This is from Blabbermouth.net:

SEPULTURA's latest album, "Dante XXI", has sold just under 2,300 copies during its first week of release in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This figure is a bit more than half the 4,000+ first-week sales tally of the group's last CD, "Roorback", and significantly lower than the 10,000+ first-week number recorded by 2001's "Nation" (the band's 1998 effort, "Against", sold 18,000+ copies in its first week of release).

Talk about a fall from grace. Chaos AD and Roots actually go Gold here in the states (reaching the Billboard Top 40), and now this... You almost have to feel sorry for these guys.

could be because new sepultura sucks.

No it's not downloading. Sepultura just haven't been on the radar in years. Couple that with a steadily declining quality of albums, it's only natural that Sep' albums are selling less and less.

I'm going to have to disagree with you, Eyesore. The name Sepultura is legendary in the metal world, but they've fallen from grace ever since Max left (I'm not saying it makes sense, or that their music has gotten any better or worse; I've never really cared for them, personally). I don't think this figure is indicative of anything other than the fact that the new album ain't that great. After all, how many copies did St. Anger sell? Sepultura don't have the mainstream recognition that Metallica do, so when a mediocre album comes out, they're lacking the necessary legions of fanboys to move more than a couple thousand copies.

As far as downloading music in general goes, I'm firmly in the "it's a good thing" camp. Kazaa helped get me started in discovering new bands, and I generally bought the albums of the random bands I happened upon in my searches. I know this is only personal experience, but everyone I know had pretty much the same experience. I don't know if the numbers of the "obviously I'll have to buy this" side and the "ha, I've gotten it for free, now I don't have to spend my precious money" side balance out, but the former would be nigh-invisible to someone browsing download sites. I don't think it's quite as dire as you make it out to be.

Even for a band that has gone downhill, 2,300 copies is not a reflection of their music. Are you suggesting they only have 2,300 fans in the US now? They should be selling over 100,000 copies!

Look, I'm not against downloading. I feel like anyone should be able to know the product they're buying first, but I think that product should be paid for after that fact. Downloading is killing music. There is no other scenario that plays out.

I would say there are only 2,300 people who STILL care. They have put out 4 or 5 albums(not sure) since Max left and haven't delivered on any of them. Just massive dissapointment after dissapointment. If someone is still wasting money on their albums at this point, they've more than likely been lobotomized.

I'm not sure what you're arguing, then. As I said, you're not going to be able to tell how many people are downloading and then buying.

I wouldn't have bought half the albums i have now without downloading. I download to find stuff i like. It helps me get into bans i would never hear otherwise.

As do I, but we are a rarity.

On the other hand theres a lot of people that dont buy albums at all, well those people suck but its no downloading fault, they wouldnt be buying albums anyways.