1. Taylor Swift "Fearless"

Sales this week: 592,304
Debut

Mr. Lefsetz,

The one thing you say you are looking for is an artist writing and living in real time and relating it to his/her fans.  Nobody is doing that better than Taylor Swift.  She has an engagement in person and online that is currently second to none.  And it starts and ends with her music.  Music & lyrics that she predominantly writes entirely by herself.

She doesn’t need the endorsement of middle aged men but ironically she leads in the space that you write about nearly every day.

So, please understand, her music and performances are not for you.  They are for her millions of fans.  Fans that she has earned by working tirelessly 24/7 since she could strum a guitar, not brought on by a TV show or some dumb luck.  She has done it with the new grassroots engagement of internet, radio and all media.  She wins because she can back it up when the attention is on her.  But more importantly her fans love her.  And she loves them.

Regards,

Scott Borchetta

2. David Archuleta

Sales this week: 182,927
Debut

If they wanted to sell tonnage the producers would have stock albums already produced that they can slot the winning singer’s vocals into and release the day after the final. Better yet, the night of, since iTunes sponsors "American Idol".  That’s when everybody’s paying attention.  These records sell on hype, not quality.  They’re not about careers, they’re about moments.

Maybe a pre-recorded album in every genre.  Rock, pop, country…

Oh, isn’t that what Nashville and New York do anyway?

(And yes, I know Archuleta was the runner-up, but you make records based on popularity.  There should have been a Sanjaya record too, available the night he got voted off.)

3. Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 29

Sales this week: 172,372
Debut

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/arts/music/12now.html?_r=2&ref=arts&oref=login&oref=slogin

Yes, read that article for all you need to know about the Now series.

You know things are truly fucked up when they’re creating brand extensions of this concept.  But I guess you would too if your first week sales were now off by 50% and your last two volumes had not sold a million.

Then again, who needs a compilation of disparate tracks when you can buy the singles you want on iTunes?

Sure, these are impulse items at grocery stores, but how much longer will grocery stores stock CDs?

5. Twilight

Sales this week: 106,521
Percentage change: -35
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 271,847

All you’ve got to know is that this phenomenon started with a BOOK!

It’s not the format, but the quality.  And it hasn’t been about the quality for far too long in the record business.  If you create something good, word of mouth will sell it.

6. AC/DC "Black Ice"

Sales this week: 105,146
Percentage change: -34
Weeks on: 4
Cume: 1,319,914

Wal-Mart is for has-beens.  Creating buzz at Wal-Mart is like telling me it’s happening at the unemployment office.  Or the old folks home.

You need to appeal to younger buyers.  You want to be in front of their eyes at the iTunes Store.  Hitting the top of the home page chart every single day, never mind the initial splash upon release.

Putting out an album solely at Wal-Mart is like making a movie solely for DVD.  It’s the theatrical weekend opening publicity that gets everybody’s attention.

Nah, that’s not a perfect analogy.  How about selling skateboards at Starbucks, because that’s where parents, who’ve got all the money, go.

But at least there’s a Starbucks on every corner.

Bottom line, if you want to be underground, you don’t make a deal with Wal-Mart, it hurts your cred.  If you’ve been absent the scene for almost a decade, you don’t want to leave out the number one retailer.

But welcome to the modern day music business, where he who writes the biggest check gets the product.  It’s not about career management, but money management.

9. Christina Aguilera "Keeps Gettin’ Better"

Sales this week: 72,869
Debut

I need an interpreter.  Exactly what is getting better?

Certainly not her music, it’s been forgettable from the start.

Certainly not her album sales…

Maybe her personal life.  I hope her personal life.  Because she doesn’t have the career she thinks she does based on these anemic sales.

Greatest hits albums are no longer the cheap, end of the year, cleanup revenue they once were.  Even if they have a couple of new tracks.

11. Pink "Funhouse"

Sales this week: 52,817
Percentage change: -28
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 306,515

The old music business.  Get a pretty face, someone whose best assets are not musical, put her together with producer du jour and spend a fortune to hype the hell out of it to try and break some singles.  With the new twist of a 360 deal so you can profit from road revenue.  But if you’ve got no hits, no one wants to see you.  A great touring act is not dependent on chart success.  That’s where the real money is.  Chasing hits is too much effort for too little return.

13. Seal "Soul"

Sales this week: 44,781
Debut

Sad.

But that’s what happens when your best record is your first.  It’s all downhill from there.

