NO GRAMMY FOR MARVIN SAPP?: Grammy Awards official explains the reason 'Never Would Have Made It' wasn't nominated.
*A Brooklyn street vendor is standing in 30 degree weather peddling Hip Hop mix tapes and DVDs from a six-foot table.
Encircled by a variety of CDs of Black motivational speakers and President-elect Barack Obama's acceptance speech, there are some CDs bearing a guy on the cover wearing what resembles a zoot suit.
Referring to the music coming from his speakers the vendor hollers in a New York drawl, almost yawning the vowels: "Got that 'Maaavin Saaapp!'"
Translation: "Marvin Sapp," who is the Pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan and noted gospel artist. He is the man smiling on the cover of the CD, the voice behind one of the most popular gospel recordings ever. A former member of Detroit-based gospel group Commissioned, the album "Thirsty" is Sapp's 7th musical undertaking in his solo career. The song blasting through the speakers is "Never Would Have Made It," the uber-popular lead single.
In 2008, Marvin Sapp was to music what President-Elect Barack Obama was to politics, a phenomenon. As one of the hottest musical commodities of 2008, the album sat high among the hodgepodge of selections at this make-shift record store, just as it engrossed spins at mainstream urban AC station, KJLH-FM to become the first gospel single to hold the #1 position.
That's only the beginning of the impact "Never Would Have Made It" has had.
The record-breaking track spent over 40 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's gospel radio charts, successfully crossed-over to No. 1 on the urban adult contemporary chart, maintained the No. 1 position in Gospel radio for over 6 months, making it the longest number one song in the history of the Nielsen BDS Gospel Chart, plus the inspiring ballad became the longest running No. 1 single at radio across all genres in the history of Billboard analysis.
(Incidentally, many would argue that this was the top gospel recording of the year, but it never mentioned the words that some say define a song as a gospel song: "Jesus" or "God.")
While its simple refrain, "never would have made it without you," resonated deeply with everyday people who could feel the weight of a suffering economy, a dramatic election competition and a war that seems to have no end in sight, it also touched the hearts of famous rappers Lil' Wayne and Nellie who were moved to lift their hands in worship when Sapp performed the song at the 2008 BET Awards. Sapp was honored with BET's Best Gospel Aryist Award that night and leads the list of Gospel music's Grammy equivalent, The Stellar Awards with a whopping 9 nominations.
Understandably so ... There is something special about this song that brings about a universal connection, although it penetrates on a personal level. I personally hadn't seen nor felt this type of energy from a recording since "We Are the World."
Yet, even with the stream of unprecedented accolades there is a level of honor the song will never attain--the coveted Grammy Award.
"Never Would Have Made It" never made it onto the 2009 Grammy ballot.
Here's how the got nixed:
Unlike any other award show, the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) issues the Grammy award based strictly on peer recognition--it is not a popularity contest or based on chart status or record sales. The basic eligibility requirements are to have nationwide commercial distribution or for digital releases to be available on a Web site other than the artist's personal Web site such as CD Baby, Amazon.com or Itunes.
"Peers" are producers, song-writers, artists etc. who are dues paying members of the organization allowed to vote.
In Sapp's case, "What happened was ... " Bill Freimuth, NARAS Vice President, Awards explains, "It didn't really take off in the public consciousness until this year."
The album was nominated in the Best Traditional Gospel category last year (for 2008) and re-entered for 2008, which is allowed in the allotted 2-year submission window. It was disqualified because continues Freimuth, "The live version was on the album that was entered into the process in the previous year."
Essentially, the song had not peaked in mass popularity and did not receive enough votes the first time around and was disqualified in round 2, although it achieved public acclaim, because it was the same performance of the song according to Freimuth.
It's an unfortunate reality that artists run into all the time, Freimuth says. As another example, "Alternative rock group MGMT, for the album Oracular Spectacular expected that they would be nominated but were disqualified because of a previous entry,” Freimuth stated.
"We live and die by our rules and we publish them to makes sure that everybody making the decisions knows."
The bottomline in Freimuth's opinion is that time was not on Marvin Sapp's side.
Pastor Sapp had not responded to an interview request by press time.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Music Sales Fell in 2008, but Climbed on the Web
Music Sales Fell in 2008, but Climbed on the Web
By BEN SISARIO
Published: December 31, 2008
Sales of recorded music fell sharply in 2008, as consumers continued to migrate away from the CD format, large retailers reduced floor space for music and the recession dampened consumer spending during the critical year-end holiday shopping period.
Skip to next paragraph
Chris Pizzello/Associated Press
Chris Martin and Coldplay had 2008’s No. 2-selling album.
Related
The Top-Selling Albums of 2008 (January 1, 2009)
Music: My Music, MySpace, My Life (November 9, 2008)
Times Topics: Coldplay Lil Wayne
Total album sales in the United States, including CDs and full-album downloads, were 428 million, a 14 percent drop from 2007, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. Since the industry’s peak in 2000, album sales have declined 45 percent, although digital music purchases continue to grow at a rapid rate.
