It is likely that Susan Boyle will perform for Pope Benedict XVI on his tour of Britain later this year. Negaotiations are still taking place, but it is likely going to happen in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park on September 16.
Benedict’s four-day trip will be the first papal visit to Britain since Pope John Paul II in 1982.
Even though we don’t do her digital music distribution, we still love Lady Gaga. She’s every bit as much of a paragon for the new music industry as Radiohead and Trent Reznor, as a long article on the Wall Street Journal, in which they extol her virtuosity at replacing the ‘lost’ revenue from the music she gives away with other sources of income: touring, licensing, make-up endorsement deals…
An interesting point made in the article is that:
…much of Gaga’s audience got her music for free, and legally. They have listened to free streams—by the hundreds of millions—on YouTube and the other online services that Gaga currently leads, according to research firm BigChampagne. On MySpace, Gaga has had 321.5 million plays. By contrast, singer Susan Boyle tallied only 133,000 plays, despite scoring the No. 2 selling album of 2009. A difference (among many) between Gaga and the dowdy Scotswoman discovered on a British talent show: Ms. Boyle’s material, including “Amazing Grace,” was traditional—and so were most of her buyers. Some 97% of her albums were sold on compact disc.
This really underlines the generation gap between Gaga and Boyle, which points at a larger truth – while it is still possible to have enourmous commercial success through the traditional routes, Boyle’s fame being delivered mostly through the TV and her sales being on CD, this market will be dwindling with time. Young consumers are more used to getting their music online and for free.
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.
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)
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
|
2009 TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS (based on Album sales from 12/29/2008-1/3/2010) |
||||||||||
|
Title/Artist |
Units Sold |
Artist |
Units Sold |
|||||||
| 1 |
Fearless/ Taylor Swift |
3,217,000 | 1 | Michael Jackson | 8,286,000 | |||||
| 2 |
I Dreamed A Dream/ Susan Boyle |
3,104,000 | 2 | Taylor Swift | 4,643,000 | |||||
| 3 |
Number Ones/ Michael Jackson |
2,355,000 | 3 | Beatles | 3,282,000 | |||||
| 4 |
Fame/ Lady Gaga |
2,238,000 | 4 | Susan Boyle | 3,104,000 | |||||
| 5 |
My Christmas/ Andrea Bocelli |
2,207,000 | 5 | Lady Gaga | 2,813,000 | |||||
| 6 |
Hannah Movie Sndtrk/ Hannah Montana |
1,823,000 | 6 | Andrea Bocelli | 2,668,000 | |||||
| 7 |
E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies)/ Black Eyed Peas |
1,787,000 | 7 | Michael Buble | 2,280,000 | |||||
| 8 |
Relapse/ Eminem |
1,735,000 | 8 | Eminem | 2,166,000 | |||||
| 9 |
Blueprint 3/ Jay-Z |
1,515,000 | 9 | Carrie Underwood | 1,895,000 | |||||
| 10. |
Only By the Night/ Kings of Leon |
1,398,000 | 10. | Black Eyed Peas | 1,881,000 | |||||
Christmas looms, and with it the prospect of a new X-Factor winner’s Christmas No.1 – and as we reported Susan Boyle’s recently released album has broken sales records all over the place, selling 411,820 copies in the first 3 days, beating the combined sales total of the rest fo the top 5, and dragon-punching Leona Lewis from the top spot all the way down to 5th place in the UK charts. The big prize is the top slot in the USA charts, and given the amount of hype surrounding the impending American release, it seems like a safe bet that Susan will knock Jay-Z off the podium in time for the stockings to go up over the fireplace.
If we do get another number one single from the upcoming X-Factor winner, then the high-waisted hero of Sony’s catalogue will have guided not one but two artists to the number one spot; even though Susan dropped out of the X-Factor competition, she still signed a contract with Simon’s record label. If he can just face down the chagrin of knocking off a charity single (Children in Need currently have the number one single) then Mr. C will have a lot to laugh about this Christmas. If you want to keep updated on how sales are going in the USA this Winterval, here’s a link to some live stats: http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/sales/salescht.cgi