Covers are the last gasp of the truly desperate.

15. Rascal Flatts "Greatest Hits Volume 1"

Sales this week: 38,812
Percentage change: -1
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 166,570

Wow, to think who they once were.

Will there be a "Greatest Hits Volume 2"?

I highly doubt it.  Then again, there are no limits to record company marketing.

Give these guys their own TV show.  They’re affable, likable.  Maybe a kiddie country show on their benefactor Disney’s outlet.

Those country listeners have now got computers and iPods.  The future may have arrived late, but so many of those counties that voted red in the last election went blue this year.  Country has gone digital, its listeners have options, change is here.

16. Hinder "Take It To The Limit"

Sales this week: 36,340
Percentage change: -55
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 117,752

Wasn’t there anybody at the label who could tell them that this is the title of a famous Eagles song?  And that no one whose career is based on ballad success should flaunt testing limits?

18. Kenny Chesney "Lucky Old Sun"

Sales this week: 32,663
Percentage change: +12
Weeks on: 5
Cume: 367,410

So what happens when he goes on tour next summer?

He did soft stadium business in many locations even paired with Keith Urban, never mind Sammy Hagar…

Do we trot out Garth one more time, to try and give everyone the impression that country is still king, or do we come to grips with the fact that country has gone back to niche?


17. Kid Rock "Rock N Roll Jesus"

Sales this week: 34,929
Percentage change: +16
Weeks on: 58
Cume: 2,373,294

Mr. Chesney should reach out to Mr. Ritchie to have him co-headline next year’s stadium jaunt.  Yes, innovative packaging is gonna be key this summer.  Bang for the buck.

19. Metallica "Death Magnetic"

Sales this week: 30,827
Percentage change: -6
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 1,315,129

When it’s all said and done, who sells more albums, Metallica or AC/DC?

I’m betting on Metallica.

After Christmas, that AC/DC store within a store is going to come down in Wal-Mart, floorspace is too valuable.  The Eagles’ sales tanked not long after Christmas, expect AC/DC’s to too.

Metallica…  Run by management company.

AC/DC…  Run by record label.

Proving once again, if you want to have long term success, you need a great manager.

Will Metallica ever recover from the Napster debacle?

Probably not.  But this album and the live show have brought them back to a significant degree.  It was the right move at the right time.

But there should be a publicity blackout.  That story in "Rolling Stone" about them flying in separate private jets?  Metallica’s base is blue collar.  The band has earned the right to its extravagant, luxurious lifestyle but it shouldn’t flaunt it.  That only works for popsters like Christina Aguilera…  Oops, that doesn’t work anymore for her either.

22. Brad Paisley "Play"

Sales this week: 26,980
Percentage change: -50
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 80,729

"Start A Band" is so bad, so hackneyed, that you’d think it’s Christian Rock.  Anybody who thinks country is the land of substandard rock will get confirmation by listening to this track.  Couldn’t anybody involved with Paisley tell him this was a B-level cut at best?  So bad, it couldn’t even be filler on a Bob Seger album?  Sure, he and Keith Urban pick well, but nothing makes up for lousy material.

I’m stunned he put this out.

28. Jonas Brothers "Little Bit Longer"

Sales this week: 22,254
Percentage change: +15
Weeks on: 14
Cume: 1,096,771

Pretty anemic sales figure for all that buzz, don’t you think?

It appears they’ll be lucky if their buzz lasts a little bit longer.

30. Celine Dion "My Love-Essential Collection"

Sales this week: 21,878
Percentage change: -15
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 105,849

Essential to whom?

Some things never change.  Vegas is still the last stop.  Once you go there, you never come back.

40. Darius Rucker "Learn To Live"

Sales this week: 17,758
Percentage change: +53
Weeks on: 9
Cume: 204,174

A number one country single does not guarantee the sale of albums.

The bounce is from the CMA Awards.  And it’s not that big.

48. James Taylor "Covers"

Sales this week: 15,084
Percentage change: -10
Weeks on: 7
Cume: 240,155

I’m not the only one who thinks this album sucks.

This is what Jim Fusilli said in the "Wall Street Journal" yesterday:

"Which means when Mr. Taylor sets out to record an album of other people’s songs, he’s off to the familiar recycling bin, and the result is something like his recent release, ‘Covers,’ an album so lacking in imagination that all you have to do is read the song titles and you know what his interpretations will sound like."

