Despite it looking like it might be peaking sooner than anyone would have liked a couple of years back, digital music continued to grow at quite a pace in 2011, with digital income across the British record industry up 24.7% to £281.6m, meaning digital growth offset two-thirds of the concurrent decline in physical product sales. That trend means that digital now accounts for over a third – 35.4% to be precise – of recorded music revenues.

While digital albums flagged far behind single track downloads for some time, the format has now properly taken off, so that revenue from digital albums is almost on par with that generated by digital singles, so £117.8 million in trade income versus £120.5m for singles.

Though, of course, in terms of column inches and chatter, 2011 was the year of the subscription-based streaming service rather than the download album – and that part of the digital music sector did experience the most growth in terms of revenue, up 47.5%. Though it’s worth noting subscription income for the labels totalled £24 million, while ad revenue from the streaming platforms slipped slightly to £10.7 million, putting all such services a long way behind more conventional download platforms in terms of overall cash generated (they together contributing about 12.5% of digital revenue).

We know all this, in case you wondered, because record label trade body the BPI told us. And look, here’s BPI boss Geoff Taylor saying things: “It is highly encouraging for the long-term prospects of the industry that the pace of digital growth continues to accelerate. British labels are supporting a wide range of innovative music services and music fans are embracing digital like never before. The record industry has continued to invest heavily in discovering and supporting outstanding British talent, which has helped sustain revenues in the face of difficult economic circumstances”.

Hurrah for our inward looking Anglo-American dominated popular culture. Home grown artists together accounted for 52.7% of UK album sales last year, the biggest market share enjoyed by British talent since 1997.

Of course Adele contributed rather more than her fair share to that achievement, but albums from Coldplay, Jessie J, Ed Sheeran, Amy Winehouse and Olly Murs also helped. The 52.7% share compared to 48.9% in 2010, and put album sales from native talent someway ahead of long players from American acts, which accounted for 32.7% of sales overall.

The Yanks, though, were still ahead when it came to singles, accounting for 43.8% of that market, with Brit singles accounting for 42.6%. Barbados came in third place because of Rihanna, and France fourth thanks to David Guetta.

Here’s a quote from Geoff Taylor, boss of the BPI, who provided us with these lovely stats after number crunching some Official Chart Company data: “A string of great albums by British artists has delivered the strongest performance in the domestic albums market since the days of Britpop and the Spice Girls in 1997. 44 of the top 100 singles in 2011 were from British acts, including a string of eleven consecutive number one singles. Despite a challenging market, independent and major labels in the UK have kept the faith and continued to invest hundreds of millions in British talent. This success at home should provide a springboard for continued international success”.

It’s always brave of an industry trade magazine to publish one of those ‘most important people in our business’ lists, given the politics of ensuring no key advertiser, subscriber or other influential contact is left out.

Old timers in the British record industry will remember that Sony-lite Music Week power list, and the subsequent fallout. But Billboard has put such concerns to the back of its mind and ploughed ahead with its first ever Power 100 list, lining up what it considers to be the 100 most important people in the American music business.

Five years ago the safe way to play it with one of these lists was to stick at geek in the top spot – usually Steve Jobs – so that all the egos actually within the music industry vying for the number one position could be told “well, you know, it’s all about computers these days, innit?” But Billboard hasn’t chickened out and gone with Mark Zuckerberg or Daniel Ek at the top, and instead has named Live Nation co-chief and veteran artist manager Irving Azoff the most important man in music.

Putting Live Nation, the biggest live music company in the world, ahead of Universal Music, the biggest music rights company in the world, is interesting for sure. Presumably Universal boss Lucian Grainge will take it on the chin though, partly because Live Nation and Universal became business partners last year, and partly because being officially labelled as only the second most important music company in the world could come in helpful when trying to convince American anti-trust regulators that letting Universal swallow up the EMI record company isn’t that big a deal really.

