Radiohead Release Reveals How Much Music Site’s Are Hyped

Last week, in my newsletter, I highlighted the incredible coverage Radiohead achieved for ‘In Rainbows’, their new album download.

• Hype Machine, Most Searched (1)
• Hype Machine, Most Blogged (1)
• MyStrands, Top Artist (2)
• DIGG, Most DUGG
• Last.fm, Top Artist (2)
• Infofilter, Bit Torrents (5)
• Elbo.ws, Top Artist (1)
• Alexa, Top Movers (1)
• Yahoo, Top Music Searches (4)

Today, there are estimates that the album sold between 1.2 – 1.3 MILLION downloads!!! which, despite this being a global total, would almost certainly have given the band a UK number One album.

Now, all the charts above are generated in real-time, based upon what music fans are ACTUALLY searching for or listening too. So, now let’s contrast this with the sites that rely on their content from record companies, PR agencies and pluggers. Since there were none employed on the Radiohead album, it’s revealing to see how absent the band are on these sites.

The most obvious absence is in the official sales and airplay chart since the album was not chart registered – ok, no surprises. But the lack of chart presence has had a powerful effect on sites who appear to place an high emphasis on what a small amount of people are buying.

So, what about AOL Music? Well, not a mention, until this morning when the band crept in at 7 in ‘Most Searched’.

NME? Well, of course they highlight the band but today – when the album would have been Number One – they prefer to highlight the chart ‘dominance’ of the Sugababes…

MTV? No.

VH1? No.

Capital FM? No.

Virgin Radio? No.

Q4Music – No. Very suprising considering Radiohead were voted makers of the Best Album of all time….

Yahoo Music – featured artist? Artist News? Reviews? No, no and no

MSN Music – Kate Nash? Yes. Westlife? Yes. Artist Of The Month? James Blunt. Radiohead selling over a million digital albums in a week? No.

Bebo & MySpace? No. OK, so the band don’t have profiles but no mention whatsoever??.

So, there you have it. One of the most influential UK artists of all time release an album in an utterly unique way, that even gains coverage on the BBC 10 o clock news. And yet, go to some of the UK’s largest ‘music’ sites and there is no mention.

What can we conclude? Well, it appears that it doesn’t matter how popular an artist you are. If you release an album that is not registered in the charts, or that the “music” sites can’t sell themselves or there is no one from a record company handing their editors ready made stories, features or interviews, then your coverage will range from limited to non-existant.

It reveals the extensive hype behind the majority of music these sites feature, and why music sites such as Hype Machine are becoming the only true measure of popularity (which makes their name even more ironic…!)