Mr. Fusilli goes on to say oldsters should be recording the works of youngsters.  But I won’t agree with him that there’s a plethora of good young songwriting out there.  Because no one encourages it.  The majors want hacks to write bland, everyman crap and there’s no one beating down the wannabes to tell them to work harder, to forget the cliches, to speak their truth.  There are no Bob Dylans, Joni Mitchells or Jackson Brownes coming out of basements.  But there could be, if someone nurtured these youngsters.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122696707696335397.html

57. Tracy Chapman "Our Bright Future"

Sales this week: 12,245
Debut

Give me one good reason why anybody would care.

______________________________

I could continue to plow through the rest of the Top 200, but all you need to know is on the catalog chart.

The number three catalog record is Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s "Lost Christmas Eve".  It sold 13,610 copies last week, for a cume of 1,615,997.  That’s more than AC/DC’s "Back In Black", which sold 10,640.

Meanwhile, Trans-Siberian’s "Christmas Eve & Other Stories" is at number 10, moving 8,558, for a cume of 2,789,649.

Sure, Christmas comes every year.  But not always for the same albums.  And one act doesn’t own multiple slots in the top ten.

But TSO does.  Because TSO didn’t play by traditional record business rules.  TSO was built on the road!

A cheap ticket.  Show comes back every year, like the circus.  It’s a tradition.  The album is a souvenir!

And the album is rock, when so many of the Christmas albums are wimpy.

Jason Flom gave the green light, Paul O’Neill shepherded the records, but the vision was David Krebs’.  He built it from scratch.  With no names.  I know because he told me way in advance and I didn’t believe it.

But every great project has a great manager behind it.  Who believes and devotes focus even when revenue is not pouring in.  A manager has vision.   There hasn’t been vision at the labels in eons.

Management is a license to starve.  Unlike a label gig, you don’t get paid unless your act hits.  But knowing this, you do your best to only pick winners and work incredibly hard.

TSO represents the future.  If you want to sell an album, then there truly must be a concept.  Radio play is a lucky break.  You win by building fan support, on the road.  Giving value for the money.  Not charging a fortune, ripping people off once to such a degree that they’ll never come back.  You only truly profit when they do come back.  And they love you because of your music, not your chart success.

If I see one more article about Malcolm Gladwell and his book "Outliers" I’m not gonna buy it.

I know, seems like a 180, but that’s the risk you take when you promote your band, beating the target audience over the head to such a degree that fans abandon you, worse, say negative shit about you.

This is how publicity directors insure they don’t lose their jobs.  By showing their bosses a number, how many mentions they’ve gotten.  Doesn’t matter if it helps the project, insures the longevity of the project, it’s all about a raw quantification at the outset.

Read any articles about Metallica’s new album recently?  How about Lil’ Wayne’s?  At least Metallica’s on tour, they’re getting some concert reviews, but most acts are not of their stature, the newspaper doesn’t care.  And if you don’t go on the road, it’s like you dropped a rock in a lake, ripples move outward, and then calm returns.

The question is how can you get your project to live on?  How can you achieve legs?  You don’t do this by saturation publicity at the outset.  This just alienates your core, which spreads the word.  If you think the casual user counts, then you’re probably working at the major labels, entities that have ridden this philosophy to the ground.

Not everybody liked the Dead.  But their model wasn’t so much free music as an ongoing percolation in the marketplace.  They toured regularly, you could bring your friends.  Developing bands are on the road all the time.  Superstars flog one album ad infinitum and then disappear.  Or, return again and again with the same damn show.  People might come back if you charged a fair price and played different material.  But you don’t.

1. Don’t tell everybody.  Tell somebody.  Today’s publicity is like hearing high school gossip on "Entertainment Tonight".  Huh?  I thought that was just between you and me!
2. Try to get stories for the life of the project.  Hold back, see if you’ve got traction, work that traction.
3. Many albums have entered SoundScan at number one and dropped before selling tonnage.  Whereas others have started at the bottom and gone multiplatinum.  As for superstars…  Shit, I hate Beyonce because I have to keep reading about her and her damn movie "Cadillac Records".  That won’t be a good flick, because there hasn’t been a good movie in eons, Hollywood is only interested in the money.  But what if Beyonce did a cover of a soul classic, maybe "Nowhere To Run", and gave it away free on the Net and told none of the usual suspects?  Word would spread like wildfire.  Fans would be e-mailing everybody they know, owning the project themselves, feeling part of it.  Who can feel part of the process when the media oligarchs are jamming it down our collective throats.
4. If people can’t own it, can’t believe in it, can’t talk about it and spread the word, you’ve got no legs.  And legs are where the money is.

