...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Data

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All indie record label sales combined = just a bit more than one major label.

This is good news, apparently.

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New Data - Australian ecommerce to account for 10% of all retail by 2017

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*Brilliant* little piece on how Radio 1 livetweeting its playlist meetings can have a catastrophic effect on labels, artists and careers.

Funny, useful.

(via The Guardian)

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Warner buys Parlophone - cautious artist optimism and / or the least worst result for indies? The Guardian has a ponder here.

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SBS have licensed a new Nick Cave track to promote their new film timeslot - in cinemas.

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From last week, but this is some nice data via Nielsen showing the sales boost you get from playing the Superbowl:

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This is one of two great charts from Digital Music News - basically, post-Spotify music sales in Sweden have grown at a decent lick, with streaming at the heart of it - go see both charts here.

It doesn't necessarily mean Spotify is making the business profitable again (the who-gets-paid-what debate rumbles on), but it does demonstrate neatly that it's an extremely popular model.

Since fishing where the fish are is usually a good idea, this is a pretty important chart.

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Is it a single? Is it a track?

Love this by Beggars' UK marketing fella David Emery, a neatly wrapped up but super-informative little post on Drowned In Sound about the single vs the track release: http://bit.ly/WC20KD

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*SO* not the most important bit of music sales news, but heartwarming nonetheless - vinyl sales are way up in the UK for the fifth consecutive year.

Award yourself some scratchy but fuller-sounding pats on the back, purists.

(via Digital Music News)

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Just playing around with Chartburst - general idea is that you (the artist) upload tracks for $5 a throw, and the top 5 in any given genre get guaranteed listens from various A&R types. 

Don't know how I'd feel about that if I was in a band - although sticking a decent package in the post costs about the same, and has probably less chance of ear-time.

The site needs tweaks (That background! My eyes!) but seems like a neat sideways-ish route for nerds like me to discover new music, a potentially very refreshing change from the usual blogs etc.

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Easy-to-read little image visualising the split of UK digital spend by type (display, search etc) via the IAB. Quotable.

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WHAT a legend. 35,000 publicly-shared Hottest 100 votes analysed, so you can get an awesome steer on what the outcome'll be. 

The Warmest 100 - genius.

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Sweet Mother Mary, this 2012 roundup of music data is *such* a data gateway drug.

Awesome stuff.

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HMV may be closing but why not try and help your local indie store avoid the same fate? Go and buy a record or two this weekend, eh? Also: Elgar opened the Oxford Street HMV, in 1921.

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"Yes - We Are All Individuals"

This is a brilliant piece of work by Josh Smith, a designer based in (natch) Brooklyn who started to spot similarities between the covers of the records he liked. Check out the dropmarks page he did for them all, it'll crack you up a bit.

You see? THIS is what happens when we buy everything online instead of record shops. Bah, humbug, kids of today etc.

(via Fast Company)

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This'll make the purists froth themselves to pieces. It turns out Sufjan Stevens, of all people, likes to exchange money for things and has licensed a track to a Red Bull ad. Good for him. Read all about it: http://bit.ly/VJHwlI

[alexjkirk]

Not wanting to add the tsunami of internet frothing - though the sight of the global music media all tripping over themselves to catch up was priceless - but I can’t wait to see the numbers that this classy, dignified and devilishly clever move generates.

With absolutely no warning, in a world that’s incapable of keeping a secret, THIS is how you do earned media.

Someone make him King or something, would you please?