breaking here.

caring hands | September 11, 00:52 CET

Holy crap! That's great. I've bought it on iTunes and will buy it when it (hopefully) comes out on CD. I'm with Kris on wanting the tactile pleasures of a Horrible CD.

It's a phenomenal soundtrack, whatever form it comes in.

phlebotinin | September 11, 00:55 CET

Whoo-hoo! Made the list. Made the list. It is so shiny to have proof.

Anonymous1 | September 11, 03:35 CET

Wonder how many itunes exclusive albums make the top 40 list? Has this ever happened before?

Anonymous1 | September 11, 04:19 CET

Ivalaine, you're forgetting that some people (me for one, and I doubt I'm alone) are waiting for the DVD - so I bought the soundtrack but I haven't bought the episodes. That may throw off the numbers a bit.

Rachelkachel | September 11, 06:09 CET

Count me as one, and I'll buy the DVD and CD when they come out. I feel I must support new media :D and the renegade.

Vinity | September 11, 06:10 CET

It's true, people are waiting for the DVD, but so are people wanting an actual CD. Plus more people would want the actual show than soundtrack. I think it is safe to assume there were more than 12,000 downloads of the actual show.

Anyways, my point it is, I doubt Joss can fail to make a profit out of this (even if only a small one) if for no other reason than that we all want him too, and 12,000 soundtrack downloads in a couple of weeks is not shabby turnaround.

I wonder how many of these downloads are for the love of Joss, or for the purpose of helping him to "stick it to the man" by proving that the writers guild were right about digital media.

*sits patiently waiting for itunes Australia to give the ok for DrH, seeing as how we now have itunes movies*

Ivalaine | September 11, 08:29 CET

Ivalaine,

I thought this was like a weekly chart...so it meant 12,000 in that week.

Anonymous1 | September 12, 04:01 CET

Weekly, yes.

The chart itself is up now, if anyone wants to actually see it sitting there at #39.

[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-09-12 04:16 ]

The One True b!X | September 12, 04:15 CET

Well then, that's even better news! Means more money for Joss and Co.

Ivalaine | September 12, 05:14 CET

Thanks, B!x. I was able to snag a picture of it.

[ edited by Anonymous1 on 2008-09-12 16:46 ]

Anonymous1 | September 12, 16:40 CET

B!x or anybody,

Can you see a permalink to this chart?

I want to save the link so I can refer back to it to show that it happened. I have the article link so I could use that.

[ edited by Anonymous1 on 2008-09-12 17:04 ]

Anonymous1 | September 12, 16:43 CET

Oh, look it says Mutant Enemy on the Billboard list! Whoo-hoo!

Anonymous1 | September 12, 17:27 CET