Another 25 Year old independant female songwriter makes iTunes Top Ten

By Don • Category: Inspiration, Songwriting Articles, Songwriting News

At the time of this writing, there is an unfamiliar face at the top of the iTunes Albums list – a songstress named Sara Bareilles and her album “Little Voice”. Some have said she sounds reminiscent of Fiona Apple.

The Wall Street Journal seemed to notice and did an article on her. The success point – according to the article – was the “variable pricing” model where new and unknown artists’ albums are sold at $6.99 instead of $9.99.

What the article fails to point out however is that her single Love Song was also iTunes Single of Week, which undoubtedly gave it a massive amount of exposure that pushed it over the top. It is hard to imagine she would be topping the iTunes Top Ten Albums unless that had happened.

So how does one become a FREE single of the week? Good question. There are only 52 weeks in a year so there are definitely a finite number of slots for new artists.

Regardless, it appears more and more iTunes is showing it’s clout as a medium that makes and breaks bands.

Does that scare you?

Source: Wall Street Journal

No more excuses. Get the new eBook and FINISH YOUR SONGS:

Don is Don is the Founder and Editor of Blogging Muses. He writes songs and lives in Asheville, NC
Contact Don | All posts by Don

Comments! Comments!

Fltech

Independent – hello, spelling?
http://www.bloggingmuses.com Don M

Thanks for the spell-checking. It’s nice there are guys around the web that obsess about that enough to leave comments.

-dm
http://chronicdisorder.net Spit Respectable

I like her, but since when is being signed to Epic records considered “independent”?
http://www.formulateaffinity.com Kurt Moore

How is this an indy artist? She is on Sony BMG?
http://jeffcaylor.com Jeff

Ya, I saw the BMG/Sony in the copyright. Not sure if that came after the popularity or helped spawn it.

Or maybe it was the placement on a major motion picture soundtrack: Monster-in-Law.

Her sound is nice, regardless, and the sentiment of the story was inspiring for a few minutes at least.
JP

“Does that scare you?”

No. It’s great!! Otherwise, what sort of chance would an indi like Sara have had at gaining such exposure and sales?

I’m not sure what the big deal is and why you think Apple can also “break” bands… Apple is store, not a PR firm. They provide a great online store with a great UI interface which customers trust. (no questionable no-name store with confusing check outs.)

I know bashing Apple is fasionable of late, but look… lots of companies are throwing stuff against the wall, but Apple is the only one who’s managed to make something “stick” when it comes to surviving in the P2P/download age. I would love to see where Apple takes the music industry next. They are clearly the only ones who “get it”.

Let’s look at the other top two indi options for online sales.

Amazon: if I recall takes a 45% cut of sales. (Ouch)

CDBaby: reasonable fee for CD distribution (the $4 fee is about 34% for an album priced at $11.99), BUT takes 9% of all digital sales after the third part online store’s distribution cut. Greedy.
http://jeffshattuck.typepad.com/cerebellumblues/ Jeff

Interesting post. The times they definitely are a changin’!
researcher

ITunes is Sony BMG and EPIC & the Epic “Script” logo are registered trademarks of SONY BMG MUSIC. Since Sara was signed by Epic, she’s naturally filiated with iTunes. There’s no surprise that iTunes promotes her and could afford free downloads and lower prices against other musicians.

So, she is NOT an independent artist; and her being top 10 was helped by iTunes.
Joshua Gaskell

Well regardless…this album kicks.