Digital-Music-Report-2014

Top global singlesThe 2013 global singles chart was toppedby Robin Thicke, the American-Canadiansinger whose Blurred Lines topped thecharts in 14 countries. The song was takenfrom his sixth studio album, also calledBlurred Lines. The track, which featuredTI and Pharrell Williams, was promotedwith a video directed by Diane Martelthat featured models Elle Evans, JessiM’Bengue and Emily Ratajkowski andattracted more than one million viewson Vevo in its first day of release. Thickeperformed the song with Miley Cyrus atthe MTV Video Awards, in the processsetting the record for an event generatingthe most tweets per minute (360,000).Blurred Lines attracted morethan one million views onVevo in its first day of releaseMacklemore and Ryan Lewis’ ThriftShop was the second best performingsingle. It was the fifth single from the hiphop duo’s debut studio album The Heist.The track went to number one in ninecountries and the accompanying videoattracted more than 485 million viewson YouTube.Figure 8: Top global singlesRank Single & Artist Total units* (m)blurred lines1 robin thicke 14.82thrift shopmacklemore & ryan lewis 13.43wake me upavicii 11.14just give me a reasonP!nk Feat. nate ruess 9.95 roarkaty perry 9.96get luckydaft punk ft. pharrell williams & nile rogers 9.37 radioactiveimagine dragons 8.68when I was your manbruno mars 8.39scream & shoutwill.i.am 8.110 stayrihanna 7.9Source: IFPI *Units include single-track downloads and track-equivalent streams.The importance oflocal repertoireInvestment in local repertoire remainsthe lifeblood of the international musicindustry. Album charts in individualmarkets demonstrate the continuingstrength of local repertoire as a share ofoverall music sales. In many markets, localartists account for the vast majority ofthe top selling albums of 2013. In France,for example, 17 of the top 20 sellingalbums of 2013 were local repertoire, upfrom 10 in 2011. In Germany, seven of thetop 10 selling albums in 2013 were localrepertoire, a trend reflected in 13 selectednon-English language markets (see Figure9). Record companies are also focused onpromoting locally signed artists aroundthe world. Warner Music points to itsJapanese breakthrough artist KyaryPamyu Pamyu undertaking her secondworld tour, while a new wave ofScandinavian artists aspire to follow thecareer trajectory of David Guetta, signedin France and now a global phenomenon.Figure 9: Percentage of top ten albums in2013 that were by locally signed artistsCountry %South Korea 100%Japan 100%Brazil 90%Italy 90%Sweden 90%France 80%Denmark 80%Netherlands 80%Germany 70%Norway 60%Spain 60%Portugal 50%Malaysia 50%Source: IFPI, National GroupsLars Winnerbäck photo by Jonas Linell 15