If you don't know already, you'll be amazed at what goes over BIG from our patch
This is statto heaven, and you can pick out seriously interesting patterns if you compare results over the time I've done these charts: links to earlier rankings are at the bottom of the post.
Winners, losers, runners and riders after the jump.
House rules
- West Midlands acts, who are still involved locally, only. Tax exiles excluded.
- Proper videos only: smartphone and fan clips are out, official vids are in.
- The two most-viewed videos uploaded in the past three years count.
- The cutoff number has risen - you now need 15,000 to get in.
- No live videos unless specifically commissioned.
- Only one version of a song - no remixes.
- No videos of albums ripped to YouTube with just one image to try to score ad revenue.
- Video numbers totted up at the start of this past week.
How accurate is this?
In truth, it shows trends rather than absolutes. I'm the last one to claim that this chart is a definitive ranking by popularity, and there's a number of reasons for that:- YouTube's numbers do tend to wobble. Some acts' numbers have actually gone down by YouTube's reckoning since the last survey six months ago. Go figure.
- The formula - views earned by an act's two most successful videos over the last three years - works well for people with a few well-produced clips. It works against those who flood YouTube with lots of videos of them doing the same song.
- It's really difficult to be fair to all genres, as some genre videos perform very differently. Live rap clashes tend to do well, but there are tons and tons of these – they are super-cheap to produce, after all. And all the metal variants continue to do enormously well. We are talking about a strutting young male demographic here, aren't we?
- I do this on my own, and it's perfectly possible I've missed someone. For example, I found that Cracked Actors should have been in the rankings for two and three years ago. Now, their three year numbers aren't enough to get in, but that's still a mistake on my part. The moral of the story: if you think you should have been on this chart, and I missed you out, message me though the blog!
Winners all over. Maybe a couple of losers too...
Up at the top, kudos and props to George Barnett, who continues to do very well indeed, with a rotating set of videos, all pulling in respectable numbers. Lady Leshurr also has this pattern of success, as do Electric Swing Circus. It suggests very strong audience loyalty. So it's interesting to see long-established acts like UB40, Robert Plant and the Editors demonstrate the loyalty of their audiences.It's also fascinating to be able to include a live DJ clip for the first time: check Mr Switch having a ball at the DJ championships.
And hello! to Under A Banner, Johnny Foreigner, Tom Aspaul and Ekkah.
Bubbling under? I really expected to see Call-Me Unique and Dead Sea Skulls in the rankings, but it was not to be. Probably next time.
Another useful indicator is the overall growth in numbers from this survey to last. There's a top growers list to look at too. Discounting big jumps because a video might be relatively new (UB40, Robert Plant), there are also patterns of success to pick out from acts that are earning their views through hard graft. In fact, for my money, the most interesting stuff happens at the bottom of the chart, where local bands are generating followings through that hard graft. That work is deeply impressive: well done to one and all. If you dig more closely into the figures, it's also not too difficult to spot those artists who have actually stagnated. That, emphatically, does not include Editors, who make it all look effortless.
So, here's the full list:
Looking at it another way
And here's those artists who have posted serious increases in numbers, two tables, by percent and by gross numbers. Take these figures with a pinch of salt - Ali Campbell's gigantic percentage increase is simply due to to the pretty small figures he posted last time out. In terms of numbers, his ex-colleagues at UB40 do rather better. Overall winner here: Mr Plant, methinks. And Claire Macguire is doing very nicely too.| Artist | percentage gain |
| Radio Riddler/Ali Campbell | 715.88 |
| Claire Maguire | 178.60 |
| Robert Plant | 175.55 |
| Jaws | 66.69 |
| Goodnight Lenin | 60.52 |
| Dexys | 50.78 |
| UB40 | 50.14 |
| Superfood | 46.35 |
| Stone Foundation | 44.83 |
| Napalm Death | 37.36 |
| Artist | numbers gain |
| Robert Plant | 861,630 |
| Editors | 604,592 |
| Laura Mvula | 458,212 |
| UB40 | 253,854 |
| Swim Deep | 222,796 |
| Napalm Death | 207,308 |
| Radio Riddler/Ali Campbell | 130,118 |
| Peace | 118,039 |
| George Barnett | 104,046 |
| Claire Maguire | 93,956 |
You want more? See the music business posts list
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1 comment:
Great to see Misty's in there :-)
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