Factoid

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

According to this morning's paper, 2008 is set to be the highest-selling year for singles EVER, with total sales topping 100m for the first time (compared to 1979's 89m). Obviously physical sales are a miniscule proportion of this but even so, that's a lot of sales. (And christ only knows how many non-sale downloads are going on).

I was a bit surprised by this!

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

but they're not really comparing apples with apples (hahahaha, honestly not an intentional pun!!!) are they?

100 million individual tracks downloaded != 100 million single sales

ppl be cherry picking tracks they like, not tracks The Man has decided they can buy...

[vumgarda.livejournal.com]

Because people who want 2 old songs by a band (which wouldn't be easily available on their own) now download 2x'single' rather than buy 1xalbum, innit. If you just looked at equivalents to things that would have been available before, sales must be well down.

[vumgarda.livejournal.com]

Damn, beaten.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

There's also the long tail effect going on here - in the good old days, most people would only have been able to buy what was physically available in their local shop - i.e. the top 75 and maybe some new releases. Now they have a choice of millions of tracks it's no surprise they're buying more in total, even if they are buying a lot less of the top 75, hence number one sales being way lower than they have been historically.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yup, obviously there's some long tail stuff going on here, and the percentage of singles sales represented by the Top 40 is probably at an all time low too (which isn't the sort of data the Official Charts Co releases). I still think it's an impressive stat, though, given how easy it is to NOT pay for music.

And I think the percentage of tracks selling as singles which have never been promoted as singles is probably tiny too, so the real difference is in the capacity of shops to keep records in stock rather than in The Man's gatekeeping powers.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Number one sales are running at 40-50k or so I think, which is low compared to the vinyl era but higher than the 20-30k of the early 00s. I'll be interested to see what kind of totals the big sellers this year post, given the propensity of tracks to stick around in the charts forever on download: there's no need to buy a track while it's still 'hot' so downloads have the effect of flattening the head as well as lengthening the tail.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

And don't forget the Leona Lewis effect innit.

[damnspynovels.livejournal.com]

How does this work with regards the charts anyway? Like does an individual track have to be flagged as a single to be considered for the chart?

Like if some obscure album track by someone happened to be featured in a popular tv commercial, causing 100,000 people to buy it through iTunes, would it chart?

In my mind, it ought to - it would cause the top 40 to be a direct reflection of what's popular with a nation, rather than seemingly being the most popular songs from a range of the industry's pre-selection.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

rly? i was thinking it was more like, "well i like the single so i'll get that and i'll get these other two tracks off the album while i'm here"...

...admittedly i've not actually done this myself, but then i'm only responsible for 5 of this 100 million.

also, 79 million singles in 1979 would be at least 158 million tracks, amirite?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

AFAIK that is how the Top 40 currently works!There's obviously a distinction being made between albums and singles, which in practical terms is the distinction between bundles of tracks and single tracks, but I don't *think* a record needs to be flagged as a single. We've seen a few instances of adverts shifting digital units already.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think the concepts of single and album are too embedded for that kind of cherry-picking to have really caught on, but this is just a hunch. Obviously SOME people are doing it, or iTunes wouldn't run its "complete the album" promotion where you can buy the 'rest' of an album at a discount.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Though obviously industry pre-selection still happens in the form of radio playlists, selection of music for adverts/incidental use etc.

[damnspynovels.livejournal.com]

Is a distinction made between where a song is found?

like for example say an advert features a relatively popular track by a band that has a considerable back catalogue - so much so that the individual song is featured on a million greatest hits albums, as well as it's original home on that act's debut LP.

Would it matter where I found said song? would they all count for the same cause?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

did you see maura's thing (http://idolator.com/5053104/there-are-still-people-out-there-who-will-pay-two-bucks-for-a-soundgarden-album) about alBUM sales and amazon online discounting?

[damnspynovels.livejournal.com]

furthermore, if this is the case and it does not indeed matter where we find a particular song, whether it be on Now 34, an artists Greatest Hits or like I said, their debut LP - will we see a time come in iTunes where i'm casually browsing through an artists collection, only to be confronted with a message akin to "did you know this album features that song from the Dairy Milk ad", even if I'm looking at the movie soundtrack for Risky Business?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i suppose "in the air tonight" is probably the key example here innit? i guess it's looooooooads easier to send an email saying "dere itunes, this is an single nao" than y'know, actually making some new bits of plastic/sleeves etcetc

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

but didn't the artic monkeys end up with six tracks in the top 50 or something when their second alBUM came out? or was that a mistake?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I guess the key test would be whether there's been a UK hit yet where the public picked a song that the record label WASN'T promoting as a single. I don't think that's happened - though we've seen examples of older singles being picked up (that rash of Ting Tings hits for instance).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well, if people want to buy tracks from a new album individually you can't stop them! But AFAIK more people buy albums than singles, so we can deduce there's some method which stops an 'album sale' having an effect on the singles chart.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

And "99 problems" post-Glasto, I suspect.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i don't think we've seen a recent example of a single where the vast majority of people are buying a remix of the song rather than it's original (where the remix is included as part of the single package) - but it would be interesting to see the effect of that, or some kind of split where you have big sales for both the original and the remix, both versions finding equal support thru various channels. a bit like 'brimful of asha' but with the original not being quite as overshadowed as that.

[damnspynovels.livejournal.com]

exactly. if an album has 10 tracks on it, and i only download 9 of them, are they all eligible for a singles chart placing?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think it happened with Kelly Rowland's 'Work' (even though the original was better). As far as I know, sales of the original and sales of the remix all counted towards the same song's tally.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they did, as the tracks were available as separate downloads (as are most albums). It's easy enough for a record company to stop this from happening, by making it so you can only download the whole album at once. Interestingly that doesn't happen often.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'so we can deduce there's some method which stops an 'album sale' having an effect on the singles chart'

yes, very dodgy ground here but it may just come down to how many times people are clicking 'buy album' rather than grabbing all or enough of the tracks individually. obviously there's a threshold before buying only the tracks you like on an album becomes uneconomical. they've been astute to keep the prices of 'albums' online fixed but cynical in making it still possible to buy all or most of the tracks individually and spend a lot more in the process - but yes only a fool would do that!