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34 MusicWeek 04.05.12 BUSINESSANALYSISRADIOAIRPLAYQ1


THE INDIE CHAMPION WHY 6MUSIC IS SO BELOVED BY SMALLER LABELS


6MUSIC TOP 10 Q1 2012 POS ARTIST/ TITLE / LABEL


1 M83 Reunion Naive 2 THE SHINS Simple Song Columbia 3 KATHLEEN EDWARDS Change The Sheets Rounder 4 DJANGO DJANGO Default Because 5 GRIMES Genesis 4AD 6 MIA Bad Girls Interscope/Polydor 7 LANA DEL REY Born To Die Polydor 8 PJ HARVEY On Battleship Hill Island 9 PAUL WELLER That Dangerous Age Island 10 JAMES LEVY & THE BLOOD RED ROSE Sneak Into My Room Heavenly


Source: Nielsen Music


BELOW Radio friendly: Bruce Springsteen’s We Take Care Of Our Own fared better on the airplay chart than on sales


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M83


ABOVE Next up: Emeli Sandé’s Next To Me was the fourth most played song in Q1


6MUSIC CELEBRATED ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY in Q1 and a look at its most-played tracks in that period clearly illustrates why indie labels pushed so hard to keep the station on the air. Across the whole of UK radio just seven of the 100 most-played tracks


between January and March were independent releases, according to Nielsen Music, with three of that tally down to XL’s Adele. The only other non-major artists to get a look-in were Ministry of Sound’s Example and DJ Fresh, Naïve’s M83 and Radio 2-backed Paul Carrack on his own label with the quarterly airplay chart instead housing 40 Universal releases, 24 from Sony, 17 from Warner and 12 from EMI. However, over at 6Music, which reached a decade’s broadcasting on


March 11 some two years after BBC management initially looked to close it, the stats are turned upside down with 60 of its 100 biggest tracks during the first three months of 2012 having come from non-major labels. And that list took in not just the big independent players such as XL Beggars and Domino, but lots of smaller labels, too, among them Damaged Goods, Lucky Number and Tru Thoughts. Although major labels were behind six of the station’s 10 most-aired


tracks between January and March, including releases by Universal- handled Rounder’s Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards and more familiar names such as Polydor’s Lana Del Rey and Island’s Paul Weller, 6Music’s Q1 No.1 came from Naïve signings M83. Their Reunion was spun 105 times over the three months, while Because’s Django Django finished fourth with Default and 4AD’s Grimes fifth with Genesis. The Grimes track was the highest-placed of an unrivalled 16 tracks in


the 6Music Top 100 from XL Beggars made up of releases from 4AD, Rough Trade and XL and its label Young Turks. The Rough Trade cuts included Alabama Shakes and Howler, while XL’s showing was unusually an Adele-free affair and instead included veteran Bobby Womack, Jack White with his first solo offerings and The Horrors. Domino was heavily represented with eight tracks ranging from the


long-established such as Arctic Monkeys and Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus to newer names including Lower Dens. A trio of releases from Memphis Industries included Field Music’s A New Town, while the Jagjaguwar label’s Sharon Van Etten was represented twice. Across all its output, the digital station did feature some tracks played


by other stations in Q1, including Island act Gotye featuring Kimbra’s Somebody That I Used To Know and the RCA-handled These Days by Foo Fighters, but generally there was little overlap. Among the stations with the most tracks in common were Global


Radio’s XFM, which shared 26 of its Top 100 Q1 choices with 6Music, ranging from mainstream names such as Island’s Florence + The Machine and Columbia’s Kasabian to lesser-known artists including Young Turks’ SBTRKT and Parlophone’s We Are Augustines. Seventeen of Radio 1’s Top 100 of the quarter matched 6Music’s,


including cuts by Transgressive’s Pulled Apart By Horses and Memphis Industries’ Hooray For Earth. And there were half-a-dozen tracks the same in 6 and Absolute’s Q1 charts, among them Island act Paul Weller’s That Dangerous Age and Feel To Follow by Fiction/Polydor’s The Maccabees whose most successful period yet commercially also included appearances in Radio 1 and XFM’s quarter-end charts.


