PYRAMID RECORDS

March 20, 2012

By Ed Christman, billboard.biz, New York

As expected, Lionel Richie hit the upper limit of what the company projected he would do from the hour-long live performance broadcast by the Home Shopping Network on March 16.

While Universal Music Group executives privately said they expected “Tuskegee” to sell 15,000-20,000 units, the superstar artist in fact sold a little more than 20,000 units, according to Universal Music Nashville VP of marketing Tom Lord.

Like most music events, HSN put the item up for sale on its website weeks before the event. But the company also preceded the event with an hour-long pre-concert show that featured Richie talking about making the album. Moreover, the overall event helped drive social chatter, which in turn was pushed by HSN’s own twitter push, Richie’s and the Universal Music Group’s own social media efforts, Lord said. (more…)

January 04, 2012

By Ed Christman, billboard.biz, New York

Although U.S. sales were slightly less robust in the fourth quarter than they were in the preceding two quarters of this year, the market still managed to hold onto its first positive album sales growth year since 2004. Overall U.S. album sales rose 1.4% to 330.6 million units, up from 2010′s total of 326.2 million units.

Total music sales last year enjoyed a 6.9% increase to 1.6 billion units, up from the nearly 1.51 billion sales transactions counted by Nielsen SoundScan in 2010. In other data, SoundScan counted 76,875 new releases last year, versus 75,159, a 2.2% increase.

With Adele’s “21″ leading the way, 13 albums each sold 1 million units or more, the same amount as last year.

In digital songs, Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” scanned 5.2 million as the year’s top song seller; it was one of 112 tracks that each scanned more than 1 million units. Last year, 80 songs achieved that sales plateau.

In the king of the hill battle, Universal Music Group held off a strong challenge from Sony Music Entertainment, finishing the year with 30.7% market share in albums and track-equivalent-albums (TEA), while the latter clocked in with 29.3%. It was Universal’s track strength that allowed it to retain the top spot in the rankings as it tallied a nearly 33% track market share compared with Sony, which came in at 26.2% in that configuration. (more…)

International Irish music group The Celts performing at the historic Ryman Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee. Revel in this uplifting, spirited holiday celebration featuring ancient Irish and Scottish Christmas carols (some never before heard by modern ears) along with traditional Christmas favorites.

The PBS special ‘Christmas with The Celts’ aired over 350 times in December 2011 on more than 100 PBS stations across the country! The holiday special featured The Celts performing with special guests including members of Riverdance and Altan plus Irish stepdancers, a string orchestra, and a children’s choir!

See what critics said:

“Majestic.” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“So contagious you’ll find it hard to resist doing your own little jig.” – The Salt Lake Tribune

“Inspired and lively.” – Metromix

“Conceptually taut and flawlessly executed.” The Bluegrass Special

November 04, 2011
By Ed Christman, billboard.biz, New York

A Best Buy initiative to have all single-disc albums at an everyday price of $9.99 for the holiday selling season has been turned back by the major labels-at least for now.

While some major-label distribution executives expect the conversation to resume in 2012, others say they don’t intend to revisit Best Buy’s request to buy all single-disc CDs, including superstar titles, at a $7.25 wholesale price. The majors often use that price point for developing artists.

Part of the issue is that Best Buy has been racked by Anderson Merchandisers since May, and Walmart-another Anderson client-sometimes gets established artists at that price point. Best Buy executives say they are entitled to the same level of wholesale pricing enjoyed by the mass merchant.

What Best Buy executives failed to note is that Walmart has a five-bucket pricing scheme, including a top-tier $8.50 wholesale price for titles typically sold at $11.88. Walmart’s other price buckets are about $7.25 ($10 in store), $6.50 ($9), $4.25 ($7) and $2.88 ($5). (more…)

By Ed Christman, billboard.biz, New York

As the year heads into its home stretch, things are looking up for the U.S. music industry – sales are on track to increase over the previous year, something that hasn’t happened since 2004.

With nine months of 2011 down, album sales stand at 228.5 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan — up 3.3% from the 221.1 million albums sold in the corresponding period of 2010. Overall U.S. unit sales, meanwhile, are up 7.2% to 1.18 billion, from 1.1 billion last year. And when albums including track equivalents are taken into account — whereby 10 song downloads count as one album unit – albums have jumped 5.4%, to 323.7 million from 307.1 million.

The positive showing for album sales can primarily be attributed to the digital format, where the configuration’s scans are up 19.7% to 74.1 million units, compared to 61.9 million units in 2010′s first nine months. (more…)

By Billboard.biz staff

Live Nation Entertainment and Universal Music Group today announced the formation of a broad-based strategic partnership.

Live Nation Entertainment’s Front Line Management Group division and UMG will launch a joint-venture management company “aimed at managing and strengthening artists and their brands through a variety of worldwide sponsorships, strategic marketing campaigns and brand extension opportunities,” the companies said in a press release. The partnership will be managed by Front Line and “will focus on developing direct-to-consumer bundling initiatives for select UMG artists in key markets around the world that bring together concert tickets and a variety of music products with artist websites,” the release continues. In addition, ticketing and bundling products will be handled by Live Nation Entertainment’s Ticketmaster division. (more…)