Best Buy To Start Carrying Vinyl

No joke. According to the New York Post, Best Buy (BBY) will be devoting eight square feet to vinyl in every location in the U.S. That means around 200 titles in 1,020 stores.

(Ian Anderson)

Video: Why Radio & Music Industry Sucks Nowadays

This is a great compilation of interviews from artists voicing their opinions on modern radio and the music industry - and how it sucks. Via Hypebot.

(Ian Anderson)

Online Radio Listenership Up 36% in 2008

According to AccuStream iMedia Reseach via Hypebot, online music radio listening hours increased 37.6% to 6.67 billion total hours in 2008. This is great news for the likes of KEXP, WOXY and the Current who have been garnering national listenerships through their website and podcasts.

I, for one, listened to approximately 40% more online radio in 2008 than 2007, so it looks like they did their research.

Top 4 on WOXY right now:
*MP3: Peter, Bjorn and John - "Nothing To Worry About"
*MP3: Heartless Bastards - "Hold Your Head High"
*MP3: The Decemberists - "The Rake's Song"
*MP3: N.A.S.A. - "Gifted"

Does Blog Buzz Equal Album Sales?

Coolfer just posted about a great research paper conducted by NYU about whether or not blog chatter and MySpace friends actually influence album sales. I am about to sit down and read this 30-page beauty, so I'll have more soon. But this is how Coolfer summed it up:

• Blog chatter had the greatest correlation with sales two weeks after observation date
• The findings "strongly suggest" that blog posts and MySpace friends correspond to increase in future sales. Blog posts have a greater impact on sales than do MySpace friends
• Mainstream reviews (Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, et al) were negatively related to future sales
• MySpace friends do not have as great a predictive value as blog chatter
• "Very high" sales came from major label albums with 40 or more blog posts in the period
• An indie album with 240 blog posts in the observation period could overcome the disadvantage of being on an indie label

Read the full story here.

(Ian Anderson)