Innholdsfortegnelse for Jan-18-14 i Billboard Magazine

In just four weeks, Beyoncé has accomplished what few—if any—artists could pull off, stealthily releasing her self-titled album to widespread acclaim and enough crazed fan excitement to sell 1.5 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (That already beats the 1.4 million that her last album, 4, has sold since its June 2011 release.) But has Beyoncé’s bombshell made her a few important enemies in releasing new music without any advance promotion? And what can the industry learn from her experiment? ¶ “I imagine every retailer is trying to figure out a way to prevent the Beyoncé release model from happening within the next six to 12 big releases,” one senior label executive says. “This is an industry of copycats, so I expect we will see this again this year.” Amazon…

Phil Everly, whose harmony-driven marriage of traditional country and early rock’n’roll would influence the Beatles and generations of rock acts, died Jan. 3 at a Burbank, Calif., hospital near his home. He was 74. The cause of death was reported as complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Beginning in 1957 with “Bye Bye Love,” a song that went to No. 2 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart, No. 1 on the country list and No. 2 at R&B, Phil and Don Everly entered the pop world on the heels of Elvis Presley, blending infuences similar to his to produce a gentler, harmony-rich version of rock’n’roll. “Wake Up Little Susie” would be their first No. 1, and between 1958 and 1967 they would hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart 30…

Since its merger with fellow New York adult R&B radio station WRKS (Kiss-FM) about 18 months ago, WBLS has been gaining ratings ground. With a weekday lineup that includes Steve Harvey, former Kiss personalities Shaila Scott and Lenny Green, comedian Earthquake and co-host Deja-Vu, the YMF Media outlet fnished second in November’s monthly Nielsen Audio ratings—just a fraction behind the perennial market leader, adult contemporary WLTW (Lite FM). At the WBLS programming helm is radio veteran Skip Dillard, who also oversees gospel sister station WLIB. During the last 20 years, the one-time Billboard Airplay Monitor top 40/R&B editor has called the programming shots at R&B stations from Bufalo, N.Y., and Detroit to San Francisco and Washington, D.C., before landing at WBLS and WLIB nearly six years ago. 6.30 AM Wake…

PUBLISHING Warner/Chappell Music promotes Jon Platt to president of North America. The appointment gives Warner Music Group two fixes with one move. First, it acknowledges the strong leadership role Platt has played since coming aboard in September 2012. (He previously served as Warner/Chappell’s president of creative for North America.) One of the hallmarks of the Len Blavatnik era has been its stated ambition of recruiting talented executives and recognizing their contributions, and Platt’s promotion reinforces that goal. Second, it further frees up Warner/Chappell chairman/CEO Cameron Strang in his quest to rebuild Warner Bros. Records. Strang is also responsible for Rhino Entertainment. Platt, a former executive at EMI Publishing, has a sterling reputation among artists, songwriters and other WMG executives, who within months of his arrival had already assessed him as…

RETAIL TRACK ED CHRISTMAN @EDCHRISTMAN The two biggest innovative album releases of 2013 came from a married couple, each doing their own thing in a different way. Jay Z partnered with Samsung with an app that delivered his Magna Carta . . . Holy Grail album to 1 million users for free—even though the phone maker paid him $5 million. Then Beyoncé fired a shot heard ’round the world on Dec. 13 when she used social media to drive immediate sales for her self-titled album and 17 videos, all while the industry and her fans were in the dark about what was coming. Both music marketing coups were brilliant, and despite slight flaws, delivered amazing results. “Beyoncé got press where music never gets press, including the front page of the…

What did you wake up thinking about this morning? What I think about mostly is how to make the SONGS experience the best it can be for our writers, employees and licensees. We are in a people business, not just an asset business. Our relationship is equity. A huge portion of my time and energy is focused on that. What will define your career in the coming year? I tend to think in cycles rather than years. In this cycle—which is a growth cycle where we are signing higher-profile songwriters—what will define our company will be our ability to preserve our culture and service commitment to our writers. As the world accelerates around us and as our company’s velocity has increased, the key is to make smart music decisions and…