Grainge, though, isn’t even second, with Coran Capshaw, boss of artist management power house Red Light Management ahead of the Universal chief at number two. Although Capshaw has successfully dabbled in various music and online ventures over the years, his management agency is his core business. And given that Azoff rose to the top of Live Nation via his Front Line management business, now an important part of the live music conglom, I guess Billboard is really telling us the veteran artist managers have the real power in music at the moment.

Though the major label and publishing chiefs do start to appear as you scan down the list which you can find in full on the Billboard site below. And while most parts of the industry are covered, including music rights, live, management, digital and media, it’s not an especially diverse bunch. Certainly, if Billboard is to be believed, old white men are very much still in dominance at the top of the American music business.

The full 100 is here.

Digital music continued to grow in all quarters in 2011, according to the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry’s annual digital music report, published yesterday, which noted that the big digital music services – which include iTunes, Spotify and Deezer – are now operating in 58 countries around the world, compared to 23 in 2010.

That helped assure that single download, digital album and subscription services all saw growth in the last year (single sales up 11% and albums 24% globally), despite some fearing the growth of Spotify et al could have a negative impact on more conventional digital stores like iTunes. It’s thought digital revenues for record companies increased by about 8% worldwide, faster than in 2010, probably aided by the rapid expansion of the streaming services, and in the US that means digital income now exceeds that generated by physical product. Worldwide, digital accounts for about 32% of record sales revenue.

Digital sales are still not compensating for the slump in CD revenue, though the overall decline in the record industry did slow in 2011, to about 3%, possibly encouraging some optimistic thinking that the recorded music sector – in decline for years now – might soon bottom out. Who knows, perhaps there could be growth later this decade? So, why are we still worrying about SOPA, and MegaUpload, and all that three-strikes nonsense?

Well, the IFPI says, in its customary “but the fight against piracy must continue” statement, the steady and continued growth in digital is being helped by the slow crackdown on piracy in some corners of the world, partly by legal efforts – civil and criminal – taking the likes of LimeWire and MegaUpload offline, partly by pressure being put on credit firms to stop taking monies for piracy sites, and partly thanks to new laws that make it easier to send warning letters to file-sharers and to block access to casual web users to unlicensed content sources.

France, Spain and New Zealand were noted as leaders in this domain, and even the US got a good rating in the IFPI’s report, despite anti-piracy proposals SOPA and PIPA untangling as we speak, partly for the US court’s ruling against LimeWire, partly for moves by the American net firms to voluntarily send warning letters to suspected file-sharers, and partly because of last week’s dramatic Mega developments. The UK, despite putting three-strikes onto the statute book in the Digital Economy Act, is viewed less favourably by the global record industry, for still not getting the new anti-piracy system up and running.

A quarter of web users continue to access unlicensed content sources worldwide, IFPI reckoned, so more should be done around the world to deal with piracy, to ensure the continue growth of digital, the revival of the record industry, and the enabling of more commercial investment in new artists, etc etc etc etc. Read the report here.

I don’t think this will come as a surprise to anyone – especially given last week’s ‘where have all the guitar bands gone’ debatings online – but pop releases dominated 2011 in the UK, with the genre surpassing rock in terms of album sales for the first time in seven years.

According to Official Charts Company data released by the BPI this morning, big-selling albums from the likes of Adele, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga and Jessie J helped pop increase its share of album sales from 30.9% to 33.6%. Meanwhile rock’s share fell from 31.2% to 29.4%, with Coldplay contributing highly to that stat with their new album ‘Mylo Xyloto’.

In terms of other genres, folk accounted for 1.6% of album sales, thanks to Laura Marling and Bellowhead, while Hugh Laurie helped take the blues genre from 0.6% to 0.9%. MOR/easy listening was at 7.9%.

In terms of singles sales, pop saw its share fall just over 2%, though still dominated, accounting for 36% of sales. Rock had an 18% share and dance 13.8%.

And now a quote from BPI chief Geoff Taylor: “2011 was a vintage year for pop albums so it is hardly surprising that the genre has elbowed rock aside as the nation’s favourite. Although rock’s share is the lowest for eight years, it still accounts for three in ten of every albums sold, so recent reports of its demise are premature”.

