Innholdsfortegnelse for April 20, 2013 i Billboard Magazine

During the next few months, the Disney labels are making a play for grown-ups. With releases that include Demi Lovato’s fourth album, an EP from Plain White T’s and a Selena Gomez single that coincides with her 21st birthday, Hollywood Records is aiming to broaden the demographics for artists who first caught on with youngsters. ¶ Lovato, whose “Heart Attack” is No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, has an expanded awareness thanks to her role as a judge on Fox’s “The X Factor,” and Gomez has branched beyond family-friendly films with the tarted-up “Spring Breakers.” Plain White T’s are going the reality relationship route with “Ready for Love,” an unscripted NBC show that premiered April 9 after “The Voice” and was watched by 3.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen.…

Streaming services. Services that rely on algorithms and user preferences to deliver recommendations are shifting toward a curated approach. Spotify’s Spotlight program represents one such subtle but significant shift away from algorithmic neutrality toward active promotion of a handful of bands. Expect similar programs to crop up. Labels. Services like Spotify are picking up some of the A&R and artist development tasks for less mature talent that record companies once assumed, which is good news for resource-strapped labels. Rather than regard such efforts as usurping their roles, labels can view these programs as a sort of minor leagues for burgeoning acts. Artists. Musicians now have an additional channel to actively market their work. But taking advantage of these opportunities will require extra strategic planning—in order to get the promotional push,…

Roc Nation Goes Universal WHAT: Roc Nation, the joint-venture label created by Live Nation and Jay-Z when the superstar signed what was termed a $150 million deal with the concert promoter to tour at its arenas and issue his albums, has signed a global production and distribution deal with Universal Music Group. Other than being described as a “new age deal” by Jay-Z, the terms and scope of the pact weren’t disclosed in the announcement. But sources say that at the very least, it goes beyond P&D, as UMG will also provide label marketing services to the Roc Nation label, and that Roc Nation will have the choice of issuing albums through marketing partnerships with whichever UMG label it prefers, even on an artist-by-artist basis. According to sources, Roc Nation…

What did you wake up thinking about this morning? Broadly speaking, I wake up every morning thinking how I and the RED team can assist our labels in developing and marketing records and ultimately selling more records. Then I dive into fguring out how exactly we do that. For instance, is it maximizing existing drivers or creating new initiatives to sell records? Simultaneously, I am always looking to see if I have the correct structure at RED to deal with this ever-moving marketplace. I am actually pretty quick in tweaking, or if necessary, re-creating the structure. Describe a lesson you learned from failure. When I first got here about eight years ago, I created RED Merchandise. I thought it was a unique idea, and ultimately it didn’t work because it…

BROWS Few cities are so deeply defined by their music heritage as Memphis. After all, even when Bob Dylan was “stuck inside of Mobile” he still had the Memphis blues. The city’s Beale Street Music Festival (memphisinmay.org/musicfestival), a key feature of the extravagant Memphis in May event, draws a tremendous range of acts—this year’s lineup includes the Smashing Pumpkins, the Black Crowes, the Roots and Big Boi; hipster acts the Joy Formidable and Phoenix; and, of course, local icons Jerry Lee Lewis and Mavis Staples. As for the lay of the land, Goner Records (goner-records.com) co-founder Zac Ives points to the Midtown district of Cooper-Young: “That’s where the shop is and several of my favorite bars and restaurants.” He also recommends checking out the up-and-coming Overton Square and Crosstown areas.…

G GUY OSEARY IS SITTING IN THE SPRAWLING YARD OF his Beverly Hills estate, listing all the things he’s said “no” to in the past 16 years. It is not a short list. Though he’s built an enviable career as co-founder of Maverick Records, business partner-turned-manager of Madonna and a powerful partner in A-Grade, an investment fund with Ashton Kutcher and supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle valued at more than $20 million, Oseary has done little press since 1997. That was the year he agreed to talk with the Los Angeles Times’ Calendar section regarding Maverick’s meteoric ascent as the little boutique that could—breaking Candlebox, Alanis Morissette and, later that year, the Prodigy—and the last time he can remember participating in any type of profile that focused more on him than…

