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HITS Daily Double

A few videos get nearly all the views

ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE: During a presentation at Digital Music Forum East in New York on Thursday, BigChampagne CEO Eric Garland trotted out stats showing an incredibly hit-driven YouTube—despite the presence of nearly every music video imaginable, Digital Music News notes. "Only a handful of songs are commanding most of the attention," said Garland. "A handful of 'haves' are going to command most of the revenue." And get this: according to Garland, there’s an inverse relationship between streams and downloads. "People play what they don't buy, and buy what they don't play," he pointed out. Garland also revealed that 1,000 streams generally translates into about $1 of revenue, an RPM (revenue per 1,000) ratio that is incredibly difficult to scale. This is all happening as YouTube cements its status as the most important on-demand music platform in the U.S. "More people are listening to services like YouTube than they are their own libraries," Garland continued. "And that is a trend that's happening fast." (2/25a)