The year’s biggest seller was Lil Wayne’s album “Tha Carter III” (Cash Money/Universal Motown), which sold 2.87 million copies, followed by Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” (Capitol), with 2.14 million. “Fearless” (Big Machine), the second album by the 19-year-old country star Taylor Swift, was third, with 2.11 million. (Ms. Swift also scored the sixth-highest seller this year, for her self-titled debut, released in 2006, which sold 1.6 million copies in 2008.)
The music industry has grown accustomed to dismal sales numbers, and this year even the good news comes with disappointment. “Tha Carter III” is the first release in SoundScan’s 17-year history to top the year-end list with sales of less than 3 million.
Sales of digital music continued to rise steeply last year. Just over a billion songs were downloaded, a 27 percent increase from 2007, and some record companies say they are finally beginning to wring significant profits from music on Web sites like YouTube and MySpace.
But analysts say that despite the growth and promise of digital music — in 2003 just 19 million songs were purchased as downloads — the money made online is still far from enough to make up for losses in physical sales.
“As the digital side grows, you get a different business model, with more revenue streams,” said Michael McGuire, an analyst with Gartner, a market research firm. “But do we get back to where the revenue that the labels see is going to be fully replacing the CD in the next four to five years? No.” Gartner recently issued a report urging record companies to put their primary focus on downloads.
Record companies counter that album sales alone do not give a full picture of the complex new economics of the industry. Rio Caraeff, the executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s digital division, eLabs, said other income, like the fees collected when users stream a video online, had become an essential part of the pie. Twenty percent of Rihanna’s revenue, he said, has come from the sale of ring tones.
“We don’t focus anymore on total album sales or the sale of any one particular product as the metric of revenue or success,” Mr. Caraeff said. “We look at the total consolidated revenue from dozens of revenue lines behind a given artist or project, which include digital sales, the physical business, mobile sales and licensing income.”
Even as most of the industry pushes for greater online sales, two of the biggest albums of the year were by artists who have been vocal opponents of downloading. Kid Rock’s “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Atlantic) reached No. 4 with just over 2 million sales, and AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia), sold through an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart, was No. 5 with 1.92 million.
Neither act sells its music through Apple’s iTunes, the dominant online seller. AC/DC has said that selling individual tracks breaks up the continuity of a full album. But à la carte downloads are also far less lucrative than full CDs.
At least one sector of the music industry has continued to enjoy robust success: the concert business. Ticket sales in North America in 2008 rose at least 7 percent, to $4.2 billion, according to Pollstar, the touring-industry trade magazine. But in keeping with the trend of recent years, slightly fewer tickets were sold for more money: attendance for the top 100 tours dropped 3 percent, but the average ticket price climbed 8 percent, to $66.90.
The record industry has been eager to share in touring’s bull market, and many of the major labels’ new contracts are for so-called 360 deals, which give the company a much wider share in an artist’s income, from touring to merchandising to product endorsements. But those types of contract are still far from the norm.
Despite the growth of online music sales, CDs remain by far the most popular format, although that hold is slipping; 361 million CDs were sold in 2008, down almost 20 percent from the previous year. About 84 percent of all album purchases were CDs, down from 90 percent the year before.
And since CDs remain the record industry’s biggest profit engine, many analysts worry that the industry will be particularly vulnerable to inventory reductions at retail stores. Big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy account for up to 65 percent of all retail purchases, and many of those stores are sharply reducing the floor space allotted to music, said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at Pali Research in New York.
“CDs no longer drive somebody into a store on Tuesday,” Mr. Greenfield said, referring to the day new CDs usually go on sale. “So the big risk for 2009 is that you will see even more rapid contraction of floor space, as CDs really go out of sight, out of mind for the consumer.”
The Top-Selling Albums of 2008
Published: December 31, 2008
1. LIL WAYNE, “Tha Carter III” (Cash Money/Universal Motown); 2.87 million
2. COLDPLAY, “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” (Capitol); 2.14 million
3. TAYLOR SWIFT, “Fearless” (Big Machine); 2.11 million
4. KID ROCK, “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Atlantic); 2.02 million
5. AC/DC, “Black Ice” (Columbia); 1.92 million
6. TAYLOR SWIFT, “Taylor Swift” (Big Machine); 1.6 million
7. METALLICA, “Death Magnetic” (Warner Brothers); 1.57 million
8. T. I., “Paper Trail” (Grand Hustle/Atlantic); 1.52 million
9. JACK JOHNSON, “Sleep Through the Static” (Brushfire/Universal); 1.49 million
10. BEYONCé, “I Am ... Sasha Fierce” (Music World/Columbia); 1.46 million
Source: Nielsen SoundScan
By BEN SISARIO
Published: December 31, 2008
Sales of recorded music fell sharply in 2008, as consumers continued to migrate away from the CD format, large retailers reduced floor space for music and the recession dampened consumer spending during the critical year-end holiday shopping period.
Skip to next paragraph
Chris Pizzello/Associated Press
Chris Martin and Coldplay had 2008’s No. 2-selling album.
