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Feedback Requested: Bad25 Sales. Why low sales?

I find they don't promote it enough. It's not just with Bad 25. Michael's not here to promote it and I feel like only fans seem to know about releases.
 
I felt that the products put out for Bad 25 were excellent but the promotion of it was a huge missed opportunity. The Pepsi promo was botched, (hard to find cans, terrible birthday tribute concert that really had nothing to do with MJ, 1 free remix download only available in the USA when it was originally promoted as several Pepsi exclusive downloads...it was like Pepsi decided to give up on this campaign before they even launched it [at least from what I saw in the USA]). Like others said the Bad25 documentary came out too late and didn't get the amount of attention it deserved.

Promo for the album was almost nonexistent around release time. I wouldn't have even known about the release if I wasn't on on fan forums and following MJ fan on twitter.

Also, the fan community is so deeply fractured right now and many are just sick of all the fighting for various reasons. Some have stopped coming to forums and other MJ related social media simply to avoid drama and with a lack of general product promotion that leaves fewer places for those fans to learn about upcoming launches.

It also seemed that motivation for a big fan push to get Bad 25 a high debut was also lacking for some reason. Once we saw the split charting of the various products (and possible nonreporting of MJ.com sales) for the first week on billboard, things kind of felt impossible (too many products and no organization on which product everyone would work together to push on top)

Price also was a big contributor to this problem. The deluxe set is priced at nearly $40 in some stores, that's way too expensive for someone to throw into their cart as an impulse buy.

I would have also liked a line of Tshirts for the Bad25 launch, it would have been nice to have a shirt that fits so I could represent while I'm out and about.
 
There are a few reasons why Bad 25 wasn't as successful as it could have been.

In no particular order:

Reason one: low promotion. The so-called "Pepsi commercial" for Bad 25 was either never aired in my state, or I always missed it. I only saw the TV ad for the collection once before a VEVO-sponsored video on YouTube, and I've never seen any poster or big display for it. The Pepsi cans, as well as the IJCSLY single reissue, were in low supply/an extreme pain in the butt to locate. (Although the single reissue was a success for a non-digital release.) There was no announcement or preparation for the single release of the Afrojack Bad remix, nor was there any big publicity for the Bad 25 concert. It was poorly handled, especially when compared to the success Thriller 25 achieved back in 2008. (I do keep in mind that it's notoriously tricky to promote an album properly when its artist isn't here to promote it, making public events and shows very difficult to pull off.)

Reason two: it's a reissue. Off the top of my head, I believe the standard edition (2-disc) of the compilation is available for $20-$30 at Walmart. For the casual fan, or any fan for that matter, that's essentially around $25 wasted on an album that's already available for $10, along with six new songs. Reissues are never monumental successes anyways. (Again, Thriller 25 is an exception.) From what I remember, the Wembley DVD was a decent seller, albeit the quality issue.

Reason three: the Michael controversy. Whether you're a believer or a doubter, the controversy with the Michael album still exists. I've seen people on fan forums protest Bad 25's release because of the Michael album's bull. The Estate's first real release of unreleased music was a bust, and now that sheds a bad light on any future releases.

All in all, two of the three main reasons I've listed above could easily be fixed for the 2013 release. However, reason three will never be resolved. Even if the debate were to end for some odd reason, there will still be people boycotting the Estate and refusing to purchase any future posthumous releases.
 
etoile 37;3751087 said:
Just a quick question... We know that the men running the Estate are great attorneys, but are they knowledgeable in marketing? .... So if they don’t have much knowledge about marketing, I hope they can get a marketing expert to help them.
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The Brown Gangsta;3751130 said:
Also, the fan community is so deeply fractured right now and many are just sick of all the fighting for various reasons. Some have stopped coming to forums and other MJ related social media simply to avoid drama and with a lack of general product promotion that leaves fewer places for those fans to learn about upcoming launches.

