Sell 10,000 CDs?

From Business Week: "Kissing Off the Big Music Labels" (thanks, Laurie):

"The birth of Tilly and the Wall online hints at the threat to the recording industry. Major labels typically need a band to sell at least 500,000 records to make a decent profit because of their high overhead. Efficient indie bands cut out the middlemen and can make a tidy living on 20,000 or 30,000 albums. Tilly and Team Love expect to break even at 10,000 CDs, a respectable number for an indie band's first album. With the online marketing, backed up by a tour, Tilly has sold 3,000 copies of Wild Like Children in the two months since the CD's release."

This nugget is not the main gist of the piece, but it gives me hope, in an odd way. If I can sell 10,000 records, man, I will be well past breaking even!!! I only know one person in my genre who has purported to do so, mainly by extensive touring and festival gigs. Makes me wonder, though--can 10,000 CDs really be merely "a respectable number for an indie band's first album"? That sounds like a miracle to me, given that most releases (major or indie) sell fewer than 1,000 copies. Same goes for 3,000 copies in two months. That's mighty impressive.