The history will remind that Kendrick Lamar‘s Damn was the most successful album of 2017 in the US. Obviously, it isn’t the top LP since January, but it does lead the list from from late-November 2016 to mid-November 2017 which is what matters for Billboard’s Year-End ahead of Bruno Mars. Maybe more surprising than the #1 is the complete absence of female artists inside the Top 20.
Now that I’m covering the nonsense which is being said here and there about Taylor Swift‘s mega-hyped new album let me point out more piece bad press on that subject. We can allow bloggers or small entities to make mistakes at times, but when you are named Forbes the expectations are View More
It starts with some random feelings. It then morphs into a lie. Uneducated people hear about it and make up conspiracy theories. It all ends up a huge mess that creates a myth. This scenario happens day in day out. I can’t point out all of them, but at least when I read rubbish about charts and sales I can try to block it before it propagates all over the web. The last master in making up lies to get into the spotlight is the website Hits Daily Double. View More
In an era in which everybody who achieves 15 minutes of fame is labelled a “Legend!!!” – like comments by some, we may wonder which word would fit well someone of the stature of Bob Marley. The utterly iconic Reggae singer crossed over cultures, boundaries and generations to become way more than a simple singer. He is one of the World’s main flagships of love, peace and respect. More than 36 years after his death Marley‘s face remains widely known in every View More
I know you wonder what you are doing here. If you will change your behavior, that’s most likely not me who’s going to tell you that. Well, I still will. Choices do not need to be conscious to happen. Streaming creates different dynamics, a different way to live music experiences. When deciding which artist you go after, your choice may not be the same if you are on a retailer or logged into Spotify. View More
Living species always need to adapt to their context in order to survive. For businesses, the situation is no different. As streaming is fully changing the music industry, its actors, both the labels as well as the artists need to update their way of building their careers in order to stay relevant. Which adjustments do they need to do? Can all artists react positively or are some of them poised to fallinto obscurity?
As we pointed out inside the first part of this set of 3 articles, the Media which links the music industry to the general public, is fast transitioning from View More
Streaming is organically increasing. When I first wrote The Music Industry, an infinite journey way back in early 2014 I concluded the study with the chapter titled The Future, which determined how the industry would be by 2020. One section in that article covered Streaming vs Downloads, the War is open. In fact, for most people it was still unclear that streaming was going to take over from downloads – let alone physical sales. Half-way between 2014 and 2020, there is no doubt anymore about streaming dominating the industry. Plenty of questions remain though. View More
Not all elements can face the test of time the same way. Some will get erased within’ seconds, others will last forever. This samelogic perfectly applies to our favorite music tunes. As a music industry watcher, one of the most appreciated functionality of streaming is that we can check results of pretty much every single track from all artists, enabling in-depth analysis of various categories.
This includes analyzing which hits from certain periods remained the most relevant nowadays and which ones got View More
Macklemore is special. How many artists can claim multiple Hot 100 #1 hits while building their entire career by themselves? Actually, he is the one. After a dozen years trying to step up into the music business his album
Nobody would seriously expect a 65 year old singer to register the best selling album of the year with fresh new material in any given relevant market. However, the French singer Renaud did just that in 2016 in his native country. Even ferocious competition from Céline Dion View More