Is André Rieu bigger than the Rolling Stones?November 1, 2008somehow become our biggest selling musical artist. Stephen Ellis explains how.
Not quite, but schmaltz king Andre Rieu has
TWO years ago, few in Australia had heard of Andre Rieu. In 2006, the audience for this flamboyant violinist comprised late-night viewers watching old concert footage on pay television. Andre Rieu's audience is one still reached via the mainstream media TV, radio and newspapers, rather than the internet.
His popularity gained momentum last year, helped by flying visits to a couple of shopping centres. Now he's coming to a football stadium near you.Rieu, a 59 year old Dutchman, has improbably risen from relative obscurity to become Australia's top-selling musical artist this decade.
Known for easy-listening classical fare and extravagant live shows, Rieu has moved a startling 1.7 million CDs and DVDs in the local market since the beginning of 2007.
In an era when the recorded music industry has to battle legal and illegal downloads for every high-margin disc sale, and million-selling artists are getting rarer everywhere (particularly in less-popular genres such as classical music and midsized markets such as Australia), Rieu's local success is a triumph for his label, Universal Music. (continued)
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