It also seemed that motivation for a big fan push to get Bad 25 a high debut was also lacking for some reason. Once we saw the split charting of the various products (and possible nonreporting of MJ.com sales) for the first week on billboard, things kind of felt impossible (too many products and no organization on which product everyone would work together to push on top)

Price also was a big contributor to this problem. The deluxe set is priced at nearly $40 in some stores, that's way too expensive for someone to throw into their cart as an impulse buy.
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I agree with both of these. Maybe the executors could hire someone to put product together. They may actually benefit if that person is a fan. Look how Thriller's 30th was celebrated. A tweet linking to the billboard article. That album deserves better than that.

Fan community fracture is huge and sometimes I feel they are helping to keep it that way.
 
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I'm happy with everything about Bad 25 for me except a couple of promotions are not good enough to show support for the album everywhere and also the Pepsi promotion is bad, they said worldwide for fans to get the cans,but not worldwide enough, they didn't release the cans in Canada, parts of US, UK, Sweden and some others. I emailed Pepsi Canada about the Michael Jackson cans and their response didn't get anywhere which is insulting which is the main reason I quit buying and drinking Pepsi.

Everything like the album, unreleased tracks and demos, the Wembley 88' DVD and the Spike Lee documentary are awesome, the best.

But the promotion including Pepsi is very poor to me.
 
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I have friends that like Michael but they didn't know about anything. I wish the pepsi cans had been available all over.

I hope this isn't a sign that people are not interested in Michael anymore. I thought there was a lot of positive energy for this.
 
etolie, I agree with what you say.

It's sad to me that Bad25 didn't do as well as expected, but what I want confirmed is - was it the overall sales or just the album/CD set? The DVD did have better sales rankings on Amazon.

The lower than expected sales, I think, are due to the promotion of the project being all over the place and too spaced out. The cans came out months in advance to the release and the Bad25 doc, too late. Because, while the hardcore fans will follow a project from inception, the public and casual fans will not bother to connect the dots between the various scattered media promos. It should have been a month of pre teasers leading up to a heavy burst during the month of the release. Online and social media advertising was also lacking - I feel.

As suggested, if the Estate has not been using a marketing consultant, I think they should get one onboard for the next and all future releases.
 
I loved the Bad 25 release and have no complaints. I thought the album was great, loved the new songs and the Wembley DVD was amazing! I was thrilled with the release.

The only problem maybe was promotion, it needed more advertising. But otherwise I thought it was the best MJ release we've had since 2009.
 
AlwaysThere said:
All in all, two of the three main reasons I've listed above could easily be fixed for the 2013 release. However, reason three will never be resolved. Even if the debate were to end for some odd reason, there will still be people boycotting the Estate and refusing to purchase any future posthumous releases.
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I think issue 3 could be resolved if the estate/Sony/Cascio either took those songs off Michael's catalog or demonstrated the original vocals before the key was changed with the melodyne. Whatever the truth is with those songs, it's obvious that putting them on the CD in the state they were in was a wrong choice. So people who made this choice should just come clean.

On a larger note I wonder how much all these issues such as DVD quality/Cascio tracks/hate for Sony influence the sales numbers. What is the contribution of the hardcore fans (who mostly care about all these issues) into the sales numbers versus general public? How big at all is the active fanbase that follows MJ-related stuff on a regular basis?
 
etoile 37 said:
Breaks worked well when Michael was still alive, but now that he's gone, it could have an adverse effect. It might be good for the general public, but fans need something to discuss and to keep them busy, or else the interest will fade away and we'll move on. What would happen to this forum if the Estate waited 4 years before the next release? Back when Michael was alive, it wasn't a problem, because even when he didn't release anything, we still saw a lot of him. He would perform, make special appearances, give interviews, or he'd be stalked by paparazzi. But now we would have NOTHING. Nothing to keep the interest up while we wait for the next album. I think a collectors label could be a very good solution here. That way the general market wouldn't be saturated with Michael Jackson products, and fans would still get little things on a regular basis to keep them interested.
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Yes, I think the Collectors Label might be the solution.

It's simply unrealistic from the Estate/Sony to expect that they put out a big project every year and it all will be a big seller, like it was right after Michael's death. Like I said in this thread http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/t...ts-putting-Michael-s-prospects-into-a-context it just never happened with any posthumus careers. When an artist is not here any more that makes it a lot different situation than when he is here.

