Mark's Tracks: 2013

For you Gunnsy - Farewell...

Heidi Marie Vestrheim - Blind (2012)

Florence & The Machine - Spectrum/Say My Name (2012)

Florence and The Machine - Spectrum/Say My Name (2012)
(as of 01 Sep 2012): UK#1, IRL#1, POL#1, NZ#2, BE#2, AUS#4, ISR#4, US#4, DK#35, HUN#39, DE#54, SWE#55, NL#87

Lyrics:

When we first came here
We were cold and we were clear
With no colors on our skin
We were light and paper-thin
And when we first came here
We were cold and we were clear
With no colors on our skin
Til you let the spectrum in

Say my name,
And every color illuminates,
We are shining,
And we’ll never be afraid again.

Say my name!
As every color illuminates!
We are shining!
And we’ll never be afraid again!
Say my name!
As every color illuminates!
We are shining!
And we’ll never be afraid again!

And when we come for you,
We’ll be dressed up all in blue,
With the ocean in our arms,
Kissing eyes and kissing palms.
And when it’s time to pray,
We’ll be dressed up all in grey,
With metal on our tongues,
And silver in our lungs.

Say my name,
And every color illuminates,
We are shining,
And we’ll never be afraid again.

Say my name!
As every color illuminates!
We are shining!
And we’ll never be afraid again!
Say my name!
As every colour illuminates!
We are shining!
And we’ll never be afraid again!

And when we come back we’ll be dressed in black!
And you’ll scream our names aloud!
And we won’t eat and we won’t sleep!
We’ll drag bodies from their graves!
So say my name,
And every color illuminates,
And we are shining,
And we’ll never be afraid again,
Say my name,
As every color illuminates.

Say my name!
As every color illuminates!
We are shining!
And we’ll never be afraid again!
Say my name!
As every color illuminates!
We are shining!
And we’ll never be afraid again!

Say my name!
We are shining!
Say my name!
Say my name!
And we’ll never be afraid again!

David Vendetta ft. Akram - Unidos Para La Musica (2007)

David Paparusso, a.k.a David Vendetta, started his career as DJ at Paris-based Radio FG 98.2. *** (see below)
Both, the station and the DJ caught my ears during my first visits to the French metropolis back in 1993/94. Here he met Antoine Clamaran. Both soon started producing tracks together and his popularity rocketed. As reputation in the DJ scene goes, the word soon got round to Roger Sanchez, for whom he also remixed.

My favourite song of his is 'Unidos Para La Musica', part of his 2007 album 'Rendez-Vous'. Vocals come courtesy of Akram.

***(Radio Fréquence Gay) - a station founded in 1981 to support the local gay community, which has since developed into one of France's most popular dance music radio stations for gay or straight.(98.2FM, www.fgdjradio.com)

David Vendetta feat. Akram - Unidos Para La Musica (2007)
FR#5, BE#30

David vendetta unidos para la musica by abrouki

Lyrics:

Aaaaaaah Aaaaaaah

Amor para todos
Felicidad para cada uno
Y la alegria se aparte en la vida
Y que quedemos todos juntos
Para siempre unidos
Para la musica

Unidos

Amor para todos
Felicidad para cada uno
La alegria se aparte en la vida
Y que tenemos oros juntos
Para siempre unidos
De la musica

Unidos
Aaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaah
Unidos

JX - Son Of A Gun (1993/94/95)

Jake Williams, a.k.a. JX, found huge success in clubland of 1993 following a recording contract with Hooj Choons, the dance label du jour in the UK back then. The track ran up a massive following before being released, charting in the mainstream the year after and; even higher with a re-release in 1995. The success led him to being chosen as the remixer for dance tracks of the time. Jake also produces as Rex The Dog, the alias under which he has worked with artists ranging from Depeche Mode and Madonna to The Prodigy, Mylo and Röyksopp.

JX - Son Of A Gun (1995)
1994: UK#13, NL#38
1995: UK#6, AUS#6

JX - Son Of A Gun by jackOO7

Nush - U Girls (1994)

Danny Harrison (one half of currently successful remix duo Moto Blanco) and Danny Matlock (who also released under the alias Congress back then) collaborated as Nush in 1994. Their track 'U Girls' was part of my essential clubbing soundtrack at the time. In London it was simmering underground for a long time before hitting the mainstream shelves. Although not as commercially successful with the creatures of the day, it made up for it amongst the worshippers of the night, circulating around dancefloors in various mixes for months on end, which in turn led to several more flawed attempts to make it cross-over into pop charts.
I loved it.

