What has the singers Janet Jackson, Yellowfella and King Sunny Ade have in common? Answer: 79pence

PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 17, 2008 – All their tracks available in the digital retail itunes store(UK) sells for 79pence regardless of the length. I was taken aback when I saw the length of some of Janet Jackson’s songs which were literally tracks that lasted only seconds. Don’t believe me? Go ahead take a look. Track 19 Bathroom Break (Interlude) lasts 40secs, Track 18 Spinin (Interlude) lasts 7 seconds and there is more wait for it Track 102 Memory (Interlude)  lasts only 4 seconds.

Yellowfella and King Sunny Ade are both Nigerian artists, yes they have that in common, but that’s not what am getting at, the pricing system does not allow artists to have a say, itunes charges what it likes per album or song.

I just happened to be browsing itunes a few days ago looking up one of my favourite musicians King Sunny Ade. I purchased several songs I know his songs can last as long as 10 minutes if not longer, as is typical of many Nigerian artists, however some of his songs seemed abridged. It would not make any sense to an artist to sell a song that last 10 minutes for 79pence whereas another artist was selling a song that lasted 40 seconds for the same amount of money. Or does it matter?

Yellowfella on the other hand has a typical time length for the average song 4minutes 47 seconds for his songs Promise and Glory. Comparing Janet Jackson and Yellowfella in terms of popularity is also interesting, Yellowfella is new on the music scene yet, I noticed this, that some of his songs streamed 65 last week and Janet Jackson had 39 streams. So who is the most popular? I got all this information from download.com.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Janet Jackson, Yellowfella and King Sunny Ade, it is the music business that can be baffling sometimes.

Yellowfella EP’s Promise and Trust can be purchased from emusic, napster, itunes, amazon and rhapsody. www.yellowfella.com