They need to slow down a bit, at least for the general market. In only three years we have hade the post-death surge in sales, This Is It, the Michael album (which was disastrous for the fan community), Cirque du Soleil, Bad 25. Too many projects in too short time. Instead of anticipation built up the general public may have grown tired of Michael Jackson. Especially when the material they can operate with now is re-releasing old stuff again and again and demos.

I'd say take it slower and put more emphasis on quality! Hire top qulity people to work on MJ projects! Even regardless of the Cascio songs my problem with the Michael album was that it was a cheap, sloppy product. Michael would have never ever released it! It was a very poor work production-wise and the art work (album cover) was horrible IMO. If the Estate wants Michael to do well on the long term and be taken seriously as an artist, they should by no means cheapen him with such poor products. He definitely deserves a lot better than the Michael album!

Also like suggested earlier in this thread, before any big release hire marketing experts who are familiar with the modern ways of marketing.

On the other hand, I agree that for the core fan community it's important that always happens something, so I agree that a Collectors Label would be a good solution for that.

Also, Michael is, unfortunately, in a unique situation in that his last 20 years were basically two decades of attacks by the media: character assassination, ridiculue both on a personal and on an artistic level (when they were supposed to write about his music that too often turned into ad hominem attacks). No other artist ever had to face that! So in that respect it's a miracle that Michael's career still stood strong when he died, he sold out almost one million tickets for TII etc. But those media attacks definitely did not help his career and do not help his posthumus career either. I'm not saying it's the Eseate's task to get Jordan Chandler admit he lied, of course that's unrealistic to expect. But what I say is that maybe the Estate could help put the focus back on Michael's art AND help to promote people and projects who want to deal with Michael's music and art in a serious way. I guess Joe Vogel got such help, but there are also other scholars out there. Michael truly had so many important things to say, his art really isn't just about dancing to Billie Jean, even if the media tried to reduce him to that. But many people aren't even aware that he wasn't only about Billie Jean.
 
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I was very happy with BAD 25 release and have no complaints. Once I heard there is going to be Deluxe package, I set my mind to it, that would be the one to get. Only problem getting it was availability, had to do some searching in music stores to get it, but it was minor issue. I think if fan wants something badly enough, fan will get it sooner or late, one way or other.

I think if Spike's document had aired before the album release, it might have helped other people (non-fans) to purchase the album, but to me as a fan, it wouldn't have made any different whether it aired earlier or later.

Somebody also mentioned cover of Deluxe package. I personally loved it, but then again if non-fan sees it, Michael's name was nowhere on the cover,nor they couldn't see that package includes Wembley concert which was major selling point for me.
Also single Wembley concert DVD or Deluxe package was not available in all the music stores for casual listeners.

I don't this lack of promotion played big role whether fans bought it or not. We all knew BAD 25 is going to come, and those who wanted it bought it where ever they could find it, and those who were boycotting various issues, no amount of promotion was going to change their minds.

I'm one of fans that liked remixes and I understand by including a few remixes, they tried to appeal as many fans as possible and younger generation who has grown up with remixes. Fans who don't like them, can skip them, but if not including them, what about fans who likes them, there is no un-skipping:)



Btw, not so many comments from people who didn't buy?
 
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etoile 37;3751124 said:
Breaks worked well when Michael was still alive, but now that he's gone, it could have an adverse effect. It might be good for the general public, but fans need something to discuss and to keep them busy, or else the interest will fade away and we'll move on. What would happen to this forum if the Estate waited 4 years before the next release? Back when Michael was alive, it wasn't a problem, because even when he didn't release anything, we still saw a lot of him. He would perform, make special appearances, give interviews, or he'd be stalked by paparazzi. But now we would have NOTHING. Nothing to keep the interest up while we wait for the next album. I think a collectors label could be a very good solution here. That way the general market wouldn't be saturated with Michael Jackson products, and fans would still get little things on a regular basis to keep them interested.
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I agree that there needs to some releases to keep the fanbase active. But if we’re talking about why Bad25 had lower sales than expected I do think timing is an issue. I just don’t think having big releases with unreleased songs almost every year is going to work well in the long run. Releasing little things that only fans care about anyway would be a good idea, that way fans would have something to look forward to and talk about, but Michael wouldn’t be overexposed to the general public. And then we could have breaks between major releases, and hopefully the general public would be more interested in new MJ material again.


