Musicadium Blog

Two weeks ago, I downloaded a track I saw on the front page of iTunes - it was free, it was from a band whose name I had seen around the place and I thought was a cool name (I studied History at school, so I knew about the Chinese Historical event of the same name), but never heard any of their music - The Boxer Rebellion.  It was free, what did I have to lose?

Nothing.  In fact, I had everything to gain.  Their single, Evacuate, blew my mind.  Normally, not entirely convinced of a lot of the tracks that bands in the indie genre pump out, I am more of a fan of hard rock.  The track went straight to my high rotation list.  I am sure that I annoyed Sarah, Marnie, Steve and Sophie, playing the track constantly.  They all loved it too, but I am sure I played it a little too much.

As soon as my next paycheck came in, I purchased their album from iTunes.

Obviously, a lot of people shared the same sentiment, as the album, Union, went to number 4 in the UK and number 1 in the alternative charts in the US on iTunes. The album is outselling Coldplay, MGMT and Kings of Leon.

I didn’t know this (because I wasn’t interested in a physical copy) but the album was not released as a physical product, instead, it was released ENTIRELY through digital distribution, with a digital booklet.  The album was entirely self-released (no record label backing) on no budget, received no radio play and very little marketing.

Now, the company who releases the charts for the UK, has deemed that, because they don’t have a physical release, their sales numbers don’t count against the others they are outselling.

To me, this PROVES the power of the real estate of iTunes’ front page and offering tracks free as a taste-test.

It should prove to all and sundry, the validity of the digital music revolution.  Hopefully, the backlash in the media (it made NME, The Evening Standard and The Telegraph) should make people realise the flailing CD medium is fast becoming irrelevant and unnecessary, definitely not the ONLY way to make money.

It should also make the chart-makers get with the times.  It has been confirmed that they ARE looking into changing the rules.  Hopefully, this is changed VERY quickly.

Check out their Wikipedia article and their MySpace.

I read the article at 360 Degree Music, read the rest of the article here.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 am and is filed under Industry News & Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.