Innholdsfortegnelse for January 12, 2013 i Billboard Magazine

It’s a new year. Irving Azoff is tweeting again, and Live Nation Entertainment is proceeding without the charismatic artist manager legend as chairman Citing the “smothering” constraints of operating within a public company, Azoff resigned abruptly on New Year’s Eve so he could take advantage of 2012 tax rates while uncertainty still prevailed regarding the fiscal cliff. But uncertainties about the future of Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest concert promoter, ticketing company (Ticketmaster) and management company (Artist Nation, formerly the Azoff-steered Front Line Management Group) were quickly assuaged when Live Nation shares closed up 4% on Wall Street when the market opened Jan. 2. Its stock price closed at $9.99, up by 1.3%, on Jan. 4. And Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, largely credited with the vision of the…

The first time Chrysler debuted its “Imported from Detroit” tag line, it was at the end of a cinematic Super Bowl spot featuring music and an on-camera appearance by Eminem. But for its latest ode to the Motor City, Chrysler is both paying homage to an iconic record executive and embarking on a first-of-its-kind marketing partnership in the process. A new Chrysler TV campaign stars legendary Motown founder Berry Gordy, who also happens to be the co-producer and main character of “Motown: The Musical,” debuting on Broadway in April (previews begin March 11). The spot from Chrysler ad agency Wieden ’ Kennedy, titled “Who We Are,” showcases Gordy in a 2013 Chrysler 300 Motown Edition, a limited-edition sedan that comes equipped with 100 preloaded tracks from the Motown catalog. (Fittingly,…

It’s been a hectic year for Facebook, which spent $1 billion buying Instagram in April, then raised $16 billion from its initial public offering a month later. In October, it also recorded more than 1 billion active users per month. That’s one out of seven people on the planet. About two dozen music applications came along for the wild ride—not that many, considering that there are hundreds of thousands of apps on Facebook. Most have benefitted from the organic growth of Facebook’s own user base. For example, Deezer’s Facebook user base tripled in 2012. Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio monthly active users from Facebook grew by a factor of 30. And BandPage’s shares tripled in the fall. But it’s also been a bumpy ride for some who struggled to keep up with…

SPOTIFY NOW ON ROKU Spotify is now available on roku, the popular set-top box that streams audio and video to TVs via the Internet. Although roku is known more for video–Netflix is its No. 1 app–it also has apps by Pandora, rdio, TuneIn, Slacker and Mog. The Spotify app is available on roku 2 players and the roku Streaming Stick, and will soon be available on roku HD and roku LT players in the united States and united Kingdom. However, this offer is for paying customers, not users of the free, ad-supported service. roku boxes start at $49.99 in the united States for the roku LT. CHRISTMAS HEATS UP KINDLE SALES In December, Amazon’s two Android-powered tablets, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire, and its two e-readers, Kindle Paperwhite and…

UNIVISION TAPS MAN MADE MUSIC Univision has tapped sonic branding firm Man Made Music to create a new musical identity for the Hispanic media company to debut this month. Man Made’s sonic identity for the brand includes creating a main Univision theme and music branding packages for sports, telenovelas and movie programming. New music will be used on Univision’s multimedia platforms, including Univision Network, UniMás Network and Univision Radio. The sonic rebranding follows the recent debut of the company’s new logo, representing Univision, the leading U.S. network for Latinos, as the “Hispanic heartbeat of America.” —Judy Cantor-Navas SONY MASTERWORK BOWS BAJO FONDO TANGO CLUB SONG The first single off Sony Masterwork’s anticipated album by Bajo Fondo Tango Club, the group led by Grammy and Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla, has been…

DURING THE FINAL WEEK OF 2012, THE MOST RECENT “american idol” champion, Phillip Phillips, saw his debut album cross the half-million sold mark. it occurred at a rare moment of rest for Phillips, who was enjoying his first break after a ninemonth whirl of activity. Phillips’The World From the Side of the Moon has sold 533,000 copies in six weeks, according to nielsen soundscan, making it the fastest-selling debut from an “idol” winner since the selftitled debut from season-seven champ David cook sold 811,000 copies in the same time span in 2008. Where Phillips stands alone is in the success of a single first performed on the show. his coronation song, “home,” written by Drew Pearson and greg holden, has delivered at a level unlike any other track performed by…

