I thought it was odd that the Calvin Harris and 5SOS singles came out in the UK last week but from what I've just read today in the trade magazine Record of the Day, it seems that Sony are now fully back on board with the concept.

 

As of tomorrow (24 July) and when the music rotation changeovers kick in, Capital will have 11 songs on their playlist that will not yet be commercially available to buy as a download whilst Radio 1 will have six. Not one of them on either station is a future Sony Music release.

 

Friday releases with no pre-order buzz, very limited advance airplay and no advance streaming now seems like very risky gameplay on the UK singles chart. Take 5 Seconds Of Summer for example. Last Friday their new track She’s Kinda Hot dominated iTunes charts all over the world. By Sunday (when Radio 1 finally got round to featuring it as their Track Of The Day) interest was already waning and it had rapidly fallen towards the bottom of the Top 10. When we last looked on Thursday morning, it was sitting at No.25 both here and in their native Australia. Not the best setup to the band’s imminent second album now, is it? On the other hand, the new Calvin Harris single released under the same circumstances is faring much better but we can’t help thinking that a potential No.1 position and sustained sales as a result of that higher entry would look better than going in the chart this Friday between about No.5 and No.7, dragged down even further perhaps because there’s no finished video yet to help pique fresh interest via YouTube, streaming numbers are only just starting to build and Capital has again passed over the song and left it off their latest playlist.

 

We understand the Sony strategy for almost all of their new releases going forward into 2016 will be OA/OS and globally in sync. It’s a brave move especially since we know of at least one competitor

who has no intention of following suit.

 

They seem to be implying that Capital are refusing to support records that are OAOS, presumably as they see streaming and downloads as their competition. Whilst to some it seems daft that the labels are so obsessed with getting a high new entry position, it seems like really it's the radio networks who are calling the shots. Will be interesting to see if Sony stick to it this time and how that affects their releases. The Calvin Harris single is doing well for now at least!

Edited July 24, 20159 yr by AcerBen

Radio stations will always be a bit behind the OA/OS schedule, no matter how you twist it. It's very common here (or in the US) that songs are OA/OS in general so I don't see why that couldn't work in the UK.

Radio stations will always be a bit behind the OA/OS schedule, no matter how you twist it. It's very common here (or in the US) that songs are OA/OS in general so I don't see why that couldn't work in the UK.

 

Yes that's true, but sounds like some of them are banning songs that are on OAOS altogether, which is different.

 

Some other interesting points picked out from this blog about a Radio Academy event last year.

 

Sony have apparently made it clear that they intend to go back to this as their standard model for all their artists later this year. Most other record labels are against it though – they’d rather get all the hype and promotion done first, ahead of release, so that when the song is finally available to download in iTunes, it has a higher impact – ideally debuting at no. 1, as opposed to elevating up the charts gradually over a number of weeks.

 

The industry can’t seem to agree on the best approach here. Capital FM, for example, apparently point blank refuse to support a record an unless they’re given it in advance. A recent example which was used to illustrate this at the talk last night was Can’t Remember To Forget You by Rihanna & Shakira. Capital haven’t supported the song at all – which is quite a statement in itself given how target those two artists are. It’s interesting to note the song’s low chart placing as a result of this; it hasn’t even broken the top 10 in the UK.

 

On the flipside, iTunes apparently (and again I didn’t know this until it was said last night but maybe this has been revealed before) refuse to promote a record on their front page unless it’s On Air On Sale. They say that their customers have told them they want a song to be available to buy instantly, as soon as they’ve heard it. Therefore a 6-week campaign of promotion ahead of release would actually cause iTunes not to promote it, which would be a major negative from the label’s point of view. It must be incredibly difficult being the record company in this situation, there’s basically no way to please both supporters (iTunes) and critics (Capital) of the model.

 

Another interesting ROTD editorial posted here in December, with regards to Uptown Funk.

Edited July 24, 20159 yr by AcerBen

Wow lol at that approach

 

 

Capital's stance is quite bizarre though, I mean - if all record companies decided to follow Sony's approach they'd have nothing to play.

Capital's stance is quite bizarre though, I mean - if all record companies decided to follow Sony's approach they'd have nothing to play.

 

It is a bit odd. ROTD says:

 

The radio station wants to be able to be seen to have songs building and championed over a long period, sometimes even over six weeks or longer. They’re protecting their multi-million pound operation, after all, and trying to find the right acts for their key summer and pre-Christmas live events at Wembley and London’s O2 Arena. Their current opinion is that On Air On Sale, which works well across the rest of the world, didn’t work when it was tried here a few years ago and still will see a lot of tracks fail to live up to expectations, rather than having that huge pre-order build up and a big chart entry on download release.

 

But I suspect it's also because they want to have records that no one else has. If you can listen to the newest music on Spotify, do you need to listen to Capital? I can understand that.

bravo sony~ :smoke:

There's def a link to shite no1s held back for ages and dropping down the chart quickly and massive the that don't quite hit he top spot due to an earlier release!

really hope the Calvin single hangs around for a long time now especially as it'll prove that you don't need Capital and a held back release to get a massive hit, then hopefully other labels will follow suit. OA/OS FTW!

