Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2, 2013 i Billboard Magazine

LURING LIONEL coran capshaw’ Red Light Management has added yet another top-level client: Lionel Richie, who left Michael Richardson. The ’80s icon proved he’s still got gunpowder left in the barrel after topping the Billboard 200 last year with the certified-platinum Tuskegee. RLM, which signed superstar DJ Tiesto earlier this year, is the largest independent management firm in the world. ONE BAD APPLE Apple set a new iTunes record but missed Wall Street analysts’ expectations when it released earnings on Jan. 23. Company shares were down 12% at press time despite it posting record quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion in fourth-quarter 2012 (Apple’s first fiscal quarter). ITunes revenue in the fourth quarter was $2.1 billion, up from $1.7 billion in the same…

President, Jampol Artist Management As manager of the estates for the Doors, Janis Joplin, Rick James, Henry Mancini, Otis Redding and Peter Tosh, Jef Jampol has a busy schedule for someone whose client roster is largely deceased. He’s based in Beverly Hills. 9.00 AM My day started with a call with the lawyers for a Janis Joplin documentary we’re putting together. We’re in production now. It’s being produced by me, Alex Gibney and Susan Lacy at “American Masters.” Amy Berg is directing—Amy just directed the documentary on the West Memphis Three. So we’re trying to make sure we can make it in time for August or September. 10.00 AM We had a meeting in the office with the Mancini family, which is Ginny, Henry’s widow; Monica and Felice, his daughters;…

Home Shopping Network is taking its Live music division on the road with a Las Vegas residency that it hopes will result in more viewers and raise the profile of the cable shopping channel. HSN Live is partnering with the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino to host concerts at the venue beginning Feb. 8 with Michael Bolton, who will debut his new studio album, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough: A Tribute to Hitsville U.S.A. Due Feb. 26 on Bolton’s Universal EMI-distributed Montaigne Records, the 10-track album features such Motown classics as “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (with Kelly Rowland), “Tracks of My Tears” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” (with Melanie Fiona). Onstage at the 1,800-seat Venetian Theatre, Bolton will be joined by Fiona and other special guests including Mo-…

RECORD COMPANIES After a nearly 30-year run at iMg Artists, elizabeth Sobol (right) has accepted an ofer from Universal Music Group International chairman/CEO Max Hole to become president/CEO of decca label group USA, where she’ll oversee deutsche grammophon, decca and Mercury classics. “I have such admiration for [Hole’s] major efort to strengthen the leadership of the classical side around the world,” Sobol says. Based in New York and beginning April 15, her frst priority will be new artist signings, but in her frst label role, Sobol isn’t discouraged by the supposed decline of the classical music market. “There’s a tremendous amount of vitality in the live musicmaking side of the business,” she says. “I’m looking forward to seeing how to marry the live with the recorded in a much tighter…

From performing rights to piracy, a number of issues that directly or indirectly touch the music industry will arise in Washington, D.C., in 2013. The highest-profle topic, for all intents and purposes is about webcasting royalties. The Internet Radio Fairness Act, introduced last year, sparked a strong PR battle between its supporters, including Pandora and Clear Channel, and its opponents, mainly labels and artists. The issue took on an even greater importance for Pandora earlier this month when it was revealed that it’ll pay a 25% rate increase with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Increases from other publishers could follow. The IRFA expired at the end of the 113th Congress on Jan. 3, but the battle over webcasting rates is hardly over. D.C. insiders say to expect some sort of follow-up to…

Scott Borchetta President/CEO, Big Machine Label Group What did you wake up thinking about this morning? The next Band Perry single. We’re in the middle of recording and there are two songs we’re going back and forth on. We choose a single so painstakingly because it literally takes up as much as a half-year or more of our artist’s life. Gut is still the most important metric we use for making that choice. You can’t let the creative vision get bought. You have to hold true to that. Describe a lesson you learned from a failure. You have to let artists learn from experience and you have to honor their vision. If I believe in an artist, I’ve got to let them do what they do even if I think…

While fying on private planes is a routine part of life for artists and executives, the deaths of music stars in airplane accidents have been frequent enough to merit their own tragic chapter of music lore. Most recently, the fatal crash of a Learjet carrying regional Mexican singer Jenni Rivera and members of her entourage after a concert in Mexico quickly brought to light questions about the plane’s operator that gave chillingly literal meaning to the description of a company as “fly by night.” “This is a cautionary tale,” says aviation expert Mark Schmaltz, who has been hired by lawyers in a suit brought by the families of those who perished onboard with Rivera against the company that owned the plane, its previous owner and Jenni Rivera Enterprises. Schmaltz, a…

10 upcoming albums set to dominate the EDM universe and beyond 1. AFROJACK, TBD, SUMMER Late last year Afrojack was hinting at a double album, but now he’s fairly certain that his debut will go long. “I’ve finished a lot of actual songs that are radio dance music,” says the DJ/producer, born Nick van de Wall. “It’s lots of fun. It connects to a lot of people. So I’m going to do one CD with songs and one with pure club tracks—like radio Afrojack and club Afrojack.” Slated for summer, the collection may well feature collaborations with Will.i.am, Havana Brown or Shakira—just a few of the artists with whom Afrojack has recently spent studio time. But count on this: The debut from the producer who perfectly melded Dutch house and…

