clik4music

Just in case you had any lingering doubts about the dominant talent of the girls and women in the music industry, the 2010 Grammy Awards were a huge recognition of everything we’ve been saying regularly for the past two years. Just to be explicit so there is no confusion - Girls Rock and Girls Rule!!

Beyonce received 6 of the 10 Grammys she was nominated for, while Taylor Swift won four and Lady GaGa scored two. For singles and albums the girls stole the show. The list is long - yay! - and I’m sure you don’t need explanations of each award, so here’s the summary. Of note, of course, are the awards won by the girls in the Best Album and Best Song categories where they beat off any of the male contenders.

First up, the incredible vocal and performance talents of Beyonce Knowles:

• Best Contemporary R&B Album: I Am… Sasha Fierce — Beyonce
• Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) — Beyonce
• Best Female Pop Vocal Performance: Halo — Beyonce
• Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance: At Last — Beyonce
• Two songwriter awards: Song of the Year and Best R&B Song for Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) — Thaddis Harrell, Beyonce Knowles, Terius Nash & Christopher Stewart (performed by Beyonce)

Equally hard-working and just as gracious and elegant in personal appearances as Beyonce is the Nashville princess, Taylor Swift:

• Album of the Year: Fearless — Taylor Swift
• Best Country Album: Fearless — Taylor Swift
• Best Female Country Vocal Performance: White Horse — Taylor Swift
• Best Country Song: White Horse — Liz Rose & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift)

So having gathered the albums and singles of the main categories into the Beyonce and Swift arms, the stellar energy that is GaGa was honored with two strong categories:

• Best Dance Recording: Poker Face — Lady Gaga
• Best Electronic/Dance Album: The Fame — Lady Gaga

The Grammy Awards 2010 - a great night for the ladies? You bet!

The new premium music video and entertainment service created in partnership by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media Company is already in trouble. VEVO managed just 35 million visits in December, a remarkably low number given the hype and marketing muscle of the corporates behind it.

This is – or should be – a huge reality check for the music industry. The closing of Tower Records reflected the end of the old-school analog days, and the demise of imeem underlined the folly of trying to use old-style business practices online. Even with VEVO being run on the YouTube platform and picking up a large potential audience, the figures are dismal.

The “Most Popular” music videos on VEVO also showed the problems of the service:  Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Drake, Lady Gaga, Jay Sean, Shakira, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. Those artists will be popular anywhere BUT the problem is the inclusion on VEVO will just steal listeners/viewers away from other platforms.

Claiming “Music Evolution Revolution!” is just not backed up by the figures. The real Evolution and Revolution in music is happening elsewhere. For example, podcasts by trance DJs Above & Beyond already have 21 million listeners/viewers each week. In other words the immediate future of digital music is still iTunes and iPod, much to the concern of the majors.

Will VEVO bring us anything new? No. It is just a continuation of the old-school music cartels trying to channel our music appreciation – and it won’t work any more. Therefore we won’t spend new money via their platform. The real evolution of music marketing online will continue elsewhere – platforms like Pandora, Last.FM, MySpace and WordPress.