REVOLVER:THERE may be more Beatles reissues than you can shake a stick at these days. And, yes, that band may have provided the most totemic popular music of all time, and, yes, they may have sold over a billion records, but in one department the Fab Four are being roundly beaten by a TV show that specialises in cover versions.
The Gleecast now have 75 entries on the Billboardsingles chart; The Beatles could only amass 71. It took the Ringo, Paul, George and John 32 years (from 1964 to 1996) to get their 71 chart entries, while the perma-grinning, all-singing, all-dancing Gleecast scored their astonishing 75 entries in just over a year.
True, the Gleecast don't write their own songs and they don't tend to hang around the charts very long (coming in very high and then dropping out the next week), whereas a Beatles song can hang around for the odd decade or so. However, it's further proof of the game-changing " Gleeeffect", which has been the most positive music story of the past few years.
Gleehad a radical approach in that the makers actually work with new technology for the sake of music sales, and the unique selling point is that the songs featured in every episode are available to buy as downloads within minutes of the show finishing. Which, funnily enough, is just what people want.
As it stands elsewhere in the moribund music world, there’s an unconscionable time lapse between when a popular song goes to radio and when it becomes available as a download or physical unit (usually six to eight weeks). During that time, you’ll probably see and/or hear the song performed on a prime-time TV show and written about in the music press, but you’re supposed to keep fizzing with excitement for another few weeks before you can actually buy it. Is it any wonder fans are flocking to their local, friendly but illegal file-sharers?
The Gleeeffect hasn't escaped the notice of the biggest musical cash register this side of the Atlantic. The X Factorlooked at the ginormous Gleesales (the majority impulse buys made moments after the show ends) and has now put its own "instant download" scheme in place.
The trial run last Saturday, when all the musical performances from that night’s show went up on iTunes immediately after the credits rolled, has so far proved to be a resounding success. People are not just buying the wannabe’s cover of the song but the original version as well. Each track download is the standard iTunes Ireland price of €1.29.
But because there's a "competitive" element to The X Factor, the sales figures for the wannabe versions aren't revealed. The message on the flashy official iTunes X Factor page reads: "To protect the integrity of the X Factorcompetition, sales information in relation to the live performances of the X Factorwill not be reflected in any published sales charts." (We'll pause for just a moment here to consider the use of the words "integrity" and "X Factor" in the same sentence.)
This doesn’t apply to the original version of the song covered in the show, and this week’s Irish singles chart will reflect that. Gary Jules’s Mad World is expected back in the top 20 (apparently, someone called Aiden Grimshaw sang Mad World last Saturday).
All of which will make the singles charts very interesting for the next few months. (There’s another usual configuration: “singles charts” and “interesting” in the same sentence.) That’s not just for the amount of X Factor-related entries, but also which artists get the nod.
In the US, the biggest musical names have been known to write begging letters and promise appearances on Gleeif one of their songs features. The financial benefits are huge. The writers of Don't Stop Believingare now, thanks to Glee, richer than Europe.
On the news pages this week, you will have read about record labels fighting over the downside of new technology (file sharing) in court. But there is an upside, and it has taken two TV shows to realise that there is lots of money to be made from downloads.
When, if ever, will the music industry cop on? Tear up the release schedules and the moment the song goes to radio shove it on a download site. If you’re being overtaken in the innovative marketing stakes by TV shows, surely it’s time to become radical or redundant.
