West Midlands Acts on Video - who's watching?

YouTube views for local acts totted up, ranked and compared with the February numbers. There's some surprises...

Who the hell are are these guys? Read on...

Six months ago, just out of curiosity, I researched local acts on video, ranking by most-viewed. It was an interesting exercise, showing how different genres pull in some terrific figures. Six months on, here's a slightly refined repeat exercise. 

No such chart is perfect. With apologies to those artists I missed out on six months ago, I've cast the net wider, although this makes ranking some stuff difficult - do Rap Battles count? I've excluded these - but they might make an interesting sub-chart in their own right. I've also charted the increase in views over the past six months, which gives a rough indication of how an act may be progressing. In one case this has led to a spectacular and probably unrepeatable increase in viewing numbers. The new chart is after the jump.

Spoonfed by robots: What do we get from music streamers... and what do we give?

Step aside, Radio. The web is the hot way to get new music. Or is it? How we relate to music and performers isn't a commodity you can easily exploit. 

2010 Facebook traffic. Look - that's me, Liking The Destroyers

A question: where do you go for new music? I follow tipoffs, or I catch a promising support act; I dig around. I use the web, but I'm not happy.

I rarely get any leads from radio now. After decades listening to people putting themselves before the music, or relegating music to filler status, there’s only a few shows I can stand to listen to. In truth, that's probably how it should be. 

And it's fun following my nose to live and local new stuff, before it becomes product. There are inventive, fresh performances to discover, played to interested audiences. Do this, and you’re a grassroots part of something unique, priceless and intangible, that’s at the very core of the music industry. That's what this post is all about.