Bon Jovi’s upcoming Because We Can tour will feature more than 1,000 tickets in each market priced for less than $20 before service fees. The low-cost seats are part of a multitiered strategy engineered to both optimize revenue and stage a broadly inclusive, affordable event with as many as seven price points available. § Ticket prices remain the most controversial aspect of the concert business, with fans, promoters, artists, agents, venues and managers all publicly professing concern about the price of attending a live show. The general consensus is that prices for the average tour doubled in the decades before and after the new millennium, while the price for most of the touring elite left the glass ceiling in pieces years ago. Tickets to “special” concerts like Paul McCartney, Madonna…

As the band prepares to release its fourth album, Temper Temper (RCA), on Feb. 12, British metal quartet Bullet for My Valentine stands at a crossroads. The group’s last record, 2010’s Fever, peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, selling 324,000 copies in the United States alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The band’s two previous eforts, Scream, Aim, Fire (2008) and Poison (2005), sold more than 1 million units combined on this side of the Atlantic. A big performance from Temper Temper could set BFMV on the path to headbanging success and longevity—which makes it all the more surprising that the band decided to write the whole thing on the spot while on the clock in the studio. “We just went into the studio and wrote and recorded as…

James Steele, pd, Sinclair Telecable alternative WrOX, Norfolk, Va. Twenty One pilots’ “Migraine” is just one of the band’s songs that speak of internal struggles, self-doubt and the fear of being alone. It’s all mixed seamlessly with themes of perseverance and breaking through the struggle. “Sweater Weather” by the Neighbourhood (left) has a beat similar to a strippeddown version of OutKast’s “The Way You Move.” Based on my gut and social media reaction, this reminds me of how fun., Imagine Dragons, the Lumineers, Gotye and Of Monsters and Men moved the needle so quickly. The hook from “Sex” by the 1975 (left)—“She’s got a boyfriend, anyway”—will not leave your head. Go listen right now. You’ll be singing this to yourself all day and posting it on your preferred social media…

Two founding members gone? No new album in nearly four years? No problem for Paramore. On the frst single from the reconfgured group’s forthcoming self-titled album, singer Hayley Williams exhibits a tone of defant survival that would make the late Gloria Gaynor proud. Atop a winding industrial- reggae rhythm and layers of noisy guitar grit, Williams flls the tune with forceful afrmations, declaring, “I’m bringing my sinking ship back to the shore” and “There’s a time and a place to die, and this ain’t it,” before “Now” resolves the tension by blasting into a full-throttle chorus. Williams begins her comeback by pleading, “Don’t try to take this from me now,” sounding like a singer desperate to keep her band. But by the time she proclaims, “If there’s a future, we…

.biz After settling similar lawsuits against Pizza Hut and the Home Depot in December, the Black Keys sued casino firm Pinnacle Entertainment and production company Manhattan Production Music for allegedly using “sound-alike” recordings of their material in TV ads. Verizon has partnered with R&B singer Jill Scott for a print, TV and online Black History Month ad campaign, titled Celebrating Your Story. The year is only a few weeks old, but there’s already quite a bit of excitement coming out of the Nashville scene—thanks to Capitol Nashville’s Lady Antebellum. The Grammy Award-winning trio has just released a new single, “Downtown,” the leadof cut from its fourth, still-untitled studio album, scheduled for release later in 2013. Radio received the record Jan. 21; iTunes and other digital outlets are set to release…

Jake Bugg Takes ‘Two’ Jake Bugg is aiming to duplicate his notable U.K. success in the United States. The 18-year-old Nottingham, England-born singer/songwriter blends stark folk and rollicking rockabilly on his self-titled debut set, which bowed atop the Official U.K. Albums chart on Nov. 3. Ahead of his proper U.S. debut, Bugg’s Two Fingers EP, released stateside in October, has found support from triple A radio, with WRLT Nashville playing the title track 226 times through Jan. 20, according to Nielsen BDS. ‘Another One’ For Atlanta The hotbed of urban talent that is Atlanta churns out “Another One,” Slice 9’s debut single featuring Future, which opens at No. 40 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop. The rapper, 18, recently signed with Future’s Freebandz imprint on Epic after forging a relationship with the chart-topping…

How did you link up with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for " Thrift Shop"? Street Level Records founder D-Sane called me in July and asked if I'd heard of Macklemore. He was looking for a guy that sounds like Nate Dogg. and for a decade. I've been known as the Nate Dogg of the North End in Seattle. Forty-five minutes later. I'm at the studio. Macklemore showed me the hook. I went in. and I'm in bed an hour later. Did you expect t he song to take off like it did? No. I didn't know who Macklemore really was. it was after the first video shoot when I downloaded The Language of My World and heard "White Privilege" that I connected with him. I didn't know he had done…

