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."
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.
And proof that there will always be some idiot will make wild assumptions re: other's musical tastes.
I bet you don't even know who made this song, you probably think it was some guy named "Gnarls Barkely", nevermind that such a person doesn't actually exist. For your information Gnarls is a collaboration between Cee-lo and DangerMouse. I'm not much of a Cee-lo fan, but DangerMouse is the shit. His Grey Album (half White Album, half Black Album) was as close to bittorrent platinum as an album could be, and DangerDoom (another collaboration, this time with MF Doom) was an awesome hip hop album (you probably hate hip hop, but I guess that's your loss).
At any rate: forget the past of these two artists, this song is awesome and I'm really looking forward to their album.
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.
Good point `mindstormpt'.
They're there affecting their effect.
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."