Nush - U Girls (1994)

Patrick Hernandez - Born To Be Alive (1979)

Patrick Hernandez was born 1949 in Le Blanc-Mesnil, France, to a Spanish father and a half-Austrian/half-Italian mother. Growing up in the 1960s, he became interested in music. He toured dancehalls and ballrooms of southern France with a number of groups over the next decade. Patrick met his music partner Hervé Tholance, an arranger, guitarist & vocalist, during that period. The two formed a duo and started achieving local success backing French musicians such as Francis Cabrel, Laurent Voulzy, and the French group Gold.
In 1978, Patrick met producer Jean Vanloo and, with disco music at its peak, signed a recording contract. Hernandez went to Waterloo, Belgium to work on songs to record. After working for about a year, an album was released November that year.
The first single that was released was the disco song Born to Be Alive. Its success was immediate: the track spread throughout Europe, where it hit #1 in France in April 1979 and remained there until July. By then, the US had caught on, and after some remixing, the track was released, peaking at #1 in the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and crossed over to US#16, selling over one million copies in the US alone.
By year's end, Born To Be Alive had racked up 52 Gold and Platinum from more than 50 countries worldwide.

While touring the US, Patrick was accompanied by Vanloo and his friend Jean-Claude Pellerin. Vanloo and Pellerin held auditions in New York that spring for dancers to accompany him on his worldwide tour. The chosen dancers included a young Madonna.
Patrick's follow-ups to Born to Be Alive did not fare as well.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Hernandez toured and had occasional appearances on other artists' albums in Europe. Another remix of the track appeared in the nightclubs in 1987. Since its release, Born to Be Alive has sold more than $25 million worldwide.

Patrick Hernandez - Born To Be Alive (1979)
FR#1, IT#1, DE#1, AT#1, SWE#1, NOR#1, AUS#1, NZ#1, BE#1, CAN#1, CH#5, UK#10, NL#12, US#16, BRZ#32

Lyrics:

We were born to be alive
We were born to be alive
Born, born to be alive
(Won't you be alive)
You see you were born
Born, born
(Born to be alive)
People ask me why
I never find a place to stop
And settle down, down, down
But I never wanted all those things
People need to justify
Their lives, lives, lives
You see you were
Born, born, born to be alive
(Born to be alive)
You see you were
Born, born, born
(Born to be alive)
It's good to be alive
To be alive
To be alive
It's good to be alive
To be alive
To be alive
It's good to be alive
Time was on my side
When I was running down the street
It was so fine, fine, fine
A suitcase and an old guitar
And something new to occupy
My mind, mind, mind
You see you were born, born
Born to be alive
(Born to be alive)
You see you were born, born, born
(Born to be alive)
You see you were born, born
Born to be alive
(Born to be alive)
You see you were born, born, born
(Born to be alive)
You see you were born, born
Born to be alive
(Born to be alive)
You see you were born, born, born
(To be alive)
Born, born to be alive
(Born to be alive)
You see you were born, born, born
(Born to be alive)
Born, born to be alive

Music Industry, Problems & Sales Charts

for 'Digitally Remastered' - an Economist Article dated 9th June 2011 - click here

Today's Music Industry faces several challenges. Declining sales, distribution methods, technological advance, piracy, downward pressure on costs and the speed with which tends and fashion are changing are only the tip of the iceberg and all seem somehow to be interlinked and interdependent. Almost like a spiral, one problem seems to bring on another.

For an almost grossly-negligent length of time, central institutions and parts of the industry tried to simply shut their eyes, hoping the troubles would be temporary and go away by itself. But their hopes have been dashed and for the last two decades, the speed with which the changes are sweeping through seem only to increase.

First there were records, then there were tapes, mini-discs, CDs and now we have embraced digital downloads and online music streaming. But despite, or probably precisely owing to these technological advances, music sales worldwide are in steep decline, regardless of the occasional reflux of traditional formats, such as vinyl nostalgia.

Music tracks and albums these days are distributed online, no need to go shopping in, what these days have become known as 'bricks-&-mortar' retailers. First there was the death of the independent Record Stores, and now, more or less rapid, even once well-established powerhouses of distribution, such as HMV seems to run out of ideas. The spectacular fall of Tower Records more than a decade ago is just one example of the fatal consequences of ignoring these changes. In a desperate attempt to stay solvent, aforementioned HMV is currently struggling to stay above water, by selling off their book business Waterstones this week.

But the suffering of the distribution arm of the music industry is only a symptom.

