1. i guess people cared?

    i guess people cared?

  2. the contrarian contorting that’s going on this morning is pretty impressive to behold.

    iTunes/Beatles-related headlines this am:

    “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, baby boomers please just die.”
    “Beatles coming to iTunes. So what?”
    “If the Beatles do come to iTunes… will anyone care?”/”The Beatles on iTunes: If It Happens, Should We Care?” (lol @ the pageview economy’s implicit hope that the answer is “yes”)
    “Beatles Finally Embrace iTunes, Now That Nobody Cares” (a different spin on the above that would have been dinged by any decent editor with a “SO WHY ARE WE WRITING ABOUT IT THEN” note. oh right, it’s because PEOPLE CARE ENOUGH TO CLICK)
    “The Beatles’ back catalogue should be available to download – just not through iTunes: The biggest band in pop could have found a better online home for their music. Instead they’re set to do a deal with Apple’s iTunes, a store that views music purely as a commodity”

    I know sticking out in this content-drenched world is hard, but really? Really? Especially on that last one, sheesh — “o noes, wildly successful band is just something for sale.”

    As for the “oh who cares” types, well, they know as well as anyone that this news is sort of a big deal — surely they’re watching their Chartbeat and Google Analytics results confirming said fact in real time. In a sense it’s a major story just like the reissues were last year, although maybe more so because the Beatles are one of the last big names to hold out on digital-music services — which are ascendant, for better or worse (and thanks in large part to retailers fleeing from the brick-and-mortar space en masse).

    The “baby boomers please just die” complaint is probably my favorite. I loathe the entrenchment of that segment of culture as much as anyone who’s tried to ascend particular employment ranks without having the advantage of being there while said ranks’ status quo were solidified. But these people still buy music, which is another reason why as a business story — which, let’s be honest, is the sort of story that takes up most reporting about popular music these days, as they effectively turn music into sports and can thus dispense with all the “I like this song because” stuff that twists the knickers of people who still laughably believe in the idea of objectivity — this news is worthy of reportage, and will definitely help out with the traffic goals today. And it’s not like the Beatles have a NO FANS UNDER 40 shingle hung out next to their proverbial door, either! Get offended by Akon billing himself over Michael Jackson on a posthumous track that rips off Hootie & the Blowfish if you’re going to get offended by blatant nostalgia-mining.

  3. iTunes’ Best Sellers Of 2009

    TOP-SELLING SONGS
    1. “Boom Boom Pow,” Black Eyed Peas
    2. “Right Round,” Flo Rida
    3. “Poker Face,” Lady GaGa
    4. “I Gotta Feeling,” Black Eyed Peas
    5. “Gives You Hell,” The All-American Rejects
    6. “Just Dance,” Lady GaGa & Colby O’Donis
    7. “Party in the U.S.A.,” Miley Cyrus
    8. “The Climb,” Miley Cyrus
    9. “Dead and Gone (feat. Justin Timberlake),” T.I.
    10. “Use Somebody,” KIngs of Leon

    TOP-SELLING ALBUMS
    1. Kings of Leon, “Only By the Night”
    2. Various Artists, “Twilight (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)”
    3. Lady GaGa, “The Fame”
    4. Taylor Swift, “Fearless”
    5. Dave Matthews Band, “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King”
    6. Michael Jackson, “The Essential Michael Jackson”
    7. The Fray, “The Fray”
    8. Jay-Z, “The Blueprint 3”
    9. Eminem, “Relapse”
    10. Black Eyed Peas, “The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)”

    and the editors picked Michael Jackson as Artist Of The Year, which, well, sigh.