hyperempowered

NYU: "Blog posts can triple future album sales"

Billboard has a story out today that suggests that blog posts can triple future album sales, according to a new study from researchers at New York University.

"NYU Stern professor Vasant Dhar and former student Elaine Chang sampled 108 albums released between January and March of 2007 to determine the impact of blog chatter on record sales. Using Amazon.com sales rankings, albums were tracked four weeks before and four weeks after release.

Researchers found that when an album got mention in more than 40 legitimate blog posts, sales were three times the average. If those albums were associated with major labels, sales jumped five times the average. Albums that got more than 250 blog mentions saw sales increases of six times the average.

The number of MySpace friends the artist had also improved album sales, but researchers said there was a weaker correlation than with blog chatter."

I have no idea who the "Naive New Beaters" are...

... but I really love their music video.

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Peaches and Tone Loc Do The "Wild Thing"

The audio quality is crap, but this pairing of Tone Loc and Peaches, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of ""Wild Thing" is great fun.

Another great post today from Bob Lefsetz...

"The Music Industry Power Top Ten"

My favorite part of Bob's post is not the top ten itself, but his explanation of who's not on the list.

EMI Spends $50 Million A Year To Scrap Unsold CDs

If you were wondering just how screwed up the music industry is, these stats (from today's FT) will answer the question...

* Record companies lose money on 85 per cent of new artists, even before overheads

* More than 30 per cent of EMI's artists have not produced an album. Many never will.

* EMI scraps about 20 per cent of CDs produced, at an annual cost of £25m

* EMI spends £70m a year subsidising artists who will never make it any money.

* EMI's marketing expenditure has been running about £60m over budget

* 200 of the 14,000 artists EMI deals with each year account for more than half its sales

* Just 6 per cent of EMI Music's 4,500 staff work in "A&R" scouting and artist development

* 7 per cent of EMI's digital contracts account for 80 per cent of its digital revenues

Source: Terra Firma

10 Best Music Videos Of 2007 From Director File

Director File has chosen their "Ten Best Music Videos Of The Year."  I particularly like director Patrick Daughters' creepy visuals for "Plaster Casts Of Everything" by Liars.

Arcade Fire's Interactive Music Video.. Very Cool Indeed

(click here to not only watch the music video, but interact with it)

Another Great Version...

My Favorite CD Of The Year - "I'm Not There"

First, a confession. 

I find Bob Dylan's singing to be almost un-listenable.

Except for a handful of tracks like Watchtower and Knockin' On Heaven's Door, I like the "idea" of Bob Dylan a hell of a lot more than I like Dylan himself.

Because of this, it's a shock to me that my favorite album of the year, hands down, is a Bob Dylan album.

(Well kind of)

It's a Dylan album without Dylan.

For the soundtrack to his upcoming Dylan biopic, "I'm Not There", filmmaker Todd Haynes has brought together an absolutely incredible group of indie all-stars to reinterpret classic Dylan tracks.   

The result is an absolutely amazing collection of tracks and I can't recommend more highly. Songs on the album include:

"All Along the Watchtower" sung by Eddie Vedder.
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Antony and the Johnsons.
"The Wicked Messenger" by the Black Keys;
"I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" by John Doe of X
"Mama, You've Been On My Mind" by Jack Johnson
"Simple Twist of Fate" by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy
"Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" by Cat Power
"Dark Eyes" by Iron & Wine
...and more than a dozen more (It's a two CD set)

The good news is that you can listen to tracks off the album online here. 

Lessons For Samantha: Debbie Harry Teaches Punk Rock To Pre-Schoolers

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