Ultimate Chart (a/o May 25th):
Did indie marketshare just multiply - overnight? And, trump every major label in the process? According to A2IM, the answer is definitely yes, thanks to a recent recategorization by Soundscan in the US. "Soundscan finally
revamped their analysis by adding marketshare breakdown by label ownership," an A2IM representative told Digital Music News today. "It reveals that independent labels collectively lead the market with 31.2% of album and TEA sales [for the first half of this year]."
'TEA' stands for 'track equivalent albums,' a highly-questionable counting method that essentially gloms 10 tracks (last we checked) into a full album. At presstime, we were unable to receive a cleaner, straight album total.
A2IM president Richard Bengloff has been stumping for this change for years. The reason is that indies frequently work through major-owned distribution groups, and those releases end up getting counted towards that major's market share. Which distorts the figures and lowers leveraging power. "Over the years, reporting based on distribution has allowed major labels who claim independent marketshare to inflate their positions in repertoire deals with companies entering the music space, and settlements with infringers," the group relayed. "It has cost independent labels, and their artists, hundreds of millions of dollars."
In other words, this marketshare total - sent to us by Soundscan last month - is essentially a work of fiction.
So, instead of 12.57% share, Bengloff is now popping the champagne on a more-than-doubled figure.
But something tells us this isn't quite baked. Is Nielsen Soundscan - the longtime data sycophant to the majors - ready to rule indies as the dominant player? We asked Nielsen, and they declined to answer that question, and even A2IM has yet to follow-up on our many questions.
We'll report more as we know it, including any additional information from Bengloff.
/paul.
Comments Closed
@MusicBloggersUS Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Music Blogger's
LONG LIVE THE INDIE STAR!
@dhuman Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Dick Huey
Finally being calculated fairly.
David Parker Thursday, August 11, 2011
If you really want to be accurate about whether a label is truly independent or not, you should exclude those ‘independent’ labels that are provided with significant dollar equivalents in return for distribution and manufacturing rights – such as office space, free marketing and promotion, etc.
I define a true independent label as one who has to pay and be responsible for those aspects of running a label.
Food For Thought... Thursday, August 11, 2011
How each person defines an independent label (artist) is subjective.
To some, an artist that is 100% DIY can claim a greater level of independence than a small staffed label that self-distributes, self-promotes, and does all artist services in-house.
To others, that small staffed label can claim a greater level of independence than a label that is 100% self-owned but hires ReverbNation, Redeye, E1, Fontana or Warner Music Group for distribution services.
To others, THAT label can claim a greater claim of independence than a label that is 75% self-owned and is distributed by Warner Music Group and as part of their deal (in exchange for a couple of distribution points) gets office space.
Etc., etc.
Who is more indie than the next is a fine (and fun) conversation but for the purposes of the digital music business landscape - and specifically who receives what terms/advances from digital retailers and service providers - every decision is based upon what percentage of the market is owned/controlled by whom.
Therefore it is very important to highlight that music masters NOT owned by the majors (be they Radiohead, Taylor Swift, Bon Iver, Mumford & Sons, Vampire Weekend, or the #250 selling artist on TuneCore) make up a much more significant percentage of the business than what had been commonly reported before A2IM challenged Billboard to report market share by master ownership.
For these limited purposes, all manner of indies interested in receiving fair commerce deal terms should put aside their internal disagreements and stand together to proudly pronounce that independently owned masters are the #1 segment of the U.S. market. Any music service that enters the business and wants to short indies should keep this in mind!
@Herr_Hartmann Thursday, August 11, 2011
Sebastian Hartmann
Before the PIAS fire?
@rokenbk97 Thursday, August 11, 2011
Patrick McGinn
Not too surprising that indie is the new bread winner...
@StarliteRoom Thursday, August 11, 2011
Art Szabo
Rise of the indie label.
@IXiiVRecords Friday, August 12, 2011
9 to 5 Records
Huge news!
Mark Cope Saturday, August 13, 2011
SoundScan has not treated independent retail fairly since its inception. I worked for The Album Network starting in 1986 as their Sr. VP of Retail. We were the first in the business to take piece count information to build our sales chart. We made a point of highlighting the independent stores sales, not only in piece counts, but also in in-store play, projected sales for the following week, and why albums were selling. We never weighed stores and we had accounts from Best Buy to Waterloo reporting to us. We reported rankings by using the piece counts.It was information that the labels used on a daily basis and the indies benefited from that exposure by using this new way of information.
When the two Mike's brought SS into existance, the labels accepted their information as the gospil, even though the piece count information was weighted and didn't breakout the indie stores the way they should have been. They didn't care since SS was making the labels pay through the nose for their information.
The one thing we did at The Album Network was to gather independent retailers together at the last AFIM convention and help them to launch the first indie retail coalition, CIMS (Coalition of Independent Music Stores. Soon to follow were AIMS and The Music Moniter Network. This gave these stores the ability to work together for ad & marketing dollars, while making then strong as a group rather than individually. CIMS now has its own record label called Junketboy, in which they have released B-sides, live in-stores recording, and other material from artists like Metallica, Pearl Jam, Ben Harper, and many other. They have a catalogue of over 200+ titles that are only available to to independent retail.
These stores are now in survival mode and most in the business just brush them aside these days like they are a gnat buzzing around their heads. The majors don't want to hassle with the indies, but the must because these stores are the fist place tha sales hppen on new and breaking artists. Just ask Sub Pop and its band Fleet Foxes. Thousands of vinyl albums have been sold through the stores, making Fleet Foxes one of the great developing artist stories of the year.
For Soundscan to finally recognize the "10 track" album is about 25 years to late. But then again, SS couldn't chop and dice up the indie information the way they have with the big-box accounts for the major labels. SS has NEVER reflected real sales in the music biz and they still don't. To this 40 year vetern of the music wars, this move is to little to late.
God bless the indies. They are here to stay and will fight this battle like it was the Alamo! These are the some of the best music and business people in the music world. It's to bad that they have been banished to an island for so many years and never appreciated for what they truly contribute.
Peace,
Mark Cope
Unemployed music biz vetern.
Influence Sunday, August 14, 2011
Is the real problem for the Indies/ DIY the Majors?
It seems the music 'systems' on the internet have always favoured creating income for the Majors while making sure the Indies/DIY get little or nothing. After all when there are only so many dollars to go around it appears the Majors are making sure as few as posible get to the Indies/DIY artists.
If the influence of the Majors on the internet music 'systems' was less it would probably leed to a much healthier market for the Indies/DIY.
The Majors have the right to protect and exploit their copyrights but not at the expense of the Indies/DIY market.
@indielabelnews Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Charlie Dahan
Finally an accurate count...
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