We love BMG Entertainment chief executive Strauss Zelnick over here at Hitsquad. After saying that the web will never allow established artists or undiscovered bands to successfully avoid record companies and go directly to the consumer, we had an idea. Let's prove Strauss wrong. Each week, we will be checking out a country at random and see who's making money, how many listens they get on MP3.com and how many DAM CDs they sell. We want to show you people out there that the web can be successfully used by artists to develop a listenership, sell CDs and make some money.
Norwegian Top Five Artists were picked by the current popularity of individual songs, not overall listens or downloads. We're trying to reflect what's happening now. In other words, if you recently released music on MP3.com you could get recognized in this column over someone who has amassed a huge amount of listens over the years - even if they haven't released a new song for months.
1. Latin Fusion (image above right) $156.70 in Payback earnings July statistics to July 24: 5,654 listens and no DAM CDs for sale.
2. Violet Scene $254.00 in Payback earnings July statistics to July 24: 2,369 and two DAM CDs sold.
3. Fantasy $10,365.48 in Payback earnings July statistics to July 24: 11,598 listens and five DAM CD sales.
4. Amethystium $8,430.39 in Payback earnings July statistics to July 24: 27,730 listens and 37 DAM CD sales.
5. Old Man's Child $263.14 in Payback earnings 1,595 listens and no DAM CDs for sale.