A good look at the creative aspect and the production of music worldwide quickly reveals that the problems start far earlier. For more than half a century, independent records labels, the grass roots of creativity and talent spotting, have been snapped up by their giant rivals, often killing off innovation and individuality. It is similar to the IT or Supermarket sector, perhaps also Banking: the big fish swallow the small but do not know how to integrate them properly, risking talent becoming lost in corporate equalisation. Coupled with the interest to maximise profits and shareholder satisfaction, this rarely ends happily: Microsoft stalled for innovation, Tesco killed off the diverse high street stores, banks became too big to allow them to fail - and - in the music industry, changes in trends were silenced. Look at EMI, which became do inflexible that a private equity house bought it out, with major artists deserting them.

I believe, that until this trend is rectified, so-called 'unit sales' will continue to drop, caught in a vicious circle of producing low quality results, which only remain in the charts for the blink of an eye, often forgotten weeks following release. There are, of course, exceptions, but these are numbered.
Today's market share in the Music Industry is to about three quarters in the hands of the 'Big 4': Sony BMG, Universal Music, EMI and Warner Music, with more eating & being eaten already on the horizon. This leaves only a jaw-dropping 28% for independent music labels. After intensely focussing on other industries, perhaps several competition commissions around the world should take a closer look at what's going on and, with the input of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), should press for equally sweeping changes, which should be to the benefit of the industry; making it less dependent on pressures from everywhere else, ensuring it takes technological developments to heart.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, IFPI

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, IFPI, represents the recording industry worldwide with some 1400 record companies in 66 countries and affiliated industry associations in 45 countries. IFPI is head-quartered at No.10 Piccadilly in London and is linked to regional offices in Brussels, Hong Kong and Miami. It's mission is to promote the value of recorded music, safeguard the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music in all markets where its members operate:

Size of the Music Industry by Value (as of 2005)

Market Share of Music by Genre

Argentina

Organisation:
Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas - CAPIF

Website:
www.capif.org.ar

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums: Gold: 20,000, Platinum: 40,000, excl. Digital downloads
- Singles: do not get certified
- Digital Downloads: Gold: 10,000, Platinum: 20,000

Australia

Organisation:
ARIA - Australian Record Industry Association

Website:
www.aria.com.au

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums & Singles: Gold: 35,000, Platinum: 70,000 albums
- based on shipments, not sales

Austria

Organisation:
IFPI Austria – Verband der Österreichischen Musikwirtschaft

Website:
www.ifpi.at

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums: Gold: 10,000, Platinum: 20,000
- Singles: Gold: 15,000, Platinum: 30,000

Belgium

Organisation:
BEA - Belgian Entertainment Association

Website:
www.belgianentertainment.be

Charts:
Flanders: Ultrapop 50
Wallonia: Ultrapop 40

Certifications:
- Albums & Singles:
- Domestic (French and Dutch language, incl. Jazz and Classical): Gold: 10,000, Platinum: 20,000
- International (non-French, non-Dutch): Gold: 15,000, Platinum: 30,000

Brazil

Organisation:
ABPD - Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos

Website:
www.abpd.org.br

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Domestic Albums: Gold: 40,000, Platinum: 80,000, Diamond: 300,000
- International Albums: Gold: 20,000, Platinum: 40,000, Diamond: 160,000
- Digital Downloads: Gold: 50,000, Platinum: 100,000, Diamond: 500,000
- based on sales

Bulgaria

Organisation:
BAMP - Българска асоциация на музикалните продуценти

Website:
www.bamp-bg.org

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums only: Gold: 15,000, Platinum: 30,000

Canada

Organisation:
CRIA - Canadian Recording Industry Association

Website:
www.cria.ca

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums: Gold: 40,000, Platinum: 80,000, Diamond: 800,000
- Singles: Gold: 5,000, Platinum: 10,000, Diamond: 100,000
- based on shipments

Chile

Organisation:
IFPI - International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, London
No local Association. The local IFPI hub was shut down in March 2008 in a police raid and investigation linked to fraud and illegal distribution of music files

Website:
www.ifpi.org - was www.ifpichile.cl before

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums only: Gold: 5,000, Platinum: 10,000

China

Organisation:
SARFT - 国家广播电影电视总局 (State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television), a state controlled body, which centrally controls (and censors) the country's media

Website:
Chinese only: www.sarft.gov.cn
English with Google Translate: www.sarft.gov.cn

Charts: here

Awards: (no awards given, just for international statistics)
Albums only: Gold: 20,000, Platinum: 40,000

Colombia

Organisation:
ASINCOL - Convenio Antipiratería para Colombia, not strictly an association of the music industry, but a national body against piracy

Website:
www.convenioantipirateria.org.co

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums only: Gold: 10,000, Platinum: 20,000

