Tipped by Little Joe and with 115 million views in 4 weeks, in my opinion only deserves one word in comment - "ghastly".

Music from 20 years ago (copied badly; the Dutch must be shuddering); silly one dimensional video; what on earth is the appeal?

Can't wait for it to be number one. Lord help us.

What happened to the Cuban Boys song you were promoting J.K.?

Sadly not much, is the answer. 6000 views so far.

Amen to that Ghastly is definately the word for it. Awful but sadly it will sell by the bucketload as
only crap sells these days (at least in the higher reaches of the singles chart).
There is so much better music out there though but it never sells.

Went up ninety places this week and currently lies at 61. Big article in the Daily Mail on Saturday about a parody of it. I played it down at "The Old Vic" on Saturday night sand they moaned about "not knowing it" even though it's got the same bloody beat as all the rest of the chart crap!!

Despite the massive appeal it missed the UK #1 by 2 places, maybe not as popular as we're led to believe?

Argument For
Apparently one of the draws is the "famous horse-riding dance", hence people are getting their fill from Youtube.

Argument Against
The video has a ludicrous amount of views & likes and is regularly trending on Twitter for long periods of time, both of which can be bought I'm reliably informed.

Hasn't peaked yet it seems. Sales not slowing down according to the chart company.

Yup, now #1.

Watched the video, quite entertaining actually. Musically I don't get it all though.

Illustrating that the few people still interested in music visit the Tipsheet, we had literally thousands of views to this thread over the past weeks and now this dreadful track is No1.

But even though it's not for me (neither was Someone That I Used To Know) I'm delighted for several reasons... it's an example of elements of the "new model" working; it proves my long held opinion that hits don't have to be in English (I simply could never convince the industry that Simarik by Tarkan was a UK hit and the awful Holly Valance Brit cover was only a small global hit as an eventual result whereas the original Turkish version should have been a smash).

Likewise, DiDi by Khaled deserved to be a UK No1 but only me and Chris Blackwell thought so.

Funnily enough, this Korean rubbish is... on Island (Chris isn't any longer).

And even though it's old fashioned crap, it's FUN.

Like the superb, funny but crap Nick Clegg track.

And it shows me that my kind of novelty tracks (which I thought were dead in the water after Rebecca Black failed to chart) can still sell if they are commercial enough.

They don't just pull in free views; they can also get legal download sales.

JK you really need to get your facts right. Friday peaked at number 60 in the UK
charts and spent 4 weeks on the Official Charts www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/rebecca%20black/
Furthermore


Chart (2011) Peak position
Australian ARIA Digital Track Chart 40
BR Billboard Hot 100 66
BR Billboard Pop Songs 79
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) 61
Ireland (IRMA) 46
New Zealand (RIANZ) 33
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company) 60
UK Indie (The Official Charts Company) 6
US Billboard Hot 100 58
US Billboard Heatseekers Songs 1

The new model artists will mostly sell in the hundreds of thousands rather than millions.
Eventually download sales will cease altogether and the Youtube/streaming views will be all
that the charts will be made up of. Black sold around the same as Alex Day's Xmas single
even with chart entry. To get in the charts as a NMA one would need good planning and co-ordination
as Alex had but a gangnam style worldwide chart topper selling in the millions is so far not achievable
without the majors (I hope I am proved wrong but not for now). Personally I don't think it matters one
bit. Black is more famous than Alex Day (no offense) because the media picked up on her in a big way.

She made the same amount of money as an artist selling in the millions and without the burden of a label.
This is the future. Fame is achieved by Youtube/viral videos. Sales good enough to make a living and no
label telling you what to do or incurring huge expenses in trying to break you and charging you for it.
What is the use in selling millions if you don't see any of it (X-Factor)?

Artists are still stuck with old model mentality and as a result will NEVER achieve anything. Until we
ditch this thinking and embrace the new paradigm we are wasting our time. The old model is dead on its ass
and trying to climb aboard is like climbing onto Titanic whilst it is sinking.

Psy is a major artist in Korea and this is just another major label act using viral techniques which worked.
It is not a reflection of where music is going, just an example of what happens when people like something.

I believe someone will have a massive record driven by Youtube whilst remaining staunchly independent.
When that happens then all bets are off and the majors will be finished. They will have to fragment and
start producing like indie labels because the 10% royalty deal is over.

I think the New Model has to use bits of the Old Model and vice versa and I'd say the majors still can have a part to play although I suspect as their costs rise and profits shrink the New Majors will be very pared down startups that take care of all the marginal bits.

"I believe someone will have a massive record driven by Youtube whilst remaining staunchly independent.
When that happens then all bets are off and the majors will be finished."

When that happens, UMG & Sony Music, who own VEVO, will laughing all the way to the bank: How much money make artists from YouTube plays? How much money make Google/YouTube and VEVO?

After 14 Million Plays, the Dead Kennedys Received a Few Hundred Dollars from YouTube

DJ most indies dont use Vevo and in any case this will still be
a game changer because artists will avoid signing record deals
and instead will sign content deals with the likes of Vevo and
YouTube. They will also be able to roll their own Vevo style
services in conjunction with sites like Blip TV and others.

@JK yes elements of the old model will be used in the new model
as these gatekeepers will eventually have to embrace new model
artists as they grow. This used to be a lot more democratic as we
saw quite a few indies crack the charts in the 90s. The way I see
the new model is more about how records are broken. Downloads
will be gone and streaming will reign supreme for sometime to come.

I also predict that Spotify will have to give equal ownership to the
Indie trade association Merlin as anti-trust law suits start to gain
momentum because of the dominance of UMG and Sony who will be the last
majors standing. The future incarnation of the majors will be interesting.
I think they will eventually take on the tech companies who are the new
majors and things will be very interesting.

Check out Major Studios www.makerstudios.com (a video production company)
behind some of the biggest YouTube stars. This model is how I see the majors
In the future, with more equitable deals and smaller front companies that appear
indie-like.