Archive for: indie music

Digital Music Rides High in 2009 – Neilsen Soundscan Report

Neilsen gathers information from both bricks and mortar and online stores in the US, and has released a full report of music sales in 2009. The album charts are more or less what you might expect, apart from the last minute addition of Susan Boyle, who sold almost as much in the 5 weeks after her debut was released as Taylor Swift, the next biggest selling artist of 2009.  Michael Jackson’s death in the Summer undoubtedly caused his high chart position, but dear old Lady Gaga has smashed into the number 4 position from practically a standing start. Shows what you can achieve if you’re prepared to take your clothes off in a college bar, dole out some pizza and start selling your hair.

Best Selling Albums 2009

1. Fearless / Taylor Swift ~ 3,217,000
2. I Dreamed a Dream / Susan Boyle ~ 3,104,000
3. Number Ones / Michael Jackson ~ 2,355,000
4. The Fame / Lady Gaga ~ 2,238,000
5. My Christmas / Andrea Bocelli ~ 2,207,000
6. Hannah Montana: The Movie (soundtrack) / Hannah Montana ~ 1,823,000
7. The E.N.D. / Black Eyed Peas ~ 1,787,000
8. Relapse / Eminem ~ 1,735,000
9. The Blueprint 3 / Jay-Z ~ 1,515,000
10. Only by the Night / Kings of Leon ~ 1,398,000

In terms of an artists’ overall units, rather than single albums, MJ topped the list, with the Beatles (whose catalogue is owned by the Jackson estate) making a surprise appearance at number 3, presumably supported by their Rock Band license deal.

2009 TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS

(based on Album sales from 12/29/2008-1/3/2010)

1. Michael Jackson  ~   8,286,000
2. Taylor Swift     ~    4,643,000
3. Beatles    ~     3,282,000
4. Susan Boyle    ~     3,104,000
5. Lady Gaga     ~    2,813,000
6. Andrea Bocelli    ~     2,668,000
7. Michael Buble     ~    2,280,000
8. Eminem       ~      2,166,000
9. Carrie Underwood   ~    1,895,000
10. Black Eyed Peas   ~   1,881,000

Another widely expected, but still pleasing phenomenon is that while the CD slides sickeningly into obscurity, vinyl sales are up: 33% in a single year, to 2.5 million albums. The Beatles and Jackson feature high on the list in the vibyl format, resting on a bed of heavy listening, serious music fan music like Fleet Foxxes, Animal Collective and Radiohead.

2009 TOP TEN VINYL ALBUMS
(12/29/2008-1/3/2010)

Abbey Road/ Beatles       ~       34,800
Thriller/ Michael Jackson      ~       29,800
Merriweather Post Pavilion/Animal Collective  ~   14,000
Wilco/ Wilco        ~       13,200
Fleet Foxes/ Fleet Foxes       ~      12,700
Backspacer/ Pearl Jam         ~        12,500
Veckatimest/ Grizzly Bear       ~      11,600
Appetite for Destruction/ Guns N’ Roses    ~     11,500
Big Whiskey & the…/Dave Matthews Band    ~    11,500
In Rainbows/ Radiohead         ~        11,400

2009 TOP TEN VINYL ARTISTS
(based on vinyl album sales from 12/29/2008 – 1/3/2010)

Radiohead       ~      45,700
Beatles       ~      38,800
Michael Jackson    ~     30,400
Metallica       ~      30,200
Wilco          ~       29,600
Bob Dylan       ~      24,500
Animal Collective     ~    20,600
Pearl Jam       ~      19,900
Bon Iver       ~      17,100
Iron & Wine      ~       16,600

Digital Music Store Focus – Insound

Insound is a minor player with a lot of heart involved in its operation. They essentially act as a blog and record label, picking up and supporting new acts that are to their taste, promoting them and selling their music through the site. They’re a smaller retailer that survives by taking an active interest in the bands they sell, keeping their margins high (read higher prices to the consumer – MP3 downloads $9.99-$10.49) and selling other trendy stuff, badges, bags, books etc. If you can convince them that you’re worth selling they’ll really make an effort to put you out in front of their indie audience, with promotional tools like free MP3 downloads and custom merch to drag people in to buy your music. RouteNote doesn’t currently do digital distribution to Insound – your best bet would be to approach them directly.

***EDIT***

Just to respond to that comment: a totally unfair comparison of someone who happened to be on Insound’s MP3 download front page when I looked, The Castanets, shows their album ‘Texas Rose…’ as being $1.50 cheaper on Amazon ($8.99) than on Insound ($10.49). Please feel free to refute me with your own research. I think Insound might deserve the extra money for taking an active interest in the bands they promote, and I hope they pass on more $ to their artists, but as a straight comparison, Amazon is cheaper (admittedly this is only one example).

Kutiman – Thru You

Now this is the kind of innovation I love to see, especially when it produces something as full of feeling and funk as these tracks from Israeli producer Kutiman. He’s gathered toghether a mass of miscellaneous ‘objets trouvee’ that others have uploaded on YouTube, and made some really varied and fantastic tunes with them. He explains it thus:

And here are the videos themselves, in handy playlist form. Please do watch them all: YouTube must need the traffic after removing all the commercial videos from their site…

Please also check out Kutiman’s own website and sent him some love if you like his work: http://thru-you.com/