Comments on: Dear Aspiring Music Pundits: Use Better Numbers, Please http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on Idolator.com Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:52:22 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: revmatty http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814382 revmatty Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:31:14 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814382 <p>@<a href="#c9897537">Maura Johnston</a>: It would be worse if you *couldn't* say you were the number one music blogger in your apartment.</p> @Maura Johnston: It would be worse if you *couldn’t* say you were the number one music blogger in your apartment.

]]> By: Anonymous http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814392 Anonymous Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:43:57 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814392 <p>this year? i meant last year... whoops!</p> this year? i meant last year… whoops!

]]> By: Anonymous http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814402 Anonymous Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:43:39 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814402 <p>One of my favourite facts this year was that Kaiser Chiefs topped the UK Albums Vinyl chart with just 82 copies! And yet people keep saying vinyl sales are up by huge percentages?!</p> <p><a href="http://drownedinsound.com/news/4135506">[drownedinsound.com]</a></p> One of my favourite facts this year was that Kaiser Chiefs topped the UK Albums Vinyl chart with just 82 copies! And yet people keep saying vinyl sales are up by huge percentages?!

[drownedinsound.com]

]]> By: Maura Johnston http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814412 Maura Johnston Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:08:55 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814412 <p>@<a href="#c9908407">demonbaby</a>: But I mean... well, OK. Haha, I was actually going to do a post on this earlier this week, but time ran away from me. (I still might!) What elements would need to be in this chart for it to be truly comprehensive?</p> <p>For albums, I can see:<br> - Sales<br> - Torrent traffic<br> - ZShare/Rapidshare/Sendspace/etc. traffic<br> - ?</p> <p>But then you also have the murky areas of people just swapping stuff with their friends via GMail or AIM or their personal Web sites.</p> <p>Songs might be a bit easier to track, if only because blog posts (not just on music-centric blogs, either) could be an imperfect equivalent for airplay.</p> @demonbaby: But I mean… well, OK. Haha, I was actually going to do a post on this earlier this week, but time ran away from me. (I still might!) What elements would need to be in this chart for it to be truly comprehensive?

For albums, I can see:
- Sales
- Torrent traffic
- ZShare/Rapidshare/Sendspace/etc. traffic
- ?

But then you also have the murky areas of people just swapping stuff with their friends via GMail or AIM or their personal Web sites.

Songs might be a bit easier to track, if only because blog posts (not just on music-centric blogs, either) could be an imperfect equivalent for airplay.

]]> By: Anonymous http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814422 Anonymous Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:07:31 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814422 <p>@<a href="#c9908282">Maura Johnston</a>: And yes, I agree that there is no evidence that NIN's methods would work for smaller bands, and I'm tired of seeing that as well. I suppose more important and more elusive is that NIN sees the internet for what it is: an open-source environment where the record industry method of trying to protect everything doesn't work, but if you find a balance between embracing the openness of the internet and also finding ways to get money back from it, it's still possible to succeed, at least to some extent. I guess the idea behind it is a more important lesson for other bands than the specific methods.</p> @Maura Johnston: And yes, I agree that there is no evidence that NIN’s methods would work for smaller bands, and I’m tired of seeing that as well. I suppose more important and more elusive is that NIN sees the internet for what it is: an open-source environment where the record industry method of trying to protect everything doesn’t work, but if you find a balance between embracing the openness of the internet and also finding ways to get money back from it, it’s still possible to succeed, at least to some extent. I guess the idea behind it is a more important lesson for other bands than the specific methods.

]]> By: Maura Johnston http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814432 Maura Johnston Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:06:18 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814432 <p>@<a href="#c9908407">demonbaby</a>: I would love that, honestly. If I had the resources to do so I would. There are really way too many charts out there and it's causing massive data smog [tm] and opening way too many doors for people to misleadingly pimp their own interests.</p> @demonbaby: I would love that, honestly. If I had the resources to do so I would. There are really way too many charts out there and it’s causing massive data smog [tm] and opening way too many doors for people to misleadingly pimp their own interests.

