Sales figures for the Pitchfork top 50 for 2010

F

Fundamental

Well-known member
outraygeous said:
Not every store is chart registered
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Of course not, but the majority of rock/indie stores are and those linked to the Chain With No Name distribution will be. That would make the largest in every major city chart registered, plus if your local regional indie does in-store signings/gigs then it will be chart registered. Dance music stores that are or were formerly vinyl lead might not be, but to be honest they are missing a trick, if they have vested insterests in artists or labels. Tinie Tempah would probably have been signed 2 years quicker if it were the case for instance.
 
F

Fundamental

Well-known member
Also, while perhaps independent labels are not shifting as many units as they might have done in the 90s there has never been a greater shift of power towards the artist or 'artist label'.

Major record labels are screwed because they have huge overheads and a sluggish, top-down system of management. Artist lead labels can be spontaneous and keep their ear to the floor better. Digital overheads are negligible and lead times are short. Profits are near instant and will be 100% rather than a paltry avg-18% offered by majors. I'll give some examples....

Ed Shereen: was basically unsigned, Had a number 2 EP in the iTunes UK chart 2 weeks back, funded off of selling his CDs at gigs for 5 quid. Is signing a deal today with Atlantic.

Tinie Tempah was discovered after the indie distributor for his CDs rang up the head of EMI because he saw a kid coming in with presses of 10,000 units at a time.

Rinse FM: their jewel is Katy B, had a grassroots campaign and digital drive on itunes/twitter has put several tracks in the top 10. Radio 1 were completely cool with supporting a non-major act and it paid off.

Digital Soundboy hooking up with Universal, similar things with several other underground labels.

Even mid-level indies are better well oiled than the majors. See Wretch 32 pwning it this week on the Ministry of Sound label.

There are plenty of people making money still. Real money not hype driven, re-coupable record advances.
 
Elijah

Elijah

Butterz
Fundamental said:
Also, while perhaps independent labels are not shifting as many units as they might have done in the 90s there has never been a greater shift of power towards the artist or 'artist label'.

Major record labels are screwed because they have huge overheads and a sluggish, top-down system of management. Artist lead labels can be spontaneous and keep their ear to the floor better. Digital overheads are negligible and lead times are short. Profits are near instant and will be 100% rather than a paltry avg-18% offered by majors. I'll give some examples....

Ed Shereen: was basically unsigned, Had a number 2 EP in the iTunes UK chart 2 weeks back, funded off of selling his CDs at gigs for 5 quid. Is signing a deal today with Atlantic.

Tinie Tempah was discovered after the indie distributor for his CDs rang up the head of EMI because he saw a kid coming in with presses of 10,000 units at a time.

Rinse FM: their jewel is Katy B, had a grassroots campaign and digital drive on itunes/twitter has put several tracks in the top 10. Radio 1 were completely cool with supporting a non-major act and it paid off.

Digital Soundboy hooking up with Universal, similar things with several other underground labels.

Even mid-level indies are better well oiled than the majors. See Wretch 32 pwning it this week on the Ministry of Sound label.

There are plenty of people making money still. Real money not hype driven, re-coupable record advances.
Click to expand...

When independent artists go to a major they always lie about sales. I dont know why.

Ed Sheeran was already involved with the label before hand.

Tinie Tempah or no other Grime MC was going to independent distributors with 10,000 CDs. If Tinie was doing 10,000 CDs on the underground we would of known about it.

Wretch 32 your right is on Ministry Of Sound, but they have spent a lot of money getting him PR. He is number 4 in the midweeks with 16,000 sold. 95% of that would be digital, even if they where getting the full 79p, that isnt not even £16,000 and would be a loss making project. They are paying a lot out to help get the profile to sell albums. But these peoples albums are not selling.

Urban music economics is totally screwed
 
W

Webstarr

Well-known member
I'd be interested to know what cut the label takes off live performances, they much be taking a chunk as its the only place artists are making serious cash. Tinie Tempah is doing bookings for £10,000 a go, maybe even more now. I can see it coming to the stage where the whole recording business at that level is basically a marketing tool to get bookings and sell merchandise
 
C

continuum

smugpolice
2p > the more music availability moves away from a money making operation the better. buying music is a waste of money. you simply don't need to if you have the internet or friends. live performance and merchandise are where an artist will make there living solely.
 
F

Fundamental

Well-known member
Ed Sheeran has had majors/publishers sniffing about for months yeah, but not a pound was spent by Atlantic to get that EP into the itunes chart. Accepted he used a few big names help it get there but when ever has that ever been the case in the record industry before?

Tempah had virtually no heat on him until EMI caught wind of his pressing figures, fact.

The point about Wretch is that Ministry is not the average major label vehicle to be hitting a top 5 chart position, January time accepted. the Rinse/Katy B thing certainly is not. The equivalent of Rinse ten years ago would be something could be something like True Playaz or maybe XL and while the figures dime for dime might have even been more, they wouldn't be competing with the majors as a percentage of the market. Majors are tumbling, and the indies are rising.

