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It’s official. Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed “King of Pop,” is the “King of Sales” this week, but music industry insiders predict he will soon lose the crown to pop teen queen Britney Spears. Jackson’s first album of original music in six years, “Invincible,” sold 366,272 units in the week ended Nov. 4, the first week of its release, topping all other U.S. albums, according to Soundscan, which tracks music retail figures. The pop star made an unprecedented in-store appearance Wednesday at the Virgin Megastore in New York’s Times Square, wearing a shiny royal blue outfit, complete with his signature finger-less… Read more »

Fireplaces and feet are not the only places you’ll see tube socks this Christmas season. Southern California funk rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose members occasionally wear only a strategically placed tube sock, are getting ready to release their first concert video in a decade. “Off the Map,” due December 4 on VHS and DVD, was filmed by Dick Rude at a September 2000 show in Portland, Oregon. The video includes recent Chili Peppers hits “Californication,” “Scar Tissue,” “Otherside,” “Under the Bridge” and “Give It Away,” along with older gems like “Blackeyed Blonde” from 1985’s Freaky Styley, according to… Read more »

Warner Music Group, home to such stars as Staind and Madonna, Monday said it licensed its music to Echo Networks, marking the first of several such deals the recording giant expects to reach with Web subscription services beside MusicNet, which it partly owns. “I would expect there will be more deals within the next month or two,” said Paul Vidich, executive vice president for Warner Music Group. “We’re talking to four other companies which want to enter the space of online subscription services, similar to the ones Echo and Musicnet offer,” he said. Privately held Echo plans to offer streams… Read more »

Michael Jackson will make his very first in-store appearance next week at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. Epic Records announced Friday (November 2) that the reclusive pop superstar will appear on Wednesday at 3 p.m. to promote his recently released Invincible, which is widely expected to debut at #1 next week. Jackson will also promote his first all-new studio album in 10 years with a November 13 television special on CBS. The show will feature excerpts from Jackson’s star-studded 30th anniversary concerts at Madison Square Garden in September. The CBS special kept Jackson from appearing in more than just… Read more »

Almost a week late, Britney Spears finally kicked off her Britney 2001 Tour Thursday night after the flu and a kink in her pre-production held her up. Obviously the fans who flooded the Nationwide Arena expected the concert to be all about Britney – the person, that is. And sure, she explored some personal issues/interests, appearing with a bald head at one point, bungee jumping and fighting off faceless nemeses during her performance, but the singer kept true to her promise to make a large portion of the show about Britney, the album. She previewed several cuts off of her… Read more »

Psychic spoon-bender Uri Geller says record company Sony Music removed religious words and symbols from a picture he drew for Michael Jackson’s new album. Geller, a former Israeli paratrooper famous for using mysterious mental powers to bend spoons, told Reuters that Sony Music had taken out the words “God,” “Jerusalem,” “USA” and “Angel 2000” and had replaced a Star of David with a pentagram. Jackson’s long-awaited album, “Invincible,” was released by Sony Monday and is his first album containing all-new material since “Dangerous” in 1991. “The sensitivity of not wanting any religious symbols in my drawing I found quite extraordinary… Read more »

Rapper DMX and hard rockers Incubus landed one-two this week atop the SoundScan album charts for the week ended Oct. 29, the last week before the heavy-hitters start flooding the marketplace in time for the holidays. DMX’s latest for Universal/Def Jam, “Great Depression,” sold 440,000 units in its first week out, topping Incubus’ fourth album, “Morning View” (Epic), which logged 266,000 in sales. The Dave Matthews Band’s live disc, “Live in Chicago 12-19-98 at the United Center” (RCA) was the only other debut to crack the top 10, landing at No. 6 on sales of nearly 131,000. Last week’s No.… Read more »

The Beastie Boys passed the mic on Sunday for the first time in two years while also passing along a message of worldwide peace and justice to their fans. Before a sold-out Hammerstein Ballroom crowd that had been jonesing for a B-Boys fix since 1999’s Tibetan Freedom Concert, their last public performance, MCA, Ad-Rock and Mike D performed tunes mostly from their last two albums – Hello Nasty (1998) and Ill Communication (1994) – at the first of two benefit shows raising money for those affected by September’s World Trade Center disaster. The aim of the New Yorkers Against Violence… Read more »

Michael Jackson’s long-awaited new album looks set to enter the charts at number one, according to mid-week sales figures. Jackson’s “Invincible,” released in Britain on Monday, is expected to sell between 100,000 and 150,000 in its first week, says HMV chart expert Gennaro Castaldo. “He is in the number one position and is outselling Steps’ ‘Gold Collection’ by a margin of three to one,” Castaldo told Reuters on Tuesday. “His sales are about the same as the rest of the top five combined.” “Invisible” cost an estimated $30.5 million and is Jackson’s first album of all-new material since “Dangerous” in… Read more »

Radiohead was named the world’s best band at a major music awards ceremony in London on Monday. The Oxford-based quintet beat U2, R.E.M., Stereophonics and last year’s winners, Travis, at Q magazine’s music awards. Radiohead has evolved from recording gloomy rock to soaring epics in a career spanning 14 years and five albums. Irish rocker band Ash won the best single award for “Burn Baby Burn,” taken from its No. 1 album “Free All Angels.” Travis, the Glasgow quartet fronted by Fran Healey, picked up the best album award for “The Invisible Band,” which features hits including “Sing” and “Side.”… Read more »