2 MusicWeek 20.09.13 NEWS
Grand Theft Attention EDITORIAL
IT’S BEEN TOUGH to suppress serious envy over consumer delirium surrounding the release of video game giant GTA V this week. Queues snaked around supermarket metropolises country-wide on Monday night in readiness for the epic open-world game’s impending midnight availability - rather concentrating the mind on why recorded music’s ability to whip up such hysteria amongst its parish has dissolved so dramatically. Of course, music’s coiled ready-to-buy audience has migrated online in far more significant numbers and with far more efficiency than GTA’s. (PlayStation 3 owners who pre-purchased GTA V via the console’s online store became furious with creator Rockstar when the title failed to emerge on time and download with required speediness. You don’t get that from iTunes.)
“As the music industry scrabbles to fine tune
‘discovery’ mechanisms, video games firms are busy cranking up addiction to ‘limitless’”
Such a juxtaposition might partly account for the lack of moonlit human gatherings emanating from Tesco in reaction to the launch of a Lady Gaga or Kanye masterwork, but it doesn’t make the GTA numbers any easier to swallow. The last GTA, 2008’s GTA IV, sold 609,000 UK units in its first
day, at an SRP of £40 - £50. That’s a £1m-per-hour turnover in Blighty alone. With better reviews and a higher console installed base, GTA V is likely to even trump this £27m day-one bounty. Which all rather puts the industry-boosting success of Arctic
Monkeys’ ace AM album (157k week-one UK sales, double that of predecessor Suck It And See) into stark perspective. Happily, part of GTA V’s electrifying appeal is derived from being plugged deep into the cultural underground, with music at its core. It boasts 15 in-game radio stations and 240 licensed songs, including an original composition from Warp-signed electronica guru Flying Lotus. Meanwhile, DJ Shadow has nailed an official remix of the game’s score - which features contributions from, amongst others, Krautrock staples Tangerine Dream and Eminem collaborator Alchemist. Plus Bootsy Collins, Kenny Loggins and nu- surf rockers Wavves host a radio station each. Despite Rockstar’s embracement of music rights-holders -
company founders Sam and Dan Houser both worked at Sony BMG before making the leap to gaming - GTA V poses two very clear threats to this industry in its most vital months: time and attention. The single-player element of the game will take 100-plus hours to
‘complete’. And then in October, Rockstar will unveil its first ever perpetual online GTA gaming world. As the music trade scrabbles to fine tune ‘discovery’ mechanisms on its proudest platforms, video games firms are cranking up the addiction meter to ‘limitless’. The most galling aspect of GTA’s dominance for the music
industry, however, has little to do with its potential - and everything to do with its origins. Consider this: BMG Interactive, the company that would go on to become Rockstar Games, began as the multimedia division of its music and entertainment namesake. In March 1998, gaming publisher Take Two acquired it from BMG parent Bertelsmann for $14.2m. GTA V is expected to turn over more than $1bn around the world in just its first month.
Tim Ingham, Editor Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing
tim.ingham@
intentmedia.co.uk
Mercury Prize plays it safe 2013 ALBUM SHORTLIST PACKED WITH CHART HITS
EVENTS BY PAUL WILLIAMS
B
arclaycard Mercury Prize judges have come up with their most commercial
selection yet: five of this year’s contenders have been No.1 sales albums, with another four making the Top 10. The 12-strong shortlist was announced last week. For the first time since the event launched in 1992, it contains no releases that have failed to make the weekly Official Top 75 artist albums chart. In the previous three years
two such albums each year were selected, including titles by Sam Lee and Roller Trio in 2012, while in the past as many as four shortlisted albums had not charted, according to Music Week analysis.
“The event this year will be largely about driving sales of already- proven albums rather than turning the public on to totally undiscovered gems”
Instead the judges have opted
for a field largely made up of already proven albums, including five selections that had or, in the case of Arctic Monkeys’ just- issued AM, were about to top the Official UK artist albums chart. Joining the Domino band in this category are Columbia act David Bowie’s The Next Day, PMR/Island act Disclosure with Settle, Jake Bugg with his self- titled Mercury album and the Asylum/Atlantic-issued Home by Rudimental. Four others on the list have
been Top 10 hits – Warner Bros act Foals’ Holy Fire, Atlas/Polydor’s James Blake with Overgrown, Virgin artist Laura Marling’s Once I Was An Eagle and RCA’s Laura Mvula with Sing To The Moon – with Villagers’ Domino album Awayland peaking at No.16 and Savages’ Matador-issued Silence Yourself at No.19. The only shortlisted album not to have been a Top 20 hit is
Domino-signed Jon Hopkins’ Immunity, which reached No.63 in June. It means the event this year, from a marketing perspective, will be largely about driving more sales of already-proven albums rather than trying to turn the public on to undiscovered gems. A look at the cumulative sales of the 12 contenders further emphasises the conservative nature of 2013’s list compared to previous years. In the week prior to the
shortlist being announced, the albums had sold on average in the UK around 130,000 copies, according to Music Week research of Official Charts Company data. This compares to the 12 albums nominated in 2012 having sold on average around 60,000 albums at the same stage. Our calculations do not include Arctic Monkeys’ AM as this was only released last Monday, two days before the shortlist was revealed, and went on to debut at No.1 last Sunday with 157,329 copies sold. The judges have also veered
heavily towards acts previously shortlisted at the event with seven of the 12 contenders having been nominated at least once before. These include Arctic Monkeys and Laura Marling who have now had three Mercury nominations across their career, while James Blake, David Bowie, Foals, Jon Hopkins (as part of King Creosote) and Villagers have each been shortlisted once before. The other five albums are all
debuts, compared to eight such releases in 2012, while despite Domino having a trio of contenders with Arctic Monkeys, Jon Hopkins and Villagers and Matador represented by Savages, the number of independent albums recognised is the lowest since 1998. Universal acts provide four of the 12 albums with James Blake, Jake Bugg, Disclosure and Laura Marling and there are two apiece from Sony and Warner. The awards show will take
place at The Roundhouse in London on October 30.
www.musicweek.com
BARCLAYCARD MERCURY PRIZE 2013 SHORTLIST
ARTIST/ TITLE / LABEL ARCTIC MONKEYS AM Domino JAMES BLAKE Overgrown Atlas/Polydor DAVID BOWIE The Next Day Columbia JAKE BUGG Jake Bugg Mercury DISCLOSURE Settle PMR/Island FOALS Holy Fire Warner Bros JON HOPKINS Immunity Domino UK CHART PEAK 1 8 1 1 1 2 63
LAURA MARLING Once I Was An Eagle Virgin 3 LAURA MVULA Sing To The Moon RCA
9 RUDIMENTAL Home Asylum/Atlantic SAVAGES Silence Yourself Matador VILLAGERS Awayland Domino 1 19 16
The above shows this year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize contenders and where they peaked on the Official UK artist albums chart. Source: Official Charts Company
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