When Garbage met Screaming Females, it was love at first sound check. Generations in rock separate them—Garbage embarked on a seven-year hiatus the year before Screaming Females even picked out a name for themselves in 2005—but their penchant for hard noise, a kindred fondness for Patti Smith and the seismic vocal chemistry between lead singers Shirley Manson and Marissa Paternoster laid the foundation for creative kismet when the alt-rock stalwarts brought the indie/punk upstarts along on their comeback tour last fall. The idea to cover “Because the Night,” Smith’s incendiary single co-written by Bruce Springsteen, was suggested by Paternoster when the bands opted to close one of the tour’s fnal shows with a duet—the only one Manson had ever performed on the Garbage stage—and it eventually made its way to…

ARTIST: Ms Mr ALBUM: Second Hand Rapture LABEL: Columbia MANAGERS: Matt shay, Zeitgeist Management; Louise Latimer, Golden Arm PRODUCERS: Max Hershenow, Tom Elmhirst PUBLISHER: BMG Chrysalis BOOKING AGENT: Creative Artists Agency TWITTER: @msmrsounds As co-founder of Neon Gold Records, Lizzy Plapinger has helped distribute some of the earliest digital and 7-inch singles of now-major acts like Ellie Goulding, Gotye, Marina & the Diamonds, Passion Pit and Icona Pop. But as half of self-professed “gloom pop” duo MS MR, Plapinger herself could soon join the ranks of the acts whose careers she helped jump-start. MS MR’s Columbia Records debut, Second Hand Rapture (May 14), is full of sweeping, dramatic pop in the vein of Florence & the Machine but with the visual dynamic of Eurythmics—the often multi-color-tressed Plapinger on enigmatic vocals,…

Nearly a year after Florida Georgia Line’s country chart-topper “Cruise” first took off, a remix featuring the duo’s Universal Nashville labelmate Nelly is putting new gas in its tank. “Cruise” has been on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for 36 weeks, topping it five times since December (it rises 8-1 this week), but the remix is helping the track crack the Mainstream Top 40 airplay chart for the first time: This week, its third on the tally, “Cruise” rises 38-31, and also re-enters the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 8. The remix is a strong seller, moving 186,000 copies last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. These numbers only take into account a few hours of buyer reaction to Florida Georgia Line’s big night at the Academy of Country Music Awards…

Justin Timberlake’The 20/20 Experience holds at No. 1 for a third straight week on the Billboard 200, selling another 139,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan (down 56%). It’s the first set to spend its first three weeks at No. 1 since Taylor Swift’Red (Nov. 10-Nov. 24, 2012) and the first by a male artist in nearly three years. Eminem’Recovery was the last by a male to rule in its first three weeks: July 10-July 24, 2010. Total sales for 20/20 now stand at 1.4 million. The Band Perry makes a robust start at No. 2 on the chart, as its second album, Pioneer, debuts with a stronger-than-expected 129,000 (its best week ever). It also launches at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, the act’s first No. 1 on…

Four months ago, few had heard of Swedish EDM duo Cazzette. Today, the act, two DJs from a small coastal town on the outskirts of Gothenberg, Sweden, has crested not just one Billboard chart, but three—Dance Club Songs, Global Dance Songs and On-Demand Songs. The group then capped its accomplishments with a contract with Island Def Jam—all without having sold a single track. Cazzette’s unlikely rise to prominence wasn’t an accident. Rather, it was an orchestrated afair between Spotify and Cazzette manager Ash Pournouri, a scrappy EDM up-and-comer who also manages Avicii. Each brought different agendas, but they united over a common goal: to lift Cazzette out of obscurity. Pournouri wanted to leverage Cazzette’s success as a strong second act to launch his own EDM label, PRMD. Spotify wanted to…

An ever-growing number of start ups have launched and much venture capital has been invested under the presumption that people actively seek new music and would be interested in independent fare if given the opportunity to hear it. And indeed, some people actively seek out new music— but just some. Playlists are one way that music fans discover new songs. For example, one of Spotify’s early, unique selling points was based on the idea that people will discover music through the sharing of songs and playlists. Over time the service has added third-party apps that create new and different ways to discover music—for example, concert reviews by Pitchfork, charts by Billboard—but the playlist is still at the heart of the Spotify experience. But playlists don’t seem very popular in light…