2012 was a bumper year for digital music in the UK, labels trade body the BPI confirmed earlier this week, though overall record sales continued to decline. It was another record breaking year for singles sales which were up 10%, the vast majority, of course, being sold digitally, with the million CD singles shifted over the year accounting for less than one per cent of the singles market. Digital albums also saw significant growth, up 26.6%, though that wasn’t enough to compensate for the continued slump in CD sales, with album sales overall down 5.6% to 113.2 million.

The traditional end of year stats were accompanied by BPI boss Geoff Taylor’s customary “we’re doing great aren’t we, but oooh, those pesky pirates, why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why won’t those government geezers do something about the pesky pirates?” statement. Though, proving even label trade body chiefs can be innovative, the annual ‘government should do more to protect the record industry’ quote also included albeit abstract reference to the Hargreaves Review of UK copyright law, and the concessions labels fear the ongoing post-review consultation will give to Google regarding fair dealing and such like.

But first the “aren’t we great” bit of Taylor’s annual address: “It has been another record year for digital singles, but the most encouraging news of the year is the strong backing consumers are giving to the digital album format. British music fans understand that the album remains the richest way to connect with an artist’s work. Digital developments grab the headlines, but the CD remains hugely popular with consumers, accounting for three-quarters of album sales. Physical ownership is important to many fans and the CD will be a key element of the market for years to come”.

And now the fist waving bit: “British artists continue to produce incredible music that resonates at home and around the world. But while other countries take positive steps to protect their creative sector, our Government is taking too long to act on piracy, while weakening copyright to the benefit of US tech giants. The UK has already fallen behind Germany as a music market. Unless decisive action is taken in 2012, investment in music could fall again – a ‘creative crunch’ that will destroy jobs and mean the next Adele may not get her chance to shine on the world stage”.

Quite what the record sales stats published by the BPI this week actually tell us about the current state of the UK record industry isn’t clear, not least because – based, as they are, predominantly on sales data from the Official Charts Company – there was no information on the streaming services, which certainly grew significantly in 2011, and which are seemingly generating the majority of digital revenues in some Northern European markets. Some have also noted that direct-to-fan download sales, by artists operating without a label, and not counted by the OCC, will also not appear in these stats, and while that’s still a small market, it’s growing.

But the headline stat, of decline overall, conflicts with an increased optimism that you saw in some label circles in 2011, though new digital models and non-recordings-based revenues were always going to rescue the traditional music companies, so traditional record sales data is only part of the picture. And, of course, with the aforementioned government copyright consultation now underway, however optimistic label chiefs may be feeling as 2012 begins, the official line needs to be that there is still a potential crisis on the horizon.

Interestingly a rosier picture came out of the US this week, with Nielson and Billboard confirming there was a rise in album sales Stateside for the first time in seven years in 2011, even without new fangled streaming nonsense including in the stats mix. Though it’s possible that was mainly down to America’s love affair with one Adele Adkins.

Anyway, how about we take a look-see at the top ten singles and albums of 2011 courtesy of the diligent counting of the A-Grade GCSE maths dudes over at the Official Charts Company?

Top Ten Singles Of 2011
1. Adele – Someone Like You (Beggars/XL)
2. Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera – Moves Like Jagger (Universal/Polydor)
3. LMFAO feat Lauren Bennett & Goonrock – Party Rock Anthem (Universal/Polydor)
4. Jessie J feat BoB – Price Tag (Universal/Lava)
5. Rihanna feat Calvin Harris – We Found Love (Universal/Mercury)
6. Pitbull feat Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer – Give Me Everything (Sony/J)
7. Bruno Mars – Grenade (Warner/Atlantic)
8. Ed Sheeran – The A Team (Warner/Atlantic)
9. Adele – Rolling In The Deep (Beggars/XL)
10. Jennifer Lopez feat Pitbull – On The Floor (Universal/Mercury)