Would “Jaws” gnash without John Williams’ ominous score? Exactly. And that symbiotic relationship between sound and celluloid is a central part of this indie incubator. “Music is an integral part of the festival,” Sundance Institute Film Music program director Peter Golub says, citing the many movies about artists that the iconic fest has premiered in its 30 years, from James Murphy (“Shut Up and Play the Hits”) to Joan Jett (“The Runaways”). “In addition, independent filmmakers have become increasingly skilled at employing music in their films to complement and enhance the story.” To seize on that momentum, Billboard and Sonos will bring the sound experience to life for 2014 festival-goers. A carved-out space within Park City Live (formerly Harry O’s on Main Street) will be transformed into the Billboard/Sonos Home…

The Billboard Hot 100 • The Beatles reign as the No. 1 artist of the Billboard Hot 100’s first 55 years (Billboard, Aug. 10, 2013). Madonna (No. 2) and Elton John (No. 3) follow. • The Fab Four hold one of the most vaunted records in all of Billboard chart history: the most Hot 100 No. 1s (20) of all time. • The band boasts the most Hot 100 top 10s among groups (34), from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964 through “Free As a Bird” in 1996. • Another esteemed Billboard chart record: The Beatles are the only act to chart in the Hot 100’s top five simultaneously. The week of April 4, 1964, they ranked at Nos. 1-5 with “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Twist and Shout,”…

In a year filled with event albums from blockbuster artists, how did Republic Records break through with a roster full of new artists? By keeping it simple, and aligning itself with the right partners, chairman/CEO Monte Lipman says. “We are completely obsessive about breaking new artists and take tremendous pride in our track record,” he says. “And when you talk about our incredible roster, it’s also about our relationships with people like Jason Flom at Lava, Slim and Baby [Williams] at Cash Money and Scott Borchetta at Big Machine. We would not be in the position we’re in without them.” There’s also the Republic staff, which includes co-founder/president Avery Lipman; “franchise player” Charlie Walk, who joined the label as executive VP in early 2013; and A&R heads Rob Stevenson and…

Jamie “Babyface” Pendleton, rhythmic KGZG Spokane, Wash. Tyga, “Good Day” featuring Lil Wayne and Meek Mill. We’re in a huge college market, so we try to add a few tracks that help us stand apart from mainstream competitors. “good day” is one of those tracks. Sean Paul “Want Dem All.” Will this be what sends reggae back to its peak on rhythmic? I think so! It’s been a minute since reggae was a staple on the airwaves. Having come up with the formula, Sean Paul reinvented himself with this track. It’s a hit in the clubs and dominating our text request lines. Far*East Movement, “The Illest” featuring Riff Raff. This reminds me of “Like a g6.” Far*East Movement has found the perfect balance again with a radio banger that will…

Beyoncé isn’t a sloppy drinker: On “Drunk in Love,” from her self-titled fifth studio album, she imbibes the beat slowly and with a measured sultriness. The new club-rumbler is yet another collaboration with hubby Jay Z on which Beyoncé takes a sip from her golden chalice and sings about the intoxicating love she’s got for her beau. 808s (paired with fnger snaps) knock under the suggestive lyrics—Bey points out that she’s “flthy when that liquor get into me”—making “Drunk in Love” more of a Southern hip-hop song than an R&B track. She even tosses out a few rap lines herself before Jay, taking a swig or two of his D’Usse cognac, quips that their “foreplay in the foyer” damaged his Warhol painting. Jay and Bey may be a little tipsy…