The Brown Gangsta;3751130 said:
Also, the fan community is so deeply fractured right now and many are just sick of all the fighting for various reasons. Some have stopped coming to forums and other MJ related social media simply to avoid drama and with a lack of general product promotion that leaves fewer places for those fans to learn about upcoming launches.

It also seemed that motivation for a big fan push to get Bad 25 a high debut was also lacking for some reason. Once we saw the split charting of the various products (and possible nonreporting of MJ.com sales) for the first week on billboard, things kind of felt impossible (too many products and no organization on which product everyone would work together to push on top)
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Good points. I know some huge MJ fans irl who don’t come to online forums at all because they just can’t stand the drama and negativity. It’s really sad that the fan community is so fractured. I really hope that would change, but I don’t know if it will.

And I agree that fans didn’t seem very motivated to help Bad25 get good sales. There was a thread about a fan campaign to help Bad25’s chart success, but it didn’t get much attention, whereas for example a thread about the DVD quality went on for pages and pages. I’m not saying fans have to do anything to help the album’s sales, and it’s not like fan campaigns necessarily have any effect on sales. But it was interesting that there wasn’t even much interest in such fan promotion campaigns. I occasionally visit forums for other artists, and it was just very different on those forums, I saw a lot of threads about what fans can do to help a release’s success.

I don’t know why it was so different on MJ forums. Maybe people don’t care about sales and chart success because they feel that Michael has nothing to prove anymore, which would be totally fine and understandable imo. But sometimes I wonder if it has more to do with the division in the MJ fan community. It seems like there’s always some issue that divides the fanbase, fans are so often fighting with other fans about different things, and it makes it harder for fans to unite and try to do something together.
 
I did buy it although I do have the bad album itself. I think it was a great product. The unreleased songs were fantastic and I cant understand why some of you think the DVD footage of the concert was bad. I thought it was excellent. I would have bought the buckle case but it was too expensive for me. I do agree about marketing. Time are changing and they need to find different ways of reaching out to fans and non fans. Like twitter and facebook and tumblr. They also need to interact with all fan sites on the internet. The thing I dont get is if there any fans who did not know how is that possible. There are life long hardcore fans on fan sites and I heard they were not aware of it. I find that strange. I heard about it because I am on fan sites
 
etoile 37 said:
Breaks worked well when Michael was still alive, but now that he's gone, it could have an adverse effect. It might be good for the general public, but fans need something to discuss and to keep them busy, or else the interest will fade away and we'll move on. What would happen to this forum if the Estate waited 4 years before the next release? Back when Michael was alive, it wasn't a problem, because even when he didn't release anything, we still saw a lot of him. He would perform, make special appearances, give interviews, or he'd be stalked by paparazzi. But now we would have NOTHING. Nothing to keep the interest up while we wait for the next album. I think a collectors label could be a very good solution here. That way the general market wouldn't be saturated with Michael Jackson products, and fans would still get little things on a regular basis to keep them interested.
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Yes, I even feel it myself, who was and still is a very "obsessed" Michael fan... but the fire lowers if there's too long between releases or between news we can anticipate on something exciting!
 
People here keep mentioning 'Cascio Tracks'. I hope this doesn't sound stupid but what are they exactly and what tracks are they? Are they anything to do with Frank Cascio?
 
Dilan said:
People here keep mentioning 'Cascio Tracks'. I hope this doesn't sound stupid but what are they exactly and what tracks are they? Are they anything to do with Frank Cascio?
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These tracks are from the 2010 "michael" cd release and im sure i remember correctly they were to do with frank and i think his bro as well......
 