Top Ten Albums Of 2011
1. Adele – 21 (Beggars/XL)
2. Michael Bublé – Christmas (Warner/Reprise)
3. Bruno Mars – Doo-Wops & Hooligans (Warner/Atlantic)
4. Adele – 19 (Beggars/XL)
5. Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto (EMI/Parlophone)
6. Rihanna – Loud (Universal/Mercury)
7. Lady Gaga – Born This Way (Universal/Polydor)
8. Jessie J – Who You Are (Universal/Lava)
9. Ed Sheeran – + (Warner/Atlantic)
10. Rihanna – Talk That Talk (Universal/Mercury)

The BBC’s Sound Of 2012 poll’s final five has been announced, the survey of music pundit types that pisses off everyone who doesn’t get to vote but which, when it comes to the overall winners, is usually good at predicting which newcomers will have a good year to come, even if some next big things are inevitably missing, and some lower down the shortlist are never heard of ever again.

Anyway, well done Michael Kiwanuka for generating enough late in the day buzz to top the poll. And let’s all agree to not waste time discussing why the Grammy nominated Skrillex is on the list.

1. Michael Kiwanuka
2. Frank Ocean
3. Azealia Banks
4. Skrillex
5. Niki & The Dove

U2′s 2011 tour was the year’s highest grossing, according to Billboard Boxscore. The band performed 44 shows, all of which sold out, bringing in $293,281,487 (£187,085,502) in revenue. In the course of all that, they performed to 2.8 million people.

Here’s the top ten live music performers for 2011:

1. U2
2. Bon Jovi
3. Take That
4. Roger Waters
5. Taylor Swift
6. Kenny Chesney
7. Usher
8. Lady Gaga
9. André Rieu
10. Sade

See who earned what here.

Former ‘X-Factor’ losers JLS and Olly Murs are the hardest working acts in British live music according to PRS For Music, though that basically means they each played gigs at 29 venues this year, which doesn’t sound like particularly hard work to me. But PRS has given both acts ‘hard work’ awards, and  sent over quotes from both of them, and it would just seem rude not to run them.

Olly Murs: “It’s a real honour to be receiving this award from PRS For Music. The last two years have been incredible for me – I’ve achieved so much and it’s great to be recognised for all the work I’ve put in. Thanks to everyone who’s come to see me play live – there’s lots more to come!”

JLS: “This is a great achievement and really goes to show how hard we have been working this year. It’s an honour to be awarded this by PRS For Music and we are looking forward to what 2012 will bring!”

Only the collective ‘X-Factor’ show played at more “major venues” than Murs and JLS this year, while Skinny Lister played the most festival sets and The Merseybeats the most concert hall shows.

Here are the ten most active live acts in each of those categories this year, according to the PRS stats:

Most performances in major venues: X Factor, JLS, Olly Murs, Take That, Russell Watson, Alexandra Burke, Westlife, The Wanted, Beady Eye, Michael Ball.

Most performances at festivals: Skinny Lister, Ed Sheeran, Example, Lucy Ward, Pilgrims Way, Dry The River, Yasmin, Rachel Sermanni, Bellowhead, Katy B.

Most performances at concert venues: The Merseybeats, The Searchers, Chas ‘n’ Dave, Joe Brown, Dennis Locorriere, Tony Christie, Paul Carrack, Joe Longthorne, Mike Harding, The Blues Band.

‘X-Factor’ winners Little Mix may have had the best selling single last week by quite some margin, and with 210,000 units sold their cover of ‘Cannonball’ was the fastest selling single of the year, but it’s still the worst performing ‘X-Factor’ winner’s single release since Steve Brookstein’s cover of ‘Against All Odds’ back in 2004.

Last year’s ‘X-Factor’ winner Matt Cardle sold 439,007 copies of his winning single ‘When We Collide’ in the week after his victory on the ITV show, while in 2005 Shayne Ward shifted 742,180 copies of ‘That’s My Goal’. All previous ‘X-Factor’ winners have outperformed Little Mix on first week sales except first ever winner Brookstein.