2Cellos’ new album in2ition gathers the most unlikely bunch of guest stars to help out the cello duo. the set boasts guitar legend steve Vai, “Glee” star naya rivera, buzzedabout young vocalist sky Ferreira and classical pianist lang lang. thanks in part to the heavy dose of added talent, the duo’s new album takes a bow at no. 4 on Classical Crossover albums (3,000 sold, according to nielsen soundscan) and no. 175 on the billboard 200. the pair—stjepan Hauser and luka sulic—cover a range of pop songs on the set, including rihanna’s “We Found love,” aC/dC’s “Highway to Hell” and muse’s “supermassive black Hole.” rivera guests on the lattermost track, which has sold 1,000 downloads. its video, which also features rivera, has collected more than 550,000 views on 2Cellos’ ofcial…

Taylor Swift scores her second Mainstream Top 40 No. 1, as “I Knew You Were Trouble” lifts 3-1. She first led with “Love Story” on Feb. 28, 2009. Phillip Phillips becomes just the second “American Idol” contestant (and winner) to send a debut charting single to No. 1 on Adult Contemporary, as “Home” rises 2-1. The series’ reigning champion joins 2008 victor David Cook, who logged a 15-week reign with “The Time of My Life” in 2008-09. Of Monsters and Men notch their second Triple A chart-topper, as “Mountain Sound” climbs 2-1. The band’s first entry, “Little Talks,” led for four weeks beginning last May. As the chart’s new leader dethrones the Lumineers’ “Stubborn Love” after four weeks (1-2)—also their second No. 1 in as many tries, following the eight-week…

A$AP Rocky lands the first No. 1 debut on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums for a 2013 release, as debut set Long.Live.A$AP opens with 138,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The Harlem newcomer’s highly anticipated release marks the biggest opening on the chart since T.I.’s Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head sold 179,000 during the Christmas tracking week (Jan. 5 issue). In terms of new artists, A$AP Rocky’s debut is the biggest since Meek Mill sold 165,000 with Dreams and Nightmares on Nov. 17, 2012. On Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Justin Timberlake’s 27-2 catapults with “Suit & Tie,” featuring Jay-Z, pushing A$AP’s “F**kin Problems” down 4-5 despite the song rising 11% to 41 million overall listener impressions, according to Nielsen BDS. “Problems,” which features Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar, also earns Streaming…

DJ Pauly D makes an impressive start on Dance/Electronic Songs, debuting at No. 7 with “Back to Love,” featuring Jay Sean. The song moved 36,000 units, good for the former “Jersey Shore” star’s best Nielsen SoundScan sales week, and also opens at No. 6 on Dance/Electronic Digital Songs (see page 58). He previously charted two titles on the sales-only list: “Beat Dat Beat (It’s Time To),” which moved 4,000 in its opening week (No. 19) in 2010, and “Night of My Life” (No. 15 debut with 18,000) in April 2012. Pauly D (the D is short for DelVecchio) recently teamed with the ASPCA to support Hurricane Sandy relief eforts and has been touring clubs in Australia this month. He is set to return to the DJ booth stateside at the…

Flaming Lips pen song for Hyundai ad as music leads onstage and backstage Advertisers shelled out new record dollar amounts for 30-second spots at this year’s Super Bowl, but as more ads feature current hits and emerging singles as their soundtrack, the Super Bowl has also grown into a top hit-making destination for the music industry too. ¶ Some artists are even becoming the stars of ads themselves. PSY was among the first celebs to be confirmed for a Super Bowl ad this year, set to become the new face of Wonderful Pistachios (to the tune of “Gangnam Style,” no less). Even more interesting is the news that the Flaming Lips will be the stars of one of Hyundai’s four Super Bowl spots, a 60-second commercial that will feature the…

Mobile commerce is growing by leaps and bounds— depending on how one def nes “mobile.” EMarketer expects m-commerce sales to grow to $86.9 billion in 2016 from $24.7 billion in 2012. The biggest driver is the tablet. Devices like the Ipad are expected to account for 14.3% of retail e-commerce sales, or $61 billion, by 2015, up from 6.2% in 2012. Smartphone commerce also will rise considerably, to $24.3 billion in 2016 from $9.8 billion in 2012. All forecasts exclude travel and event ticket sales. There’s just one problem: Consumers are less mobile than these numbers and the term “m-commerce” suggest. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg declared in November 2010 that the iPad “is not mobile.” It turns out he was right. Tablets are just small, simple computers people tend to…

WHAT? Sony/ATV Music Publishing becomes the f rst major music publisher to cut a deal directly licensing its songs to Pandora. While Sony/ATV didn’t disclose details of the deal, sources say that up until now, Pandora pays about 4% of its revenue to music publishers through deals with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. But Sony/ATV, which controls the EMI Music Publishing portfolio as well, withdrew its digital rights from ASCAP and BMI so that it can negotiate directly with digital music service providers like Pandora. According to sources, Sony/ATV managed to score a 25% increase over the ASCAP/BMI fees, which means Pandora will pay Sony/ATV and EMI their share of publishing royalties out of a “5% of revenue” pool. WHY? Radio is allowed the luxury of playing music under a compulsory…