Last year at this time there was a sliver of sunshine emanating from the year-end numbers: album sales posted their first gain since 2004, a 1.4% increase. the bad news from the 2012 tallies: the sunshine is gone. the good news: it hasn’t been replaced by heavy storms and turbulent destruction. Album sales fell 4.4% in 2012, a drop that isn’t harrowing, considering the four years of double-digit declines the United states experienced from 2006 to 2010. and there were still bright spots in the U.s. music industry, including a continued healthy growth of digital track sales that indicates a steady long-term turnaround for the business, according to Nielsen soundscan’s year-end tally. Digital continues to ascend, with download stores finally catapulting to be king of the hill in album sales,…

Shinin’ light: R&B heavy hitter Rita Ora has announced a U.K. tour following a whirlwind 2012 for the budding talent, which included a recent “X Factor” performance. Booked by Creative Artists Agency, Ora will hit the Manchester Academy (Jan. 28), Glasgow Academy (Jan. 30) and Shepherd’s Bush Empire in london (Feb. 5-6) before closing at the O2 Academy in Leeds, England (Feb. 13). Iggy Azalea will continue her supporting role for Ora following the pair’s successful U.S. dates last year . . . Open road: Legendary singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot has announced a North American tour following his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this summer. Dubbed the 50 Years on the Carefree Highway tour, the run will include stops at the Wells Fargo Center in Santa rosa, Calif. (March…

In 2006, British singer Conor Maynard began uploading cover videos to his YouTube channel. The musician, who hails from Brighton, offered soulful versions of everything from Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” to Rihanna’s “Only Girl (In the World).” (The latter currently has more than 9 million views.) But he never meant to transition to an actual pop artist himself. “When I first started it was really just a hobby,” Maynard says. “And I think that’s what made it such an incredible shock when it really started to blow up.” The popular cover tunes earned Maynard a label deal with EMI’s Parlophone in 2009 and the attention of artists like Ne-Yo and Pharrell Williams. Maynard recorded his debut album, Contrast, over two years with a slew of producers around the world,…

Trinidad James is the proverbial hip-hop overnight success story. In a matter of months, the 25-year-old neophyte went from slinging streetwear at a boutique in his hometown of Atlanta to inking a deal with Def Jam Recordings, largely based on the popularity of “All Gold Everything,” a single from his debut mixtape, Don’t Be S.A.F.E. The song bowed at No. 47 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart last year with help from its eye-popping viral video, which at press time had garnered 3.2 million YouTube views since Vevo posted it exclusively on Nov. 30. (That’s in addition to the 6 million-plus views the clip had already amassed via WorldStarHipHop and James’ own YouTube page.) The track is now at No. 23 on the chart. James’ trademark flamboyance shines against a…

Les MisŽrables isn’t the only universal soundtrack making a big splash in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 this week. The a capella soundtrack to “Pitch Perfect” surges to No. 10 with sales of 58,000 copies (according to Nielsen soundscan), its best sales week yet, following the film’s Dec. 18 release to DVD and home entertainment. Total sales for the soundtrack now total 212,000—42% of which are from the last two weeks alone. Though strong exposure at retail for the movie has kept the album top of mind for consumers, the sales boost was likely partly fueled by a $6.99 discount for the standard edition on iTunes. universal Music Enterprises also issued a premium-priced deluxe edition featuring four bonus tracks the same day the DVD dropped. Further aiding soundtrack…

WORLD LEADERS >>As Celtic Woman’s Home for Christmas holds at no. 1 on World Albums for a 12th straight week, the act’s cumulative weeks atop the list rise to 200. The quartet further distances itself from Andrea bocelli, with 122 frames at no. 1. OLD IS NEW AGAIN >>Some of the biggest hits of 2012 make a comeback this week on the billboard Hot 100—thanks to year-end countdown shows and media buzz—including Carly rae Jepsen’s “Call me maybe” (43-27; see page 38). SWIFT SIZZLES >>Taylor Swift’s “i Knew You Were Trouble” is one of a record 48 songs to sell 100,000 downloads on the Hot Digital Songs chart this week. in the post-Christmas frame, “Trouble” moved 582,000, according to nielsen SoundScan. CHART BEAT >>Although rod Stewart’s “let it Snow, let…