The slip in record sales follows the slide in viewing figures for this series of ‘X-Factor’, which has been blamed on various things, including unpopular judges, disappointing contestants and a general fatigue for the format. Though it is still one of the biggest shows on British TV, and certainly the biggest music show on UK television. And, of course, the success of that first single immediately following an ‘X’ win has never guaranteed a long pop career, and by the same token, lower than expected sales won’t necessarily mean the winners’ debut album will bomb when it’s released next year.

Fortunately for ‘X’ bosses, by basically bailing on the Christmas number one race this year by bringing out the winners’ single a week early, they aren’t having to openly compete with the charity single from the Military Wives Choir, which is likely to be Christmas number one this Sunday, and which would very possibly have beaten Little Mix to that spot even if the two singles had been released in the same week. The output of another TV programme, a documentary for the BBC, the Military Wives single has been getting huge coverage across the Beeb’s TV and radio networks.

If the Military Wives are number one on Sunday, they will be the first act to receive a new award that will subsequently be given to every artist who tops the singles chart. Dished out by the Official Charts Company, and set to be formally handed over by Radio 1 chart show host Reggie Yates, the new awards will provide a useful photo opportunity to promote the singles chart each week.

Apparently Olly Murs, Professor Green, Emeli Sande and The Wanted have all given the new award their official “backing”, though I don’t really know what that means. Presumably they were asked “if you get a number one, would you like a prize to take home and your photo in the paper?”, to which Olly, Steve, Emili and The Wanted drones all said “oh, yes please”. By which logic, presumably anybody even vaguely likely to ever have a number one single is backing the new gong also.

Hopefully distracting at least some attention from those disappointing sales figures, HMV has released its annual poll of polls, working out which records have come up most frequently in the end of year music round ups published by various British media. And the overall record of the year according to this polling? Well, PJ Harvey’s ‘Let England Shake’, obviously.

Look, here’s HMV Music Manager John Hirst saying words: “It’s not a great surprise that Polly should come out on top of this year’s polls, particularly after already winning the Mercury Prize. Musically it’s untouchable, combining deceptively simple songwriting with sublime musicianship and sparse production to great effect. It’s perhaps also appropriate, in some of the most politically charged times in recent memory, that a protest album should be so recognised as a great work”.

But what other albums have been getting year-end approval from multiple media sources? Well, look here, HMV have only gone and published a full Poll Of Polls top 50, which we have very kindly reproduced below.

1. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
2. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
3. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
4. Radiohead – King Of Limbs
5. tUnE-yArDs – Whokill
6. Wild Beasts – Smother
7. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
8. James Blake – James Blake
9. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

10. Horrors – Skying
11. Adele – 21
12. Destroyer – Kaputt
13. Real Estate – Days
14. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
15. Gillian Welch – Harrow And The Harvest
16. Bjork – Biophilia
17. Washed Out – Within and Without
18. Girls – Father, Son And The Holy Ghost
19. Mastodon – The Hunter
20. Jay-Z and Kanye West – Watch The Throne

21. Frank Ocean – Ultra Nostalgia
22. Wilco – The Whole Love
23. War On Drugs – Slave Ambient
24. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
25. Metronomy – English Riviera
26. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
27. Florence And The Machine – Ceremonials
28. The Weeknd – House Of Balloons
29. Iceage – New Brigade
30. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

31. SBTRKT – SBTRKT
32. Drake – Take Care
33. Ryan Adams – Ashes and Fire
34. Yuck – Yuck
35. Antlers – Burst Apart
36. White Denim – D
37. Josh T Pearson – Last Of The Country Gentlemen
38. St Vincent – Strange Mercy
39. King Creosote and John Hopkins – Diamond Mine
40. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

41. M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming
42. Wild Flag – Wild Flag
43. Feist – Metals
44. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
45. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
46. Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
47. Beirut – Rip Tide
48. Panda Bear – Tomboy
49. My Morning Jacket – Circuital
50. The Black Keys – El Camino

Can science predict whether a song will be a hit or not? No, but it’s always fun when it tries. And researchers from the University Of Bristol will this week present a paper which they say includes a formula that will predict whether a tune will be a hit or miss.

