Innholdsfortegnelse for April 6, 2013 i Billboard Magazine

MUSIC SALES STABILIZE Revenue from digitally distributed music continued to climb as sales of physical formats descended in 2012. Those two forces just about cancelled each other out—leading to a slight 0.9% drop in overall revenue to $7.1 billion in the United States, according to the RIAA’s annual report released March 26. Revenue generated from access models, represented by Pandora, Spotify and others, made up 15% of the total, up from just 3% in 2007. Digital accounted for nearly 60% of the industry’s revenue. But sales of physical formats plunged 16.5% to $2.8 billion in 2012. MANDA TO INTERSCOPE Def Jam president Joie Manda has made a surprise move to Interscope Records as president of urban. He’s relocating to Los Angeles from New York for personal reasons but remains within…

Lil Wayne. The rapper will release I Am Not A Human Being II next week. If he thought he had the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 all tied up, he better think again. Doug Morris. The Sony Music chief is smiling as Sony’s album-plus-TEA market share for the week is 37.6%, versus Universal Music Group’s 33%. Target. It was almost a perfect week for the bigbox retailer, which scored 333,000 sales of the album, thanks to its exclusive version and a TV campaign touting the release. And then Walmart priced The 20/20 Experience at $7. Indie bands. Ghost Beach is an indie duo that, like many of its peers including French Horn Rebellion, makes its revenue from touring and the occasional synch. Hosting a discussion about whether fans…

Following Sony/ATV’s merger with EMI, Jorge Mejia heads the largest Latin publishing company in the world, with a staf that’s tripled in size in the past year. Just promoted to executive VP, Mejia is a composer/singer/songwriter who came to Sony/ATV in 1997 as an intern and rose steadily through the ranks, representing hundreds of writers across the region and supervising Sony/ATV’s ofces in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. 5. 00 AM I wake up between 4 and 5 a.m. That’s the time I take to balance out my life. If there are waves, I go surf; otherwise I hit the gym. If I have time, I’ll come back and play something on the piano. 9.30 AM Arrive at the office and tackle EMI acquisition matters, which are taking a…

As the country music community pours into Las Vegas for the 48th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on April 7, the organization is taking advantage of the buzz surrounding the weekend by hosting several fund-raising events for its charitable arm, ACM Lifting Lives, and other causes. “We’re really trying to make all our events focused on our charity in some way, just because it’s what we’ve done for almost 50 years,” ACM executive VP/managing director Tifany Moon says. Perhaps the most notable charitable event during “The Week Vegas Goes Country” is the debut of the ACM Party for a Cause Festival, a two-day music festival at Orleans Arena, beginning April 5. Hosted by Outnumber Hunger and Kix Brooks, the event will feature performances from the Band Perry, Dierks Bentley,…

One out of every seven human beings on the planet watches You-Tube at least once a month, according to an announcement the Google video platform made recently before an audience of advertisers and brand managers at its Pulse upfront event in Los Angeles. But what are those billion viewers doing? A closer look shows that they may be watching fewer videos. YouTube had a 32% decline in views in February compared with a year earlier—11.3 billion vs. 16.7 billion in 2012, according to an analysis of comScore data by will richmond, an online video consultant. One explanation is mobile views, which comScore doesn’t report in its monthly Video Metrix survey. Like many online services, You-Tube has been focused on growing its footprint on mobile devices, which viewers are increasingly using…

“Maybe EDM has peaked. But I don’t think it’s going to go away. It’s going to evolve.” —Pete Tong 1 Def Jam artist Big K.R.I.T. (center) rolls with BMI execs Ian Holder (left) and Wardell Malloy ahead of his performance at BMI’s “Know Them Now” showcase held March 21 at New York’s Canal Room. 2 Walmart executives celebrate after naming Sony Music their 2012 music supplier of the year. From left: Sony Music’s Bob Garbarini and Mark Griffin, Walmart’s Chris Nagelson, Sony Music’s Darren Stupak and Walmart’s Tifanie Van Laar-Frever. 3 In praise of heavenly sounds: Ten2One Entertainment’s Phil Thornton walked tall with legends at BET’s Celebration of Gospel on March 20, posing here with “First Lady of Gospel”Shirley Caesar. 4 Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. (far left), accepts his SupportMusic…