www.bilboard.biz >>>PATTI PAGE DEAD AT 85 patti page, the topselling female singer of the 1950s who made her mark with the hits “tennessee Waltz” and “(how Much is that) doggie in the Window,” died Jan. 1 in her california home. page was a force on billboard’s charts from the late 1940s through the early 1980s, and charted top 10 pop hits in nearly every year of the ’50s. She will receive a posthumous lifetime achievement award at next month’s grammy awards. >>>TIËSTO MOVES TO RED LIGHT tiësto has joined red light Management under its founder, coran capshaw. the shift makes the dutch dj/producer the first major edM artist to link up with a major manager from outside the genre. it also ends long-time management relationship with complete control, the brooklyn-based…

The tracks that constitute the first soundtrack for HBO’s “Girls,” due Jan. 8 on Fueled by Ramen/Atlantic, reflect the modern bohemian environs that surround the show’s quartet of young New Yorkers. Songs are culled from the first season and the second, which begins Jan. 13, and as expected, the second season starts with plenty of indie rock, hip-hop, club music and Michael Penn’s gentle acoustic score. More mainstream music, though, is on the way. “Somet imes I struggle with what fans want to hear,” says Aperture Music’s Manish Raval, who supervises the show’s music with his partner Tom Wolfe. “In season two you’ll find we use a lot of very mainstream music in very big spots, the antithesis of the indie-rock placements. I felt a responsibility to find cool music.…

Consumer electronics in recent years have become more than just high-powered circuitry. They’re also about the content. That means media, which used to play a supporting role as a sort of Vanna White showing off the features of the latest gadgetry, has become a rock star in its own right. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, you will be just as likely to find examples of devices designed specifically around the characteristics of the media they transmit, as the other way around. In other words, the best technology will often be the items that can make themselves disappear and put the content front and center. Hardware specs, however, remain quite relevant. The art of making consumer electronics transparent, elegant and dead simple is much harder than…

Pepsi has long associated itself with major, international music acts. But as part of its new global “Live for Now” platform, the soft drink giant is expanding its direction, embracing not just the mega stars, but also those on the rise who fit with the brand’s image. The newest addition to the Pepsi roster is Mexican DJ collective 3ballMty, the trio that popularized the “tribal Guarachero” sound with its hit “Inténtalo.” Its debut album of the same name on Universal Music Latin Entertainment was the top-selling regional Mexican album of the year on Billboard’s year-end charts and the thirdbest-selling Latin album overall. Beginning in early 2013, the group—comprising 20-yearolds erick rinc”, alberto presenda (aka dj otto) and sergio zavala (dj sheeqo beat)—will be the face of Pepsi in a campaign…

Malcolm Leo needs $700,000 to turn two-and-a-half hours of footage of Jerry Garcia into a documentary. He already has $300,000 committed to the project, leaving $400,000 to go—figuring about half of the total funds will go to historical film and music rights that the Garcia estate doesn’t control. It’s amazing that Garcia’s story has gone untold, especially when you consider that documentarians have tackled nearly every other colorful icon of the 1960s and 1970s—Bob Dylan, the Doors, Bob Marley. Leo, who filmed Garcia during one extraordinarily lucid afternoon in 1987, started spreading word about his plans for the film a year ago. Having already attempted an overly ambitious crowd-funding effort, he’s now hoping 12 months of publicity will get some Deadheads with deep pockets to join the cause. Distributors have…

THE THREE DOMINANT SINGING COMPETITIONS on TV will have new faces to welcome in their next editions. Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban step in as judges on “American Idol” beginning Jan. 16. Shakira and Usher climb into giant red chairs at NBC’s “The Voice” on March 25. And, come fall, Simon Cowell will have two new faces to replace Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Britney Spears at “The X Factor” on Fox. With so many shakeups, will the shows look any different, see ratings improve or produce music stars? “Idol” opens the season fighting a perception war. It attracted an average audience of 17.2 million viewers during its 11th season last year, but episodes were down by as much as 25% in the ratings, according to Nielsen data. Importantly…

