Sunday 14 February 2016

Hitting New Heights: A West Midlands YouTube Top 50: February 2016

BIG changes at both top and bottom of the 7th YouTube chart


Lady Leshurr on top; Laura Mvula and the Editors on the foothills.
Every six months I tot up YouTube numbers for local acts: the two most-viewed videos in the past three years, strictly defined. The totals let me do a bit of basic analysis - who is piling on the views? Who's made the biggest percentage improvement? 

A statistical health warning applies: I do this chart on my own, out of curiosity. It's perfectly possible I have missed your act. If so, please tell me and I will instantly rectify matters. 

There's some spectacular results to be picked out of this. 

Sadly, with the recession biting down hard, local acts at the lower levels of the chart are simply not making as many videos as we've been used to. So a number of stalwart local acts have now dropped off the chart as their works of three years and more fade into the distance. Given that I apply a cut-off figure of ten thousand, we also have a smaller chart than in previous years. 

Of course, there's lots of juice to extract from this. But the overpowering trend has been the super-explosive charge from Lady Leshurr, who is building numbers exponentially with a series of regular, cheap and cheerful videos talking/rapping directly to her audience. These generate great audience loyalty. There are parallels with a number of personality YouTube celebrities - it's a very interesting development. This has cost Laura Mvula her pole position, but that is simply because her most-viewed work is now over three years old. 


Lady Leshurr smashes it on a micro budget


The main chart


Big Winners by numbers


Artist Video 1
Video 2
Total 
Lady Leshurr Queens Speech 3
Queens Speech 4
30,205,923
Editors Sugar
A Ton Of Love
4,946,304
Robert Plant Rainbow
Little Maggie
2,119,173
Laura Mvula She (In South Africa)
That's Alright
2,087,649
Peace Money
Lost On Me
1,698,456
Jacob Banks Worthy
Grace
1,593,847
UB40 Blue Eyes Cryin' In the Rain
-
1,577,904
Swim Deep One Great Song
She Changes The Weather
1,537,592
Oceans Ate Alaska Vultures and Sharks
Blood Brothers
1,415,278
Malkit Singh Desi Beat
Maa
816,760
Electric Swing Circus Bella Belle
Valentine
750,519
Tom Aspaul Better By Your Side (with Aeble)
Indiana (Bronze whale remix)
631,617
Mahalia We The Generation (With Rudimental)
Borrowers
565,887
Mr Switch DMC Championships 2014
-
426,278
Napalm Death Breed To Breathe
How The Years Condemn
404,280
Radio Riddler/Ali Campbell Purple Rain
-
350,957
Superfood Mood Bomb
TV
280,608
Jaws Think Too Much Feel Too Little Little
Be Slowly
211,911
Anaal Nakraath Idol
-
206,385
Claire Maguire Paper Thin
Don't Mess Me Around
186,361
Ekkah Last Chance To Dance
Small Talk
137,007
Swami Do It Again
Back It Up
121,258
Monkeyneck ft Call Me Unique Time To Love
Sholow
99,386
God Damn Heavy Money
Shoe Prints In The Dust
73,027
Stone Foundation The Way I Want To Live My Life
Beverley
69,567
Scott Matthews Elusive
86 Floors from Heaven
68,712
Rebecca Downes Basement Of My Heart
Messed Up
58,816
Troumaca The Grace
My Love
58,082
Templeton Pek Wake Me Up
Slow Burn
52,574
Midnight Bonfires Lights Out
Exhale
47,185
The Wonder Stuff Circlesquare
Oh No!
45,683
Broken Witt Rebels Shake Me Down
All Worn out
31,270
Mistys Big Adventure Aggression
-
28,016
Lion Art & Friendly Fire Band Run Away
-
28,346
Under A Banner Some Stories
Numbers
24,821
The Twang New Love


24,655
Dumb Dive
Retina
22,835
Dissident Prophet Human 2.0
Like Lightning
22,285
ADO Play Dead
Waterfall
21,868
Juice Sugar
Acid Kids
18,174
Jet Pack Heat Of The Moment
Back To Life
17,566
Matthew Socci Pour Out On Zion
-
15,874
Victories At Sea Low
Up
15,060
Dead Sea Skulls I Wanna Buy A Rolex
Riding High
14,278
Erica Nockalls Cut Them Out
Goodbye Spider
13,034
Johnny Foreigner Stop Talking About Ghosts
Le Schwing
10,315

There's lots to pull out of this list, but it's worth singling out Call Me Unique who finally pops into the video chart. The big winner is her collaboration with Monkeyneck. It's another video shot on a micro-budget - somewhere halfway across Europe - but which hits its mark. 



The Rules

  • West Midlands acts still involved locally only. No tax exiles.
  • Real videos. No smartphone fan clips.
  • The two most-viewed videos uploaded in the past three years count.
  • No live videos unless specifically commissioned.
  • Only one version of a song.
  • Single songs only.
  • Video numbers were totted up at the end of this past week.

Health warning: YouTube numbers wobble.


They are inconsistent. And they can be fiddled. Up at the top of the chart, where the act is established, I don't think it matters much. Down at the bottom of the chart, where funds are tight, it's probably a non-starter too, because fiddling your numbers costs money. However, somewhere in the middle, where potential and dreams starts to turn into something which could be significant, is where there might well be hyping.


Performance indicators


Here's two more charts: first, the acts with the biggest increase in raw numbers over six months

ActIncrease
Lady Leshurr26,902,170
Jacob Banks1,593,847
Editors1,253,098
UB40503,629
Mahalia485,713
Oceans Ate Alaska389,884
Robert Plant274,592
Electric Swing Circus194,211
Malkit Singh153,829
Tom Aspaul106,226

Some of these results are startling, for different reasons, and not just because Lady Leshurr has invented a whole new music video model. Editors, Robert Plant and UB40 are continuing to score big through huge ongoing loyal fanbases worldwide. Tom Aspaul guests on a number of dance recordings, and it's a specific remix that has benefited Tom this time around. 


The Big Winners by Growth


And now the acts with the biggest relative increase in percentage terms

Act Percent
Lady Leshurr 814.29
Mahalia 605.82
God Damn 72.51
Superfood 52.81
Scott Matthews 50.30
Ekkah 49.37
UB40 46.88
Oceans Ate Alaska 38.02
Electric Swing Circus 34.91
Radio Riddler/Ali Campbell 34.82

Props go to Mahalia, who surfs elegantly into the higher reaches of the chart thanks to her work with Rudimental. But look at God Damn, Superfood and Ekkah. Good going!


So - happy analysing. As I have already said, I may have missed something. If I've missed you out, and you think your videos qualify, then jab me virtually in the ribs: email me using the box at the top of the page.  



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