The researchers looked at the top 40 singles from the past 50 years and examined factors such as tempo, time signature, song duration, loudness and harmonic simplicity. They say they now have a formula which will predict with 60% accuracy whether a song will chart, and whether or not it will go top five.

The researchers say: “The equation works by looking at all the UK hits for a certain time and measuring their audio features. [Though] musical tastes evolve, which means our ‘hit potential equation’ needs to evolve as well. Indeed, we have found the hit potential of a song depends on the era. This may be due to the varying dominant music style, culture and environment”.

With the perceived importance of the good old ’50 quid man’ on record sales, you might be surprised to know that, according to new research by IPC Media, women are bigger spenders on music than men, though only when tickets and merch are taken into consideration.

The new survey by the NME and Uncut publisher found that while the average man spends more than the average woman buying actual recordings (£381 versus £327), women spend more on live music and merchandise, so overall they spend £803 on music products, versus the £793 the blokes lay out.

Though, I suppose we should note, that’s only a £10 difference, which could probably be explained away by statistical anomalies, possibly meaning there’s no real gender difference. But hey, that would make me writing this story a waste of time, so pretend I didn’t say that.

Elsewhere in the Great British Music Survey – “an extensive study of British music listening and consumption” according to IPC – are claims that Britons spend on average 51 days a year listening to music, that 82% of Brits don’t go a single day without listening to some songs, that radio and personal recommendation are the most important music discovery routes, and that 61% of us talk to our friends at least once a week about musical matters.

I prefer to talk to my friends about what Amanda Wigginton Director Of Insight at IPC Media has been saying of late, so you can imagine how excited I am about the next paragraph. Needless to say, the following two sentences will be dominating my pub chatter tonight.

Says Wigginton: “Music is a massive part of our lives in this country and this survey shows both men and women are huge fans. It’s interesting to see that men are spending more to build their music collections whereas women part with more cash to soak up the live experience”.

Following the previously repprted announcement that this year’s BBC Sound Of poll longlist only featured one artist signed to an independent label, Alison Wenham, boss of the Association Of Independent Music, has branded the poll “completely meaningless”.

Speaking to the NME, Wenham said: “I think it’s very inconsequential because, even going back years, this list has not proven to be particularly accurate. The independents will do what they do, and I’m not all that bothered about these sorts of polls. I don’t think it has very much to do with music, to be honest with you. They say 100 tastemakers put it together, but it cannot be that those tastemakers manage to avoid an entire sector”.

She added: “I think [the BBC Sound Of polls are] completely meaningless. Brutally, this is a list of product placements for the year coming, and then something [else] will come along out of nowhere. That’s the glory of the unpredictability of our industry – and long may it reign”.

So, here it is people, the BBC Sound Of 2012 longlist. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, “what’s blah blah doing on there, surely they were the sound of 2011, hey, that dude’s just been nominated for three Grammys, why are nearly all of these on major labels”.

But don’t blame the Beeb, blame the movers and shakers and music media types who voted on this. Apart from CMU Editor Andy Malt, obviously he only voted for genuinely new, totally independent and wonderfully innovative bands.

Anyway, here’s the fifteen tipped acts, look out for the final five and overall winner being announced in early 2012:

A$AP Rocky
Azealia Banks
Dot Rotten
Dry The River
Flux Pavilion
Frank Ocean
Friends
Jamie N Commons
Lianne La Havas
Michael Kiwanuka
Niki & The Dove
Ren Harvieu
Skrillex
Spector
Stooshe

Hey, imagine a 2012 where British dubstep really does step aside to allow Skrillex’s shit take on the genre dominate. Perhaps next year really will see the end of the world as we know it.

