Independent Record Store Day

Well Saturday 20th April is Record Store Day, the sixth in the UK, with over 200 independent record shops taking part.

"This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, meet & greets with artists, DJ's, in store quizzes and many other events."   That included appearances from Paul Weller and Gabrielle Alpin, with Sting playing live in celebration of the independent music shop.

And some more success this year too.... the Entertainment Retailers Association reporting sales up on last year especially with 500 exclusive releases for the day.  So album sales up 60% and singles 20% with an average customer spend of a not inconsiderable £45.

Record Store day also makes the second anniversary of the Independent Record Store Chart, compiled by the Official Charts Company from over 100 of those 'coolest and most vibrant'  independent record shops.   In fact, eight of the Top 10 biggest selling vinyl albums from those 500 were Record Store Day exclusives.


So here's the top 40 of the biggest selling albums from those indie shops over the last 12 months.  With lots of reassuringly familiar names too....

	Album	Artist
1	BABEL	MUMFORD & SONS
2	OUR VERSION OF EVENTS	EMELI SANDE
3	BLUNDERBUSS	JACK WHITE
4	COEXIST	XX
5	THE NEXT DAY	DAVID BOWIE
6	BOYS & GIRLS	ALABAMA SHAKES
7	AN AWESOME WAVE	ALT-J
8	JAKE BUGG	JAKE BUGG
9	PUSH THE SKY AWAY	NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
10	STANDING AT THE SKY'S EDGE	RICHARD HAWLEY
11	COME OF AGE	VACCINES
12	BORN TO DIE	LANA DEL REY
13	LONERISM	TAME IMPALA
14	EL CAMINO	BLACK KEYS
15	TEMPEST	BOB DYLAN
16	CELEBRATION DAY	LED ZEPPELIN
17	21	ADELE
18	FALL TO GRACE	PALOMA FAITH
19	RIGHT PLACE RIGHT TIME	OLLY MURS
20	THE VERY BEST OF	NEIL DIAMOND
21	VISIONS	GRIMES
22	DJANGO DJANGO	DJANGO DJANGO
23	THE LION'S ROAR	FIRST AID KIT
24	TAKE ME HOME	ONE DIRECTION
25	EVERY KINGDOM	BEN HOWARD
26	BLOOM	BEACH HOUSE
27	THE 2ND LAW	MUSE
28	DON'T PANIC	ALL TIME LOW
29	MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY	ROD STEWART
30	PSYCHEDELIC PILL	NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
31	180	PALMA VIOLETS
32	BATTLE BORN	KILLERS
33	MAGIC OF THE MOVIES	ANDRE RIEU & JOHANN STRAUSS OR
34	SIGH NO MORE	MUMFORD & SONS
35	IN THE BELLY OF THE BRAZEN BULL	CRIBS
36	UNAPOLOGETIC	RIHANNA
37	+	ED SHEERAN
38	TAKE THE CROWN	ROBBIE WILLIAMS
39	UNORTHODOX JUKEBOX	BRUNO MARS
40	SHIELDS	GRIZZLY BEAR

Sources & Thanks:  recordstoreday.co.uk officialcharts.co.uk

A Billion Music Downloads

After nine years of legal music downloads in the UK, the total number of downloads has hit the 1 billion mark.  That's a thousand million...

It was January 2005 when download tracks overtook physical sales for the first time, just after the official download chart was created.  So superseding CD, and CD superseded Vinyl and tape.

So where next....In 2010 the streaming charts were introduced to capture the trend to 'rent' rather than buy music.....so can't help but wonder how long before streaming overtakes downloads as the preferred way of listening, and so becomes the default chart.

There's some really interesting challenges in getting those chart measurements right.  Of course a download purchase is a one off event, and can then be listened to many times which is not really captured.  Streaming of course looks at things differently, so can capture frequency of play and is perhaps a more contemporary, if more volatile measure of what's popular.

So here's those top selling download singles to date.....

1	SOMEONE LIKE YOU	ADELE
2	MOVES LIKE JAGGER	MAROON 5 FT CHRISTINA AGUILERA
3	SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW	GOTYE FT KIMBRA
4	I GOTTA FEELING	BLACK EYED PEAS
5	WE FOUND LOVE	RIHANNA FT CALVIN HARRIS
6	SEX ON FIRE	KINGS OF LEON
7	CALL ME MAYBE	CARLY RAE JEPSEN
8	PARTY ROCK ANTHEM	LMFAO/LAUREN BENNETT/GOONROCK
9	JUST THE WAY YOU ARE (AMAZING)	BRUNO MARS
10	PRICE TAG	JESSIE J FT BOB
11	LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE	EMINEM FT RIHANNA
12	POKER FACE	LADY GAGA
13	GANGNAM STYLE	PSY
14	ONLY GIRL (IN THE WORLD)	RIHANNA
15	TITANIUM	DAVID GUETTA FT SIA
16	WE ARE YOUNG	FUN FT JANELLE MONAE
17	THE A TEAM	ED SHEERAN
18	USE SOMEBODY	KINGS OF LEON
19	GIVE ME EVERYTHING	PITBULL/NE-YO/AFROJACK/NAYER
20	IMPOSSIBLE	JAMES ARTHUR

Sources & Thanks: www.officialcharts.com  bbcnews wikipedia