Sixty-nine of the 100 biggest-selling downloads


of the first quarter also figured in the Top 100 radio hits of Q1, led by six tracks appearing in both the quarter-end sales and airplay Top 10s. Led by Somebody That I Used To know, Titanium and Domino, this list also included Virgin’s Emeli Sandé whose Next To Me was the quarter’s fourth top radio hit and fifth biggest seller, RCA act Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You), which finished eighth at radio and ninth at retail, and Ministry of Sound act DJ Fresh’s Hot Right Now, the seventh top download of the quarter and 10th biggest song. Also among radio’s very biggest hits of Q1 were


a trio of tracks that had their sales peaks back in 2011 but continued to attract sizable radio support into the New Year. These were headed by Epic act Olly Murs’ Dance With Me Tonight, which topped the sales chart mid last December but retained enough radio support from the likes of Global’s Capital and Heart to finish as the second top airplay track of Q1. Stations similarly continued to hammer Interscope/Polydor track Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera and the Def Jam/Mercury-issued We Found Love by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris, radio’s fifth and sixth biggest hits of the quarter. Moves Like Jagger’s backers included Heart and, more surprisingly, Radio 1, which overlooked the track during its sales peak but spun it enough times later to make it the station’s 62nd favourite of the first quarter. Bruce Springsteen’s We Take Care Of Our


Own, the lead-off track from his 2012 Columbia album Wrecking Ball, was one cut to enjoy a much better reception at radio than retail. It was radio’s 48th top tune of the quarter with Radio 2 and Absolute among its keenest supporters, but got no


NUMBER ONES OF THE QUARTER Q1 2012 STATION


ARTIST/ TITLE / LABEL


RADIO 1 RADIO 2


GOTYE FEAT. KIMBRA Somebody That I Used To Know Island GOTYE FEAT. KIMBRA Somebody That I Used To Know Island


ABSOLUTE FOO FIGHTERS These Days RCA CAPITAL HEART KISS XFM


JESSIE J Domino Island CHRISTINA PERRI Jar Of Hearts Atlantic


6MUSIC 1XTRA


DAVID GUETTA FEAT. SIA Titanium Positiva/Virgin THE MACCABEES Pelican Fiction/Polydor M83 Reunion Naive


D’BANJ Oliver Twist Mercury Source: Nielsen Music


Figures in brackets are share of Q1 2011 chart


TOP 100 Q1 AIRPLAY CHART BY CORPORATE GROUP


Universal 40% (37%) Sony 24% (28%)


Warner 17% (14%) EMI 12% (12%) Others 7% (9%)


higher than 111 on the weekly sales chart. Radio 2 support similarly helped Paul Carrack’s


self-released Good Feelin’ About It to 91st position on the overall quarterly airplay chart having been the network’s 12th most-spun track during the period in question. There was mixed support, meanwhile, for some


of 2012’s priority new acts. Lana Del Rey won respectable support from the likes of Radios 1 and 2, 6 Music, Absolute and XFM, but was nowhere among Capital or Heart’s Top 100 tracks of the quarter, while fellow Polydor artist Michael Kiwanuka followed his BBC Sound Of 2012 victory with some support at the Corporation, but it was left to XFM rather than Capital to provide Global Radio backing. Mercury act Maverick Sabre, whose first album


Lonely Are The Brave debuted at two on the Official UK artist albums chart in February, had the 45th biggest airplay track of the quarter largely on the back of Radio 2 support. However, it was not anywhere among the 250 biggest downloads of the quarter. Among the individual services, Atlantic artist


Christina Perri’s Jar Of Hearts was the Heart Network’s top song of the quarter and this helped it to 38th position on Nielsen’s overall quarter-end chart, while David Guetta provided two of Kiss’s three top tracks, including its number one Titanium. Absolute led with Columbia-handled the Foo Fighters’ These Days, which was placed third at XFM whose own Q1 top selection was Pelican by Fiction/Polydor’s The Maccabees. Ministry of Sound act DJ Fresh’s Hot Right Now was runner- up at Radio 1, Kiss and 1Xtra, outplayed at the latter station by Mercury act D’Banj’s Oliver Twist, while Naïve signings M83’s Reunion was 6 Music’s top tune.


Source: Nielsen Music


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