Czech Republic

Organisation:
IFPI - International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, London
No local Association

Website:
www.ifpi.org

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums: Gold: 6,000, Platinum: 12,000
- Singles: Gold: 1,000, Platinum: 2,000

Denmark

Organisation:
IFPI - International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, London
with local hub IFPI Denmark

Website:
www.ifpi.dk

Charts: here

Certifications:
- Albums: Gold: 10,000, Platinum: 20,000
- Singles: Gold: 15,000, Platinum: 30,000
- based on shipments

Ecuador

Organisation:
IFPI - International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, London
with local hub IFPI Ecuador

Website:
central: www.ifpi.org
local: n/a

Charts: n/a

Awards:
Albums only: Gold: 3,000, Platinum: 6,000

Europe

Organiation:
Billboard, a New York-head quartered Music Publication, with office in London (although Billboard announced in Feb 2011 to close their London Office)

Website:
www.billboard.com/#/charts/european-hot-100

Charts: Eurochart Hot 100 Singles

Awards: n/a

Finland

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Finland's Official List
Finnish Singles Chart
YLE Top40

Awards:

France

Organisation:
SNEP - Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique

Website:
www.disqueenfrance.com/fr

Charts: SNEP

Certifications:
- Albums: Gold: 50,000, Platinum: 100,000, Diamond: 500,000
- Singles: Gold: 150,000, Platinum: 250,000, Diamond: 400,000
- based on sales

Germany

Organisation:
Bundesverband Musikindustrie

Website:
www.musikindustrie.de

Charts: Media Control AG

Certifications:
- Albums: Gold: 100,000, Platinum: 200,000
- Singles: Gold: 150,000, Platinum: 300,000
- based on shipments

Greece

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Greek IFPI Singles and Albums Charts

Awards:

Gulf States - Middle East - Gulf Coorporation Council

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:

Awards:

Hong Kong

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Hong Kong IFPI Music Chart

Awards:

Hungary

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Mahasz

Awards:

Ireland

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
IRMA
Irish Albums Chart
Irish Singles Chart
Irish Downloads Chart

Awards:

Italy

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Federation of the Italian Music Industry
Musica & Dischi

Awards:

Japan

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Oricon
Music Labo
Music Research
Planet chart
Japan Hot 100
SoundScan

Awards:

Mexico

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
AMPROFON

Awards:

Netherlands

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Dutch Top 40
MegaCharts
Mega Single Top 100
Mega Top 50

Awards:

New Zealand

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand

Awards:

Norway

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Norsktoppen
VG-lista

Awards:

Poland

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Polish Airplay Chart - Top 5
Polish Airplay Chart - New Singles
Polish Airplay Chart - Greatest Jumps
Polish Videos Chart
Polish Dance Top 50
OLiS - Album Top 50 (weekly
ZPAV - Album Top 100 (monthly)

Awards:

Portugal

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Top Oficial da AFP

Awards:

Romania

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Romanian Top 100

Awards:

Russia

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Russian Music Charts
Russia Top 25. Albums
Russia Top 10. Digital Tracks
Airplay Detection Tophit 100

Awards:

Slovenia

Organisation:

Website:

Charts: Slo Top 40

Awards:

South Korea

Organisation:

Website:

Charts: Gaon Chart

Awards:

Spain

Organisation:
PROMUSICAE - Productores de Musica de España

Website:
www.promusicae.es

Charts: PME

Awards:

Sweden

Organisation:

Website:

Charts
Svensktoppen
Sverigetopplistan
Tracks
DigiListan

Awards:

Switzerland

Organisation:

Website:

Charts:
Swiss Music Charts
Swiss Albums Top 100
Swiss Airplay Top 30
Swiss Singles Top 100
Swiss Compilations Top 25

Awards:

Turkey

Organisation:
Mü-YAP (IFPI Türkiye Milli Grubu)

Website:
www.mu-yap.org

Charts: Billboard Türkiye

Certifications:
- Albums only: Gold: 100,000, Platinum: 200,000, Diamond: 300,000

United Kingdom

Organisation:
BPI - British Phonographic Industry

Website:
www.bpi.co.uk

Charts: Official Music Chart Company

Certifications:
- Albums: Silver: 60,000, Gold: 100,000, Platinum: 300,000
- Singles: Silver: 200,000, Gold: 400,000, Platinum: 600,000
- based on shipments

United States

Organisation:
RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America Inc.

Website:
www.riaa.com

Charts: Billboard

Certifications:
- Albums & Singles: Gold: 500,000, Platinum: 1,000,000, (Diamond: 10,000,000 - Albums only)