How the Album Is Coping with the Streaming Age 2
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ISSUE 361 | 04 MARCH 2015 Contents thereport 06 Beyond music: Cybersecurity 07 Pinboard: Stats, deals, startups and more 09 Country profile: Portugal Long player How the album is coping with the streaming age 2 ISSUE 361 04.03.15 COVER FEATURE rom the start of this month, the UK is following the lead of Sweden (in 2013) and the US (last year) by adding streaming into the albums Fchart. The Official Charts Company is looking to shore up the relevance of the albums chart in the streaming age but, in doing so, had to considerably rework its tabulation methodology for how it combines streaming data with download and physical sales. Firstly it selects the top 12 tracks from an album, basing that on the common number of tracks from the CD era, and then works out the average streams across them all. Most significantly, and to prevent albums with just one massive song and a lot of cobwebbed filler from over- indexing, it is down-weighting the two Long biggest songs on an album to get a more balanced overview of the performance of the album as a whole. At the heart of this is much talk about genuflecting before the How the album is coping album as an artistic statement as much as in the streaming age protecting it as a commercial format. player Album listening, the logic goes, is moving to streaming and the charts The arrival of iTunes in 2003 saw songs being uncoupled from albums, liberating consumers to buy a track or have a duty to reflect this and, in doing two rather than the full album. The rise of streaming, however, was supposed to help a return to album listening so, maintain both their relevance (as a as consumers could theoretically listen to everything for a set fee each month. We have picked 10 very different measurement of popularity and success) report and the relevance of the album as a body albums to investigate just how listening trends apply across all the songs on each. The results are surprising of work. Noble intentions, sure. But just and puncture some commonly accepted myths about streaming in general and the album in particular. how much are full albums being streamed? the 3 ISSUE 361 04.03.15 COVER FEATURE Do consumers, now no longer required MARK RONSON off the album and when marketing kicks in – ‘Thinking Out Loud’ had 226m plays and to pay up front for a CD and feel they UPTOWN SPECIAL around the subsequent singles, this could ‘I See Fire’ had 206m plays – is not totally have to play everything to wring the most start to chip away at the 91% share overwhelmed by them. value out of their purchase, still listen to ‘Uptown Funk’ has of the overall album everything in the order the artist presents plays. SAM SMITH it to them? Or does streaming mean they IN THE LONELY HOUR are instantly able to sort the wheat from ED SHEERAN the chaff? X Andreas Ahlenius, commercial director at Universal Music Sweden, told music:) ally last year, “Everything has changed. It is not what people buy that matters – it’s what people listen to. When it comes to what audience to reach, we used to target • Uptown’s First Finale • Summer Breaking people with money but what is now more • Feel Right • Uptown Funk • I Can’t Lose important is to target people with time. It • Daffodils • Crack In The Pearl • In Case Of Fire • Leaving Los Feliz • Heavy & Rolling • Crack In The Pearl Part II is their time we are after, not their money.” TOTAL STREAMS: 169,381985 What he meant was that marketing in Sweden was no longer about driving huge Rush-released at the start • Money On My Mind • Good Thing • Stay With Me sales in the opening weeks of an album’s of the year, lead single • Leave Your Lover • I’m Not The Only One • I’ve Told You Now • Like I Can • Life Support • Not In That Way • Lay Me Down release but rather about finding ways to ‘Uptown Funk’ was being • One • I’m A Mess • Sing • Don’t • Nina • Photograph • Restart • Latch - acoustic • La La La • Make It To Me get listeners to keep going back to albums talked about as a smash • Bloodstream • Tenerife Sea • Runaway • The Man TOTAL STREAMS: 882,195,347 • Thinking Out Loud • Afire Love • Take It Back to play them again and again over a period even before it went to radio • Shirtsleeves • Even My Dad Does Sometimes • I See Fire of months and years. in November 2014. There is, however, a TOTAL STREAMS: 1,073,726,218 The second biggest album With all these changes in mind, we have huge disparity between the single and the of 2014 in the UK and the picked 10 albums that represent different rest of the album, which spells out