DLC by the Numbers - queuemark's Wall of Stats, 2012 Edition

[LiveHomeVideo]

I love how BEER!! Is the highest selling RBN track.
Really didn't expect that.

And here I am, still having not bought if for some reason... I need to get on that.

Anyway, this is a great list. It was an interesting read, and hopefully next year Harmonix will take some of this info in and maybe start releasing more metal and 80's/90's rock.

[rsm790]

15 songs released before 1980 is pathetic and 0 prog is ridiculous
I hope the -127 number comes up some this year

[queuemark]

I just wanted to say thank you Queue!
This is very awesome, i will read through this tomm (I started to but am tired).
THANK YOU though! gives me something to read in the car tomm! <3!

Thanks for the kind words! It took a lot of time, but I really enjoyed doing it.

"I may not post to the RB forums often, but when I do, something something informative posts, something something Dos Equis guy."

I only bought 3 of those best selling RBN songs... it's mostly metal and novelty. People always complain that's what's on there well now they know why, it sells.

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed in the top-selling RBN myself, but people like what they like. And I'll cop to really enjoy "BEER!!" And hey, Reap made it, and some pretty good stuff was just outside the cutoff I posted (I think 1500 in sales) like the other John Parr song and some of the Jerry Naylor stuff.

happy to see that Discord (The Living Tombstone Remix) is the 11 best selling RBN song this year

Yep. That was one of the pieces of DLC that made me raise my eyebrows and feel old.

The lowest selling list is a little surprising.

I know super-old artists haven't been the consistently-highest selling ever, but it's surprising to see The Weight so low (although that is also a really recent release).

Otherwise, the two Smash Mouth songs are the biggest surprises for me. Both those are really well known covers of really well known songs, and I'm shocked they aren't higher.

Others big artists (AAR, Staind, Dave Matthews Band) make some sense, seeing as they aren't particularly recognizable tracks from them.

Sad to see my favorite band (QOTSA) on the lowest selling list, but them's the breaks.

Anyways, interesting list as always. Given all the variables (release date, slightly iffy data sources, etc), specifics should be taken with a grain of salt, but it's still a really fun and kind of insightful read.

I'd also be interested in a "lowest selling RBN" category, but that's admittedly out of a perverse sense of morbid curiosity, and I don't want to disrespect any of the RBN artists.

Again, thanks for the kind words. A lowest selling RBN category would be a bit depressing to write, because there are a LOT of bands and authoring groups that clearly invested a lot of resources and saw (recorded) sales in the dozens.

I do the think "the Weight" will rise fairly steadily and I think the other artists you mentioned have other tracks that would have sold significantly higher. I LOVED the song "Gonzo," but its RB release seems a little weird, since I don't think it was even a single. Just about anyone could name DMB and Staind songs that would sell better, but clearly HMX got those due to promotion. The Smashmouth covers...eh, I wasn't surprised. I suspect the cover Bonethug mentioned would have done way better.

I enjoyed last year's thread as well as this one. It's cool to cross reference this with casto's thread, the completing gh thread, and my 2 threads. Maybe I'll actually add to my pro dlc thread and list the bands with the upgrades also(though that info is much easier to get/see).

Too add some points:

This is the first full year(-2007) to not have an album release(as green day was previously released in another year).

It's also the first full year not to feature an artist pack larger than 6 songs, and the second full year not to have at least one artist 12 pack with 2011 being the first.

This is also the first full year to have only 3 artist packs larger than 3 songs. With albums counted separate:
2008 had 4 packs with 10 albums
2009 had 14 packs with 6 albums
2010 had 24 packs with 8 albums
2011 had 23 packs with 1 albums
2012 had 3 packs with 0 albums

I counted albums that were only missing a song or tracks that would be unplayable in rock band. This means Boston was counted as an album, Spinal Tap's Tap Ten was counted as an album(the other tracks were released not long before it in the same year), and I counted both No Doubt albums. I did not count any rock band best of's as albums(The Who, CCR, Iron Maiden, Billy Joel, The Doors, Bon Jovi, and whoever else).