Jessie J’s ‘Who You Are’ has been named the biggest selling debut album in the UK of 2011, even though 2011 isn’t over yet. So that’s nice. She’s also one of eight British artists in the top ten, which proves just how xenophobic the British record buying public has become.

Below are the top 20 biggest selling debut albums of 2011 in full, according to the Official Charts Company. I’m not sure all of them really count as debuts, but, hey, I don’t make the rules.

1 Jessie J – Who You Are
2 Ed Sheeran – +-
3 Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
4 The Vaccines – What Did You Expect From The Vaccines
5 Katy B – On A Mission
6 Beady Eye – Different Gear, Still Speeding
7 Nicole Scherzinger – Killer Love
8 Hugh Laurie – Let Them Talk
9 Matt Cardle – Letters
10 Kanye West & Jay-Z – Watch The Throne
11 Bad Meets Evil – Hell: The Sequel
12 Nero – Welcome Reality
13 Christina Perri – Lovestrong
14 Cher Lloyd – Sticks And Stones
15 Wretch 32 – Black And White
16 Miles Kane – Colour Of The Trap
17 Foster The People – Torches
18 Clare Maguire – Light After Dark
19 Mary Byrne – Mine And Yours
20 Alexis Jordan – Alexis Jordan

Billboard has changed its chart rules so that heavily discounted albums will no longer be counted. The move follows the big Amazon promotion earlier this year where the new Lady Gaga long player was sold to American customers for a mere 99 cents, helping the pop star to exceed a million units in first week on sale. Amazon (busy promoting its digital locker service) took the hit with Team Gaga and her label receiving the usual wholesale price for the digital release.

It ensured the Gaga lots of attention on the week of her album release, though some criticised the cost cutting approach, while others questioned if the discounted sales should qualify in terms of chart position. US chart bosses at Billboard were initially reluctant to comment on Gaga’s dealings with Amazon, though have now introduced a new rule – albeit without mentioning the Lady – that seemingly means that in the future heavily discounted album sales will not be counted.

American chart chiefs said this week: “Unit sales for albums priced below $3.49 during their first four weeks of release will not be eligible for inclusion on the Billboard album charts and will not count towards sales data presented by Nielsen SoundScan. The rule also applies to reissued titles”.

Random list of people put together by a newspaper anyone? The Evening Standard has published its annual list of the 1000 most influential Londoners, and there are a fair number of music types in there. Look, we’ve grouped them into handy lists, though if you want a couple of sentences about each of them courtesy of Team Standard, you’ll have to click on this link.

Artists, musicians and producers: Adele, Alex Da Kid, Chase & Status, Chris Martin, Damon Albarn, Florence Welch, George Michael, Laura Marling, Mark Ronson, Mick Jagger, Tinie Tempah, Wretch 32.

Label dudes: Christian Tattersfield, CEO, Warner Music; David Joseph CEO, Universal Music UK; Laurence Bell, Founder, Domino Records; Nick Gatfield, CEO, Sony Music UK; Richard Russell, Director, XL Recordings; Roger Faxon, CEO, EMI.

Live music geezers: Cymon Eckel, Director, XOYO; Harvey Goldsmith; Jay Marciano, CEO, AEG Europe; John Gilhooly, Artistic Director, Wigmore Hall; Jude Kelly, Artistic Director, South Bank Centre; Marcus Davey, CEO, Roundhouse; Nicholas Kenyon, MD, Barbican Centre; Peter Millican, CEO, Kings Place; Paul Latham, UK President, Live Nation; Simon Moran, MD, SJM Concerts; Tony Hall, CEO, Royal Opera House; Vince Power, CEO, Music Festivals plc.

Geeks: Daniel Ek, Spotify; Ian Hogarth, Songkick.

Music Media darlings: Annie Mac, Radio 1; Ashley Tabor, CEO, Global Radio; Geeneus, Founder, Rinse FM; George Ergatoudis, Head Of Music, Radio 1; Jeff Smith, Head Of Music, Radio 2/6music; Peter Robinson, Editor, Popjustice.com; Rio Caraeff, CEO, VEVO; Roger Wright, Controller, BBC Radio 3; Simon Cowell, Syco; Steve Wright, Radio 2; Tim Davie, Director, BBC Radio; Zane Lowe, Radio 1.

