Today’s thread is brought to you by the letters ‘H’, ‘B’, ‘N’ and ‘C”.
Yesterday was a Holiday so the numbers we normally release are on Hold. The Hot 100 top 10 and Spotify numbers should be released later today.
Billboard takes the holidays off, but they are getting increasing pressure from other sites like HDD to up their game. Now, HDD is reporting that industry insiders are increasingly turning away from Nielsen (whose numbers fuel much of BB) for a new player in town, Buzz Angle. It allows the industry to drill down better on exactly what is selling where. I played a bit with their site and it is kind of fun. You can find out what the best selling Pop Vinyl Album is this week in Seattle (Marvel’s Music from Captain America: The First Avenger). That’s pretty specific. The filters are fun. Buzz Angle has charts for Albums, Songs and Artist.
Niall Horan from One Direction looks to be saying No to Sony and Simon because UMG threw huge piles of cash at him. He’s been doing some solo music and apparently, UMG thinks it has potential. The fact that bandmate Zayn opened number one on the Hot 100 likely got people pretty excited about all the guys probably helped too. Liam Payne has already signed with UMG while Harry Styles and Zayn went with Sony labels.
Finally, we return to the on-going Copyright battles. This week, the Chainsmokers quietly added two additional names to the writer’s list for their Chart topping “Closer” single. Apparently, all concerned thought “Closer” sounded too much like The Fray’s “Over My Head (Cable Car)”. Meanwhile, Jessie J has a decisive win with “Dominoe”. The claimant could not prove access since the song that “Dominoe” supposedly copied two measures from was not widely heard.