The music industry usually shuts down the week after Christmas, but as 2013 came to a close, some huge stars nonetheless provided fans with belated stocking-stufers. On Dec. 26, Miley Cyrus unveiled the video for “Adore You,” while a new version of Lady Gaga’s single “Do What U Want,” featuring Christina Aguilera instead of R. Kelly, hit digital retail on New Year’s Day. Nicki Minaj also returned with a remix to PTAF’s “Boss Ass Bitch” on Dec. 30, and Ke$ha released a music video for her Warrior track “Dirty Love” one day later. With gift cards ready to be redeemed and new gadgets being loaded with music, the days after Christmas are one of the most robust sales periods of the year. 2013 was no different, with 43.1 million digital…

“If I didn’t have Angel on lockdown, she would just put it on SoundCloud. I wake up every day in fear of that happening.” That was Nicola Carson, Angel Haze’s manager, speaking presciently to Billboard in November about her client’s desire for fans to hear her debut LP, Dirty Gold. And sure enough, after Haze leaked the set on SoundCloud on Dec. 18, Carson and Republic Records hastily agreed to release it digitally on Dec. 30 in the United States and the United Kingdom. The set debuts at No. 15 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart with sales of nearly 1,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. “As you can imagine, the phone didn’t stop ringing for awhile,” Carson told Billboard a few days after Dirty Gold’ release. “The conversations happened very quickly…

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 (Platinum). Numeral noted with platinum symbol indicates…

IHEART RADIO FEST GOES COUNTRY Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio festival brand is strapping on its cowboy boots and heading to Austin. The radio giant has announced the first iHeartRadio Country Festival to be held in the Texas capital on March 29. Following the model set by the iHeartRadio Music Festival, the country fest will feature some of the genre’s biggest names, including Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum. KOBALT BUYS WINWOOD SONGS Kobalt Music Copyrights has acquired the global publishing rights to Steve Winwood’s catalog. The Grammy Award-winning British artist is responsible for a string of hits dating to the late ’60s, including “Higher Love” and “Roll With It.” The deal gives KMC control of Winwood’s entire catalog of 177 songs, including those…

My father used to get his hair cut by Ike, their father, in Madison, Tenn. Ike was always saying, “I’ve got these two boys and they’re really good singers.” Everybody in Nashville has a relative who sings, so my father, much like anybody else, would say, “I’d love to hear them.” But it never got to dad enough where he initiated anything further. His publisher, Wesley Rose of Acuff-Rose, was friendly with [Cadence Records owner] Archie Bleyer, who called my folks in to sing a few songs for a new group he was signing. They showed them “Bye Bye Love,” which the boys seemed to like pretty well. It had been turned down by scads of people, but my father had faith in that song. Initially, it was supposed to…

WHAT: Warner Music Group has finalized the integration of Parlophone’s roster into its U.S. label structure following the acquisition of the imprint from Universal Music Group for £487 million ($765 million) in 2013. Parlophone will remain a front-line label in other international territories. Under the new U.S. structure, Warner Bros. Records will inherit the majority of Parlophone’s roster, including new releases from Damon Albarn, Kylie Minogue, Lily Allen, Bat for Lashes, Eliza Doolittle, Conor Maynard and Gabrielle Aplin, among others, and catalog titles from Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Blur, Gorillaz, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Supergrass and Sinéad O’Connor. Atlantic Records will distribute new releases from three additional acts: Coldplay, Tinie Tempah and, through dance imprint Big Beat, David Guetta. WHY: Warner’s acquisition of Parlophone’s catalog was finalized in May after approval from…

William Morris Endeavor and its stakeholder Silver Lake Partners have acqui red IMG Worldwide, a rival talent agency and marketing firm with particular depth in sports. WME, the agency run by Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, came out on top during an auction where bids were submitted on Dec. 13. Bids of less than $1.8 billion came in from CVC Capital and Chernin Entertainment and a consortium of ICM Partners and the Carlyle Group. Emanuel and Whitesell will serve as co-CEOs of the combined company. Terms of the transaction, including the sale price, weren’t disclosed, but Mubadala Development will be a minority investor in the firm. IMG is considered a plum asset because it is reportedly expected to earn about $175 million this year. Both a talent agency and producer,…