Classical types: Antonio Pappano, Music Director, Royal Opera House; Benjamin Grosvenor, Pianist; Charlotte Bray, Composer; Edward Gardner, Music Director, English National Opera; Esa-Pekka Salonen, Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser, Philharmonia Orchestra; Gavin Henderson, Principal, Central School Of Speech And Drama; Graham Sheffield, Arts Director, British Council; Janis Susskind, Publishing Director, Boosey & Hawkes; Kathryn McDowell, MD, London Symphony Orchestra; Mike Volpe, General Manager, Opera Holland Park; Nicola Benedetti, Violinist; Nicholas Collon, Conductor; Oliver Knussen, Conductor Laureate, London Sinfonietta; Valery Gergiev, Chief Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra; Vladimir Jurowski, Principal Conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Those I’m referring to as miscellaneous: Feargal Sharkey, CEO, UK Music; Kanya King, Founder, MOBO Awards; Nick Williams, Principal, BRIT School; Simon Frith, Mercury Music Prize.

For a sector that is constantly moaning that if the government doesn’t get its arse into gear and enact the anti-file-sharer ‘graduated response’ system set out in the Digital Economy Act it will soon crash and burn into oblivion, the UK record industry has certainly been issuing a lot of announcements recently about all the many, many, many downloads it’s been selling of late.

I know trade body the BPI would tell us that anytime it says “blimey our members are selling a lot of records at the moment” we should automatically hear the proviso “but not enough for them to continue to invest in British new talent at a level that ensures the future of the music industry and all those jobs and exports”, but you can’t help thinking the mixed messaging aids those who proffer the “all record companies are money-grabbing lying bastards” line.

Anyway, the BPI has announced that more digital albums have already been sold this year than last with two months left to go. According to Official Charts Company data released by the trade body, over 21.3 million digital albums have been sold so far this year, meaning 2010 sales levels have already been beaten. Digital albums now account for 26.2% of all album sales, up from 17.5% in 2010.

Coldplay selling 83,000 copies of their new album in the digital format during first week of sale helped, while Lady Gaga, Jessie J and Ed Sheeran have all had impressive digital album sales. Needless to say, Adele is the biggest British digital seller, selling close to 800,000 digital albums so far this year.

Commenting on the stats, BPI top main chief dude Geoff Taylor told CMU: “It’s encouraging to see such strong sales in the digital albums market before the Christmas gifting season gets properly underway. For the last five consecutive years, the final week of the year has been the biggest in terms of digital album sales, as consumers spend digital music gift vouchers received at Christmas and try out legal digital music services on their new iPods, tablets and laptops”.

He added: “In the last week of 2010, digital album sales topped a record 800,000. This year we may see the one million weekly sales barrier broken for the first time, despite the adverse impact of illegal sites and tough economic conditions. Music fans have more ways than ever before to buy music and a great selection of exciting new albums to look forward to before the end of the year”.

Coldplay’s ‘Mylo Xyloto’ album has gone straight to number one in the US, selling 447,000 copies in its first week, the third largest single week sales of 2011.

But Chris et al shouldn’t get too smug about this just yet. Their record is way off Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’, which managed 1.1 million first week sales (albeit thanks to a loss making promotion by Amazon), and Lil Wayne’s ‘Tha Carter IV, which reached 964,000. It’s also a way off the band’s previous two albums. Both also debuted at number one, with 2005′s ‘X&Y’ selling 737,000 copies in its first week, and 2008′s ‘Viva La Vida’ managing 721,000.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, Florence And The Machine’s new album ‘Ceremonials’ is on track to knock ‘Mylo Xyloto’ off the top spot. According to the Official Charts Company, the new FloMac LP shifted over 50,000 copies on its first two days on sale. And it’s on Spotify.