]]> By: Anonymous http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814442 Anonymous Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:02:22 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814442 <p>@<a href="#c9908155">Maura Johnston</a>: Point. And I think the online blog world has copy-pasted an headline they didn't exactly understand and are mislabeling the NIN release as "free," when it's a tad more complicated than that.</p> <p>Another follow-up to your point is that Billboard charts don't mean dick anymore either, and someone ought to be collecting ALL the numbers - physical sales, digital sales, illegal downloads, blog downloads, etc - and put together charts that are actually relevant in 2009, both from a sales perspective and from an awareness/popularity perspective.</p> @Maura Johnston: Point. And I think the online blog world has copy-pasted an headline they didn’t exactly understand and are mislabeling the NIN release as “free,” when it’s a tad more complicated than that.

Another follow-up to your point is that Billboard charts don’t mean dick anymore either, and someone ought to be collecting ALL the numbers – physical sales, digital sales, illegal downloads, blog downloads, etc – and put together charts that are actually relevant in 2009, both from a sales perspective and from an awareness/popularity perspective.

]]> By: Maura Johnston http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814452 Maura Johnston Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:59:36 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814452 <p>@<a href="#c9907492">demonbaby</a>: And again, I think Nine Inch Nails is a special case here. They have a much bigger sandbox to play in than any of the other aspiring bands who CC is trying to reel in, thanks to the money they made from the old system. Trying to compare their efforts to anyone else is a bit ludicrous, no?</p> @demonbaby: And again, I think Nine Inch Nails is a special case here. They have a much bigger sandbox to play in than any of the other aspiring bands who CC is trying to reel in, thanks to the money they made from the old system. Trying to compare their efforts to anyone else is a bit ludicrous, no?

]]> By: Maura Johnston http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814462 Maura Johnston Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:57:07 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814462 <p>@<a href="#c9907492">demonbaby</a>: Well, clearly everyone is misunderstanding everybody. But I think my initial point about Amazon MP3 right now being a blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things, and the fact that at this point in time reaching No. 1 on that store's year-end chart is the Internet equivalent of Citizen Dick being big in Eastern Europe, stands.</p> @demonbaby: Well, clearly everyone is misunderstanding everybody. But I think my initial point about Amazon MP3 right now being a blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things, and the fact that at this point in time reaching No. 1 on that store’s year-end chart is the Internet equivalent of Citizen Dick being big in Eastern Europe, stands.

]]> By: Anonymous http://idolator.com/5126218/dear-aspiring-music-pundits-use-better-numbers-please/comment-page-1#comment-814472 Anonymous Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:40:40 +0000 12b699c08d9d043eeaca36c8a0e642bb#comment-814472 <p>Actually, if any of you understood the details of the original Creative Commons article that started all of this, you'd realize that technically, the entire album IS completely free. Sure, only the first part was offered as a free download from NIN's website, but the *entire* release was licensed under creative commons, which means that it was free to do whatever you want with non-commercially. So, if someone offered it on their blog or sent it to all their friends, or if you downloaded it off a P2P site, that was actually a perfectly legitimate way of getting the entire record. And THAT was supposed to be the headline - that giving your music a creative commons license didn't cannibalize sales - not that "free" is the new way of distributing music. NIN succeeded with Ghosts not by giving the record away, but by offering their fans a number of really nice paid physical options in addition to the free distribution and the cheap download. So, I'm not even sure what this article's little rant is even about.</p> Actually, if any of you understood the details of the original Creative Commons article that started all of this, you’d realize that technically, the entire album IS completely free. Sure, only the first part was offered as a free download from NIN’s website, but the *entire* release was licensed under creative commons, which means that it was free to do whatever you want with non-commercially. So, if someone offered it on their blog or sent it to all their friends, or if you downloaded it off a P2P site, that was actually a perfectly legitimate way of getting the entire record. And THAT was supposed to be the headline – that giving your music a creative commons license didn’t cannibalize sales – not that “free” is the new way of distributing music. NIN succeeded with Ghosts not by giving the record away, but by offering their fans a number of really nice paid physical options in addition to the free distribution and the cheap download. So, I’m not even sure what this article’s little rant is even about.

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