These days, at 64, Wayne Kramer, legendary guitarist for fast-living Detroit rock band MC5, lives a peaceful, married life in Los Angeles, where he composes music for TV and flms. It’s probably not the future the recovering drug addict envisioned while serving a stint in federal prison during the mid-’70s for the attempted sale of cocaine to undercover agents. But one thing kept Kramer going during his two-year lock-up: his guitar. “Playing music in prison is a way to escape prison, because when you’re playing music you’re not in prison. You’re in the world of melodies and chord changes,” Kramer says. So, in 2009, with a growing desire to bring music into prisons, Kramer staged a concert at New York correctional facility Sing Sing with performances by Perry Farrell, Gilby…

BMI, which will turn 75 in 2014, is thinking big and looking forward. Its songwriters and publishing afliates may understand that, but it wants to ensure the rest of the music industry knows it too. In order to spread the news, it just launched a rebranding campaign, updating its logo and reminding everyone that it has been “Valuing Music Since 1939,” when Broadcast Music Inc. was founded. In addition to raising BMI’s corporate profle, the campaign aims to raise awareness of BMI’s capabilities within the music business. BMI president/CEO Del Bryant said in a statement: “This new campaign underscores our mission and commitment to valuing music and managing the rights associated with it in the future—wherever music is played.” So BMI, which represents such songwriters as Kanye West, Foo Fighters,…

Music’s biggest names belted it out for Obama. Stevie Wonder, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé and Usher were all on hand to serenade and celebrate President Barack Obama during his second inauguration festivities. “I’m very proud to be here . . . and to see the Obamas and the Bidens here for four more years,” cheered Katy Perry, decked out in all-American stars and stripes. “I called the Foo Fighters and said, ‘You’ve got to learn 40 songs in 10 days.’” —Dave Grohl Park City Rockers It was rock docs around the clock at the Sundance Film Festival, with the world premieres of four music documentaries: “Twenty Feet From Stardom,” “Sound City,” “History of the Eagles, Part One” and “Muscle Shoals.” Lucky film buffs also took in live gigs from…

It’s around 7 o’clock at night, and I am serving as a human shield for Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber’s manager. It may be true that journalists shouldn’t be part of the story, but right now Braun is getting cornered by dozens of camera phonewielding, occasionally shrieking, sometimes shaking, mostly tween girls. He’s come up here to the nosebleed sections of Atlanta’s Philips Arena to hand out tickets, a frequent show ritual in which he upgrades about 20 lucky random fans to foor seats. But everywhere he goes—walking along the side aisles by the foor seats, heading through the food courts, riding the escalators— he is recognized by girls and moms who react much the way you might expect them to react if it was Bieber himself. He’s mastered the art…

MAYA JANE COLES The Sensualist Management: Steven Braines, the Weird & the Wonderful/Crown Booking: Mariesa Stevens, Liaison Artists By the age of 15, Maya Jane Coles had started crafting trip-hop beats. By 22, she had remixed Massive Attack and Gorillaz and produced her frst underground hit, 2010’s house anthem “What They Say.” Over the last two years, the now-25-year-old DJ/producer’s stellar mixes for BBC’s Essential Mix and !K7 Records’ DJ Kicks series have won her the attention of not only dance music fans, but powerful touring entities. “She deserves all the accolades in the world,” says Jason Miller, president of Live Nation New York. “I don’t know her and I’ve never worked with her, but I’d give my left arm to do [her U.S. tour].” In a world of adrenalized…

If the low end is important, the high end is even more so, and leads the way in both dictating profits and pricing the majority of the manifest. “you need that separation in your pricing to be able to appeal to a broad spectrum of ticket buyers,” Live Nation Global Touring chairman Arthur fogel says. That was the approach taken with u2’s 360° tour, which wrapped in 2011 as the most successful tour ever in terms of both gross and attendance. u2’s 360° was very much multitiered in its scaling, topping out at $250, with a general-admission field section at $55, at least 10,000 seats priced at $30 and a range of prices in the middle. “We felt we needed to address the diferent price points, but to the extreme,”…

Ask Chaz Bundick, the man behind Toro y Moi, to describe his sound, and he’ll tell you “sort of contemporary, but also of the past.” Keeping this aesthetic thread intact, his music has evolved from the breezy, auroral home recordings of his 2010 debut, Causers of This, to the big, radio-esque quality of Anything in Return, his third and most polished LP, out Jan. 22 on Carpark Records. “I’m not really a top 40 artist, but I was experimenting with that sonic feld, just trying to make my music sound like it’s on the radio,” Bundick says. ARTIST: Toro y Moi ALBuM: Anything in Return MAnAGeR: Mat Whittington, C3 PRODuCeR: Toro y Moi PuBLISHeR: Domino CHART HISTORY Freaking Out (2011), no. 10 Top electronic Albums, 8,000 sold “i’m not really…

