SPOTIFY getting on a playlist key to profit

Also spotted a useful quote from Lily Allen on how it's difficult to make money from music - it's more about branding deals, endorsements.

Lily Allen: ‘We need to fight back against these forces’

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/06/we-need-to-fight-back-against-forces-lily-allen

A useful quote from a veteran UK Indie label boss:

If you get on the right Spotify playlist, it could pay for your album. My friend Ian who runs How Does It Feel to Be Loved has a band call Haiku Salut – they were on a Spotify playlist and it made them a load of money. It’s different from just sending a record to NME. There’s no longer one source that has that single power those magazine had. That’s possibly a good thing, but I feel sorry for a lot of music writers who are expected to provide content for free.

Guardian: Bed bugs, Brexit and goodbyes: 20 years of indie, as told by Fortuna Pop! 

Guardian: 'They could destroy the album': how Spotify's playlists have changed music for ever.

Since posting this I keep seeing more and more references to the same point, the power of the Spotify playlist - as I write (5.4.18) Spotify has just launched on the stock market leading to more analysis of its role, power and future. Like Amazon, its in a race against time to establish such a huge market lead that it has huge power over labels when striking deals over payments/royalties.

I spotted on Facebook that a Marillion/Fish fangroup (All the best freaks are here) had a thread about Fish (singer) pulling all his albums bar one (which he's touring next year) off Spotify, and someone mentioned a Fish Facebook blog I'd forgotten about - so here it is!

...

CONVERGENCE NME goes free, ezine goes to print edition

Curious overlapping of contradictory events; one of the most iconic UK music magazines is to go freesheet (given away) to assist its expansion into radio, TV and web platforms ... while the ezine/website I read of this on (via following it on Facebook) is to launch a print edition!

http://louderthanwar.com/nme-to-go-free-thoughts/#.VZp1oCdUYX4.twitter

Lists of Best/Worst Videos Ever Made

Lady Gaga features in both worst + best lists...

If seeking inspiration, why not learn from the best, or apply the lessons from the worst?
Here's a few lists, mainly subjective of course, and reflecting the audience of the site/publication, which may help you identify some useful vids to investigate further - or simply to browse and to come up with a list of what features make for a truly popular/great/awful music video.
If you look closely, you'll find certain directors appear repeatedly: Spike Jonze, Anton Corbijn, Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry prominent amongst these.
If you've any lists you can recommend (or have made your own), add a link as a comment.

Some Useful Sites

RadarMusic: acts/labels actively seek out video-makers

There are many links lists on this blog, so rather than add to these, here's a few useful sites I've noticed recently:
For UK chart archives, The Official Charts Company offers a dropdown list by year, which then displays weekly clickable charts;
Although its for the US Billboard and only the year's top 20, this site is superb, with videos and iTunes links for each beside each single.
Odd URL (songs-old.com), but you get a random vid loaded up if you click on the homepage (likewise the homepage for music-old.com!). If you refresh the page a fresh random selection is made.

Top 40 vids right here;

The MTV Videos page is ... awful!