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Fan Base: Archived: Taylor Swift (#1)
Member Since: 11/9/2011
Posts: 12,849
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Guess what:
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Never Mind The X Factor - Jake Bugg Leads Rock's Chart Assault
Battlelines were drawn this week when Jake Bugg greeted his No.1 album chart success with the immortal cry, “I’m keeping that X Factor **** off the top spot.” The pop braves rolled their eyes as yet another rock tyro had a swipe at – yawn – ‘manufactured pap’, while the, well, rock tyros hailed a new Loudmouth Liam championing their cause. There will be blood. Or skinny eyes and sneers at the very least.
It’s not the first time Bugg’s come out fists flailing at the reality show mob. Back in May he told the Guardian, “At school people would say I should go on Britain's Got Talent, but I would never have done that because it doesn't seem genuine, it doesn't feel natural.” He’s big on authenticity. Only last month he was banging on to The Sun about how he doesn’t dig the charts “because it mostly sounds like crap, to be honest”. Well, that’s as good a reason as any not to tune in.
Quizzed this week by his local site This Is Nottingham, Bugg claimed he wouldn’t know his X Factor chart rival from Eve. (It’s Leona Lewis, by the way). “I know that she’s off X Factor,” he says, “and she probably doesn’t write any of her songs.” There’s that disdain of anything not ‘real’ again, although Leona has a co-write on half the songs on the album ACTUALLY.
But has he got a point? Are Bugg and his guitar-toting peers actually keeping “that X Factor ****” off No.1? Apart from the immediate effect – consigning Lewis’s new album ‘Glassheart’ to a lowly No.3 – there are signs Bugg and his indie/rock brethren have got a tightening stranglehold on the charts. Why? How? What can it all mean? Let’s struggle to answer all that.
Bugg is the sixth rock/indie/alt. act in a row to take the UK No.1 album spot, following The Vaccines, The xx, The Killers, Mumford & Sons and Muse (and the Mumfords again). Two’s company, three’s a crowd, six is a seismic shift in the cultural landscape. It says here.
Anyway, it’s an eye-catching development in a year that’s seen the albums peak dominated by Adele, Emeli Sandé, Ed Sheeran, Adele again and a bit more Emeli Sandé. There hasn’t been a seam of indie triumphs like this since… since… hang on – since Gnarls Barkley vanquished another X Factor winner, Shayne Ward, in May 2006 and set off a run comprising Snow Patrol, Red Hot Chili Peppers, er, Orson, erm, Sandi Thom, Keane, Lostprophets, Muse and Razorlight. Stretching a point, but you get the idea.
It’s likely Taylor Swift’s going to strike a blow for the pop team this weekend, taking down an indie record much cooler than hers, but she’s an entirely self-started pop star anyway. So has change already happened? Do Bugg and crew represent a new rock hegemony that’s fatally wounded the X Factor giant and given succour to a mainstream public itching to get some guitars and/or banjos back in their lives? Maybe.
At least until the Little Mix album comes out.
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NME knows the tea. 
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Member Since: 2/22/2012
Posts: 3,081
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22 is one of the best songs I've ever heard.
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Member Since: 4/28/2011
Posts: 26,425
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Originally posted by Taylor Swift
I wonder if people will change their mind if the 4th album is successful.
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Taylor, looks like you were right 
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Member Since: 8/16/2012
Posts: 670
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Am i the only one that stan so hard for "the lucky one". its so flawless.
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Member Since: 3/29/2012
Posts: 28,833
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I love every song more and more everytime I listen to them 
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Member Since: 7/22/2012
Posts: 18,064
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I love my new avi 
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Member Since: 7/15/2012
Posts: 2,055
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Originally posted by johnrm
what did taylor perform in Letterman?
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Red
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Member Since: 10/11/2010
Posts: 200
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Originally posted by buseta77
Am i the only one that stan so hard for "the lucky one". its so flawless.
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The Lucky One is my favorite too! =)
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Member Since: 3/31/2012
Posts: 43,847
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Quote:
Originally posted by buseta77
Am i the only one that stan so hard for "the lucky one". its so flawless.
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I love it too.
I love them all. 
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Member Since: 4/9/2012
Posts: 1,916
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Business Matters: Why Taylor Swift's 'Red' is Absent From Subscription Services
Taylor Swift has joined a litany of artists in holding back a new release from subscription services. Her new album Red is conspicuously absent from Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, Mog and Xbox Music this week.
