Huge digital impact on music charts

Sunday Business Post - Media and Marketing - 28th January 2007

Last year, more music tracks were purchased as downloads in Ireland than were bought in CD-single format, writes Dermot Corrigan...

Last year, more music tracks were purchased as downloads in Ireland than were bought in CD-single format.

In 2006, there were 1.3 million physical singles bought and two million tracks downloaded.This total includes album tracks as well as specially released and marketed singles.

Meanwhile, annual digital music sales worldwide almost doubled toUS$2 billion.Inevitably, this change is having an impact on music charts. As of January 1, 2007, the Irish music singles’ charts now takes into account all music sold online, as well as the physical releases available in traditional bricks and mortar retailers.

‘‘The dramatic change in the way the charts are compiled is that you now don’t need a physical release to count in the charts,” said Dick Doyle, managing director of IRMA, the Irish Recording Music Association.

Online downloads were first counted in July last year, however for the first six months distributors were required to have a physical release in the shops within two weeks to be considered for the charts. From the start of this year, all music sold, whether over the internet or over the counter, is counted by ChartTrack, which compiles the sales figures for IRMA.

‘‘It has not had a massive impact, but some new things have come in,” said John Pinder, the managing director of ChartTrack.

Chasing Cars from Snow Patrol had stopped selling physically as the stock had run out, but it was still selling online and re-entered the charts.Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody also entered on the strength of just downloads. While Chasing Cars was first released in August last year, Bohemian Rhapsody dates from October 1975.

The Christmas Number One in Ireland was X-Factor winner Leona Lewis with A Moment Like This. This song remained on top of the pile for the first two weeks of the new compilation system.

ChartTrack measure sales traffic at nine Irish downloading sites. These include large industry players such as the Apple’s iTunes and Sony Connect sites, smaller independent start-ups such as downloadmusic.ie, as well as downloads to mobile phones from 3 Music and Vodafone.This combination covers over 90 per cent of the total music bought online in Ireland.IRMA have been involved in promoting the official Irish singles and albums charts, based on consumer sales, since 1992, when Gallup were awarded the contract to compile the sales information.

ChartTrack have been providing the statistics since a management buy-out from Gallup in 1996. Both ChartTrack and IRMA are eager to make sure that the charts remain relevant in the 21st century.

‘‘The charts are there to reflect what the consumer is doing. The customer has been adapting more and more to the digital delivery services, whether through mobile downloads or to their computers. So it is up to us to reflect what the consumer wants, and what the consumer is buying,” said Doyle.

The new method of determining the singles charts opens up a number of different possibilities, including the prospect of one band filling all the spots in the top ten.

‘‘For example, if the new U2 album comes and all the tracks sell enough they could all get in the singles chart. It is really now a songs chart rather than a singles chart as such, said Pinder.

It also means the potential to see more golden-oldie or independent songs making surprise appearances in the singles charts.

Until recently if an old or previously unknown song came to prominence (for example after appearing on a Levi’s Jeans television advertisement or in a Quentin Tarantino movie) fans had to wait for distributors to react, whereas now they can go online in seconds to purchase the track.

‘‘People are going to hear things and then buy them,” said Pinder. ‘‘A big advert, using an old song can fire that back into the charts, or use of the song in a soap opera or on a film soundtrack. Different influences will push different songs.”

Another advantage for consumers is that the cost of downloading songs online is typically lower than purchasing a CD. For example, A Moment Like This costs €4.99 in HMV in Dublin, stg£3.99 on Amazon.co.uk and 99cent from iTunes.

There are now over four million songs available for immediate purchase online from approximately 500 online music services in 40 countries worldwide, however, due to Vat restrictions Irish consumers must buy only from Irish sites.This obviously poses a threat to the business model of high-street music retailers, who are being forced to adapt to the new reality. HMV recently installed booths in their stores where customers can purchase and download music on site.

‘‘I think traditional bricks and mortar retailers are going to have to offer both the physical disk and the online side,” said Doyle.Doyle predicts that we will see more independent acts represented in the Irish charts in the future.

‘‘A lot of independent acts - who for some reason haven’t been signed by a big label or do not want to be signed by a big label - will produce their own digital tracks and will sell them online,” he said.

‘‘It should mean more independent type acts will make it into the charts, and much more quickly,” said Doyle.

The four major global music distributors Universal, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI have also moved quickly to ensure their presence in the online market.

‘‘The download market, as well as the physical market, is still dominated by the four major labels,” said Pinder.

Dave Pennefather, managing director of Universal Music Ireland, said that he welcomed the step.‘‘It is wonderful that there are so many platforms out there where people can go and legitimately get access to the music available,” he said.

Universal was adapting well to the new reality, and despite the vexatious problem of illegal downloading, its sales were remaining constant.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=MEDIA+AND+MARKETING-qqqs=mediaandmarketing-qqqid=20498-qqqx=1.asp