MILLS: BIBLE CHART KILLING ALBUM ARTISTS

Billboard's "consumption" chart risks "reducing the oxygen available of exposure for artists whose natural format is the album" and "dumbing down music." Meanwhile, a proposed Global Release Date shows "major labels are not listening to their customers."

So said the lion of independent music, Beggars Group chief Martin Mills, during a London speech before the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), as reported in Music Biz Weekly.

Mills castigated the industry bible for lessening the power of album artists and bowing to "forces wishing to destroy a diverse music climate" and the "interests of super-consolidated major labels."

"This," he said of the chart, "will inevitably curtail the ability of the non-pop-single artist to make a living from their art."

Of the Global Release Day, Mills accused its proponents of a "charade" of consultation with the wider music community. Furthermore, he insisted, "Whilst I acknowledge the needs of a digital world for co-ordination, it seems to me to be crazy to throw away one of the trading week’s two peaks, and the ability to re-stock and rectify errors before the week’s second peak."

The complete speech, divided into one section per screed, can be found here.