The album's absence from subscription services is part of a formula that has worked well in the past. Red is not likely to be available at subscription services until Swift's next album is released, according to a source familiar with the label's strategy with her previous releases. Instead, the focus for Red is a mountain of retail campaigns and promotions at both well-known CD sellers and non-traditional retailers. And, as has happened in the past, "Red" was released on a Monday instead of the typical Tuesday release day.
Like some other executives, Big Machine Records founder Scott Borchetta has struggled with the subscription model.
"I personally struggle with that model - I don't think that it should be free," Borchetta told Billboard.biz at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas in September. "We've spoken with the services, and spoken with Spotify in particular, and we've talked about a lot of different things. We just haven't hit on the right model that works for us. I don't have thousands and thousands of albums and hundreds and hundreds of artists, I have a finite artist roster and finite number of releases. If you're a big battleship like Sony or Universal and have tens of thousands of masters, that income stream makes sense at a big corporation. It doesn't make sense to a small record company."
Whatever size you consider Big Machine to be, the album is hard to miss in the marketplace. "Red," selling for $14.99, has been the #1 album since at iTunes since early Monday. Target is selling a deluxe version of "Red" and giving it a promotional push via a TV campaign. More than 1,600 24-hour Walgreens stores put the title on sale at midnight Sunday and have the CD on display. "Red" is also being displayed at Best Buy and Walmart.
Even pizza chain Papa John's is selling Red. Customers can buy Red at Papa John's locations or have it delivered with their order. Pizza boxes have been transformed from bland cardboard into a special design featuring the Red album cover. And the Papa John's website has a page dedicated to Swift that streams audio clips of the new album. Fans can get a large one-topping pizza and Red CD for $22. Adding the CD to any order costs $13.
Swift's visibility goes beyond the album release. Keds is offering a limited-edition, $50 Red sneaker in honor of the album release (Swift and the album are currently promoted on the Keds home page). Swift has brand deals with Elizabeth Arden, American Greetings and CoverGirl, and she is featured in a Macy's TV campaign.
Red sold 262,000 units at iTunes on Monday -- that's more than most albums sell in all formats at all retailers in an entire week -- and is projected to top a million in first-week sales.
The album's heightened awareness blunts one of the primary roles of the subscription service. A subscription service is a place to discover music and listen before buying. The more people listen, the more likely they are to buy the music -- or a concert ticket or some other item. The argument makes more sense with unknown artists. A superstar artist like Swift has an unparalleled amount of awareness for her releases. Or, a subscription service would argue, at least it provides a legal, ad-supported alternative to piracy.
Of course such a service can also be used as a substitute for buying music, but so far the evidence in the U.S. points to subscription services and download stores existing in harmony. The idea that services such as Spotify cannibalize sales has not yet been put to rest, but recent news that Mumford and Sons' Babel smashed Spotify's single-week streaming record while selling 600,000 units probably will do it.
Cannibalization could be a factor here. As Billboard reported Tuesday, Big Machine has held Red back from Amazon's MP3 store and Google Play. iTunes has a one-week exclusive and is selling a "Mastered for iTunes" version for $14.99. The theory is that Big Machine wanted to take no chance that deep discounting by either Amazon or Google would take away from getting as many first-week sales as possible. A sale price under $3.50 does not count toward Billboard's album chart.
What if streaming were included in the product mix? For the sake of argument, if Red surpassed the Spotify single-week streaming record set by Babel by a factor of three (which Babel did to its predecessor), Red would generate $120,000 in royalties at 0.5 cents per stream. If Spotify et al were additive rather than substitutive, Big Machine would come out slightly ahead. But if Spotify et al were substitutive rather than additive, Big Machine would lose the equivalent of 11,436 digital album sales.
Artists and labels have a toolkit available to them when deciding how to release an album. Taylor Swift can choose from one of the most impressive toolkits in the music business. With all due respect to some great and innovative companies, subscription services just don't rank high on a list that also contains Walgreens, Papa Johns and Target.
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http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indus...07988042.story
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Member Since: 8/4/2012
Posts: 343
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The analysis on stevehoffman.tv is really interesting. It is crossing some sort of line to mention an ex's mother and sister (and I'll be shocked if Maggie Gyllenhaal doesn't call her out). The bit on IKYWT (never loved her or anyone) makes me uncomfortable too. Just like Better Than Revenge, Mean and Innocent made me uncomfortable on the last record.