You can clearly see the downward trend over the last 2 years and shouldn't expect it to change for 2013.

Edit:
A few personal notes:

I'd love to see more Three Days Grace and Bush, and think there is a decent chance of the happening. I would like more Linkin Park and Sublime, but I don't see it happening sadly with those(most people have the songs they wanted by now).

Seeing how low Smash Mouth's covers are, I guess there's little chance to get I'm a Believer by them(as I doubt the original is around). Being that we got a Shrek song before I thought it may be possible.

Good information! I will integrate much of it at some point. And yes, I relied on a number of threads/sources for this. I will try to link to them as a clearinghouse at some point.

Personally, I would expect all 4 of those bands you mentioned to return at some point, though not necessarily with full packs.

And here I am, still having not bought if for some reason... I need to get on that.

Anyway, this is a great list. It was an interesting read, and hopefully next year Harmonix will take some of this info in and maybe start releasing more metal and 80's/90's rock.

Thanks for the compliment, but if you notice, I bolded the genres with the most releases, and metal is, in fact, the second most-released genre this year! Of course, if your point was that the metal songs were generally high-selling, that is true, particularly the metal-core and nu-metal-ish songs.

I think they actually had a pretty good balance of songs by decade, with the sad exception of the 60s and 70s. If anything, songs from the 1980s seems significantly higher than you might expect.

And of course, if you go just by the stats, they provide a great rationale to release nothing but middle-of-the-road pop. :P

[queuemark]

Also 0 Prog.

I would not call The Band a non-US band. It is a partially-non-US band (some American members, some Canadian members). If Foreigner isn't listed among the UK-non-US, The Band shouldn't be in the Canadian-non-US.

Yes, Zero prog. I will update that, as well.

I'm curious, though -- what songs do you think they could release that are in keeping with the new leaner, model of releasing fewer DLC songs while focusing on bigger hits?

Pink Floyd and Tool seem to be out of reach, and I know the Genesis Hype Train is never far away, but the universe of top-selling progressive rock songs just isn't that big, is it? (I'm thinking King Crimson, the Moody Blues, ELP, Mars Volta, the couple of remaining hits from Dream Theater/Coheed & Cambria...My point is not to diss Prog, but to point out that the pool of genuinely huge artists/songs is pretty shallow).

As far as the Band being Canadian/American...well, you are right. But didn't they originate in Canada, whereas the Brits in Foreigner got together stateside?

[nascargo19]

Rush and Dream Theater are two prog bands I would buy (and have bought) everything from. Other than that I'm not sure.

[metalkorn]

Cool list - i'm honestly surprised the Linkin Park pack is as far down as it is, perhaps people bought the singles but I thought it was fairly high selling. Also interesting to see Classic Rock releases getting as much as they did this year, some discussion on the forums would make you think they never release any Classic Rock.

and of course Midnight Oil is Australian! They are listed as New Wave which kind of baffles me, in Australia it would be Classic Rock.

[rsm790]

Cool list - i'm honestly surprised the Linkin Park pack is as far down as it is, perhaps people bought the singles but I thought it was fairly high selling. Also interesting to see Classic Rock releases getting as much as they did this year, some discussion on the forums would make you think they never release any Classic Rock.

and of course Midnight Oil is Australian! They are listed as New Wave which kind of baffles me, in Australia it would be Classic Rock.

Classic Rock went from 49 to 18, so we really didn't get that much

[SheSaidSheSaid]

Seeing how low Smash Mouth's covers are, I guess there's little chance to get I'm a Believer by them(as I doubt the original is around). Being that we got a Shrek song before I thought it may be possible.

Did you truly mean the original?

[M_Robbins5]

Such a shame to see one of the best songs released this year (In My Head) so low in sales rankings for this year.
I was really hoping for more QOTSA in the future especially stuff from Songs for the Deaf.

[StackOverflow0x]

Seeing how low Smash Mouth's covers are, I guess there's little chance to get I'm a Believer by them(as I doubt the original is around). Being that we got a Shrek song before I thought it may be possible.

It's all about the Weezer cover.
But this year has also shown some rise in covers, right? I didn't follow DLC pre-2011.