SOUND & VISION PHIL GALLO @PHILGALLO58 The first performers announced for this year’s Grammy Awards telecast had the distinction of being first-timers (Daft Punk), unique pairings (Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons, P!nk and Nate Ruess) and a quartet of country music stars (Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Blake Shelton). And they all give TV viewers a reason to tune in to the CBS show on Jan. 26. The Grammys are playing to their strengths with this first set of artists, but there may be more than meets the eye here. The Grammys’ fan base looks to TV as a central platform for music, and these performers show TV serving the traditional viewer. The introduction of P!nk as an electrifying performer—she gave eye-popping performances at MTV’s Video Music Awards…

P!nk and Janelle Monáe were feted at Billboard’s Women in Music lunch at Capitale in New York, where Chvrches, Tegan & Sara and Christina Perri performed. Later that night, the girl power continued as Tori Kelly took the stage at Billboard’s Candid Covers concert. 1 Raise a glass: Billboard’s Woman of the Year P!nk (right) greets Rising Star honoree Janelle Moná on the Capitale red carpet for Billboard’s Women in Music lunch in New York on Dec. 10. “She has such a presence,” P!nk said of Monáe. “She walks in her power, and she’s just super talented.” Asked whether she had any tips for future stars, P!nk joked: “Fuck up as much as you can when you’re young.” 2 Picture this: Blondie’s frontwoman—and 2008 Billboard Women in Music Icon recipient—Deborah…

Music City Goldmine Guitar legend Steve Gibson returns to the hit-making studio he built 30 years ago and reignites the console With a last name like his, Peoria, Ill., native Steve Gibson was bound to pick up a guitar—and pick he did. Moving to Nashville in 1972, Gibson got his first break playing on Dave Loggins’ 1974 hit, “Please Come to Boston,” and forged a long, distinguished career as a country guitar picker, whether adding honkytonk twang to Johnny Rodriguez records or rhythmic riffs to an acoustic Dolly Parton boxed set. But one of his greatest credits is OmniSound Studios. “Some of the stuff has been here since we built the place in ’84,” Gibson says of the studio’s cream- and rust-colored tile floors, where Charlie Pride, Randy Travis, Taylor…

Going Viral = Word-Of-Mouth “Going viral” is a new name for an old phenomenon. The Internet is traditional word-of-mouth on steroids, amplifying a message by making it easy to quickly share information. But gossip, recommendations and opinions have always spread from person to person. As the old Fabergé Organics commercial goes, one person tells two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on. The job of business is to both build and capitalize on that word-of-mouth. The Beatles went viral by creating word-of-mouth and turning the buzz into mainstream media attention. It’s a feedback loop that feeds itself. In the United Kingdom, manager Brian Epstein and EMI converted public interest into media attention into more public interest. The U.S. media’s interest in the…

“From our very first shows, before we even put out a record, people have always been slapping us on the back, giving us a big kiss and a big hug and going, ‘I dig your thing. I like what you’re about.’” Pixies bandleader Black Francis fondly remembers the good old days, when his band crafted its signature works—1988’s Surfer Rosa and 1989’s Doolittle—and taught Kurt Cobain a thing or two about loud choruses. But after almost a decade on the reunion circuit, the group is putting its legacy on the line by releasing new music for the first time since 1991, aside from a 2004 one-of single. For version 2.0, the Pixies are not only adapting to 21st-century attention spans, they’re trying to craft new music that holds up against…

James Mercer came up with the title for After the Disco—the much-anticipated sophomore efort from Broken Bells, his electro-pop duo with producer Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse)—by accident. “After the Disco came from some scat stuff I was doing to figure out a melody,” says Mercer, also frontman for alt-rock mainstays the Shins. “I didn’t actually ever say, ‘After the disco’”—the nonsensical words he sang just made it sound like he did—“but for some reason it grabbed our attention, and I started running with that.” For Burton, the title of the album, due Feb. 4 on Columbia Records, took on existential proportions. “When you’re younger, you have a lot of dreams. When you get to be an adult, what are you supposed to dream about?” asks Burton, the acclaimed producer…