When it comes to his solo career, Joe Budden is his own conductor. The Jersey City, N.J., native, who released his self-titled debut in 2003, tasted mainstream success with his Grammy Award-nominated breakout single, “Pump It Up,” which peaked at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100. But after parting ways with Def Jam, the rapper took an independent approach powered by touring, social media and reality TV that’s paid of . On Feb. 5, Budden returns with his third solo retail release, No Love Lost (E1/Mood Muzik Entertainment), a testament to his approach to longevity. “I’ve tried to eliminate as many of the middlemen as possible in my career, so the fans are dealing with me and the music,” Budden says of the LP, which features guest appearances from…

“Sound City” DIRECTOR: Dave Grohl PRODuCTION/DISTRIBuTOR: Roswell Films/Variance Films PRODuCERS: Dave Grohl, John Ramsay, James A. Rota FEATuRING: Paul McCartney, John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Trent Reznor RuNNING TIME: 106 minutes RELEASE DATES: Jan. 31 theatrically; Feb. 1 digitally SEE ALSO: “Searching for Sugar Man” Malik Bendjelloul gets behind the mystery of forgotten singer/songwriter Rodriguez in this Academy Awardnominated documentary. (Jan. 22, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) “Paul Williams Still Alive” Stephen Kessler’s documentary on the singer/songwriter and ’70s celebrity reveals a man committed to helping fellow artists as well as people struggling with addiction. (Feb. 5, Virgil Films and Entertainment) “The Grateful Dead: Dead Ahead” This concert flick highlights the Dead’s two shows at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in October 1980. (Feb. 12, Shout Factory) Albums POP EMMY ROSSUM…

Justin Timberlake makes a record-setting return with “Suit & Tie,” featuring Jay-Z. The track, which previews his forthcoming third solo album, The 20/20 Experience, bounds 84-4 on the Billboard Hot 100 (see page 48). It’s his 12th solo Hot 100 top 10— twice the total he tallied as a member of ’N Sync from 1999 to 2002. 315K “Suit” sold 315,000 downloads its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It’s Timberlake’s best digital sales frame, topping the start of his “SexyBack” (250,000) the week of Sept. 9, 2006. The sum is the greatest for a song by a male artist since Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” bowed with 521,000 on April 14, 2012. 6,045 “Suit” debuts on Mainstream Top 40 with a record 6,045 first-week plays. Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” previously…

Already stars in their native Canada, popera quartet the Tenors released their second studio album, Lead With Your Heart, in the United States on Jan. 15 through Verve. It debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 with 16,000 units sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan—its biggest success yet in the States. 3 MONTHS AGO Shortly after changing its name from the Canadian Tenors—”for a more global branding reach,” the group’s Victor Micallef says—the foursome released its new album on Oct. 30 in Canada, where it went platinum 11 weeks later. “We held the U.S. release back so we could have more drivers in place here,” says Mike Rittberg, VP of artist development and promotion at Verve. Wise move: A month later the act taped a PBS special in Las Vegas,…

Your self-titled debut was more than two years in the making, before the alt-folk revival really took of. How does it feel now that it’s here? So good. We’re about to play “Conan” and last night was our first show since the record’s been out at Hotel Cafe [in Los Angeles]. It was so magical with the listeners and the music just colliding. It’s really something we won’t forget. You recorded your album at New York’s Rockwood Music Hall. What was that like? Charlie Peacock, the producer, had positioned us in the room so that while we were recording we’d face the windows on the street. We felt like the city we call home was just a part of the record. All three of you just quit your jobs last…

Skrillex moves 26-13 on the Social 50 chart following the release of A$AP Rocky’s debut album, Long. Live.A$AP, which arrived during the charting week. Why? Skrillex is featured on the set’s “Wild for the Night,” which debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 82. “Wild for the Night” is available to view on Skrillex’s YouTube channel, and has received more than 800,000 views since it was posted a week ago. The boost in his online stats is further fueled by the release of a new video for “Summit,” featuring Ellie Goulding, a single included on his 2011 Bangarang EP. The clip follows a group of partying 20-somethings who end up at a Skrillex concert, and has racked up more than 2.5 million views since its Jan. 2 debut. Both…

The Band Perry collects its third No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, as “Better Dig Two” climbs 3-1. The sibling trio previously reigned with “If I Die Young” (Dec. 11, 2010) and “All Your Life” (two frames starting Feb. 18, 2012, when the chart was solely airplay-based; it became a sales/airplay/streaming hybrid survey the week of Oct. 20, 2012). “Dig” rises 4-1 for its first week atop Country Digital Songs with 70,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. On Country Airplay, it lifts 6-5 with a 12% increase to 30 million audience impressions, according to Nielsen BDS. The song previews the group’s still-untitled sophomore album, due April 2. Randy Houser, meanwhile, notches his first Country Airplay No. 1 with “How Country Feels” (see page 57). It pushes 8-7…