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Member Since: 4/9/2012
Posts: 1,916
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Is Taylor Swift's 'Red' iTunes Exclusive a Play to Prevent Deep Discounting?
In a possible attempt to ensure that Google Play and Amazon don't use Taylor Swift's just-released Red album as a loss leader priced below $3.49, Big Machine Records has not serviced the album to those stores, a source confirmed to Billboard.biz.
In fact, the only digital merchant carrying the album is iTunes, which typically charges full list price on all albums; it has a one-week exclusive on the album's digital sales, Billboard.biz confirms.
A search for the album on Google Play comes up empty and a track listing of the songs on the album are not featured in the Swift track section on the site. The MP3 album also doesn't come up on the Amazon site either, although that store is carrying the CD version of thealbum.
Google confirms it will have the album next week.
Both Amazon and Google have been known to price albums under $3.49 -- Billboard's pricing threshold (which, when violated in the first four weeks of an album's release, excludes sales for every unit sold under that price, when computing sales totals that determine the Billboard 200 ranking). But since the Billboard policy went into effect, both Google and Amazon have mainly reserved their loss-leader pricing strategy for titles available for more than four weeks, when they are seeking to drive traffic.
Recently, however, Amazon priced Frank Ocean's Channel Orange at $2.99, which means none of the copies sold by that merchant counted toward the Billboard 200 chart that week. That Amazon pricing move was perceived by the industry as a retaliation against the artist and his label, Island Def Jam, for providing iTunes with an exclusive one-week window to sell the album ahead of other outlets.
While the CD is widely available, Big Machine has provided Target with an exclusive version of the album that has six extra tracks and is perceived to be superior to the ones sold to other merchants, something that has riled up the indie-store account sector. Walmart also has an exclusive version, containing a 96-page magazine, stickers and other paraphernalia.
This may also have factored into their decision not to service the MP3 version of the album to Amazon, which is carrying the CD version but usually doesn't violate the Billboard pricing policy in that format.
In any event, it seems that the label is making sure that digital versions of the album priced below $3.49 are not cannibalizing sales from merchants selling the album at a price above that threshold.
Every sales needs to count this week if Red is to going to generate 1 million units in sales in its debut week -- as projected -- and become the first woman artist to do so in the SoundScan era.
Reps for Big Machine and Amazon either were not available or declined to comment.
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http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indus...07988052.story
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Member Since: 4/28/2011
Posts: 26,425
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Quote:
Originally posted by wownow
The analysis on stevehoffman.tv is really interesting. It is crossing some sort of line to mention an ex's mother and sister (and I'll be shocked if Maggie Gyllenhaal doesn't call her out). The bit on IKYWT (never loved her or anyone) makes me uncomfortable too. Just like Better Than Revenge, Mean and Innocent made me uncomfortable on the last record.
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Link?
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Member Since: 11/29/2010
Posts: 19,664
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Latest Taylor ONTD post is all wub wub wub. Wtf?  I have never seen something like this there.
The Lord converting the haters with her beautiful music.
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Member Since: 8/4/2012
Posts: 343
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Member Since: 4/28/2011
Posts: 26,425
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Quote:
Originally posted by wownow
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Oh wow, the album is mosly about Jake?
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Member Since: 11/29/2010
Posts: 19,664
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Called the label-amazon thing. Of course amazon would try to **** with itunes with a huge release like this. No ****s given about some irrelevant Soundscan numbers.
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Member Since: 3/19/2012
Posts: 5,155
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Originally posted by olympiccairways
I love my new avi |
Yep it's beautiful
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Member Since: 4/28/2011
Posts: 26,425
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Originally posted by TheVoiceXtina
Oh wow, the album is mosly about Jake? |
In what way is she an "innocence"?  Tay is 22, she chooses her "lovers", she chooses whether to go the distance. I love the girl, but she's not in the Tim Mcgraw/Fearless days no more.
And i do love "All Too Well" so it feels so awkward 
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@muddy i love you
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Member Since: 3/19/2012
Posts: 5,155
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Originally posted by theREALslimSHADY
The Last Time needs to be a chapter in the actual holy bible tbh.. perfection... |
+100000000000000000000000000. Such immaculate perfection
So she performed Red on Letterman? Was her voice good?
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