Rock history is spread throughout Butch Walker’s Santa Monica, Calif., studio. The space, on Main Street, was where Bob Dylan set up shop to record Street Legal in 1978; the Studer MK 3 A800 was the tape machine that recorded the Smashing Pumpkins’Siamese Dream in Atlanta; and the console can be seen on the back cover of Steely Dan’s Countdown to Ecstasy when it was housed at Village Recorders. That 1971 Quad Eight 2082 board is the latest edition to Walker’s studio, which he opened three-and-ahalf years ago and has used to record Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy, P!nk and others. Walker spotted a baby version of the board at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eyes studio in Nashville, and through “a weird and fateful thing” found one as soon as he…

Nick and Kayla ditched school early on a Wednesday in Staten Island and caught a bus and then a train to 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. They’re high school sweethearts— Nick a thick-necked senior with a football player build and Kayla a fairskinned junior with high cheekbones and black hair pulled back into a ponytail. The couple came to 30 Rock for a February taping of “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” but they weren’t there to see Donald Trump settled in on the couch to fog the latest season of “Celebrity Apprentice.” Nick and Kayla’s trans-borough trek was inspired by the musical guest, Tyler, the Creator, whose third album, Wolf, is due April 2 on Odd Future Records. Unseen on TV, and to the surprise of those present at studio…

ALBUM: Tate Stevens LABEL: Syco/RCA Nashville MANAGEMENT: Vector Management PRODUCER: Blake Chancey PUBLISHER: Sony/ATV BOOKING AGENT: Brett Saliba, Creative Artists Agency Nashville ATTORNEY: Linda Edell Howard TWITTER: @tatestevensctry After years of touring and banging on record company doors, “X Factor” winner Tate Stevens is fnally realizing his dreams with the April 23 release of his self-titled debut on Syco Music/RCA Nashville. “I wanted to make sure that on this album I was being true to me,” says Stevens, the season-two winner of Fox’s popular competition. “Traditional country is what I grew up listening to. It’s what I love. We have a lot of elements of traditional on here with some edge to it. It’s just me.” The album’s lead single, “Power of a Love Song,” rises 58-53 on Billboard’s Country…

.biz MTV’s Video Music Awards are Brooklyn bound. For the 30th anniversary of the cable network’s awards show, the VMAs will be held at the Barclays Center on Aug. 25. It will be the first major awards show televised from the New York borough Juicy J is back, for the frst time. The rapper/producer renowned for his work with Memphis collective Three 6 Mafa—the group debuted on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart in 1995 with Mystic Stylez and won the Academy Award for best original song in 2006 for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”—is breaking out as a chart-topping solo force. In the past fve months, Juicy J has appeared on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with four releases: his own “Bandz a Make Her Dance,” which peaked…

While it was a sure thing that Justin Timberlake’The 20/20 Experience would debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, it’s still pretty amazing to see the whopping sales the album racked up. The RCA Records set crashes in with 968,000 copies sold in its frst week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, scoring the 19th-largest sales week since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. Amazingly, Timberlake well outpaced the initial prerelease forecast for the album, which had placed its frst week at 500,000-plus. But, as you already know if you read this column last week, 20/20 exploded once it hit stores. The day after 20/20 was released on March 19, its projection was raised to 750,000. A day later, it rose to 850,000-900,000, and then by Sunday, March 24, it climbed…

It’s only spring, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from calling Russian four-piece Biting Elbows’ “Insane Of ce Escape 2” clip for its song “Bad Motherfucker” one of the most successful viral videos of 2013. The ultraviolent, live-action, f rst-person shooter-styled clip, directed by the band’s Tarantino-esque lead singer Ilya Naishuller, has been viewed more than 9 million times during its f rst week, according to YouTube. ¶ Naishuller is now heading from Moscow to Los Angeles to hold meetings with nearly a halfdozen eager record labels, along with several talent agencies and f lm studios. It’s auspicious timing, as he’s about to navigate the band’s f rst major media deals. ¶ This most recent viral phenomenon follows PSY’s surprise “Gangnam Style” hit last year, originating in South Korea, and the…

Don’t assume your music or social media messages are always making an impression during working hours. That’s the takeaway of a survey of more than 500 IT departments around the country by Modis, an IT stafng and recruiting agency. A telephone survey in February conducted by Braun Research on behalf of Modis queried 502 IT professionals about their companies’ policies and actions toward social media and streaming audio and video. Nearly half (48%) of those surveyed said their companies take some type of action to block, throttle or ban the streaming of non-work content at the workplace. More specifcally, 22% have a company policy banning the streaming of non-work content, 17% throttle streaming content and 17% block streaming content. Half of the companies represented in the survey don’t have a…