some The UK’s biggest selling only artist album to sell 1m+ iterations of the album as a body of work of the issues facing pop albums on album of 2014, X is an copies in both the UK and across different genres and eras and then streaming services – or pop albums with a interesting example of four the US, most of the album’s analysed just how the plays spread out massive lead-in single. Historically singles songs – ‘Sing’, ‘I See Fire’, sales have been on CD (just over 1m of its across the album as a whole. have been the key medium for pop but ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and 1.46m UK sales are physical). But, as with often they have caused a slipstream effect ‘Don’t’ – doing most of the heavy lifting, Ed Sheeran, while four tracks – ‘Stay With Note on methodology: we have used whereby a huge single can drag with it accounting for around 742m of the album’s Me’, ‘Money On My Mind’, ‘I’m Not The Spotify data for global plays because it significant sales of the accompanying 1.07bn streams (so around 75% of plays). Only One’ and ‘La La La’ – dominate the is the only audio streaming service that album. This is something that might start That said, the other tracks on the album album (making up 73.5% of total plays), the is fully open with its play data. We can to unravel a little as the streaming world are not so disproportionately pushed out other songs do appear to be getting a presume that similar listening dynamics lets consumers vote with their ears and of the equation. The hits are, of course, by decent crack of the whip with listeners. are identifiable on Rhapsody, Deezer, their time. In the sales world, ‘Uptown far the most played, but the listening data Against the trends identifiable on the Mark Rdio and others. All streaming data was Funk’ has sold 1.3m copies in the UK but suggests the album is appealing enough Ronson album, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran report collated on the same day, 23rd February, the parent album has so far only managed that consumers will dig deeper into it and suggest an album needs the gravitational using Spotify’s publicly available global 66k copies, showing a similar dynamic at give the other songs considerable plays. pull of familiarity that three or four big hits streaming figures. play here. It is, of course, the first single An album that, despite having huge hits can bring in order to draw listeners in and the 4 ISSUE 361 Thereafter, however, plays are reasonably THE WAR ON DRUGS ADELE 04.03.15 COVER FEATURE well spread across the rest of the songs LOST IN THE DREAM 21 on the album. So the great enduring myth properly explore what else is on there. Of of indie albums is perhaps only 50% right. course, having four songs on an album that are capable of being big hits is YOUNG FATHERS another matter entirely. DEAD BELLE & SEBASTIAN GIRLS IN PEACETIME WANT TO DANCE • Under The Pressure • Red Eyes • Suffering • Rolling In The Deep • Rumour Has It • Turning Tables • An Ocean In Between The Waves • Disappearing • Don’t You Remember • Set Fire To The Rain • Eyes To The Wind • The Haunting Idle • Burning • He Won’t Go • Take It All • I’ll Be Waiting • Lost In The Dream • In Reverse • One & Only • Lovesong • Someone Like You TOTAL STREAMS: 41,672,266 TOTAL STREAMS: 409,676,479 Alongside St Vincent by St An album that was initially • No Way • Low • Just Another Bullet • War Vincent, this was arguably held off Spotify and • Get Up • Dip • Paying • Mmmh Mmmh the biggest critical success proclaimed, given its • Hangman • Am I Not Your Boy • I’ve Arrived last year, coming first in staggering 30m+ sales, as TOTAL STREAMS: 2,918,866 many end of year polls. This the saviour of the album at • Nobody’s Empire • Allie • The Party Line is where albums can do the most business a time when many had presumed the • The Power Of Three • The Cat With The Cream • Enter Sylvia Plath • The Everlasting Muse • Perfect Couples • Ever Had A Little Faith? Picked because it was as people read about them and want to album was dead. Its performance on • Play For Today • The Book Of You • Today (This Army’s For Peace) the winner of the investigate if the critical consensus Spotify is, against that particular TOTAL STREAMS: 8,493,484 2014 Mercury Music around them is correct or misguided. contextual backdrop, a fascinating one. Prize, an award ceremony Single ‘Red Eyes’ is by far the biggest Really, it appears to be about three songs There is a highly that deifies the album track on the album, accounting for almost – ‘Rolling In The Deep, ‘Someone Like You’ romanticised argument that as an artistic statement.