July 13, 2011

A recent article on Digital Music News examined the correlation between artists’ popularity on Twitter and their album sales. The author created the chart seen below which paired Nielsen Soundscan stats of album sales with BigChampagne artist rankings. The conclusion the author comes to, that “[artists] outside of mainstream pop that are breaking through, constant Twittering frankly seems like a waste of time,” but is it?

[Image Created by Digital Music News]

The chart doesn’t acknowledge several important factors that would make Twitter relevant to both mainstream pop artists and those that are “breaking through.” The chart and the author fail to take into account whether or not an artist released an album recently. The third ranked artist on Twitter (who did not make the chart) may not have sold many albums this year if he or she didn’t release an album recently. Artists with albums released in the past two years are more likely to have higher sales than those who do not, regardless of Twitter ranking.

Nor does the chart show what the Twitter rank was for an artist like Adele prior to releasing her album. She has the top selling album but is also just breaking into the mainstream. It would be interesting to note what her Twitter rank was before releasing “21” this year and what it will be at year’s end. Just as having many followers could drive up sales for the Gagas and Biebers of the industry, having a quality album may drive up an artist’s followers and ultimately their Twitter ranking. READ ON for more of Andy’s take on the connection between album sales and Twitter rankings…

Following up from my last column on the history of Phish festivals, this week I decided to focus on the band’s recent Super Ball IX festival, which took place over the 4th of July weekend at Watkins Glen International racetrack  in upstate New York. While I have previously given a recap of past festivals and also chimed in on the VIP camping options, I wanted this week’s Postcards to get the commentary flowing from all of you – and see what your perceptions and opinions of the weekend were. So please, feel free to participate in the below polls and leave some comments below about what was truly a magical weekend.

[All photos by Andy Hill]

From perfect weather, to the smallest attendance numbers of any festival, Super Ball IX offered a different sort of vibe than past behemoths. I have my opinions on why the numbers were so small – Phish tour manager Richard Glasgow pegged the number at “about 30,000” attendees, which is about two-thirds the capacity of Alpine Valley – but wanted to see if you all agreed with me or not. Whether it was the fact that the majority of the festivities were confined within the racetrack itself, or the fact that they had recently saturated the Northeast with many previous shows during the first leg of summer tour. So, for the first poll, I ask you, why do you feel the numbers of this festival were down compared to past affairs like The Great Went, Lemonwheel, Big Cypress, It and Coventry?

READ ON to take this poll and for more of Brian’s take on Super Ball IX…

Edinburgh’s We Were Promised Jetpacks became immediate HT favorites back when they released their debut album, These Four Walls, as around that time the Scottish indie scene seemed to explode

During Monday night’s Foo Fighters show at The Roundhouse in London as part of the iTunes Festival, Dave Grohl spotted a fan throwing punches in the middle of the crowd.