The music industry is still screwed of course...
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
continuum said:
2p > the more music availability moves away from a money making operation the better. buying music is a waste of money. you simply don't need to if you have the internet or friends. live performance and merchandise are where an artist will make there living solely.
Click to expand...

that's a little extreme. there are plenty of artists who don't sell perform live, either because their music doesn't lend itself to touring or because they're somehow unable to do so. what about them?
 
C

continuum

smugpolice
Leo said:
that's a little extreme. there are plenty of artists who don't sell perform live, either because their music doesn't lend itself to touring or because they're somehow unable to do so. what about them?
Click to expand...

will have to rely on merchandise i guess
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
I was curious, so... number of different listeners on Last.fm at at today:
  • 50 Wavves – King of the Beach (Soundscan:18563 vs. Last.fm:51352)
  • 49 Wild Nothing – Gemini (Soundscan:8773 vs. Last.fm:34654)
  • 44 Kylesa – Spiral Shadow (Soundscan:7778 vs. Last.fm:14808)
  • 43 Tame Impala – Innerspeaker (Soundscan:15101 vs. Last.fm:27882)
  • 42 Drake – Thank Me Later (Soundscan:1219473 vs. Last.fm:130235)
  • 39 Best Coast – Crazy For You (Soundscan:48296 vs. Last.fm:77304)
  • 38 Rick Ross – Teflon Don (Soundscan:541299 vs. Last.fm:45111)
  • 35 Gorillaz – Plastic Beach (Soundscan:385454 vs. Last.fm:376144)
  • 34 Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (Soundscan:39368 vs. Last.fm:125304)
  • 33 The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt (Soundscan:35524 vs. Last.fm:91651)
  • 29 The Fresh & Onlys – Play It Strange (Soundscan:3633 vs. Last.fm:4410)
  • 28 The National – High Violet (Soundscan:211615 vs. Last.fm:129628)
  • 27 Four Tet – There Is Love in You (Soundscan:22228 vs. Last.fm:74587)
  • 26 Twin Shadow – Forget (Soundscan:10985 vs. Last.fm:56484)
  • 25 Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz (Soundscan:100405 vs. Last.fm:59524)
  • 24 Hot Chip – One Life Stand (Soundscan:~30k vs. Last.fm:185698)
  • 22 Girls – Broken Dreams Club EP (Soundscan:10266 vs. Last.fm:15339)
  • 21 The Walkmen – Lisbon (Soundscan:39159 vs. Last.fm:47023)
  • 18 Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh (Soundscan:~300k vs. Last.fm:64901)
  • 17 Caribou – Swim (Soundscan:33803 vs. Last.fm:143925)
  • 16 Sleigh Bells – Treats (Soundscan:94478 vs. Last.fm:163814)
  • 15 Robyn – Body Talk (Soundscan:23869 vs. Last.fm:30548)
  • 14 Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (Soundscan:33574 vs. Last.fm:48177)
  • 13 No Age – Everything In Between (Soundscan:13802 vs. Last.fm:36546)
  • 12 Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid (Soundscan:129152 vs. Last.fm:37980)
  • 11 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Soundscan:459083 vs. Last.fm:219455)
  • 10 Titus Andronicus – The Monitor (Soundscan:26090 vs. Last.fm:39267)
  • 9 Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today (Soundscan:25942 vs. Last.fm:41866)
  • 8 James Blake – The Bells Sketch EP / CMYK EP / Klavierwerke EP (Soundscan:511/4,091/na vs. Last.fm:7157 / 17054 / 13807)
  • 7 Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me (Soundscan:48754 vs. Last.fm:45620)
  • 6 Vampire Weekend – Contra (Soundscan:454914 vs. Last.fm:257124)
  • 5 Beach House – Teen Dream (Soundscan:104217 vs. Last.fm:266464)
  • 4 Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (Soundscan:208747 vs. Last.fm:26060)
  • 3 Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest (Soundscan:59879 vs. Last.fm:56024)
  • 2 LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening (Soundscan:126288 vs. Last.fm:193019)
  • 1 Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Soundscan:915391 vs. Last.fm:139729)

Where last.fm didn't have the album I just found the first track and went with number of listeners.
 
connect_icut

connect_icut

Well-known member
michael said:
I was curious, so... number of different listeners on Last.fm at at today:
Where last.fm didn't have the album I just found the first track and went with number of listeners.
Click to expand...

Nice work. I always use Last FM as a gauge of someone's true popularity. Of course, the number of listeners on Last FM is presumably only a fraction of any given artist's overall audience. But what fraction, I wonder?
 
dennichristianthegreate

dennichristianthegreate

New member
Its a generation thing...i would have included the pioneers of grunge rock Nirvana and Pearl Jam due to their commercial and critical success and also for popularizing a new genre of rock music back then. I also would include Oasis and Metallica and probably the most successful punk rock band of all time in terms of sales--Greenday.

Its a generation thing really..those in the list mentioned are mostly from the 60s and 70s, so they are "legends" but innovations and commercial success should also be included in the criteria of choosing the best bands of all time...

IMO of course
 
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