More than two years after her untimely death on Dec. 26, 2010, the posthumous Beautiful album from Teena Marie (below) opens at No. 5 on R&B Albums with 6,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Alia Rose, the R&B icon’s 21-year-old daughter to whom the title track is dedicated, guided the album through its release and is featured on two songs: “Rare Breed” and “Give Me Your Love.” On Adult R&B, the set’s lead single, “Luv Letter,” reaches a new peak, moving 28-25 in its 13th week on the list (viewable on Billboard.biz). Also new to R&B Albums is the debut full-length from former Danity Kane and Dirty Money member Dawn Richard. Her ambitious, genre-bending Goldenheart opens at No. 10 with 3,000 copies, falling short of the 4,000 first-week copies sold…

Final box-ofce grosses reported from Madonna’s 2012 Mdna tour, which wrapped in South america on dec. 22, 2012, hike the tour’s sum to $305 million, placing it 10th among the highest-grossing tours since Billboard began tracking concert grosses in 1991. Madonna, who also owns the fourth slot on the all-time ranking with her 2008-09 Sticky & Sweet tour, is the only female act among the top 10 and the only solo artist with two entries on the list. Below is a list of the top 10 all-time highest-grossing tours, according to Billboard Boxscore, since 1991. (Each entry contains the tour’s rank, the act’s name, the tour’s name, the year(s) and its box-ofce gross.) —Bob Allen 1. u2, 360°, 2009-11, $736 million 2. The Rolling Stones, a Bigger Bang, 2005-07, $558…

When WXRP New York hit the play button on Randy Houser’s “How Country Feels” on Jan. 21, it marked the return of country music to terrestrial radio in the nation’s largest market after an absence of more than a decade. It’s a big deal in terms of its local impact, but just as important is how it benefts country nationally. The station, which will adopt WNSH (Nash FM 94.7) as its permanent call letters, will become the fagship for a Nash brand that Cumulus will roll out in numerous forms of its own media, including radio stations in other markets, plus a magazine, a Web presence and planned live events and cable TV. The company sees a huge underserved market opportunity and isn’t just going after the obvious targets in…

After a stalled attempt last September, Fuse is finally ready to launch its daily music-news program “Fuse News.” The network, which became property of Madison Square Garden in 2008, plans to air the first episode of the half-hour show on Feb. 6. During the past five months, Fuse, which reaches 72 million households, has retooled the program, changing the anchor lineup—singer Ashanti is no longer onboard, for example—and replacing executive producer Zev Shalev with producing consultant/senior executive producer Rick Kaplan, previously president of MSNBC. “We thought, ‘Let’s get the absolute best newsman on the planet to come in and guide our ef orts,’” MSG Networks president Mike Bair says. Fuse has been rebranding itself since last year, soft-launching Fuse.tv last January and hiring 90 employees. Since September, the site has…

Jan. 22 was a huge day for Kobalt: The company not only announced a deal with dave grohl to take over the exclusive worldwide administration rights to all of the musician’s music, it also formally introduced a new label services division that will handle digital and physical releases for independent artists as well as Kobalt clients. The Grohl deal covers his work from Nirvana to the Foo Fighters to Them Crooked Vultures, and goes into efect in 2014. As part of the agreement, Kobalt will handle all synch and creative opportunities for Grohl’s music, including the new songs that will appear on the soundtrack to his documentary “Sound City” (see Reviews, page 43), which debuted at Sundance and will be out later this month, with the album set for a…

The two toughest tickets to secure on the Sundance Film Festival’s opening weekend were a concert featuring Dave Grohl with an army of guests and the Saturday night world premiere of the documentary “History of the Eagles, Part One.” High-profile film festivals, generally speaking, do not program two documentaries in such prime positions. But Grohl’s “Sound City” (see Reviews, page 43) and the Eagles provided a level of cachet as film and live experiences that others in the competition may not have delivered. The pictures have credibility with the film crowd—Grohl’s directorial debut, “Sound City,” boasts a cinematographer, editor and writer with lengthy documentary credits; “Eagles” had an Academy Award winner in producer Alex Gibney whose previous work focused on weighty contemporary issues. Unlike scores of other competition flms, “Sound…

Less than a week after opening its newly designed music discovery social site to the public, Myspace found itself in hot water with the community it’s most actively trying to court—indie artists. Merlin, a global rights agency that represents more than 100 independent labels, complained to Myspace that its songs were being uploaded illegally to the site since 2011 after Myspace failed to renew its licensing deal with Merlin for those tracks—some of which may have been uploaded by the artists themselves. Merlin’s portfolio includes indie heavy-hitters like Beggars Group (the xx, Vampire Weekend), Merge (Arcade Fire, She & Him), Epitaph (Bad Religion, Tom Waits), Domino (Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys) and Warp (Grizzly Bear, Boards of Canada). “With our members’ repertoire freely available across the service, but without the permission…