My worry is its lack of a video! If he releases that this week it'll be perfect and hold up fine, if it continues to do well on spotify it'll be great!

stuff Capital, I don't live in London, dont give a monkeys what they play. Radio in the Uk tries to dictate what becomes big. That's not how it used to be in the UK - was a time when new records were played when they were released to buy, they grew, they went up the charts, they became big.

 

I like that model, and for the same reason I'm against streaming advance of being available for sale - they are all just dictating to grab market share. Acts like Taylor Swift do what they want, pay no attention to demands, or chart positions, they are more interested in keeping fans and record sales high.

 

Totally in favour of OAOS and I don't buy tracks that are held-back more than a couple of weeks now, it's my new policy. If everyone did the same all record companies would soon do it.....

So Capital would rather and think if something is held back for weeks and enters at number 1 it will sell more last longer? Rather than something building it's way up. I know it is great for an artist to say they entered at #1, but the UK just seems so out of synch with the rest of the world.

I don't get Capital's behaviour. I don't think it's about "oh we don't like oa/os releases, let's ban them altogether", maybe there is something tricky between them and the labels that has profit for them.

Holding back records which are going to be big sellers anyway is stupid. All that happens is that cover versions cream of the sales. I can understand why iTunes is backing OAOS. But it's not for what they say it is. The real reason is that iTunes is sick of people messaging them about purchasing the crap cover versions of records that are on the radio that they can't buy, but thought they were doing. I know for certain a LOT of people do that.

The only problem with OAOS is that records will start low in the charts, even on the crap OCC chart. Then build up sales. However those selecting the records for listing on a station playlist have the excuse that a record entering low is a flop. And so don't play list a track. While the public will go mad for a record from the States or from Europe that is a big hit there, they won't for some really good songs that are just emerging. That's why record companies backed away from it.

I don't see how Spotify helps break records. The vast majority of people listening to Spotify have selected their own records to play. From what I've seen of Spotify it can't force people to listen to a new record unlike radio. People streaming new records on Spotify and the like are doing so because of some other source of the record, unless it's a well known track or artist.

A much better way to promote new released records would be for iTunes to have the 59p policy on new records, not another offer of the Killers Mr Brightside or Snow Patrol Chasing Cars for 59p.

I hope Sony can lead the way and show other labels that it's the way to go! If the rest of the world & its radio stations can work well with OA/OS then there's really no reason why we can't as well. Capital needs to change their approach. I don't think most people listen to them on the grounds that the songs they play aren't available to listen to elsewhere... after all, most of the time they are on YouTube instantly.

I don't see how Spotify helps break records. The vast majority of people listening to Spotify have selected their own records to play. From what I've seen of Spotify it can't force people to listen to a new record unlike radio. People streaming new records on Spotify and the like are doing so because of some other source of the record, unless it's a well known track or artist.

 

Spotify can't force you to listen to new songs, but new songs can play automatically in playlists, etc. Songs like Cheerleader, Lean On, Where Are U Now, Firestone and others took off on Spotify a very long time before radio started playing them and the sales picked up (to the point that it's almost suspicious to me, especially Cheerleader where I'd never heard of either artist before, how did that song get so many streams so fast?). However, I don't know if Spotify helped break those songs or if it was simply just being an early indicator that they'd be chart hits, like Shazam sometimes is.

 

As for Capital FM, they didn't play Blame by Calvin Harris on its release week either. They played it after just a week or two though.

5SOS was a very bad example though - no amount of pre-promo would have helped it much, since you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear! :lol:

Spotify can't force you to listen to new songs, but new songs can play automatically in playlists, etc. Songs like Cheerleader, Lean On, Where Are U Now, Firestone and others took off on Spotify a very long time before radio started playing them and the sales picked up (to the point that it's almost suspicious to me, especially Cheerleader where I'd never heard of either artist before, how did that song get so many streams so fast?). However, I don't know if Spotify helped break those songs or if it was simply just being an early indicator that they'd be chart hits, like Shazam sometimes is.

 

As for Capital FM, they didn't play Blame by Calvin Harris on its release week either. They played it after just a week or two though.

 

I have friends with a passing casual interest in current music who just play the spotify chart as background "radio" - if a lot of people do that it explains why the chart is so slow-moving as it's more a case of people having to get up to actively skip a track they don't like and it's much easier to just leave it and wait.

 

I like to think of it as an apathy chart. Tracks stay there until people get motivated enough to turn them off, rather than motivated enough to turn them on. :P

Capital is a reactionary radio station in reality they only play tracks that are hits and profit is everything for them and big audiences!

Streaming sites having charts shows that people can be channelled into their music listening habits. It's like the download sites too. They rely on people not looking for records, just visiting the chart pages. It's long been recognised. How do you get the public to like your record? Answer make certain it's in the charts.

The fact that streaming sites adopted the habit of having charts is not accidental. At the end of the day streaming is just creaming off the most popular records for cash purposes, whilst not paying back the profits to artists fairly.

Streaming is simply renting records and the public have not worked that out - YET.

The public of course will listen to some records for years and years after the single had stopped selling. So streaming will make a chart more democratic in the public's choice, but it does nothing for new material and new acts. So instead of a top 100 with 20 to 30 new records each week, we are down to five with streaming. The use of OAOS thus will have no effect as far as streaming is concerned for a lot of new records. Streaming sites will simply benefit from the cream of the crop new records of OAOS, those that would sell anyway without much radio airplay. BUT doesn't that happen now?