Several hundreds? Over one thousand? Are you being serious? Ki sold 800 copies in the first week. City sold over 9000 in it's first week. I would say the number is closer to 100-200 thousand in total.

I find your lack of humor disturbing.

The 116 was amusing, the hundreds to thousands wasn't.

I thought I had my joke revealed when I wrote a new paragraph staring with the word "SERIOUSLY" (as in being, uh, you know, serious... As opposed to being, like, um... not serious as in joking), but apparently not.

Besides, I fail to see why it matters.

I never said it matters, I said I was curious.

good discussion. obviously he sells enough to get by but i'd be surprised if he's sold more than a million total. it sucks that bands sells millions of one CD the first week it comes out but it is what it is.

funny, when i told my wife that devin townsend is opening for btbam she was like "isn't he popular enough to tour a headliner?" i'm really not too sure of how popular he is; no one i talk to except for 1 or 2 people know who he is and that's thanks to me. SYL probably sold more cuz of being on century media and correct me if i'm wrong but i'm sure they toured more than his solo stuff.

For some reason I've often equated Devin with Ihsahn (ex-Emperor); he's sold nearly a million albums (5 emperor and 7 solo-ish projects over a similar period of time) so I would've thought it'd be higher than some of the numbers banded around here. And Dev is far more prolific and from what I can see has a far bigger studio and machine behind him. I know someone close to Ihsahn and although he and his wife 'get by ok' they're in no way living it large. I wouldn't be surprised if musicians of their calibre are on not much more than the industrial average for their respective countries. Musicians seem to get it from all sides - from 'fans' illegally downloading their music to record companies apparently offering less and less for more and more.

Anyway, from another metal forum I suspect the fans of Dev's solo work are a smaller number of very loyal but open minded metalheads. I've only started using this rather huge forum over the last week but would it be fair to say from some seasoned member that most around here prefer his solo work to SYL?

i wouldn't consider myself a seasoned member cuz i hardly ever post (even though i've been a member since like '04) but absolutely his solo stuff is waaay better than syl.

A good example (I thought) of the record industry at the moment...

Josh Silver from Type O Negative isn't playing on the current tour because he's training to be a paramedic. Type O might not be a massive main stream band but they have had their fair share of success.

I personally wouldn't say that it is way better, but SYL has amazing tunes and can never be taken away. However, at this point in my life I need something else and Devin is giving that to me with this Project.

When you're deep inside the community (these forums, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and whatnot) it's sometimes hard to see how small and unknown an artist really is. You're surrounded by people who love the same thing and talk about it all the time, then you take for granted that a large portion of the 'real world' knows about him even though it is not necessarily so.

Even though we may think that Devin's solo/DTB/DTP stuff is 'better' than SYL, I think SYL is much more well-known and popular. And for most people who do know who Devin Towsend is, he will be "that ugly bald guy from SYL" (no offence Dev ) so it seems evident to me that SYL has sold more records than Devin solo.

agreed. which i bet is why he decided to shave his head, to try and change his image and quit the drugs. m suret it grew stale for him and he wanted to try and distance himself from syl. not trying to put words in his mouth, but that's what i've gathered.

oh and add crazy to "ugly bald guy from SYL"

Nah man, I just bought one the other day 117

That is upwards of 116, dude.

Sheesh, what maths do they teach these kids these days? None of them can use a slide-rule either.

Sheesh, do the english, see, all the the maths taught that side of the pond would have had the 's' missing; If you had dropped the 's' and done the math we'd have had much better numbers.

I personally wouldn't say that it is way better, but SYL has amazing tunes and can never be taken away. However, at this point in my life I need something else and Devin is giving that to me with this Project.

yeah, that's the point exactly, you have it there. It's all about where you are, and we're all here, right now, including Devin and his family and all that matters to him.

I'm happy for everyone who are where they are right now, trying to do stuff to get by.

...and by getting by I don't mean casually screwing over the next available victim for your own ends.

Nothing will ever have the same impact that City had on me it was a big part of my adolescent years and helped me through alot of the rough spots. I didn't even know Devin had solo material up until about the new year of 06' when a friend showed me the light I remember buying ocean machine soon therafter and was hooked ever since

as to what's "better" the message is strong in all his material I guess it's a matter of who's ears are listening to it and what thier interpretation is

[JuZ]

To be honest I sort of associate City more with Devin than SYL as a band these days. City was a massive record for me too - I was in a certain headspace at the time that had me primed for it and that album was like the biggest explosion of cold, furious anger and rage wrapped in un-freaking believably epic, monstrously beautiful sound. I'd never heard ANYTHING like it. I think it has been and will continue to be regarded with awe and respect by many of those who claim to be "in the know" in metal.

SYL certainly toured like sweaty mofos for quite some time, promoting the hell out of the last couple of albums. Couple this with some promo work by CM (Dev even doing an intro ad thing for The Osbournes on MTV at one stage, which was pretty funny) and I wouldn't be surprised if these were the biggest SYL moneyspinners.

I also agree that SYL had the greater mass appeal, but I've been kicking around for a while now and I've observed that Dev's solo work engenders a deep loyalty and affection in those who connect with it. That's not to say that SYL doesn't, but there's a sense of authenticity and commitment and an emotional element to the solo stuff that's just... different. When people say "I will buy everything Devin Townsend ever puts out", you know that they often really mean that.

Biert is right - what Devin does is something of an acquired taste and those of us who have become so entwined in the fan-based web of forums, email lists etc. can't help but lose at least a little perspective. What so many of us genuinely consider "genius" (sorry Dev!) doesn't necessarily make for top 10 hits or even mass appeal. Many people aren't "into" music nearly enough to take the time to really listen to anything - music serves more as enjoyable, mood-altering background noise, or just another form of entertainment to be considered with no more thought than a bad US sit com or a quick burger for lunch. That's not a criticism at all - I think it's more a case of diff'rent strokes fer diff'rent folks.

I don't know if anyone really deserves to be pimping gangsta rich for anything while there are people going without through no fault of their own (and that's another story!). But I guess we can hope that the musicians who we admire can and will continue to make a sustainable, secure and comfortable living from what they do. Sadly that doesn't always happen - the free market is a seductive, delicious, insufferable whore sometimes.

I buy the albums and get all the merch I like and can afford. This year I got Ki and Addicted in return. As far as I'm concerned, I win!

well said, dude.

[The Dev]

For what it's worth:

I had a meeting with CM in LA last month, and they told me that cumulativly, the solo records individually sold the same, and sometimes more than the syl records. Without touring them.

The public perception that syl was a big band often had to do with the image, but really...even with ozzfest download etc, Synchestra did similar numbers to Alien.

Considering I've toured 3 times for the solo stuff in total, and syl toured probably 50 times, I believe that theres a glimmer of hope.

That being said, I think each record has done between 25 and 50 worldwide. (syl included) ...this is also one of my reasons for backing away from syl. Touring RELENTLESSLY and selling the same as something I don't tour for got old quick (well, 15 years quick) and with a family, it seemed obvious to me I needed to switch focus.

City was a solo record. Point blank. I included the guys in it the same way as I included the people in Addicted, or Ki, or Ocean Machine....it just ended up that they were A LOT of fun to hang out with. But every song on City was written in my bedroom on a 4 track by myself.

Ah well, what is supposed to happen, will. Lots of folks assume syl was a huge band, but we sold less (by a good deal) than our contemporaries. We were a 'visible' band, but really...the solo stuff has consistently sold the same. In some cases, more.