EAT In town for the Super Bowl? Prepare to eat like a linebacker. “There’s no such thing as a bad restaurant in New Orleans,” says Irma Thomas, aka the “Soul Queen of New Orleans,” who raves about a soul food restaurant in New Orleans East called sisters ’n Da East (9901 Chef Menteur Highway, 504-242-0469). “I was just there last night and got the barbecue ribs with a salad. You can get a decent meal for nine bucks.” When NOLA native and Danity Kane alum Dawn Richard is craving crayfsh, she heads to Castnet seafood (10826 Hayne Boulevard, 504-244-8446) in New Orleans East. As for the correct way to eat crayfsh? “I’m born and raised here, so I go in,” says Richard, whose debut solo CD, Goldenheart, was just released.…

Construction workers outnumber tourists at the southwest edge of Las Vegas’ MGM Grand, one of the world’s largest hotels with more than 6,500 rooms. MGM’s signature golden lions still guard the façade, but inside, behind temporary walls painted basic black, the crew is gutting the hotel’s former nightclub, Studio 54 (the name licensed from the ’70s original). Gone will be the industrial grating, the velvet furniture and the vintage celebrity photographs that adorned the old venue, replaced by the latticework, marble and scrims of Hakkasan, the international chain of luxury Chinese restaurants that will soon become Vegas’ biggest (at 75,000 square feet) and most expensive (with a reported budget of $200 million) nightclub—a feat in a city that doesn’t skimp on its nightlife, especially since the EDM explosion made it…

AT THE END OF DECEMBER, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment launched the company’s fi rst electronic dance music station, known as Evolution 101.7, on WHBA Boston. The station took its name from an iHeartRadio channel that had launched six weeks earlier, and which had become the platform’s No. 1 digital-only channel in just seven days. Both the station and the online channel focus on EDM acts like Skrillex, David Guetta and Calvin Harris and feature a number of mixshows crafted by such popular DJs as Diplo, Fatboy Slim and Paul van Dyk. Boston may not seem like an obvious choice for an EDM station, but Dylan Sprague, Clear Channel VP of programming for Boston, explains that there are 53 colleges in the city, which has led to a vibrant EDM…

Johnny Kitagawa is the most powerful man in the Japanese music industry. The proof is on the charts. And at the box ofice. Across a span of more than 35 years, Kitagawa has produced 232 chart-topping singles from some 40 acts and, in the first decade of this century, he has produced 8,419 concerts, the most by any individual in history, in any country, according to Guinness World Records, which certified those figures when it presented two awards to Kitagawa in 2010. At press time, the count of chart-topping hits has reached 292, according to Kitagawa’s company. The story behind the man who came to dominate the Japanese industry, beginning in the early 1960s, is as compelling as any you’ll find within the music business, anywhere in the world. Kitagawa,…

GAP DREAM Gabriel Fulvimar, the singer/multi-instrumentalist behind Gap Dream, has an Internet error to thank for his record deal with Burger Records. In 2011, Fulvimar, who recently relocated to Southern California from Ohio, started recording fuzzy, psych-tinged rock songs in his bedroom, never intending to really do anything with them. “Gabe was buying a bunch of Burger stuf from us, and we messed up one of his orders. So he emailed us, and after we got it worked out he sent a song,” Burger co-founder Sean Bohrman says. “I was totally blown away.” Burger released Gap Dream’s selftitled debut cassette tape in January 2012. (An LP version followed in July, and it’s also available for download at gapdream.bandcamp.com.) By February, Pitchfork had posted two of the tape’s tracks. “It just…

BABY BLUE: Montrealbased lo-fi rocker Mac DeMarco (below) has announced plans for a tour to push sophomore album 2, which arrived in October on Captured Tracks. Booked by Michelle Cable at Panache Rock, the tour will launch at Webster Hall in New York (Feb. 1) before hitting DC9 in Washington, D.C. (March 5), the 35 Denton festival in Denton, Texas (March 10) and Empty Bottle in Chicago (March 21), with Naomi Punk and Calvin Love opening. FOR REAL: Following the November release of critically praised EP True on Terrible Records, Solange seems to have shed big sis Beyoncé’ rather epic shadow, announcing plans for a bicoastal seven-date swing. Kicking of at the Independent in San Francisco (Feb. 5), the tour will visit the House of Blues in West Hollywood (Feb.…

Smartly A&R’d, Josh Groban eases into material that requires more control, atmospherics and intimacy than the soaring, inspirational work that is his trademark. All That Echoes lets him exercise the impressive sustain in his soothing tenor while adding a touching element of fragility. Some songs bounce between bombast and a stripped-down sound, the best being “Hollow Talk,” but mostly Groban and producer Rob Cavallo opt for one direction or the other. “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” and the Italiansung “Sincera” easily fit fans’ expectations, as does a Broadwaystyled reading of “Falling Slowly.” “She Moved Through the Fair” brings out the exotic, and “Happy in My Heartache” captures Groban in a compelling moment of one-on-one communication. Arrangements and mixing are first-rate, particularly the pizzicato strings and snare drum use. Cavallo…