José James made his national TV debut Dec. 18 on “Conan,” performing the single “Trouble” from his forthcoming album, No Beginning No End. Before the performance, Don Was, head of EMI-owned Blue Note Records, made a familiar trip to the show’s California studio to offer some words of encouragement to his newly signed star. “He shows up and says, ‘You’re gonna have a great time—I just played “Conan” last week,’” says James, referring to Was’ Dec. 14 performance on bass behind Ryan Adams. “He picks up the bass, starts jamming backstage and I’m like, ‘This is the president of my label—that’s fucking awesome.’” The pairing of James and Was has been an ideal fit ever since the former signed to Blue Note last May. James, a 34-year-old singer/songwriter previously signed…

On their eighth album, Dropkick Murphys are f inal ly ready to be a radio band. The Boston-based group, which fuses elements of punk, folk and Celtic music, will release Signed and Sealed in Blood on Jan. 8 via its own label Born ’ Bred, which is handled by ADA Label Services, and it’s the band’s first release to garner significant radio play. The album, a follow-up to 2011’s Going Out in Style, which bowed at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, represents a combined promotional effort between ADA and the group’s new manager, Jeff Castelaz, the founder of Cast Management and president of Elektra Records. “We started setting up the record a year ago,” Castelaz says. “It was all about engaging their fan base around the world, which is…

JAZZ ENRICO RAVA & THE PM JAZZ LAB Rava on the Dance Floor Producer:Manfred Eicher ECM Records Release Date:Jan. 8 Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava takes a collection of Michael Jackson tunes out for a spin with a 12-piece ensemble that treats them as free-jazz launch pads, marching band themes and straight-forward instrumentals. Rava takes lesser-known tracks—like “Speechless” and “Little Susie”—into ragged territory Jackson aficionados might consider foreign. The arrangements of Mauro Ottolini emphasize the explosiveness within the melodies, drawing equal power from collective improvisation and detailed brass-heavy thematic work. Guitarist Marcello Giannini pushes Jackson’s songs into a rock’n’roll realm when he gets a chance. For his part, Rava’s playing is a bit denser than usual. He fills the aural space, and it works as a challenge to saxophonists Daniele Tittarelli…

Miguel’s “Adorn” extends its run for the longest command on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, as it spends a 17th week at No. 1. Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You” had held the prior mark— 15 weeks at the summit—for almost seven years. “Adorn” is Miguel’s third leader on the list. He first was “Sure Thing” on the May 28, 2011, chart. That was followed by Wale’s “Lotus Flower Bomb,” on which Miguel was featured; it was No. 1 for five weeks beginning Dec. 31, 2011. Notably, of the 14 songs to log at least 11 weeks atop R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, all but one are pure R&B. The lone rap track in the elite group is DJ Khaled’s “I’m on One,” featuring Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, which ruled for 11…

>>>TWENTY ONE PILOTS LAND AT ALTERNATIVE after scoring breakout success with fun. during the past year, roadrunner is aiming for similar acclaim with alternative pop duo Twenty one Pilots. The pair (Tyler Joseph and josh Dun) makes its chart debut as “Holding on to you” enters alternative at No. 38. The song, led by 30 plays each at WBRU Providence, R.I., and WXXJ Jacksonville, Fla., during the Dec. 24-30 Nielsen BDs tracking week, introduces the act’s Jan. 8 album Vessel. among the group’s live dates is WrFF Philadelphia’s Winter jam with Tegan ’ Sara (jan. 26). >>>‘LIVES’ BEGINS FOR MILLER Unsigned singer/rapper jake Miller, 20, is seeking to translate online interest to an even wider reach. The Florida native, who is handled by jason Derülo’s manager Frank Harris, has garnered…

6 A one-day, $1.99 Gold Box promotion at Amazon MP3 helps the album yield its secondbiggest sales frame, as it sold 70,000 for the week (up 130%). No surprise: Downloads accounted for 88% of the effort’s sales. 9 A low iTunes price ($7.99), steady growth for single “Ho Hey” (No. 3 on Mainstream Top 40) and download gift card redemptions aid set’s 10% sales gain. It’s the title’s highest rank and best sales week yet: 61,000. 10 With Les Miserables and Pitch Perfect in the top 10 this week, it’s the first time we’ve had a pair of soundtracks in the region since the Dec. 3, 2011, tally (Glee: The Music, the Christmas Album Volume 2 at No. 6 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 at No. 8).…

