Two random observations about purchasing media online: First, former Los Angeles morning radio host Mark (of “Mark & Brian”) Thompson released the audiobook of his autobiography on Audible this week. On his podcast he announced he’d been informed by Audible (and there was a banner icon added to his audiobook) his book was the #1 audiobook on Audible. As the author, he is able to see how many people purchased the audiobook: Nine. Not nine hundred. Not even ninety. Nine. And it is number one.
Second, 14 of the top 15 albums downloaded on the iTunes Store are by the late, great Jimmy Buffett (one assumes the errant Taylor Swift album in the top 15 is a collection of Buffett cover songs). And two of Buffett’s albums knocked the right wing fringe singers out of the top five of iTunes country albums. I mention both of these things because online rankings are not monitored or verified by any third party. If Mark Thompson hasn’t made a joke about it, it would’ve been easy to conclude that his podcast was a sudden breakout success. And since my own sampling of friends and family reveals I’m the only one buying media on the iTunes Store, and I already own most of Buffett’s music in digital and/or vinyl form, I have to conclude a razor thin percentage of buyers was able to up-end their entire ranking system. It reveals a fundamental flaw or vulnerability in the rankings system. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4AcGXiKMDdgSuvqTnFvmFeXHOydFqyHUAK0EeFaNvRbqA%40mail.gmail.com.
