CHEATED? WERE THE REYTONS UNFAIRLY ROBBED OF A SECOND #1 ALBUM?
OR IS IT ABOUT TIME THAT THE INDUSTRY STOPPED PUSHING SO MANY ‘EDITIONS’?
So The Reytons didn’t gain a second no.1 album. Almost a year to the day that Sheffieds The Reytons achieved a monumental UK #1 selling album with What’s Rock n Roll, they find themselves so called ‘cheated’ from their latest effort.
Releasing the follow up Ballad of A Bystander just a year later, the popular indie quartet expected similar momentum but it didn’t quite get there. As a last attempt to bump sales the band released a limited ‘Leadmill’ edition of the album which would allow fans presale access to an intimate show at the legendary grassroots venue. And it worked, The Reytons beat James Arthur in sales by over 300 copies. Only these final editions can’t be counted due to an ‘industry complaint’. Therefore all 2200 final editions of Ballad of A Bystander were rejected by the Official Chart Industry and James Arthur would achieve this week’s UK #1 album.
Now usually, these kinda of sales are allowed and the industry have been using this tactic for years as an attempt to artificially push sales towards chart success. But, should we – the consumer – really be pushed by the bands, artists and their labels we admire to buy anymore than one copy of an album. Because, realistically that’s all we need, surely? Often these multiple editions of the same album are open for pre-order months before the physical album even exists.
Where do we draw the line between wanting to support music and feeling like we’re being exploited? As Johnny (Yerral) and the rest of the Reytons are setting up pop up shops and pleading with the same fans to buy multiple copies for their album, is this really how we consume music now? This is certainly not exclusive to The Reytons – and it’s only really due to their ‘no backing’ status that the Sony have lodged said complaint. Should there be a crackdown on these sort of tactics AFTER the album is released? If we want to play fair then surely this needs to be curbed industry wide.
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