Related
The Top-Selling Albums of 2008 (January 1, 2009)
Music: My Music, MySpace, My Life (November 9, 2008)
Times Topics: Coldplay Lil Wayne
Total album sales in the United States, including CDs and full-album downloads, were 428 million, a 14 percent drop from 2007, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. Since the industry’s peak in 2000, album sales have declined 45 percent, although digital music purchases continue to grow at a rapid rate.
The year’s biggest seller was Lil Wayne’s album “Tha Carter III” (Cash Money/Universal Motown), which sold 2.87 million copies, followed by Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” (Capitol), with 2.14 million. “Fearless” (Big Machine), the second album by the 19-year-old country star Taylor Swift, was third, with 2.11 million. (Ms. Swift also scored the sixth-highest seller this year, for her self-titled debut, released in 2006, which sold 1.6 million copies in 2008.)
The music industry has grown accustomed to dismal sales numbers, and this year even the good news comes with disappointment. “Tha Carter III” is the first release in SoundScan’s 17-year history to top the year-end list with sales of less than 3 million.
Sales of digital music continued to rise steeply last year. Just over a billion songs were downloaded, a 27 percent increase from 2007, and some record companies say they are finally beginning to wring significant profits from music on Web sites like YouTube and MySpace.
But analysts say that despite the growth and promise of digital music — in 2003 just 19 million songs were purchased as downloads — the money made online is still far from enough to make up for losses in physical sales.
“As the digital side grows, you get a different business model, with more revenue streams,” said Michael McGuire, an analyst with Gartner, a market research firm. “But do we get back to where the revenue that the labels see is going to be fully replacing the CD in the next four to five years? No.” Gartner recently issued a report urging record companies to put their primary focus on downloads.
Record companies counter that album sales alone do not give a full picture of the complex new economics of the industry. Rio Caraeff, the executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s digital division, eLabs, said other income, like the fees collected when users stream a video online, had become an essential part of the pie. Twenty percent of Rihanna’s revenue, he said, has come from the sale of ring tones.
“We don’t focus anymore on total album sales or the sale of any one particular product as the metric of revenue or success,” Mr. Caraeff said. “We look at the total consolidated revenue from dozens of revenue lines behind a given artist or project, which include digital sales, the physical business, mobile sales and licensing income.”
Even as most of the industry pushes for greater online sales, two of the biggest albums of the year were by artists who have been vocal opponents of downloading. Kid Rock’s “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Atlantic) reached No. 4 with just over 2 million sales, and AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia), sold through an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart, was No. 5 with 1.92 million.
Neither act sells its music through Apple’s iTunes, the dominant online seller. AC/DC has said that selling individual tracks breaks up the continuity of a full album. But à la carte downloads are also far less lucrative than full CDs.
At least one sector of the music industry has continued to enjoy robust success: the concert business. Ticket sales in North America in 2008 rose at least 7 percent, to $4.2 billion, according to Pollstar, the touring-industry trade magazine. But in keeping with the trend of recent years, slightly fewer tickets were sold for more money: attendance for the top 100 tours dropped 3 percent, but the average ticket price climbed 8 percent, to $66.90.
The record industry has been eager to share in touring’s bull market, and many of the major labels’ new contracts are for so-called 360 deals, which give the company a much wider share in an artist’s income, from touring to merchandising to product endorsements. But those types of contract are still far from the norm.
Despite the growth of online music sales, CDs remain by far the most popular format, although that hold is slipping; 361 million CDs were sold in 2008, down almost 20 percent from the previous year. About 84 percent of all album purchases were CDs, down from 90 percent the year before.
And since CDs remain the record industry’s biggest profit engine, many analysts worry that the industry will be particularly vulnerable to inventory reductions at retail stores. Big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy account for up to 65 percent of all retail purchases, and many of those stores are sharply reducing the floor space allotted to music, said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at Pali Research in New York.
“CDs no longer drive somebody into a store on Tuesday,” Mr. Greenfield said, referring to the day new CDs usually go on sale. “So the big risk for 2009 is that you will see even more rapid contraction of floor space, as CDs really go out of sight, out of mind for the consumer.”
The Top-Selling Albums of 2008
Published: December 31, 2008
1. LIL WAYNE, “Tha Carter III” (Cash Money/Universal Motown); 2.87 million
2. COLDPLAY, “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” (Capitol); 2.14 million
3. TAYLOR SWIFT, “Fearless” (Big Machine); 2.11 million
4. KID ROCK, “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Atlantic); 2.02 million
5. AC/DC, “Black Ice” (Columbia); 1.92 million
6. TAYLOR SWIFT, “Taylor Swift” (Big Machine); 1.6 million
7. METALLICA, “Death Magnetic” (Warner Brothers); 1.57 million
8. T. I., “Paper Trail” (Grand Hustle/Atlantic); 1.52 million
9. JACK JOHNSON, “Sleep Through the Static” (Brushfire/Universal); 1.49 million
10. BEYONCé, “I Am ... Sasha Fierce” (Music World/Columbia); 1.46 million
Source: Nielsen SoundScan
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