And So How Many Monkeys To Write A Country-Western Hit?

I know I promised the next post would be about whether DCA could be fixed or not, but there's something I saw in Friday's news that I just had to comment on:  Disney's much maligned Buena Vista Music Group won the top two spots on this week's Billboard album charts.  Rascal Flatts, a country group on the Lyric label, was the #1 album in the U.S., followed by Hillary Duff's latest release at #2.

I know I'm supposed to be impressed by this - things are improving in Disney's music group.  I mean, even the Hollywood Records label - there's bunch of "labels", basically brands, that are part of Buena Vista Music, by the way - is doing better, with groups like Breaking Benjamin and others.  Yeah, I haven't heard of them either, but, hey, I'm old.  And Hollywood Records has even made a profit (albeit a small one) in the last two years after many years of losing money.  So things are getting better there.

On the other hand, Buena Vista Music is a small player in the U.S. music industry.  The Wall Street Journal says that B.V. has a 2.43% unit share of the U.S. market so far this year.  That means they're still an awfully small player.  So is Buena Vista Music Group doing better than it has been?  Absolutely.  Is having the #1 and #2 albums a good thing?  Of course.

But I guess I still see Disney having the top 2 albums as being like the concept of putting a million monkeys with typewriters in room and just out of sheer randomness one of them will write the works of Shakespeare.  If it happens once, it's a fluke.  If it happens again and again, well, then you know they're on to something.  Same thing here:  if Disney and Buena Vista Music can do it again in the near future, then I'll really be impressed that they are making progress.