Member Since: 3/30/2009
Posts: 79,408
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Britney: the Marc Bosman of music sales
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Britney Spears and Jean-Marc Bosman. Two names you don’t often see in the same sentence.
And somehow Britters might, in the manner of the Belgian footballer, right-time accident, have unwittingly pioneered a major change in the way modern music is sold. The Top 40 could also change quite dramatically from its current state.
For those not up to speed, Spears’ latest single Hold It Against Me was on international radio playlists. In most of the world, it was available to buy (No 1 on iTunes in 17 different countries) but not here.
Well, not until someone pointed out that this was somewhat ridiculous in the age of rampant downloading, legal or otherwise. Sony and Universal – the two major players – have said that now singles will be on sale as soon as they are on air.
This “on sale = on air” has been, in part, also inspired by the X Factor winner Matt Cardle selling 439,000 copies of his single on the first week, which listeners could buy virtually as soon as they heard it on the telly.
It’s impossible to tell precisely what effect this change – the first of its kind for more than 60 years – will have on British music. But, just for fun, let’s make a few (educated) guesses.
Radio just got a lot more important
Playlists normally have six weeks to play a record before the public can get their hands on a physical copy. Searches on Google, record label high heidyins have been suggesting, peaked a fortnight before a song was released and now there is a chance they could be making more event radio from playing a song. It’s an exciting sell for fans – you could be picking the next No 1 now.
So radio groups could well run more music acts
Ashley Tabor who runs Global radio (the Capital, Galaxy and Heart radio stations and others) was instrumental in the creation of boyband The Wanted. The time their next single drops on one of Ashley’s stations, it will be dropping in HMV … for as long as their stores stay open.
This will suit major labels more than indies
Apart from the instant releases being their most effective way of tackling pirates short of hiring Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, the pluggers’ horsetrading options (“We’ll give you an exclusive on Kylie Minogue if you give us Tinie Tempah” etc.) will always put the big boys at an advantage over smaller labels with fewer acts and therefore bargaining chips.
Charts will slow down
No bad thing. The chart may well become more like the iTunes chart, which fluctuates daily but ultimately has a steadier flow. The mid-1990s phenomenon of singles entering straight in the charts at No 1 before dropping like a stone will be less frequent. Blur-Oasis-style battles could well become a thing of the past. The BBC could be inclined to dust Top of the Pops off, and bring it out of retirement if the charts become a little more sensible and records hang around more as they did in the 1970s and 1980s.
It won’t stop dodgy cover versions
Nothing will – but it’s a step in the right direction. Recent singles, such as Shakira’s She Wolf and Bruno Mars’s Grenade and the Britney song inspired get-mildly-rich quick karaoke knock-off jobs. Bad karaoke will not be vanquished by this decision (how could it be when ITV make half their revenue from it?) but those bad karaoke singles bunged out to capitalise on a record’s radio popularity are nearly at an end.
As radio becomes more important, the music video channels….perhaps less so
Why spend money on a video if no-one is buying the record? Companies will have an easier chance to make that call as they see quicker sales figures. If the song is out straight away, the video – which normally enjoys six weeks rotation before the tune hits shops or iTunes – becomes much less of an event.
If anticipation ahead of single releases frustrated the modern-day downloader, he or she won’t have long to wait before it’s a thing of the past.
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SOURCE
Trendsetter. 
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