Radiohead, Prince Snubbed By Brit Awards
November 30, 2007 -- The big boys are discovering what
the rest of us have known all along. It doesn't matter how many
physical CDs you distribute, or how many people download your
newest album -- if your music is not distributed by the gatekeepers,
your content is not even worthy of consideration. It doesn't
count.
Just a couple of weeks ago,
the Eagles sold 700,000 copies of their newest release, but was
ineligible for the Billboard charts until a last-minute rule
change was made to include Wal-Mart sales. This was particularly
fascinating if you realize that Wal-Mart and BestBuy probably
sell half of the physical CDs in the country. Until the rule
change, any artist using one of them exclusively for distribution
simply was not counted. Step outside the machine and suddenly
you're not there.
Today's example is found
at the BBC, which reports:
Radiohead and Prince will both
miss out on Brit Award nominations next year due to eligibility
rules. Artists must have had a top 75 UK single or album during
the past 16 months before they can be considered.
Radiohead's album, In Rainbows,
was only released for download on the band's website, which does
not report sales to chart compilers. Prince's Planet Earth
was given away free in a newspaper. Chart rules stated it was
ineligible for inclusion.
In other circumstances, Radiohead
would have been in the running for the best British group and
best British album. A spokesman for the group said they had not
expected to be included in the nominations.
The industry's new posture
is that everything was a big misunderstanding; they're just not
very smart. If you're a musician, you have to question this because
the RIAA (or whatever the acronym is in your country) has really
been pretty thorough about putting up roadblocks everywhere to
either keep you out or discount your existence.
Because they can't compete
with free. And we don't have to compete with them at all. Music
is not a competition, just the business part.
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