BuzzAngle Music is a new service by Border City Media aiming to “provides deep analytics of music consumption as it relates to the music industry through web and mobile access.” BuzzAngle will focus on sales, streaming and airplay activity to present market research filtered in a variety of ways, sales on a specific day or in a specific region of the country for instance. Working with the Independent Music Store Coalitions (CIMS, DRS, AIMS) and the Music Business Association, BuzzAngle Music debuted on Record Store Day, a date chosen to showcase their abilities to track sales at independent record stores using the latest technology.
“The goal of Border City Media and BuzzAngle Music is to bring complete accuracy to tracking of music sales, and Record Store Day was the perfect opportunity to show the capabilities of our analytics,” founder and CEO Jim Lidestri said BuzzAngle’s new report. “Data that can only show week-over-week activity and use estimates and extrapolations to size sales are not acceptable in the current marketplace. It makes it particularly difficult to measure the true impact of Record Store Day, particular in a year when Easter falls in the same week. With BuzzAngle Music’s daily data, Border City Media can pinpoint exactly what happened and when it happened at the independent record stores, revealing the true impact of this U.S. music retail event on the day it occurred.”
BuzzAngle Music reports a 646% total sales spike at independent record stores on Record Store Day compared to the previous Saturday, April 12th. Moreover, there was a 1,855% increase in vinyl sales for the industry as a whole between the two weeks, and a 2,042% increase in vinyl sales at independent stores.
Who lead the way?
Survey says:
Tame Impala’s Live Versions topped the albums list and Nirvana’s “Pennyroyal Tea” b/w “I Hate Myself and Want To Die” 7″ – originally scheduled for release in 1994 but canceled after Kurt Cobain’s suicide – the #1 single. The top 25 for both lists is below. Note The Flaming Lips rank high on each: #4 for albums with 7 Skies H3 and #3 for singles with their “Gates Of Steel” split with DEVO. Also note if you weren’t able to snag a copy of these top sellers that many of them – including Live Versions and “7 SKies H3” – are currently streaming online. More details on Record Store Day releases, including some that did not make the top sellers list, are in this guide to RSD 2014.
Top 25 Albums Sold on Record Store Day at Independent Record Stores
|
Rank
|
Title | Artist |
| 1 | Live Versions | Tame Impala |
| 2 | Live at Hampton Coliseum | The Grateful Dead |
| 3 | An Ideal For Living (1978) | Joy Division |
| 4 | 7 Skies H3 | The Flaming Lips |
| 5 | Meltdown With The Ramones | The Ramones |
| 6 | Loaded | The Velvet Underground |
| 7 | Live 2012 | Death Cab For Cutie |
| 8 | The 1969 Singles | Creedence Clearwater Revival |
| 9 | Live With Joe Strummer | The Pogues |
| 10 | Because the Internet | Childish Gambino |
| 11 | Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik | The OutKast |
| 12 | The Wizard of Oz: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | Various |
| 13 | Life After Death | The Notorious B.I.G. |
| 14 | Demolicious | Green Day |
| 15 | Live at Eddie’s Attic | The Civil Wars |
| 16 | Ultimate Alternative Wavers | Built to Spill |
| 17 | Indie Cindy | Pixies |
| 18 | Recover EP | Chvrches |
| 19 | Sun Records Curated by Record Store Day (Volume 1) | The Various Artists |
| 20 | Clear Lake Forest | The Black Angels |
| 21 | Odessey and Oracle | The Zombies |
| 22 | Live At Monterey | The Jimi Hendrix Experience |
| 23 | With His Hot and Blue Guitar | Johnny Cash |
| 24 | Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine | The Doors |
| 25 | Girls Talk | Garbage |
Top 25 Singles Sold on Record Store Day at Independent Record Stores
|
Rank
|
Title | Artist |
| 1 | Pennyroyal Tea / I Hate Myself and Want To Die | Nirvana |
| 2 | Side By Side Series: Just Like Heaven | The Cure/Dinosaur Jr. |
| 3 | Side By Side Series: Gates Of Steel Live | Devo/The Flaming Lips |
| 4 | American Beauty | Bruce Springsteen |
| 5 | 1984 Picture Disc | David Bowie |
| 6 | Side By Side Series: 7 and 7 is | Mystery Artists – Rush / Love |
| 7 | Ghostbusters | Ray Parker, Jr. |
| 8 | Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow / Down In De Dew | Frank Zappa |
| 9 | Learn To Obey | Off! |
| 10 | Million Dollar Bill / Easy/Lucky/Free | Conor Oberst/Dawes |
| 11 | Dragonfly / The Purple Dancer | Fleetwood Mac |
| 12 | Side By Side Series: The Badge | Poison Idea/Pantera |
| 13 | Forever | Haim |
| 14 | You’ve Got Time | Regina Spektor |
| 15 | I’m Less Here | Mazzy Star |
| 16 | Hundreds of Ways / Fast Friends | Conor Oberst |
| 17 | The Lake Nokomis Maxi Single | Atmosphere |
| 18 | Holding On for Life | Broken Bells |
| 19 | Take It Or Leave It b/w Jesse James | Cage The Elephant |
| 20 | Say Goodbye To Hollywood b/w Baby Please Don’t Go | Ronnie Spector & The E Street Band |
| 21 | Wait for Me b/w Don’t Matter (Live) | Kings Of Leon |
| 22 | Illumination Theory | Dream Theater |
| 23 | Supernova b.w. Pick Up a Gun | Ray LaMontagne |
| 24 | Run, John Barleycorn, Run / Ether Madness | Clutch & Lionize |
| 25 | Live From Criminal Records | Frightened Rabbit |
BuzzAngle’s findings were similar to those by Nielsen SoundScan, the source of Billboard’s charts released today. Billboard reports, “Independent stores represented 19.4 percent of all physical albums sold in the week ending April 20 (605,000 of 5.3 million) — likely the highest share of physical albums for the indie sector since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991.”