Major corporate branding. Cryptic cookies. Layers upon layers of authentication. Coca-Cola’s latest attempt to reach tweens through location-based playlist creation and discovery has some major hurdles to overcome before mass adoption. Because Coke is available in 207 countries and consumed 1.8 billion times per day, it is the antithesis of a hip brand with which in-the-know kids want to associate. Yet Coke invested $10 million in streaming service Spotify and partnered with it to create Placelists—a mashup of Facebook “Places” and Spotify playlists. With 24 million monthly active users, 6 million paid subscribers in 28 countries and a cool application programming interface, Spotify should be the best place to try and launch such an idea. But Placelists had exactly zero reviews in the Apple App Store as of Jan. 3,…

2013 went out with a bang, thanks to the surprise release of Beyoncé’s self-titled album on Dec. 13. The set livened up the Christmas shopping season, selling a whopping 1.3 million copies in its first three weeks on the Billboard 200. With that sum, the set fnished the year as the eighth-largest-selling effort, and the biggest by a female artist. But Beyoncé wasn’t the only notable highlight of 2013. Here are some more achievements and notable benchmarks from last year, as provided by Nielsen Entertainment. 3.5M Justin Timberlake closed out the year as the top-selling artist in terms of overall album sales, selling 3.5 million. The bulk of that sum came from his two 20/20 Experience albums, which combined to sell 3.2 million. Timberlake was the only artist to sell…

Buckingham Begins ‘Run’ Singer Celeste Buckingham, 18, is poised to make her airplay chart debut with “Run Run Run.” The bigvoiced artist, who previously competed on the Czech Republic version of “American Idol,” is receiving early support from Radio Disney. The Mr. 305-signed singer’s introductory single was the outlet’s 23rd most-played song during the Dec. 30-Jan. 5 Nielsen BDS tracking week, with 30 plays. RAC On The ‘Go’ RAC makes moves toward the Alternative airplay chart with the catchy, dance-leaning “Let Go” (Interscope), featuring Kele and MNDR. SiriusXM’s Alt Nation leads with 532 plays for the track through Jan. 5. Formerly the Remix Artists Collective, known for more than 200 remixes since its 2007 inception, RAC is now the solo project of Andre Allen Anjos. The act reached No. 9…

Percentage Of Music Sold During The Holiday Season This week we look at the volume of annual music sales during the past five years—for albums and digital songs— and break out the percentage of sales during each year’s holiday season (Thanksgiving week through the end of the year). 1 Though album sales have been trending down for years now, the holiday season is still a very important time of year for music retailers. The six-week window (or, occasionally, a five-week frame, depending on what day Thanksgiving falls on) has accounted for 15%-20% of yearly album sales in each of the past five years. 2 Of the last five years, 2010 was the most robust, in terms of the holiday season’s share of overall sales. That year, the holiday frame accounted…

Artists. With major acts ranging from U2 to Muse to Shakira looking to return to music in 2014, there’s intrigue on the next big surprise release. One label head says “only 10 or so artists” could pull a Beyoncé-like move, but no one would want be seen as a me-too. Labels. Jay Z and Beyoncé both released albums in 2013 without an advance single, while Justin Timberlake, David Bowie and Daft Punk all employed viral marketing to launch top-secret projects. Major labels will continue to keep new content close to the vest to create more effective first-week sales. ITunes. The retailer always insisted on the option to sell individual tracks from albums but the precedentsetting Beyoncé strategy of windowing single availability to boost debut-week album sales may give labels leverage…