When New York-based “tropical grit pop” duo Ghost Beach was selected as the latest band to have its music featured in an online commercial for American Eagle Outftters in January, the group had the opportunity to also be featured on the retailer’s giant digital billboard in Times Square at the corner of 46th and Broadway. But rather than use the space to highlight the group’s current single, “Miracle,” or even feature a photo of its members, Ghost Beach wanted to shine a light on something entirely diferent—the debate surrounding music piracy. The band partnered with ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day to take advantage of the double-sided billboard to draw attention to an online campaign, Artists Vs. Artists, on Twitter and at artistsvsartists.com. The campaign encourages Ghost Beach’s musical peers and fans alike…

On March 19, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, a landmark copyright case examining the reach of the “frst sale” doctrine. Under that doctrine, the owner of a copy of a work that was “lawfully made” in accordance with U.S. copyright law “is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose” of it. For instance, if you purchase a lawfully produced music CD or movie DVD in the United States, you are free to later sell it at a garage sale, donate it to a library or loan it to a friend. But what about goods made and sold overseas and then imported for resale? After all, there is another provision of copyright law that prohibits the importation…

What did you wake up thinking about this morning? North American Concerts’ upcoming on-sale schedule, and making sure we have each individual show properly set up, from both marketing and pricing standpoints, in order to maximize our ticket sales for each event. In the next three or four weeks we are already confrmed to go on sale with a substantial number of concerts. Everything that’s on sale right now is mind-blowing in terms of ticket sales. On a comparative basis to last year, I think we’re already up about 20%. Describe a lesson you learned from a failure. As an industry, we all learned in 2010 that double- or triple-dipping on one tour cycle can have its consequences. It’s also been proven that the macro-economics in a given region of…

BROWSE While the Scottish are busy invading the United States April 6-14, when Scotland Week brings Tartan music and culture to New York and beyond, the music scene back in Glasgow has been heating up again. Glasgow has become a dynamic, modern city by cultivating the arts and the tech business. Music has long taken a distinct pride of place, and Press Here Publicity co-founder Chloe Walsh—a Glasgow native—says, “It’s always had an incredibly vibrant scene. One of the main factors is that it has a world-class university and art school, so there’s a constant inf ux of young people.” Igniting the most buzz at the moment is synth pop trio Chvrches (witness the glowing press from its recent electrifying South by Southwest shows), whose new EP Recover will be…

Two weeks ago, Barry Adelman, the Dick Clark Productions executive who is executive producer of the Academy of Country Music Awards, came out of a planning meeting with a new idea—new to the ACMs, that is. The concept—borrowed from the American Music Awards, another dcp show—was to capture artists fresh as they come ofstage and tap the rush of emotion that follows a win or performance. “It’s intimate,” Adelman says. “We liked what happened with that at the AMAs and want to see if we can bring that to the ACMs. I think it will be a whole diferent feel.” “Intimate” isn’t a word frequently associated with awards shows, and with the ACMs held in the 16,800-capacity MGM Grand Garden Arena, it’s not a given for a show that’s been…

MIAMI’S MUSIC SCENE is much like the population of the city itself—multifaceted and multilingual, full of smaller worlds that are scenes unto themselves. From Latin pop superstars to dance music dons to underground garage rockers, you’ll find a wide array of music folk who are recording, living and playing in this sunny city. Go high-brow at a symphony or hedonistic at a super club—both experiences, and others beyond, are essential parts of the new Miami. Here, our insider’s guide to the top venues, studios and industry power players, as well as the up-and-coming acts to watch, who all help make Miami move. BILLBOARD IN MIAMI the 24th annual Billboard Latin Music Conference & Awards, presented by state Farm, touches down in Miami April 22-25, featuring speakers Gloria estefan and Carlos…

ARTIST: Chris Brown ALBUM: X LABEL: RCA Records MANAGERS: Tina Davis, Phase Too Management; Bu Thiam, BuVision Management PRODUCERS: various PUBLISHERS: Songs of Universal/Culture Beyond Ur Experience Publishing BOOKING AGENT: Creative Artists Agency CHART HISTORY: Fortune (2012), No. 1 Billboard 200, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, 439,000 TWITTER: @chrisbrown Inside one of the recording rooms at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, Calif., Chris Brown is bopping his head to “Fine China.” A seamless and engaging mesh of classic and contemporary R&B, the uptempo track and its video will bow April 1—the formal preambles to Brown’s upcoming sixth album on RCA, X, slated for late August/early September. The song—influenced by Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson—is one of fve tracks the singer/songwriter previewed for select journalists at Glenwood recently. Gauging from their sound and Brown’s…

