Category: Sales

Nashville Star’s promising sixth season got underway last night (6/9) on a new network—NBC—and clearly separated itself from past iterations. Production values are noticeably improved, but in reality, it’s the show’s professional cast that turns straw into gold. The 90-minute weekly episodes are judged by industry icons Jewel, John Rich and Jeffrey Steele. Billy Ray [...]

If Award shows were really about awards, don’t you think they would spend more time on acceptance speeches? Duh! Of course. These extravaganzas are about entertainment, ratings, glamour and hopefully getting a few extra records sold in the process. So yes, there’s a winners list below for the record, but let’s talk about the entertainment [...]

Is it a new model for musicians and record labels, or simply a slick way to get the mobile phone brand out on the road? Verizon has created studio on wheels to tour the country, record tracks for artists and add the new music to its digital store offerings. Each month the wireless phone provider [...]

A perennial trend in the country format has been a stream of pop stars trying to cross over to country, with current examples including Jewel and Hootie and the Blowfish front man Darius Rucker. But a more interesting trend is developing on the country charts right now—a sudden influx of pop songs being covered by [...]

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) 2008 Convention will feature a two-day digital conference on May 6-7 in San Francisco. Digital NARM is designed to improve the bottom line for industry professionals who market or sell music in this rapidly-evolving marketplace.
Digital NARM will create discussion around the convergence of physical, digital, and mobile music [...]

SpiralFrog, the free, ad-supported music Web site, announced its Top Ten Most Downloaded Songs for the month of March.
1. Timbaland - “Apologize”
2. Soulja Boy Tell’em - “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”
3. Rihanna - “Don’t Stop the Music”
4. Snoop Dogg - “Sensual Seduction”
5. [...]

The Big Idea behind music subscription plans is that they may be an idea whose time has come. The debate over the benefits of music subscriptions vs. music purchases has heated up lately. A number of subscription services have been in the market for a time, including Rhapsody, Napster among others. iTunes, the world’s second [...]

The Washington Post profiles the music industry’s most opinionated blogger.

Friends,
Below is an essay I’ve written in response to a recent article by Jon Pareles in the NY Times about SXSW. I hope you’ll give it a read. I may well be off the mark on some of my thoughts, but they reflect what I—at least at this moment—believe to be true. [...]

PRESS RELEASE
Overall consumer music acquisition increased by 6 percent in 2007, but average annual per-capita music spending fell by 10 percent
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, February 26, 2008 — According to The NPD Group, a leading provider of consumer and retail information, the amount of music that consumers acquired in the U.S. increased by 6 percent [...]