As the desert temperature rises during this year’s Coachella festival (April 12-14, 19-21) in Indio, Calif., environmental nonprofit Global Inheritance will offer festivalgoers free shots of purified water in an effort to educate them on the potential water sources of the future. The water bar, dubbed the Oasis, will be set up near the Gobi Tent on Empire Polo Field and manned by Ph.D. students from the University of California Los Angeles. In exchange for taking a brief quiz about drinking water, festival attendees will be served free shots of purified H20 from 13 untraditional sources, including Los Angeles sewer water, the Colorado River, desalinated water from the Pacific Ocean and rain water. “The way we drink water today is definitely going to change or will need to evolve,” Global…

An organizational retooling and surge in venue growth for House of Blues Entertainment (HOBE) in the Northeast corridor is serving as a microcosm for a national synchronized marketing and club/theater touring strategy that is selling tickets and developing acts. Already un officially the most trafficked region in the world for small-venue touring, the Northeast has been a “good template” for House of Blues’ national efforts, division COO Ben Weeden says. “In that corridor—[Washington] D.C. to Philadelphia, through New Jersey to New York City into Long Island—we’ve probably experienced the largest growth in our portfolio the last couple of years, but it’s certainly not limited to that area,” says Weeden, who just completed a “road show” with other HOB executives to showcase their strategy to agents, labels and managers. In 2011,…

After nearly 20 years of angst-filled waiting, Rush fans were finally vindicated when it was announced in December that the Canadian progressive rockers would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 18. Despite the long wait, the band isn’t taking much time of for celebrating: It will begin the next leg of its Clockwork Angels tour on April 23 in Austin. Here, bassist/singer Geddy Lee looks back on the musical firsts that shaped his life, along with some of Rush’s musical milestones. First piece of music that you bought or received as a gift: It was a single by Billy Joe Royal called “Down in the Boondocks.” It was kind of a dumb pop song. It was a birthday gift. I didn’t really have a…

Y Combinator: Since 2005, this semiannual Silicon Valley tech meet-up has been a place where more than 500 startups have met with potential investors to receive seed funding. Among the successful companies to receive funding in Hollywood: Airbnb, Dropbox, Rap Genius, Loopt and Songkick. Launchpad LA: Located mere footsteps from the beach in Santa Monica, this “startup accelerator” offers accepted companies free office space for four months, $100,000 in funding and access to powerful mentors, advisers and potential investors. Since its accelerator program launched in 2011, Launchpad LA has graduated 18 companies that have collectively raised more than $30 million in funding. Start Engine: One of Los Angeles’ largest startup accelerators, Start Engine is the brainchild of Activision co-founder Howard Marks and Bristol Capitol Advisors founder Paul Kessler. Meeting of…

While vinyl’s ascension has moved beyond the realm of cool into an important moneymaker for key niches in the U.S. music industry, for all of its growth, the format still remains a small percentage of sales. In 2012, vinyl album sales totaled 1.4% of U.S. album sales, or 4.6 million units, compared to 0.4% in 2008 when vinyl sold 1.9 million units. But some of that percentage gain is also due to the decline of album sales from 428.4 million units in 2008 to 316 million last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Still, labels like Epitaph and Yep Roc say vinyl album sales can make up anywhere from 12% to 20% of dollar sales volume during the first month of a title’s release. In the case of Yep Roc, that’s…

ARTIST: Amy Grant ALBUM: How Mercy Looks From Here LABEL: Sparrow Records/Capitol Christian Music Group MANAGER: Jennifer Cooke PRODUCER: Marshall Altman PUBLISHER: Grant Girls Music (ASCAP) administered by the Loving Company BOOKING AGENT: John Huie, Creative Artists Agency CHART HISTORY: Christmas Memories (2011), No. 15 Top Christian Albums, 28,000; Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (2011), No. 39 Top Christian Albums, 53,000; Somewhere Down the Road (2010), No. 2 Top Christian Albums, No. 41 Billboard 200, 151,000 TWITTER: @amygrant With philanthropy, touring and teasing fans with a few new tunes on holiday and hits packages, Amy Grant has remained visible, yet it’s been a decade since she released an album of all-new songs. That will change May 14 with the arrival of How Mercy Looks From Here. “I never stopped…

