Search Results for: Record Store Day

No wonder pop fans are singing the blues. Radio sounds like a broken record. CD prices are heading off the charts. Labels are out of tune with the digital age. New acts fail to strike a chord with listeners. It’s time to face the music. The $14 billion recording industry, struggling through its first sales slump in a decade, faces challenges on several fronts, not the least of which is a tarnished image in the eyes and ears of fans who feel ripped off by greedy, tone-deaf bean counters. In 2001, album sales dropped 2.8% compared with 2000, the first… Read more »

Popular music has been upended by every technological advance from electricity and the phonograph to cassette tapes and recordable CDs. The switch from analog to digital accelerated the pace of illicit duplication and distribution, sounding the loudest alarm yet. As Napster struggles to survive, other sites from Gnutella to KaZaa are filling the void. Last week, labels and music publishers sued Audiogalaxy, a booming file-swapping network that lured 3.5 million users in March. The complaint: The Recording Industry Association of America, on behalf of labels, is vigorously seeking to stamp out proliferating Web sites that permit free downloads of music.… Read more »

Last week Eminem was a little uneasy about the fact that bootlegging had pressured Interscope to release his much-hyped The Eminem Show way ahead of schedule. Would such a hasty move screw up his game plan? (See “Eminem Show Moved Up Again – Album In Stores Sunday”). Well, 1.6 million records sold later, Em can relax – not that he was really sweating how many units he was gonna move. “I don’t ever buy into the pressure of trying to top my last album for record sales,” he said, cruising around Manhattan on top of a double-decker bus. “The pressure… Read more »

A grand jury indicted singer Robert “R.” Kelly Wednesday (June 5) on 21 felony counts of child pornography, according to the Cook County state attorney’s office. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. If convicted, Kelly would have to register as a sex offender. In February, a videotape was given to the Chicago Sun-Times, which in turn handed the tape over to the sex crimes unit of the Chicago police department. The tape in question – which has been bootlegged and sold across the country everywhere from the street corner and the… Read more »

Performing at Saturday’s taping of the MTV Movie Awards was “one of the worst feelings ever” for Kelly Osbourne, but stage fright won’t slow down her burgeoning music career. The pink-haired, 17-year-old starlet of “The Osbournes” revealed backstage after her live singing debut that she is scheduled to spend July and August in a New York studio recording a full-length album. Ozzy’s daughter said she’ll work with producer Rick Wake, whose résumé includes music by Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, but she offered few other details. “I can not divulge my secrets,” Osbourne said seductively, before changing tones.… Read more »

Metallica have yet to settle on a Ramones cover to lend to a forthcoming tribute LP to the pioneering punks; perhaps “I Can’t Make It on Time” would be an apt selection. A contribution from the heavy-metal stalwarts is all that co-producer Rob Zombie is waiting on to sign off on the tracks for We’re a Happy Family, which he hopes will hit stores in August. “It’s almost done. We’re just waiting for Metallica to finish their song,” Zombie said while walking the red carpet Saturday at the MTV Movie Awards. Metallica’s delay is not for lack of enthusiasm. After… Read more »

Bennett Zier has a fine idea for a new radio format. His eyes light up as he tells you about it. “We play Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Bobby Darin,” he says. “The great thing about it is what we call it. You ready?” He pauses. “Vegas Radio! Is that great or what?” Zier can imagine the whole scene – the deejays, the jingles, the ironic retro-swinger patter. It’s his music, the kind he plays in his car. He’s in love with this idea, and with his natural salesman’s charm, he’s making you love it, too. So why doesn’t… Read more »

Eminem’s “The Eminem Show” racked up 284,000 units in U.S. sales over the weekend, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making the Aftermath/Interscope album a lock to debut at No. 1 on this week’s Billboard 200. In fact, Eminem beats the No. 2 album, P. Diddy’s “We Invented the Remix” (Bad Boy/Arista), by more than 100,000 units. Now, the only question remaining is whether Eminem’s album will top the million-unit mark in its second week, when it has a full week of sales behind it. The rapper’s last album, “The Marshall Mathers LP,” racked up 1.7 million units in its debut week.… Read more »

Sean Combs’ album “P. Diddy & Bad Boy Records Present… We Invented the Remix” bows at No. 1 atop the Billboard 200 on 255,550 units sold. The album marks the third No. 1 release during the past two months that has hit stores at a discounted price. Last week, Musiq’s “Juslisen,” which sold with a $2.50 rebate debuted at No. 1 on 260,150 copies scanned. The Def Jam album slips to No. 5 this week on 115,775 units scanned. Ashanti’s self-titled debut, offered with a new-artist discount and $2 rebate, sold more than half a million records during its first… Read more »

The people who tried to take away your VCR are at it again. Hollywood has always dreamed of a “well-mannered marketplace” where the only technologies that you can buy are those that do not disrupt its business. Acting through legislators who dance to Hollywood’s tune, the movie studios are racing to lock away the flexible, general-purpose technology that has given us a century of unparalelled prosperity and innovation. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the “Content Protection Status Report” with the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, laying out its plan to remake the technology world to suit its… Read more »