I´m from Germany but have been working and living in Norway and Sweden for the last 1 1/2 year. There the BAD25 COLLECTORS EDITION BOX wasn´t not released. And no Pepsi cans. No commercial on TV or outside in town. When browsing the sites that sell music it´s not even popping up as the first thing. You have to look around to find it. Very bad promotion I would say, if any. Germany is a bit better.
 
i think better promotion could have helped the sales numbers but did they tought that it would sell 3 million copies???
i remember in 2009 people that bought his hole collection (off the wall thriller bad dangerous history invincible) so why would they buy bad again with 6 new song + most store have not display'd the album they put it with the rest of mj cd's so most people will not see it. i have bought every bad 25 thing and i liked it a lot but an other cover for the live dvd would also helps because its almost black so people don't see what it is.It almost looks like an cheap bootleg DVD:mello:
 
^^ I don't have a problem with the cover picture, in fact I like it, but I just ordered the standalone DVD from Amazon (I already had the Deluxe boxset, but I wanted a standalone DVD too) and I was surprised that it's in a paper case. I expected it to come in normal plastic DVD case. :unsure:
 
AlwaysThere said:
There are a few reasons why Bad 25 wasn't as successful as it could have been.

In no particular order:

Reason one: low promotion. The so-called "Pepsi commercial" for Bad 25 was either never aired in my state, or I always missed it. I only saw the TV ad for the collection once before a VEVO-sponsored video on YouTube, and I've never seen any poster or big display for it. The Pepsi cans, as well as the IJCSLY single reissue, were in low supply/an extreme pain in the butt to locate. (Although the single reissue was a success for a non-digital release.) There was no announcement or preparation for the single release of the Afrojack Bad remix, nor was there any big publicity for the Bad 25 concert. It was poorly handled, especially when compared to the success Thriller 25 achieved back in 2008. (I do keep in mind that it's notoriously tricky to promote an album properly when its artist isn't here to promote it, making public events and shows very difficult to pull off.)

Reason two: it's a reissue. Off the top of my head, I believe the standard edition (2-disc) of the compilation is available for $20-$30 at Walmart. For the casual fan, or any fan for that matter, that's essentially around $25 wasted on an album that's already available for $10, along with six new songs. Reissues are never monumental successes anyways. (Again, Thriller 25 is an exception.) From what I remember, the Wembley DVD was a decent seller, albeit the quality issue.

Reason three: the Michael controversy. Whether you're a believer or a doubter, the controversy with the Michael album still exists. I've seen people on fan forums protest Bad 25's release because of the Michael album's bull. The Estate's first real release of unreleased music was a bust, and now that sheds a bad light on any future releases.

All in all, two of the three main reasons I've listed above could easily be fixed for the 2013 release. However, reason three will never be resolved. Even if the debate were to end for some odd reason, there will still be people boycotting the Estate and refusing to purchase any future posthumous releases.
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all in a nutshell

the promotion/marketing was HORRIBLE. A lot of people didn't know about the release when September 18 came.

The price was a bit of an issue also. I saw it at Walmart and Target with the 2CD edition being $12-15.99 which is quite reasonable but the deluxe edition (which I think most fans wanted) went from $35-50

When the set was announced in May, that gave the estate and Sony 4 months to boost public awareness. Pepsi dropped the ball on the cans because for the most part, you couldn't find it in most stores. Here in the US, the "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" single was a Walmart exclusive when it should've been available everywhere

I didn't see the 30 second commercial until a week or so after the set was released and it was on Youtube. That advert should've been all over TV

the set itself was great although the inclusions of the 3 remixes were pointless and could have been replaced with 3 more unreleased songs/demos

Which brings me to the documentary. It should've aired on TV within weeks of the released. It came out on a Tuesday in the US so the edited version should have aired on TV on the following Friday with the full version screened in theaters soon after. I feel if they

-Had a more aggressive marketing campaign
-Aired the documentary in the first 2 weeks of the release

sales would've been better


it's already been said before, but the "Michael" situation has REALLY affected any future sales because a lot of fans don't support any Estate and Sony release because of it
 
I bought a deluxe package and love it.
But I hadn´t known about it if I hadn´t joined this fanforum and I think there are many who don´t know about Bad25.
Lot´s of people bought Bad album after Michael´s death and wasn´t interested to buy Bad products-except for the dvd maybe.