The Academy of Country Music Awards proved to be a force, as usual, in pop culture and on the Billboard charts. The ACMs offered more than 20 performers during its April 7 broadcast on CBS, hosted by Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton. Performances included a live collaboration from Garth Brooks and George Strait honoring the late Dick Clark, and an all-star show opener featuring Shelton, Bryan, Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow and Pistol Annies. 17.5% 15.4M Viewers totaled 15.4 million, up 17.5% from last year’s 13.1 million. This year’s telecast was the most-watched ACMs since 1998—its first on CBS—which tallied 17.3 million viewers. 181% 1.9M According to Twitter’s Bluefin Labs, the ACMs garnered 1.9 million social media comments for the week ending April 7, up 181% from the 676,000 registered 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…

CBS SYNERGY The Academy of Country Music Awards on April 7 posted their highest ratings since 1998, which was largely attributed to ramped-up promotional activities across the 125 stations in the CBS Radio network and their various online properties. CBS’ country stations promoted the awards from the nominations announcement forward. Other genre stations keyed on tune-in promotions during ACM weekend, helping attract 15.5 million viewers to CBS for the three-hour telecast (according to Nielsen), which featured Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and others. THE SKINNY ON IFPI The first growth year for the global music industry since 1999 was spurred by increases in digital, performance rights and synch revenue as well as rising consumption in emerging markets, according to the big annual report released April 8 by IFPI. Physical sales are…

As chief music nerd at Gracenote, Ty Roberts gets involved in some of the industry’s more experimental efforts to leverage technology and deep data to drive music discovery and sales. Gracenote provides a treasure trove of information for entertainment services, from artist and actor bios to album metadata and song recognition. Based in San Francisco, Roberts is elbow-deep in a number of projects. 9.00 AM Coffee with Jerry harrison, who was one of the Talking Heads, at the Starbucks in San Rafael. He’s a producer now, and he’s very interested in streaming live concerts. We’re developing technology in our labs that could help Jerry assemble live video feeds in a new and interesting way. 10.00 AM Quick call with a curator at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum to check up…

In the touring industry, as in life, the ability to tap into deep financial resources can come in handy. This truism was proved yet again with the story of how the Rolling Stones came to work with AEG Live in promoting the upcoming North American dates on the band’s 50 and Counting tour. As the team that put up an estimated $25 million for the five shows marking the band’s 50th anniversary last December, Australian promoter Paul Dainty and Virgin Music had the inside track to do the 2013 North American dates—provided they could come up with the money, believed to be about $76 million in guarantees. As Billboard reported last week, and before, Dainty put together a satisfactory deal—on paper. In fact, it was probably all but done after…

1 Fast Friends: Former President Bill Clinton and Stevie Wonder at the Paul Newman SeriousFun Children’s Network event. Joining in on the fun: Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Fallon, Jerry Seinfield and Melanie Griffith. 2 A flaming hot time: Warner Bros.’Michelle Edgar (left) and Chanel Auguste show support for Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne at Billboard’s raucous and rum-fueled listening party for the band’s new album, The Terror, at the General in New York on April 3. 3 Phoenix rising: A day before its “Saturday Night Live” appearance, alt-rock band Phoenix treated lucky SiriusXM listeners to a private concert at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 5. From left: SiriusXM’s Steve Blatter, Phoenix guitarist Laurent Brancowitz, Glassnote Records’Daniel Glass, Phoenix bassist Deck D’Arcy (kneeling), SiriusXM’s Steve Leeds and Randy Dry, Phoenix…

Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton doesn’t need Shirley Bassey, Kanye West or Jay-Z to tell him diamonds are forever—as his connection to the glory days of Roc-a-Fella Records is proving to be equally timeless. The esteemed engineer/DJ/producer is perhaps the most renowned mixer in hip-hop, thanks to numerous on-wax shout-outs from Jay-Z, the rap equivalent of a Times Square billboard. Young Guru, who also serves as Jay-Z’s tour DJ, mixed the rapper’s last 10 albums— mostly at New York’s now-defunct Baseline Studios, which served as home base for Roc-a-Fella artists including West and producer Just Blaze, who co-owned the space. “We used to work nonstop,” says Guru, who has also mixed for Beyoncé and Drake, of his days at Baseline. “I basically considered it my New York apartment because we were…

‘Save Rock and Roll,’ their full-force comeback, behind closed doors “What if the Smiths got back together? How would I want it to go down?” Fall Out Boy bassist and main songwriter Pete Wentz asks rhetorically. “I’d want a song right away, shows right away . . . ‘And by the way, they’ve already recorded the album.’ The whole time you thought they were secretly meeting, they were secretly meeting. How crazy would that be?” Speaking from a hotel room in London’s West End, Wentz is using his personal fandom to explain the events that transpired Feb. 4, the day Fall Out Boy confirmed it had reunited three years after announcing an indefinite hiatus. But that wasn’t all: The band also announced a new album, Save Rock and Roll, fully…

ARTIST: Michael Bublé ALBUM: To Be Loved LABEL: 143/Reprise MANAGER: Bruce Allen, Bruce Allen Talent PRODUCER: Bob Rock PUBLISHER: I’m the last Man standing Music (SOCAN) BOOKING AGENTS: Don Fox, Beaver Productions; Rob Light, Creative Artists Agency TWITTER: @michaelbuble Michael Bublé got his start in his 20s paying homage to great crooners like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Bobby Darin and Dean Martin, and making a pretty decent living at it—he sold 20 million albums worldwide before releasing 2009’s Crazy Love, according to Warner Bros., establishing him as a crossover star at adult and mainstream top 40 with hits like “Haven’t Met You Yet” and “Hollywood.” It was the latter project that the singer credits with helping him find out “what Michael Bublé’s distinct voice was,” he says, and for paving…

Lavigne Still Refusing To ‘Grow Up’ “We don’t ever stop—and we’re never gonna change,” Lavigne gleefully intones during the first verse of her comeback single. But some things have indeed changed for her: Now engaged to Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, Lavigne has harnessed her financé’s knack for brash, glass-raising hooks by recruiting him as co-writer on “Here’s to Never Growing Up,” an ode to the stubbornness of youthful irresponsibility. And unlike the songs from 2011’s Goodbye Lullaby, which too often strayed from the second part of Lavigne’s “pop-rock” domain, her new single collects good favor through clean guitar chords and drum rolls. Still, Lavigne will always be renowned for her tongue-wagging punk sensibilities, and this track’s bratty title fits her teenage worldview to a tee. The song immediately reintroduces the most…

Tyga, who released his third album, Hotel California, on April 9, is arguably the dark horse of Cash Money Records. The album’s existing singles include the Rick Rossassisted “Dope,” which debuted and peaked at No. 19 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and “Molly,” which hit No. 22 on the chart three weeks ago and peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, stats like these aren’t necessarily indicative of the potential success of Tyga’s latest offering. Last year’s Careless World: Rise of the Last King debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, fueled by the colossal “Rack City,” which reached No. 7 on the Hot 100. However, “Rack City” was the third single of Careless World. The previous two—“Far Away” and “Still Got It”—only reached Nos. 86…

With Bruno Mars’ stripped-down ballad “When i Was your Man” topping this week’s Billboard Hot 100, we look at the tempo of the last 20 no. 1 hits to see how they compare. 1 Bruno Mars “When I Was Your Man” This song, and Adele’s “Someone Like You” (September 2011), are the only ballads to top the Hot 100 since Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” five years ago. Rihanna, meanwhile, rebounds 6-4 on this week’s Hot 100 with her own piano-and-vocal ballad “Stay,” featuring Mikky Ekko. Justin Parker plays piano on the track. 2 Baauer “Harlem Shake” One might think this EDM track would have a much higher BPM (93) considering the manic dancing that made it such a meme phenomenon. However, the fairly shuffling track isn’t even among the top…