No interest in latest chart 'battle'

Published on Friday 19 September 2008 09:51

LAST week's trumped up "chart battle" between indie darlings Glasvegas and rock titans Metallica was a damp squib, wasn't it?

Sure, it got people talking. But, unlike the way it was made out in sections of the music press, there's not even a rivalry between the two bands.

Despite the fact we all knew that it was a lot of media hype to sell records, at least Blur v Oasis in the "Battle of Britpop" was fun to watch unfold – not only because there was real division between the bands and their fans, but because they peddled the same brand of music: indie-rock.

Same rule applied to last year's showdown between bitter rap rivals Kanye West and 50 Cent, right.

Across the Atlantic, Kanye wiped out 50's 691,000 sales of Curtis by flogging a whopping 957,00 copies, which was made all the more intriguing by 50's threat to retire if he lost. He soon backtracked, of course, which was amusing in itself.

But whatever, both chart battles were so much more relevant than Glasvegas v Metallica, whose Death Magnetic lost nearly half a week in sales due to its Friday release but still triumphed after the band gave retailers the green light to go ahead and sell early on the grounds it had leaked on the internet and some stores had already started selling it anyway.

But perhaps the real story here isn't about who won – but about the piddly album sales.

Sales figures show Metallica's sold just over 75,000 copies, while

Glasvegas' total of 56,000 copies sold would have been enough to secure them a chart-topper almost any other week.

Wow, that's ridiculously low – and proof positive the CD has had its day.

The industry suffered a double whammy at the beginning of this year as album sales were hit by a "catastrophic decline", and experts predicted that plans to legalise the copying of music between formats "could soon render the CD redundant".

The BPI, which represents the UK music industry, revealed that sales of albums plunged by a remarkable 10.8 per cent in 2007. When compilations and soundtracks were stripped out of the figures the fall was an even more dramatic 14.3 per cent on the previous year, which in turn was nearly 3 per cent down on 2005 sales.

The industry has now pinned its future on its ability to generate new talent and new formats, particularly online and on mobile phones.

Meanwhile, it's been reported that the reigning Kings Of Leon are, for a second week, "in a tight chart battle" with Katy Perry for this week's UK number one.

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before ...