In the world of electronic dance music, producers are huge live artists in their own right, headlining massive festivals and multimillion-dollar Vegas residencies. Now, hip-hop beatmakers are starting to take notice, releasing EDM-leaning projects in hopes of propelling their own touring careers. On Jan. 18, Just Blaze, known for his Grammy-winning work with Jay-Z, Eminem and Drake, digitally released “Higher,” a collaboration with Brooklyn EDM wunderkind Baauer, who dropped breakthrough song “Harlem Shake” on Mad Decent last year. The dizzying dubstep mash-up featuring Jay-Z vocal samples was intended to build buzz for the pair’s joint 16-date Big League tour, which began Jan. 24. It’s already amassed more than 320,000 plays on the producer’s SoundCloud page alone. “It just exploded,” Just Blaze says. “We’re really onto something.” The producer is also…

As forecast last week, rapper A$AP Rocky bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with his debut album, Long.Live. A$AP, selling 139,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Long.Live. A$AP, selling 139,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Long.Live.A$AP is the frst debut album to hit No. 1 since fellow rapper 2 Chainz’Based on a T.R.U. Story opened atop the Sept. 1, 2012, list. (However, 2 Chainz had released two earlier charting sets as part of hiphop duo Playaz Circle.) A$AP Rocky’s set is currently enjoying a top fve hit single on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with “F**kin’ Problems” (featuring Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar). So far, the song has sold 854,000 downloads. A$AP Rocky got his frst taste of a Billboard chart barely more than a year ago, when…

Kid Rock is no longer one of the few remaining major acts to withhold its catalog from iTunes. After a month of pre-order availability, the rock star’s back catalog of seven Atlantic Records albums arrived at the retailer on Jan. 15. They join his most recent studio set, Rebel Soul, which became his first Atlantic title to reach iTunes upon its release last November. as for the other major digital retailer, amazon mp3: three of rock’s atlantic sets, including rebel soul, have been available there for a while now. the rest of his atlantic work should arrive at amazon in the next month. in total, rock’s albums sold a combined 15,000 downloads last week, according to nielsen soundscan, led by 1998’s devil Without a Cause (6,000). ‘We didn’t have no…

Actress Anna kendrick debuts on the On-Demand Songs chart (see next page) at No. 47 with her single “Cups” from the film “Pitch Perfect.” The song and soundtrack have found a new audience since the film’s DVD release on Dec. 18 (which rises to a new high of No. 3 on the Billboatrd 200). The track climbs 68-66 in its fourth week on the Billboard Hot 100 and continues to increase in weekly sales. This week it sold more than 49,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, in order to move 42-37 on Hot Digital Songs. Meanwhile, as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis climb to No. 1 on the Hot 100 with “Thrift Shop,” the duo still posts strong play counts on the On-Demand Songs chart. With 1.5 million plays, “Thrift Shop”…

The Lumineers’ self-titled debut album reaches No. 1 on Top Rock Albums (3-1) in its 42nd week. The set completes the chart’s second-longest ascent to the top, following Kings of Leon’s Only by the Night, which rose to No. 1 in its 46th frame the week of Aug. 22, 2009. On the Billboard 200, the title also reaches a new peak with an 8-7 ascent. The Lumineers has sold 819,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and its last five weeks represent five of its top six sales frames. It sold a high of 61,000 three weeks ago; this week, it gains by 2% to 38,000. Next week’s chart will reflect the first full week following the trio’s appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on Jan. 19, when it performed the…

Daddy Yankee takes over on Hot Latin Songs as “Limbo” skips 3-1 in its 14th week on the list. The rapper’s third career chart-topper is his fourth single of last year’s Prestige, all of which have reached the top 10. “Ven Conmigo,” featuring Prince Royce, peaked at No. 9 in June 2011; “Lovumba (Prestige)” reached No. 1 last February; and “Pasarela” topped out at No. 4 in September. Two other new leaders emerge on the radio charts after exceptionally long roads to the summit. On Regional Mexican Airplay, “Cabecita Dura” by La Arrolladora Banda el Limon de Rene Camacho hops 3-1 in its 32nd week, marking the second-longest climb to the top in the chart’s 18-year history. Rogelio Martinez’s “Y Sigues Siendo Tu” took 43 weeks to reach No. 1…

This Week’s Trend Report: Biggest Hot 100 Movers THE TOP % GAINERS OF THE WEEK THAT HAVE ALSO GAINED IN EACH OF THE PREVIOUS TWO WEEKS. 1 Thompson square This Week: 89 Last Week: 94 2 Wks ago: – Country Music Assn. and Academy of Country Music duo of the year victor Thompson Square spends a second week in the top 20 of Country Airplay (20-18), with an 8% airplay gain to 13 million audience impressions. The husband and wife’s sophomore album, Just Feels Good, will be released March 26. 2 Lee Brice This Week: 80 Last Week: 87 2 Wks ago: 91 Lee Brice is on the hottest streak of his career, as current single “I Drive Your Truck” follows back-to-back No. 1s on Country Airplay, the first chart-topping…