They might send Bad25 documentary this christmas in Sweden but I agree with those who have written it should have been shown worldwide before.
Immortal tour came to Europe this autumn, people have been interested to see it,I feel people are still interested in Michael Jackson, but all of them aren´t on fanforums they got to get information somewhere to know about it
 
mj_brainiac said:
the set itself was great although the inclusions of the 3 remixes were pointless and could have been replaced with 3 more unreleased songs/demos

Which brings me to the documentary. It should've aired on TV within weeks of the released. It came out on a Tuesday in the US so the edited version should have aired on TV on the following Friday with the full version screened in theaters soon after.
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I agree; there was quite a long time (about two months) in between the release of the documentary and the release of the set itself. But I don't think the inclusion of remixes really affected anything. Two remixes really doesn't take away from the six new songs. (I consider both Afrojack remixes as the same song, regardless of the editing.)

Dilan said:
People here keep mentioning 'Cascio Tracks'. I hope this doesn't sound stupid but what are they exactly and what tracks are they? Are they anything to do with Frank Cascio?
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It's hard to explain this easily, so forgive me if it's all over the place:

The Cascio tracks are twelve tracks that were supposedly recorded with Frank Cascio's brother Eddie in 2007. There's a huge controversy surrounding them, mainly because a large portion of the fan community believe that the vocals on the tracks are of an impersonator rather than Michael himself. Three of the Cascio tracks were officially released, and the remaining nine are slowly leaking in small snippets and portions. Here's a list of the Cascio tracks:

Breaking News (officially released on the Michael album)
Monster (officially released on the Michael album)
Keep Your Head Up (officially released on the Michael album)
Stay (leaked online)
All I Need (leaked online)
Water
Ready 2 Win
All Right
Soldier Boy (leaked online)
Burn Tonight (leaked online)
Fall in Love
Black Widow

I apologize for going off-topic, just wanted to answer a question :)
 
In my opinion, the BAD25 Deluxe package is absolutely beautiful and I love every bit of it, save for the remixes which I still haven't listened to. My personal favorites are the demos and the Wembley concert. For me, the quality of the DVD was just fine; it was recorded in 1988 for heaven's sake and I understood the Estate's explanation for releasing that particular date.

Just like others have mentioned, the promotion for the total release left much to be desired, beginning with the difficulty in
finding the pepsi cans. The universally lauded documentary really should have been widely released to theaters rather than
buried in a severely cut version on ABC and a wait of 4-5 months for the DVD release.

I was fortunate to see the full doc in LA at Graumann's and nothing compares to that experience. I know Spike Lee pushed to have it released widely but was unsuccessful.

I also wonder about the various different packages for BAD25...which ones were counted for total sales?

We are now in the digital age and my hope is that for the next release, an up to date market promotion is utilized.
 
I purchased the 3CD/DVD package and the DVD alone. I had to ask in store for them as they were not out on the shelves on the 1st day of release ( or the few put out had been sold). I agree the promotion was very poor (in the UK). There are very few 'high street' music retailers now, and I expected to see large posters in the windows of HMV, but there were none. I asked about counter displays, and they said they had none.
The description of contents on the boxes is in tiny , hard to read print...the words 'previously unreleased tracks' don't exactly jump out at you. I thought they would be playing in store, and the concert would be on DVD player loop in store, but no sign of it actually being played. Some really great, full colour posters from the concert might have been helpful....the black and white one in the box is nice...but I think would mainly attract current fans. Really, nothing about the way the box was packaged and presented said 'new' to me. There were some nice pictures in the booklets inside the box, but you got no idea about the contents of the booklets from looking at the outside of the box. Even the cardboard cover for the in-box DVD was boring..posters advertising wembley and pictures of the crowd....with Michael's back on the back. If I'd been marketing this, I'd have wanted covers, posters and counter displays from the 'concert pictures month by month' booklet. Some of these photos are great (lots of movement and excitement), but wasted on such a tiny scale. Perhaps the CDs would have been better paired with the documentary.