Azoff comes. azoff goes. Michael rapino sticks to the plan. though less flamboyant and certainly more press-shy than recently exited live nation entertainment chairman irving azoff, ceo rapino has shown staying power and resolve since being named head of the world’s largest promoter, emerging from relative anonymity to a spotlight that only gets brighter with azoff’s departure. days before azoff resigned, rapino re-upped for another five years. The focus to a large degree shifted from rapino to azoff when live nation merged with ticketmaster and azoff’s front line Management group nearly three years ago, but few could argue that the genesis of the vision that is the live nation business model belongs to rapino. the success of that model remains to be seen, as live nation has yet to show…

Digital track sales set a single-week record of 55.7 million units sold during Christmas week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, beating the previous record of 47.7 million set the week ending Dec. 28, 2008. Digital sales experienced the typical post-Christmas bounce. When viewed against the same week in 2011, the final week of the year— ending Dec. 30, 2012—seemed to show big gains over the final week of 2011. But there’s a catch. The final week of 2012, as measured by SoundScan, included Christmas Day and all the purchases that come with it. The prior Christmas Day, a Sunday, fell on the last day of the second-to-last week of the year. In other words, a year-to-year comparison doesn’t analyze weeks that both include Christmas Day. When viewed within a longer time…

Digital music has become a paradox: The more music can be found online, the more time it takes to find it. The concept of the “celestial jukebox,” a single source for all the world’s music, is about simplicity. In reality, the jukebox is a mess—and just the type of problem bright programmers need to fix. The term “celestial jukebox” is credited to law professor Paul Goldstein. Mentioned in the title of his 1994 book, “Copyright’s Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox,” the term refers to a person’s ability to summon “a vast range of films, sound recordings and printed material” through packets of zeros and ones “linked by cable, fiber optics and telephone wires.” The term “heavenly jukebox” appeared in the September 2000 Atlantic Monthly article of the same…

Justin Bieber and Bob Dylan have done it. Up next is One Direction, which is heading to Mexico in 2013. And if its global appeal is any indication, it will sell plenty of tickets in a country where venue competition is growing. While such veteran Latin artists as regional Mexican singer Vicente Fernández, Spanish pop balladeer Alejandro Sanz and songstress Gloria Trevi dominate the concert scene in Mexico, the new slate of venues is appealing to international promoters lured by more options, from stateof-the-art facilities with superior sound quality to easily adaptable setups for smaller to bigger-sized crowds. According to gross rankings compiled from Billboard Boxscore reported from Nov. 9, 2011, through Nov. 13, 2012, the top 10 venues with capacities from 5,001 to 10,000 include Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional—ranking…

American Idol,” heading into its 12th season on Fox, began taping its Hollywood Week segments less than two weeks before Christmas. That’s Jimmy Iovine’s cue to step in and add on-air duties to his day job as chairman of Interscope Geffen A’M, offering blunt appraisals of the contestants’ abilities and interpretations. Unlike the new judging panel of Mariah Carey, Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj plus holdover Randy Jackson, Iovine stays away from the cattle-call auditions. “I have to give it up for the judges—guessing if anyone is any good by hearing them sing a cappella is too tough. I need to hear them with a band—or at least a piano,” he says. The last two seasons have seen Iovine become the recordlabel talisman for “Idol,” an element that existed only…

MACKLEMORE AND HIS PRODUCER PARTNER RYAN Lewis call their own shots. During the past year, the Seattle-based hip-hop duo independently skyrocketed to fame on the strength of rigorous touring, social-media savvy and word-of-mouth marketing, all without major-label aid. Upon releasing their debut, The Heist, in October, the album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2 with 78,000 copies sold and has moved 213,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Following a sold-out 50-date tour through December, the duo is now applying its independent ethos to radio to build lead single “Thrift Shop,” a horn-festooned anthem celebrating fashionable frugality, to unexpected heights. The self-directed video for the track hit YouTube on Aug. 29 and has since racked up almost 42 million views. Backed by radiopromotion muscle from Alternative Distribution Alliance…

