Slashdot Mirror
Download-only Single Becomes UK Number One
Stuart Gibson writes "As predicted, the Gnarls Barkely single 'Crazy' has reached the number one spot on the official UK charts, based solely on legal downloads. The CD version of the single will not be released until tomorrow. This is the first single to be eligible for the honour as, until last month, download sales would only be counted if the track was also available to be bought as a physical copy."
Now we have proof that crappy music will remain popular regardless of the method of distribution.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
Oh, wait, they're actually counting downloads people *paid* for? :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
It may interest you to know there's a pretty substantial non-American Slashdot membership.
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
i think it's relevant as it's another example of the music industry only just catching up with the demand of the public. i'm glad they've decided to treat music downloads slightly more seriously and hopefully this will allow slightly more mature musical tastes to become more prevelant in the media in general. the singles chart has long been a joke to anyone other than 13 year old girls, it's time for change.
legal downloads of music/film/tv is the way in which music will be sold in the future. the thought of having to go all the way to a shop where there's only an x% chance of finding the album/song you're looking for will seem laughable in a decade's time... at least, it will be should the music industry not drad its feet as it always does... so perhaps we'll still be exactly here.
the biggest impedement to the music industry is the music industry.
who used in in one of their BBC radio 1 channel branding idents (which was very cool) where they animated real objects in various real life scenes (street lights , cars , scaffolding, people) to the soundtrack like a VU meter
very cool effect and it worked perfectly with the track, i remember when it first aired people asked me "have you seen that bbc advert" and "i love this track", played often its not suprising the tune did well, this is just like any other adverts that have cool tunes, if its a good tune people will buy/seek it, good music conquers all
AJ
This is the first single to be eligible for the honour as, until last month, download sales would only be counted if the track was also available to be bought as a physical copy.
Readers must note that download-only tracks are not eligible for the UK chart, the rule is that the physical version must be released within one week of the download version. So, it's just a way to get an extra week in the top ten.
And, this song's success isn't solely down to internet hype or hoopla over downloads... it was used on an eye-catching BBC Radio 1 advert that received heavy play on the BBC's channels. Sadly I can't find a link to it, but UK readers will surely know which one I mean. Here's a link to a different Radio 1 ad that uses the same technique.
Anyone else think its a bit tricky how if you go to their website the song autoloads and plays, so you get counted toward the total?
I call that tricky. And its driving me crazy. Driving me craaaazy. Driving me craaaazy.
Hmm...needs more cowbell.
__
Elephant Essays - Custom-created research papers and essays.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Apple sold one billion songs.
That's a 'b'
Billion.
Nine zeroes.
Big number. More than a lot. Like, really big number.
Just before iTunes launched everyone said "who's going to pay for something you can get for free?"
Then Apple sold one billion songs.
That's a 'b'
pwnt
Next.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
Thank you dictionarybot.
Crazy by Gnarls Barkley has been tipped to make music history this week by becoming the UK's first number one single based on download sales alone.
Download SALES. Not downloads. Visiting the website a trillion times wouldn't change the ranking on the charts.
My friend is canadian and he says he makes up 33% of slashdot's international readership. Have you met him?
Interesting to hear the audio difference between their home page and their myspace page. Myspace losing the highs.
Also interesting that when I search iTunes for gnarls barkely I get no returns (?)
Song's not bad.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Perhaps you should RTF link which is the words "As predicted", implying that article was published *before* the event happended, which was on Sunday afternoon, when the charts are announced. And for reference the midweek number one is almost always the end of week number one. We're supposed to care because it's a landmark event in the growth of online music sales, albeit a somewhat artificial one caused merely by a change in the rules.
There is a *very interesting* article on Joel on software (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/11/18.ht ml) on how it is essential for the Record labels to be able to control the popularity of its songs:
"...Here's the dream world for the EMI Group, Sony/BMG, etc.: there are two prices for songs on iTunes, say, $2.49 and $0.99. All the new releases come out at $2.49. Some classic rock (Sweet Home Alabama) is at $2.49. Unwanted, old, crap, like, say, Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) -- the crap we only know because it was pushed on us in the 70s by paid-off disk jockeys -- would be deliberately priced at $0.99 to send a clear message that $0.99 = crap.
And now when a musician gets uppity, all the recording industry has to do is threaten to release their next single straight into the $0.99 category, which will kill it dead no matter how good it is. And suddenly the music industry has a lot more leverage over their artists in negotiations: the kind of leverage they are used to having. Their favorite kind of leverage. The "we won't promote your music if you don't let us put rootkits on your CDs" kind of leverage.
And Apple? Apple wants the signaling to come from what they promote on the front page of the iTunes Music Store. In the battle between Apple and the recording industry over who gets to manipulate what songs you buy, Apple (like movie theaters) is going to be in favor of fixed prices, while the recording industry is going to want variable prices."
Not to mention a day late. Seriously, where is the good song?
Remember DJ Danger Mouse, who made big waves in the music industry for his mashup of a Jay-Z's "Black Album" and the Beatles "White Album"? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grey_Album)
It's him, under another pseudonym.
I hope this is a step along the way to allowing songs into the charts that are heavily downloaded and - legally - not necessarily paid for. Until that happens, the charts remain an indicator of how heavily pimped a song or artist is.
:v)
Vik
David W. Hogg -- assoc prof, NYU Physics
It is a pity that it is still easier to type 'gnarls barkley +crazy +mp3' into Google to pirate it than it is to actually buy this online - at least in Australia. They're playing it a lot on a local radio station here and I quite like it, and this article finally gave me the artist so I could look it up to buy it.
As always I tried Googling it first to see if it was iTunes - which it was; I got a handly link to the iTunes store, which opens iTunes. I was then politely told that this track is only available in the iTunes store in the UK.
If the labels are ever going to take this Internet thing seriously they're going to have to readjust their way of thinking. They can't rely on their old system of having area-based licenses - it just doesn't make any real sense in the era of digital content.
All you just said is "I feel old and close minded, and/or this isn't my prefered genre of music." Guess what, I like my classic rock as much as anyone, and you're more likely to catch me with a Floyd album than the latest 50 pence track, but this is obviously a catchy pop tune (hear it once or twice and I defy you not to be humming it the rest of the day.)
Idiot... or did I just get properly trolled?
Terrible station? what would you prefer Saga FM maybe? Although they air a lot of chart music by day. Radio 1 still remains to be one the most varied and innovate radio station in the UK. Remeber this is the station that bought us John Peel and regularly gives air time to unsigned bands.
Time is relative like Incest.