Also I agree that price (for the buckled box) was an issue; I wouldn't pay that much extra for essentially a plastic box, a repro ticket and a t-shirt. This part of the package really did seem for 'collectors only'. The Bad25 jacket also seemed to be priced for collectors only.

I know that the pepsi campaign was a side issue (advertising pepsi at least as much as 'Bad'), but it was disappointing not to see this promotion in the UK, and I think it would have helped had it been here. The blue can design wasn't as attractive as the (presumably more expensive) multicolour design that was rejected.

There seems to be a downward spiral of 'diminishing returns'. The less anyone wants to spend on promotion, the less the product is purchased, so even less will be spent next time. Michael and his music (and especially the concert performances) deserve better.
 
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LMAT said:
In my opinion, the BAD25 Deluxe package is absolutely beautiful and I love every bit of it, save for the remixes which I still haven't listened to. My personal favorites are the demos and the Wembley concert. For me, the quality of the DVD was just fine; it was recorded in 1988 for heaven's sake and I understood the Estate's explanation for releasing that particular date.
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Man in the Mirror performance in Moonwalker was also filmed in 1988 so the year when it was recorded is not the reason for the bad quality. :)
 
1) Matt Forger confirmed there is a Pepsi version of "Price of Fame". This song should have been included in new TV commercials combined with a single release of the regular version of "Price of Fame" (perhaps slightly remixed/updated). Any company would pay big money to have a new, original Michael Jackson song written specifically to promote it. I'm sure Pepsi was NEVER told about "PoP".

2) "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" should have been made a duet with a current star like Alicia Keys or Beyonce. They have unseen HD studio footage of Michael singing the song (that would make for a great new music video).
The new duet could have been premiered as a live performance with the footage shown there for the first time.

3) They should have tracked down the film reels of the Wembley shows and the behind-the-scenes documentary made at the time and premiered it at cinemas worldwide. If it was impossible - released a high quality show on DVD.

4) The Live CD is the first ever and probably only live Michael Jackson album, yet it's not even available as a standalone product.

5) "I'm So Blue" or "Al Capone" should have been sent out to radio stations as promo singles.

6) The Spike Lee documentary should have been premiered on TV at the time of the album release.

7) APOLOGIZE for the Cascio songs and take the "Michael" album off the market.

McClain and Branca obviously have no clue what value the things they control have, and no idea how to make the most of them. My advice? Hire a knowledgeable person and have more humility.
 
1) IMO The main reason is most songs(6) in Bad also included in michael's Number 1 album, which the public and music fans already owned. So most people have less desire to spend money just for a few demos or remix. when the consumers limited to collectors and die hard fans, the sale number is understandably low.

2)Another disadvantage is Michael's children are still young. they don't have the well spoken, public recognized, legitimate Michael Jackson representative to give interviews, have media exposure to promote the project.

3)They need to create something for people to talk about (positivity). something groundbreaking to draw public attention. a good example is the Tupac hologram. but you need to be the pioneer, the first one to do it to have such effect.

4)the cascio tracks(so wrong, embarrassingly stupid). The first new album since his death, highly anticipated, a golden chance and a very crucial step but they messed up terribly.
 
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I think their humility is all right, and I also see reason behind many of their decisions. For example fans were waiting eagerly for Wembley show for a long time, and if the estate doesn't have HD footage, releasing what they had seemed a lot better than releasing nothing (as some here suggest). It's still MJ's legacy, and it has enormous value even in crappy quality. (Look at the quality of some bootleg shows people are sharing on fan boards. Still, fans download them.)

Airing "Bad 25" doc on Thanksgiving had its merits because the TV audience on Thanksgiving is a lot bigger, so they hoped to raise awareness about the release with bigger number of people. And although I hated how it was chopped by ABC, I still think it's important that a lot of people saw that. And it would have been hard to estimate beforehand if it was more efficient to air it right after that CD release or onThanksgiving, because every approach has its advantages.

I do have to agree though that singles on the radio, new song/footage for Pepsi commercial and a video with MJ studio footage could have helped. And the fact that many people already own Bad probably prevented them from buying. I personally would have been happy to have just CD2 and 3 and the DVD. We all had Bad album already.
 
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