Billboard has announced their new Social 50 chart. Serving as a complement to Billboard’s existing weekly rankings, the Social 50 chart will tally artists’ popularity using a formula blending weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with weekly artist page views and weekly song plays on MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and iLike. Data from these sites is gathered and provided to Billboard by social music tracking service Next Big Sound.
“We continue to adapt the way we chart the changing landscape of music,” says Billboard editorial director, Bill Werde. “The Social 50 is yet another step in the evolution of Billboard and an important response to our changing times.”
Bill, you should have launch the Social 50 chart at least 2 years ago. Billboard is behind the times and simply too scared to adapt and seems like the old method of charting music is becoming pointless and outdated.
M.I.A is really starting to gain momentum, and is on this week Billboard Magazine cover. The M.I.A article within Billboard covers everything from her recent twitter-blasts against the New York Times to her upcoming album.
M.I.A. had to say:
“I said, ‘Fuck the New York Times’.”
M.I.A also mentioned that she doesnt regret doing the story, but didnt go into much detail about the NYT article (I think we are all sick of hearing about it).
Billboard also talked to senior director of marketing Dyana Kass who said:
“She’s a controversial artist, and she always has been. That’s nothing new. When she does something it makes noise. That is what it is.”
There are so many stupid award ceremonies out there, but Billboard thought it would be worth adding another one to the list. Billboard has announced the Billboard Music App Awards on Tuesday.
For the first time, Billboard will set out to pay homage to the gods of… mobile music apps. Not desktop apps, mind you, just apps for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Nokia platforms. A “panel of industry visionaries” will whittle down apps to the finalists, which will be announced on September 1, 2010. All app makers are encouraged to apply for consideration at MobileEntertainmentLiveFall.com.
Billboard’s award categories are Best Artist-Based App, Best Music Streaming App, Best Music Engagement App, Best Music Creation App, and Best Branded App. To be eligible, an app must have been released between July 1, 2009 and July 30, 2010.
Winning apps will be announced at the Mobile Entertainment Live!: The Music App Summit on October 5. Select finalist apps will be featured in a pre-show section of Billboard magazine, and their developers will be able to demo their apps in person in Billboard’s “App Lounge” at said summit.
Who earned most in the US music industry last year? Here’s a rundown of the top ten, from Billboard (read the rest of their list here)
10 Metallica
$25,564,234
The release of “Guitar Hero – Metallica” backed up solid tour and back catalogue income for these vintage rock legends (their biggest selling track in 2009 was released in 1991!).
9 Kenny Chesney
$26,581,141
Country’s biggest star sold a lot of physical product and live tickets as well as 500,000 ringtones to achieve this total. Absolutely zero exposure this side of the pond though…
8 Coldplay
$27,326,562
$24 million in touring revenue, but only $1 million in album sales… still, not bad for a band so bland they have to rip off Joe Satriani.
7 Jonas Brothers
$33,596,576
Riding the Mouse train all the way to the bank.
6 Pink
$36,347,658
Pink is another artist who did well touring last year, with revenues of $35 million from live shows bolstered by lots of TV airtime and healthy album sales.
5 Britney Spears
$38,885,267
More touring, more album sales, more breakdowns, more wierd haircuts. I think it’s probably worth it for almost forty million dollars a year. She can retire before she’s 30 and just think about taking care of the kids…
4 AC/DC
$43,650,466
Over a million album sales last year, coupled with guess what? The 4th biggest grossing tour last year put these Aussie lads very firmly back in the black.
3 Madonna
$47,237,774
Leather skinned Yogi Madonna pulled the biggest tour of her career under her Live Nation deal.
2 Bruce Springsteen
$57,619,037
Making more money than ever before in his career, with highlights including a headline slot at Glastonbury and a performance at the Superbowl, Mr. S. shows us what the long tail really means.
1 U2
$108,601,283
A clever new 360 degree stadium stage setup means that the biggest earning band of last year could pack even more bodies into their stadium tour.
Billboard has always been a leader in breaking news and inside sources, however they seem to have lost their way a bit online. Thus, Billboard is now looking to grow its service even further and expand into other areas. Today, Billboard is launching a new service called Billboard Live. Having the chance to stream festivals across the ocean is nice, but Billboard offers us a customized version of streaming by letting us choose what we want their cameras to focus on.
According to Associated Press, not only does this new website offer music lovers FREE streaming of selected concerts, but there are options galore! Users get to choose from five different camera angles in which they would like to view the show.
Two more factors that could possibly make this the #1 concert-streaming site? First off, the ADD generation of social platforms have the option to also use Twitter or Facebook without having to leave the website. Secondly, (and of course) it’ll be available on for iPhone.
The first-ever Billboard Japan Music Awards will be held January 31 in Tokyo and broadcast live on Next Fuji, a cable channel of Fuji Television.
The inaugural event will honor the top artists in Japan for 2009 based on the Billboard Japan charts and votes from music fans. The charts include the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, which ranks songs based on retail and airplay data. The chart was launched by Japan-based Hanshin Contents Link (HCL) and Billboard in 2008.
The Billboard Japan Music Awards and the Billboard Japan charts are part of a master licensing agreement that was entered into by Billboard publisher, Nielsen Business Media and HCL in 2006.
Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” (Interscope/Universal) started a second week at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart yesterday.
I recently saw an indepth interview with Lady Gaga, who has previously written songs for Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls before actually getting signed for her talents. Lady Gaga has always been very outspoken even stating that: “I will be at the top of music for the next 10 years”.
