Music Industry Losers 2013: Lady Gaga, Rock, iTunes Store
Lady Gaga
This was supposed to be the year of Gagathe time when the Queen Monster regained her throne after a self-imposed quiet period. Instead, Miley Cyrus twerked her way into the spotlight this summer, Lorde dominated the airwaves this fall, and Beyoncé shocked the world as much any superstar could with her surprise album earlier this month.
Gagas highly-anticipated album, however, got lukewarm reviews from many critics even though it was actually not that bad. Worse yet, it failed to generate anywhere near the buzz of the aforementioned trio. For an artist whos all about buzz, thats a problem. From a business perspective, so is her recent split with tech-savvy manager Troy Carter.
Still, Gaga is one of the top-earning acts in the world and has millions of incredibly loyal fans. Even if some dont care for ARTPOP, she has built a fairly extensive catalogue of hits to go with her considerable talents as a performerand shouldnt have trouble filling up arenas when she hits the road this spring. That could make 2014 quite a lot better for her than 2013.
Music Industry Winners 2013: Beyonce, Streaming, Rap DJs
Beyoncé
As discussed in my previous post, 2013 was supposed to be the Year of Gaga. It wasnt. Instead, three other pop divas stole the spotlightfirst Miley Cyrus, then Lorde, and, most boldly of all, Beyoncé.
Thats not to discredit the cleverness of Cyrus and her team in hijacking the VMAs, not to mention the national discourse on popular music. And its no knock on Lorde, who came from nowhere (rather, New Zealand) to deliver music that seems to have made people truly excited about, well, music.
But the surprise launch of Beyoncés self-titled album is perhaps most revolutionary not for what it did, but for what it didnt do. Mrs. Carter is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, signed to one of its more storied labels. Yet she didnt make use of any of the perks of such an arrangementthe machine were told is so necessary. There was no radio promotion, no single, no advance press of any kind.
The fact that nearly 900,000 customers were willing to pay full price to buy this album is testament to the passionate dedication of Beyoncés legions of fans, one veteran entertainment attorney told me. Most artists have to pre-sell or hype albums by giving away singles on various websites, or streaming the album.
The result: an opening week total that was more than Gagas and Katy Perrys, combined. Is her success replicable? Probably not. Would it have worked for someone else? Perhaps five or ten other stars. And its worth noting that the album, only available as an iTunes download for its first week, was pirated extensively. But having the gumption to take such a risk? Thats what it takes to run the world.
Full article for the losers, which also includes itunes and rock music and full article for winners, which also includes streaming and hip hop producing DJs.