Country music is the only genre that kept coal out of the broadcast networks’ Christmas stockings during the holiday season. When prime-time network TV takes a break from regularly scheduled programming between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, the only consistent winner has been country music the last two years. A Garth Brooks special on CBS in December attracted 8.5 million viewers, just a bit behind Blake Shelton’s special for NBC a year ago. ABC’s “CMA Country Christmas” enjoyed a small bump in 2013, as did Fox’s telecast of the American Country Awards. The strongest performer among the regular programs was “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” which gained in the ratings in both 2012 and 2013. NBC’s staging of “The Sound of Music” with Carrie Underwood decked the halls of…

Artists and managers. Veteran acts like Kylie Minogue, Lily Allen and Damon Albarn will get a much-needed push for new releases from hit-hungry Warner Bros. in the United States, while Atlantic will stay competitive with its peers through fresh music from Coldplay and David Guetta. Max Lousada. Parlophone Label Group will be led by co-CEO Lousada, who’ll take the reins when incumbent Christian Tattersfield joins Warner-backed Alternative Distribution Alliance in February. Lousada will run the group alongside Miles Leonard, his co-chair and chairman of Parlophone. Dan McCarroll. Warner Bros. Records’ new U.S. president inherits a hefty roster of established, upcoming and catalog artists, which should help take the edge off a rough 2013 that failed to see a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.…

Southern California bands Linkin Park, the Ofspring and Bad Religion will join forces onstage to present the Concert for the Philippines. Benefiting survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, the fund-raiser, set for Jan. 11 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, will also feature special guests. The benefit gig is an initiative of Music for Relief, a nonprofit disaster-aid charity organization founded by Linkin Park in 2004 in the wake of the tsunami that hit South Asia that year. Music for Relief has since raised more than $5 million for victims of natural disasters and environmental projects worldwide. Monies raised by the forthcoming Concert for the Philippines will be used to deliver critical medicines and emergency medical services as well as help with water, sanitation and other vital services through Music for Relief…

LEGAL CHRIS CASTLE @MUSICTECHPOLICY Rap Genius recently came in from the cold after topping musician/lecturer David Lowery’ “Undesirable Lyric Website List” in October. To its credit, the site has so far chosen to negotiate lyric licenses with publishers and rejected litigating a tortured “fair use” defense for copyright infringement. Rap Genius topped any Google results for practically any lyric search string, so the site was very well-known to music fans. That enviable ranking doesn’t seem dissimilar from search results for Isohunt, the Pirate Bay or Kickass Torrents. Then last month there were reports that Google had “disappeared” Rap Genius by tweaking its search algorithms—an existential threat to gutsy startups that many have complained of in the past. So what was the cardinal sin justifying Google in disappearing Rap Genius? Operating…

From Jan. 16 to the 26th, the hills of Park City, Utah, will be alive with, yes, the sound of music. That’s when the indie crowd blankets the powdery ski resort in black for the uber-hip Sundance Film Festival. “It is fertile ground for all the cool people in film and music,” says Jonathan McHugh— veteran film producer, soundtrack executive producer and Song Stew president—who has been making the annual Park City pilgrimage for the past 19 years. “If you want to stay on the pulse of what’s going to be big for the upcoming year, immerse yourself in the madness.” Loretta Munoz, assistant VP of ASCAP’s Membership Group and a veteran of the scene since the late ’80s, adds that Sundance is where one can find “our finest creators…

Consider the following: At the end of 1963, virtually no one in America had heard of the Beatles. Yet on Feb. 9, 1964, they drew the largest TV audience in history—73 million viewers—when they appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” How could such a conquest have occurred so quickly? I once asked my friend Lenny Kaye that question, and he answered: “Everybody was ready for the ’60s to begin.” ¶ There’s some truth to that, but of course there’s much more to the story. The explosion of the Beatles in America was the result of combined forces—artistic, social and technological—as well as persistence, showbiz rivalries and more than a bit of luck. ¶ So how did it happen that the Beatles came out of nowhere to become the biggest cultural…