Nickelodeon’s 26th annual Kids’ Choice Awards was its usual slime-tastic event boasting celebrities of all stripes. Among those on hand at the live March 23 event were host Josh Duhamel and performers Pitbull, Christina Aguilera, Ke$ha, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry. Winners were chosen in 22 categories by kids who cast a record 392 million votes between Feb. 14 and March 23. 284% 148m Out of a record 392 million votes cast for the awards, a record 148 million came from outside the United States (up 284% from 2012). The awards’ international presence has expanded in recent years due to custom versions of the show that include country-specific categories. 6.5% 5.8m According to Nielsen, 5.8 million viewers watched the initial broadcast—a decline of 6.5% compared with 6.2 million viewers in…

LEGEND Bullets indicate titles with greatest weekly gains. Album Charts ● Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 500,000 albums (Gold). ▴ RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 1 million units (Platinum). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. ◆ RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 10 million units (Diamond). Numeral noted with Diamond symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. ○ Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 50,000 units (Oro). △ Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 100,000 units (Platino). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multi-platinum level. Digital Songs Charts ● RIAA certification for 500,000 paid downloads (Gold). ▴ RIAA certification for 1 million paid downloads…

In the album’s debut week, iTunes and Target scanned a whopping 758,000, or 78%, of the 968,000 copies of Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience, according to industry sources. And it wasn’t just sales—songs from the album were streamed some 8.7 million times from subscription services like Spotify and Rdio, according to Nielsen BDS. While the release may have fallen just short of the million-unit mark, it by far surpassed initial projections of 500,000 units, and it may well have delivered a million smiles between the consumers who bought it and from anyone employed in the music industry. Regardless if they work -ed for RCA and Sony, music industry executives across the board were ecstatic with the performance of the album. “We love these results,” says a senior sales executive at…

Muve Music, the subscription service of prepaid mobile carrier Cricket Wireless, has expanded to South America’s largest market, Brazil—the service’s frst expansion outside of the United States. There, Muve partnered with TIM, a subsidiary of Telecom Italia and Brazil’s second-largest mobile carrier, with a 26.9% share at the end of 2012. A record-label source tells Billboard the service will formally launch in Brazil in April. TIM’s website has few details but reveals that the music service will be available exclusively to customers of TIM Liberty, a postpaid service, and Infnity, a prepaid service. TIM Liberty starts at 49 real ($24.50) a month while Infnity charges users as low as 0.50 real (25 cents) per day for unlimited calls if they use the network daily. Muve has started strong—1.4 million U.S.…

WHAT: Disney Music Group has re-upped with Universal Music Group, expanding their distribution relationship geographically by also giving Walt Disney Records to UMG outside of North America for the f rst time. Beyond distribution, the deal also includes creative components for Disney and apparent synchronization opportunities for UMG artists and songwriters. “When you think about our platforms—which extend to soundtracks, f lms and television with the Disney Channel and ESPN/ABC Family—we also wanted a collaborative partner,” Disney Music Group executive VP Ken Bunt says. So that may include synch opportunities for UMG artists in Disney f lms, soundtracks and TV shows. But it also gives Disney access to UMG’s producers and songwriters to be available to work on projects for the various Disney properties. WHY: Disney Music Group had a…

Once an act gets to the point where people will actually pay to see it in markets across the country—a major feat in itself—then it becomes decision time for said act. That’s when it has to make tough touring decisions that can play a huge role in ongoing development: move up slightly in venue size, be a support act on a major tour, focus on playing festivals, jump into large-venue headlining waters or some combination of all of these? These decisions are seldom made by the acts themselves, though each act must buy into what its agent, manager, promoters and talent buyers advise. That can be particularly tough when an act truly feels ready to headline the big buildings and is asked to wait one more cycle. Increasingly, artists are…

INSTAGRAM US! #BACKBEAT 1 Cool label, bro: Brobot boss and new Red Light client Junior Sanchez at the Red Light Electronic Division’s industry mixer on March 20. “It’s a big agency,” Sanchez told Billboard. “I’m used to a more family vibe. But sometimes you have to just let go and say, ‘OK, I trust you. Do it.’” 2 Booking agents Brad Owen (Windish), Hunter Williams (Creative Artists Agency) and Kris Krajewski (Bond Music Group) ring in the Red Light Management Electronic Division Industry mixer (from left). 3 Dubstep artist Borgore (right) and his manager Richard Bishop of Red Light make the scene at the SiriusXM Music Lounge at the W Hotel. 4 Calvin Harris (left) makes a surprise appearance at BBC legend Pete Tong’ annual All Gone Pete Tong Pool…

