RADIOHEAD

If it’s not about the first week sales, entering the chart at number one, you can announce only days before your album is available, not only surprising and elating fans, but cutting down on the dreaded leak syndrome.

Sure, the major label built Radiohead.  Then again, after "Creep", what did EMI do for them?  It’s not like the band got a lot of airplay.  They followed their own muse and made challenging music that appealed to their fans.  Radiohead knows it’s not about closing everybody, but just those who care.

Who do I hate?

RADIOHEAD FANS!

Because whenever the band does something they clog up my inbox, whenever we discuss music they froth at the mouth. But I know, unlike a street team, they’re not being paid, they’re doing it out of passion and belief, so I don’t really hate them, I envy them, that they’re so into something, so I will never ignore Radiohead, even though they’re not my act of choice.

MUMFORD & SONS

In the old days, we never would have known Mumford & Sons was the hit of Grammy night.  Because we wouldn’t have instant sales information and the album couldn’t have been successful because the limited physical inventory would have sold out in a flash in brick and mortar stores.

But now you can manufacture ad infinitum, online, iTunes was ready with all the inventory necessary.  Mumford & Sons is still number one on the iTunes chart.

The old wave constantly bemoans the new wave, says the Internet ruined music.  What the old wave hates is it’s lost control.  Which came in the form of distribution.  Radiohead could not go their own way.  And it would have been hard to seed retail with enough copies of Mumford & Sons to show a spike, to feed demand.

The future is not digital sales, it’s streaming.  And if the labels were smart, which they are not, they’d go with Spotify immediately, before Apple or Google allows customers to keep their purchases stored in the cloud, obviating a need for subscription services.  So these sales statistics, which are anemic by old wave standards, are not harbingers of the future.  But they do illustrate demand.  You cannot categorize what appeals to the public.  In this crazy world anything can hit.  With everything available, the public selects from the giant smorgasbord, messing with the system.

People want to be touched emotionally.  That’s what Mumford & Sons delivers best.  In other words, in an era where so much music is made by machines, people truly desire that which is made by humans.

When it’s all said and done, Mumford’s album could outsell Katy Perry’s, it’s close.  Sure, Katy sold more singles, but do singles build careers?