The new high of 369,000 LPs sold last week blew away both the previous record (295,000 LPs in the week ending Dec. 22, 2013) and Record Store Day 2013’s sales (244,000 vinyl LPs sold in the week ending April 20, 2013). Keep in mind that last week’s record high was achieved with a single day’s sales (Billboard tracks weeks from Monday to Sunday). Although Billboard’s top titles are similar to BuzzAngle’s, since SoundScan counted total sales at all retailers (as opposed to just the indie shops BuzzAngle tracked), more mainstream releases – including those that appeal to older consumers (Bruce Springsteen, etc) – rose to the top of the Billboard’s charts:
Billboard’s Vinyl Albums For The Week Ending April 20th
1. Childish Gambino, “Because the Internet” (Glassnote)
2. The Afghan Whigs, “Do To the Beast” (Sub Pop)
3. Notorious B.I.G., “Life After Death” (Bad Boy/Rhino)
4. Bruce Springsteen, “American Beauty” (EP) (Columbia)
5. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Live At Monterey” (Experience
Hendrix/Legacy)
6. Grateful Dead, “Hampton Coliseum: Friday May 4, 1979” (Grateful
Dead/Rhino)
7. Tame Impala, “Live Versions” (Modular/Interscope/IGA)
8. Joy Division, “An Ideal For Living” (EP) (Warner UK/Rhino)
9. The Flaming Lips, “7 Skies H3” (Lovely Sorts Of Death/Warner Bros.)
10. The Ramones, “Meltdown With the Ramones EP” (Sire/Rhino)
In other words, Record Store Day items completely dominated the total sales of vinyl releases at all retailers last week. Only The Afghan Whigs’ new LP kept releases for Saturday’s event from having a complete sweep of the top ten, and 43 of the top 50 vinyl LPs sold over that entire week were issued on Record Store Day. What’s more, 68 different LPs sold more than 1,000 copies each (compared to 17 this same week last year). Best of all for the vinyl industry, last Saturday’s sales weren’t just a one day spike: year-to-date vinyl sales are up 36 percent compared to 2013.
The success of last Saturday had even greater impact on the vinyl Hot Singles Sales chart: every one of the the top 25 titles are affiliated with Record Store Day. Note that Warner Music Group’s Side By Side series managed to grab the #2, 3, 5 and 7 spots on the top ten; and that Love/Rush’s “7 and 7 Is” was sold as a “mystery” single (the artists and song title were hidden from customers until after purchase).
Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales For The Week Ending April 20th
1. Nirvana, “Pennyroyal Tea” (Sub Pop/Geffen/Interscope)
2. Devo/The Flaming Lips, “Gates of Steel” (Live) (Warner Bros./Rhino)
3. The Cure/Dinosaur Jr., “Just Like Heaven” (Fiction/Elektra/Rhino)
4. David Bowie, “1984” (Parlophone/Rhino)
5. Love/Rush, “7 and 7 Is” (Elektra/Rhino)
6. Frank Zappa, “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” (Zappa/UMe)
7. Poison Idea/Pantera, “The Badge” (East West/Rhino)
8. Paramore, “Ain’t It Fun” (Fueled By Ramen/RRP)
9. Fleetwood Mac, “Dragonfly” (Reprise/Warner Bros./Rhino)
10. Garbage With Brody Dalle, “Girls Talk” (Stun Volume)
The success of Record Store Day 2014 counters criticisms of the day raised by some store owners and vinyl distributors in the past few weeks, and further proves its significance to skeptics in the music industry.
The Future Heart 
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