Globe-trotting super-dj/producer afrojack is only 25, but the netherlands native has already reached incredible milestones in his career. He has a massive international hit, the multiplatinum “Give me everything” with Pitbull and ne-yo, which notched him both producer and artist credits, and brought his party-ready “dutch house” sound to the masses. He came up under the wing of david Guetta and has cowritten for beyoncé and co-produced for Chris brown. He shepherds his own flock of buzz-heavy edm talent, including r3Hab and Shermanology. but, above all, afrojack has developed his own sense of right, releasing his music on his own terms, primarily through his Wall recordings. Here, he defends his pop collaborations (he produced four tracks on Pitbull’s new Global Warming) and shoots down deadmau5’s controversial “press play” position that…

Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack says the band has “always wanted to do something that felt a little bigger than just a rock record.” So how’s this for big: a fullfil concept album, Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones, that comes with a companion film? Due Jan. 8, the 19-track set chronicles a group of rebels, the titular Wild Ones, battling an Orwellian autocracy. Over blazing prog-styled metal like the first single, “In the End,” and a few change-of-pace power ballads, including “Done for You” and “Lost It All,” the narrative is loose, but the message stays in the forefront. “If you listen to what [the album] sounds like from beginning to end, that really tells the story more than the lyrics,” Biersack says. Of course,…

DANCE SANTIGOLD Girls (2:18) Producers: Switch, Trooko Writers: S. White, D. Taylor, J. Penalva Publishers: Downtown Music Publishing, Little Jerk, Werd Music (ASCAP) Fueled by Ramen HBO’s “Girls” didn’t have an official theme song for its breakthrough debut season, so leave it to Santigold to pick up the slack. As the lead single to the show’s first-season companion soundtrack, “Girls” is an ode to “trying to make ends meet,” full of schoolyard chants set atop a skittish hip-hop beat not unlike the sounds viewers would hear at a warehouse party in the show itself. Although many of the lines could have been written by the show’s creator/star, Lena Dunham (“And in the end we are young, so we get away with it”), the rapid-fire delivery boasts Santigold’s signature style. In…

In the universe of potential sponsors for EDM artists, beauty brands don’t really pop. For one, most DJs are men, and therefore make better fits for soft drinks, technology and alcohol. Calvin Harris (Pepsi), Diplo (BlackBerry), Avicii (Budweiser) and Swedish House Mafia (Absolut) have all had success with such partners. But aside from that, female DJs are, well, DJs. Drugstore-brand beauty product advertising usually calls for stars with a certain mass appeal or model-like looks—not quirky party people whose job requires them to stay out all night. But that was before EDM became the sound of a new generation, and before CoverGirl met Nervo. The Procter ’ Gamble beauty brand signed the Australian sister duo to a significant deal that includes wide print and TV campaigns, events, social content and…

Closing out the f inal sales tracking week of 2012, Taylor Swift’Red spends a seventh nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In the sales week ending Dec. 30, 2012—the last frame of the year— the Big Machine Records album sold 241,000 copies (down 12%), according to Nielsen SoundScan. Of Red’ sales last week, 54% were downloads. That number isn’t too surprising, since Amazon MP3 discounted the title to $1.99 as part of a Gold Box promot ion on Dec. 24. Sources suggest that the sales from just Amazon MP3 on that day alone amounted to nearly 30% of the album’s entire week—and 54% of its download sales. (Discounted sales of Red count toward its weekly total because Red has been avai lable for more than four weeks.…

After performing a tribute to Whitney Houston during VH1’s Divas concert at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium (Dec. 16), JORDIN SPARKS hosted the show’s official afterparty to benefit VH1 Save the Music Foundation. Sporting a watch by Raymond Weil—one of the event’s sponsors—Sparks spends quality time with VH1 Save the Music Foundation VP/executive director PAUL COTHRAN. 1 MORE THAN 100 GUESTS from the British music industry gathered at London’s Langham Hotel on Dec. 7 to help former Billboard International editor in chief and Motown aficionado ADAM WHITE celebrate his retirement from Universal Music Group International as VP of communications. During the send-off, White (left) received a mock-up of a Billboard cover from former boss and UMGI COO MAX HOLE. PHOTO: TONY ATTILLE 2 P!NK PERSONIFIED THE “POWER OF PINK” —the Saint…