I didn't think it was possible to be awarded Platinum when the actual sales are 70.000 copies. So I thought he sold more, but the comments on there proved me wrong.
I've learnt a lot reading the comments to this article. Not everything might be true, but it seems to be coming from people who are aware of what is happening in the music industry.
Regarding promo, I think that from the point of view of a Mika fan, especially a non-French one, Mika has spent a lot of time promoting the album in France. But if I try to have a view from 'outside', we haven't seen that much of him. If you weren't on the right channel/station at the right time, it was very easy to miss news about his new album. I don't really think he lacked promo. I'm more on the side of those saying (either here on MFC or below this particular article) that the chosen singles were not the best ones to promote TOOL. It seems obvious to a lot of people that Stardust was the right choice. I think LYWID could be successful too. Someone on that site mentioned Karen too. But as you say, the best single was EMD but we don't even get the feeling that it's part of TOOL.
Someone on there is saying that the record company makes money as long as 50.000 copies are sold. If it's true then I think they are not too unhappy about the sales. Also, earlier I wrote about TOOL being a flop but if I read more carefully they are rather putting it in the disappointment category.
One last thing; a few users on that site are implying that Mika refused to do more promo in France (because he's too full of himself :rolls_eyes: ) so it's his fault if TOOL doesn't sell well...