On the heels of its 2011 debut album, Hope St., Kassidy quickly built a devoted U.K. following—leading to a wellreceived 2012 follow-up, One Man Army. Singer Barrie James O’Neil has already racked up the column inches, by way of his recent betrothal to Lana Del Rey. But the band’s bluesy, neo-folk stylings have found it compared to the Black Keys, as well as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Kassidy appeared as a part of Showcasing Scotland at South by Southwest this year, and is now writing a third album. Young producer whiz kid Miaoux Miaoux (real name Julian Corrie) released the excellent debut album Light of the North on Chemikal Underground in late 2012. The glitchy electro brings to mind Hot Chip, but his particularly impressive knack for combining inviting…

Team Luke Bryan ARTIST Luke Bryan ALBUM TITLESpring Break . . . Here to Party LABEL Capitol Records Nashville RELEASE DATE March 5 MANAGEMENT Red Light Management PRODUCER Jeff Stevens A& Brian Wright and Autumn House, UMG PUBLISHING Sony/ATV, Peanut Mill Songs (BMI) TOURING April 12-Oct. 26 (U.S. tour) BOOKING AGENT Jay Williams, WME UPCOMING TV “The Talk” (April 4), “CBS This Morning” (April 6) PUBLICITY Jessie Schmidt, Schmidt PR ATTORNEY Mike Milom, Milom Horsnell Crow Rose & Kelley SITELukeBryan.com TWEETS @lukebryanonline It’s unseasonably chilly for the frst day of spring, a fact Luke Bryan notes as he chit-chats with the photographer while ensconced in a Nashville studio for his Billboard cover shoot. He picks up a pair of dice and tumbles them, puts his baseball cap on, turns it…

In 2007, Frankie J was the voice of a new generation. Bilingual and bicultural, he initially made a name for himself as the voice of cumbia/pop Latin group Kumbia Kings. But in 2008, Frankie J broke big as a solo act on Columbia with The One, which has sold 912,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The album’s lead single, “Obsession,” an English-language cover of the Aventura track, rose to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, propelled by Frankie J’s wistful, entreating R&B stylings. Then, Frankie J left Columbia and was scarcely heard from again, save for a small, indie efort. Until last year, when he emerged with a deal with Universal Music Latino, under which he’ll…

Pistol Annies’ Steadfast Sass Pistol Annies “Hush Hush” (3:25) PRODUCERS: Chuck Ainlay, Frank Liddell, Glenn Worf WRITERS: Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Presley PUBLISHER: BMI RCA Pistol Annies—the trio of country superstar Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley— relit an old-school flame within the country genre on their 2011 debut, Hell on Heels. For “Hush Hush,” the lead single off sophomore set Annie Up, that spark still flickers as the group sticks to its strong points: constructing narratives and keeping its country roots on full display. “Hush Hush” presents a family in denial, as the narrators won’t acknowledge the truth that a brother was in rehab. “Hush hush, don’t you dare say a word/Hush hush, don’t you know the truth hurts,” the chorus urges, tongue-in-cheek. Pistol Annies understand the…

For a song about getting rejected, Drop City Yacht Club’s “Crickets” is getting a lot of love. Thanks to its multiformat appeal and a breezy Jeremih hook, the summery song jumps 26-19 in its third week on Billboard’s Rhythmic Top 40 chart and moves 24-21 on Rap Airplay. “Crickets” frst picked up steam last summer, when the pop-rap trio, then known as the Freshmen, released an earlier version without Jeremih for free online. “We haven’t had one bad response to this record,” the group’s A Wolf says, noting the song’s genrejumping sound. “It’s somewhere between Beastie Boys and Beach Boys.” In October, the group signed to A&M/Octone through a joint venture with Exit 8 Records, founded by radio promoter Danny Coniglio. A&M/Octone executive VP/ head of promotion Ben Berkman says…

This Week’s Trend Report: PHYSICAL VS. DIGITAL SALES FOR LAST 10 ALBUMS TO DEBUT AT NO. 1 ON THE BILLBOARD 200 WITH 500,000-PLUS SALES KEY TO GENRE COUNTRY R&B POP ROCK RAP 1 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE The 20/20 ExperienceLike Taylor Swift, Timberlake partnered with Target for a special edition of his album, which helped drive robust physical CD sales at the retailer. In turn, his album’s first-week sales are almost evenly split between physical and digital copies—the closest to 50/50 among the last halfmillion starts at No. 1. 2 MUMFORD & SONS BabelBabel owns the fourth-largest download week for an album after it bowed with 420,000 digital sales. The set continues to perform strongly as a digital title, with 1.1 million sold (54% of the title’s total sales). Presently, Babel is…