21.04.2006: Are these really 'our' charts...?:	Ron, IU
more news... back to home page...

Not that this is a new thing for IrishUnsigned to be saying, but why are we STILL paying any attention to the Charts as produced from our retailers...? In case you're not aware of it, and Artists should all be aware of it, if only to know where to place their records to maximise exopsure and revenue (royalties from radio plays), Ireland's music charts are compiled by Chart-Track, a UK company. They are paid to do this by IRMA, the Irish Recorded Music Association. IRMA, in case you didn;t know, while including any publisher that wants to be a member, is mostly controlled by the big boys. More than that, however, what's really annoying is that Chart Track, when asked by us to publish the list of retailers from whom sales data is collated, always told us they could not do this as it would be unfair on the retailers as it would increase demand for them to stock independent music. Of course, I can see why that might be unfair, having to include more material from the Country they're selling in. Now, Chart Track has, for whatever reason, included the chart-registered retailers on their site. However, it doesn't help since they only included the obvious. Golden Discs, Heatons, Heartbeat City, HMV, Roxy Records, Tesco, Tower, Virgin, Xtra-vision, Zhivago, Independents Now, they're all music retailers alright, but where's the Road Records? The Redlight Records? They are in that group labelled 'Independents'. Most of the independent retailers are the real supporters of Irish music in the Irish music industry? In fact, Heatons? Xtra-Vision? We're more than royally pissed off with the state of Irish music and the industry support for it. In recent times, with our involvement with the National Student Music Awards and the Choice Music Prize we know that there are tons of good Irish artists out there, at all levels of development, from the established Bell X1 down to 'Lotus Lullaby' and we also know that many of the bands that do release CDs are not wholly represented in the Irish charts. Apart from the questionable aspects of how sales are calculated, there is the fact that even if a band sells enough in a group of stores to get to Number 1, they won't even get into the Charts, unless they sell in those stores that are part of Chart Tracks' panel. We think that's wrong. If you do, too, and you or someone you know works in a record retailer (of any kind, including those already part of the Charts panel) and are interesetd in the idea of a fair and transparent Irish chart, then get in touch as we are condiering the technical logistics of creating such a chart. In the first instance, please email us with your contact details, and what stoer(s) you think would be able to provide retail sales data, whether weekly or monthly

Email the author

Printer-friendly version