For the first time since the iTunes store launched in 2003, digital albums and tracks have fallen in sales. The cause? It appears the bottom has fallen out of catalog sales of both, as streaming picks up steam. To be sure, current digital sales for both albums and tracks also were down in the fourth quarter, and these declines might be an indication that current will soon follow digital catalog trends. But their declines are still far below catalog downturns. For the year, track catalog sales were down 9.2%, dropping to 665.6 million units from 733.2 million in 2012, according to Nielsen SoundScan. And the decline accelerated every quarter of 2013, with the first quarter seeing a 4.5% year-over-year decrease and the fourth quarter a 15.9% tumble. Current track sales,…

He’s not yet a household name, but Eric Paslay has already spent a lot of time atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, having co-written three No. 1s: Jake Owens’ “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” Love and Theft’s “Angel Eyes” and Eli Young Band’s “Even If It Breaks Your Heart.” But as “Friday Night,” from his selftitled debut album due Feb. 4 on EMI Records Nashville, spends a second week at No. 6 on Country Airplay and rises 13-12 on Hot Country Songs this week, the lanky Texan finally has a hit to call his own. “It’s awesome to have a song go up the chart as a writer—but the reason why I ever wrote songs is because I love singing them,” he says. Paslay left Texas for Nashville in August 2003…

MAYER HAWTHORNE Alt-soul troubadour mayer Hawthorne will launch a tour later this month booked by Jbeau lewis of Creative Artists Agency (CAA). the run follows an active 2013 highlighted by Hawthorne’s third album, Where Does This Door Go (republic), and a slot opening for miguel in europe. “We’re all very happy with how important mayer’s live career has been to his overall career development,” lewis says. “He’s a showman—he makes people feel like they got their money’s worth.” Routing: Hawthorne will hit 24 north American markets, starting at House of Blues in san Diego (Jan. 30) before rolling through neumos in seattle (Feb. 3), Park West in Chicago (Feb. 14) and Warsaw in Brooklyn (Feb. 28), and ending at the garden theater in Detroit (march 6). He’ll also make his…

When it comes to Bruce, even a “minor” album is a major event. High Hopes isn’t exactly high concept—its mix of covers, rerecorded songs and previously unreleased tracks makes for a quixotic odds-and-sods collection. But whether he’s reinventing the title track—a Havalinas tune he first recorded for 1995’s Blood Brothers— into a brassy showcase of the new-era E Street Band or giving “American Skin (41 Shots)” a masterful studio makeover, the album hits more peaks than valleys. Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream” and the new “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” a fery duel with Tom Morello, may sound better live, but “Harry’s Place” and “The Wall” are richly evocative, and “Frankie Fell in Love” sounds like it was plucked right out of a Jersey club. High Hopes is eclectic, occasionally exotic…

Boosted by big Christmas box-office numbers and the onset of awards season, soundtracks are surging up the charts. Leading the way is Disney’s Frozen, which hits No. 1 on the Billboard 200, rising from No. 4. The animated film’s soundtrack, released on Walt Disney Records, sold 165,000 copies in the week ending Jan. 5—its biggest sales frame yet—adding to total sales of 503,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The soundtrack’s success is echoing that of the film, which is No. 1 at the U.S. box office and has grossed $300 million, according to Box Office Mojo. “We’re thrilled—that record is going to continue to sell through Easter,” Disney Music Group president Ken Bunt says of the soundtrack. “We have some unique windows with the holidays, the gift-card season, the awards season…

OVER THE COUNTER KEITH CAULFIELD The soundtrack to Disney’s “Frozen” blows into the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in the week ending Jan. 5, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It rises from No. 4 with a 55% gain in sales. Frozen marks the first soundtrack to reach No. 1 in a year, since Les Misérables rose to top spot on Jan. 19, 2013. Frozen climbs to the top courtesy of the movie’s continued strong showing at the box office, along with sale pricing for the set in the iTunes Store last week. The music-filled movie topped the U.S. and Canadian box ofces during the Jan. 3-5 weekend, and has earned $300 million, according to Box Office Mojo. It’s currently the fourth-highest-grossing film released in 2013. The…