Read anything about the Buffett book recently?  "Entourage"?  Everything’s front-loaded.  Not knowing how to truly reach and sustain its audience’s interest, the hypesters just throw it all against the wall at once.  And if there are no legs, they just shrug.  It wasn’t their fault.  But it was!

It was hard to get a story in the pre-Internet era.  Now, you can always find a blogger to flog your project.  Worse, no story is local.  The "New York Times", "Wall Street Journal", "Time" and "Newsweek", never mind the YouTube clips of TV shows, all exist next to each other online, side by side.  What you end up with is a deluge.  And you know what happens when you’ve got a deluge?  People drown!

That’s what it feels like when you’re subjected to the endless repetitious hype.  You use every effort to swim to shore and connect with what you know and truly trust, which is not the flavor of the moment.

I became a rabid Stevie Winwood fan when I heard the North Atlantic Invasion Force play "Somebody Help Me" at Sacred Heart University.

The headliner was Vanilla Fudge.  In the middle, they had a comedian, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman known as George Carlin. But what made the biggest impression upon me was this song.  Who did it?  Who created its magical groove?

Marc discovered it was the Spencer Davis Group.  Of "I’m A Man" and "Gimme Some Lovin’" fame.  He bought the album, I played it every time I went to his house.

But my first Stevie Winwood album was not this, it was the second Traffic disc.  Famous mostly for Dave Mason’s cuts today, most especially "Feelin’ Alright", you’d be missing out if you never heard "Forty Thousand Headmen".  One of my most magical Fillmore moments was when Traffic reunited in 1970, sans Mr. Mason, and appeared at the Fillmore East a month before "John Barleycorn Must Die" was released.  When Stevie played "Forty Thousand Headmen", he hesitated, just after "Just look behind"…  It was truly like he’d stopped in his tracks, looked over his shoulder and saw all forty thousand headmen in the distance.  Whew!

My favorite cut off "John Barleycorn" is "Empty Pages".  The pure joy and the simplicity of a small band playing together, firing on all cylinders.  You don’t need all that production, all you need is talent.

The band broke up, got back together again and finally flew on the public’s radar with "Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys" and then faded out again, albeit on the high note known as "When The Eagle Flies".  "Something New" has the joy of "Empty Pages", but it’s "Walking In The Wind" that truly gets under my skin.  A great band is not focused on the charts, a great band makes an album because it has to get its statement down on wax, a great band makes music that infatuates its listeners, to the fan the deep track on one of his favorite albums is just as great a personal hit as the song with ubiquitous Top Forty airplay, if not more so.

I never bought those Spencer Davis Group albums.  But, after buying the second Traffic album, I went back and bought the first, with all the classics, covered by bands who knew the act’s greatness.  Three Dog Night did a killer cover of "Heaven Is In Your Mind".  Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield made sure everybody who listened to FM radio knew "Dear Mr. Fantasy".  And on his first solo album, Al did a killer take of "Coloured Rain".  They all knew how great Stevie Winwood was, even if the general public had no idea.

I bought every Winwood album thereafter.  And that’s how I ended up listening to the first solo record.  Which most people have now forgotten.  It was the second that contained "While You See A Chance".  He didn’t become a household name until almost a decade later, with "Higher Love".  But that first Island solo record was not a disappointment if you were listening.  I was.

I know every lick, but I hardly ever listen to it.

I don’t know what made me pull it up on my Sonos system today.  I think the memory of playing Winwood when I first moved into this place, when I fired up the stereo while I figured out how to reconstruct my life, that made me recollect it.

And I’ve been playing it and enjoying it, but after getting to "Luck’s In", I keep hitting repeat.

Make sure you listen to "Hold On", "Vacant Chair" and the album’s most notable track, "Time Is Running Out", the one people remember if they remember anything at all.  But the best is "Luck’s In".

There’s a jazzy intro, truly jazzy, something that most rock listeners don’t enjoy.  But then there’s a change and Stevie Winwood starts to sing…

Some people get lonely, while some people get blue

Many informed listeners say Paul Rodgers has the best voice in rock and roll.  That’s hard to argue with, but I’m gonna say Stevie Winwood owns the best pipes.  What emanates from his throat is pure humanity, you feel like there’s a human being living in your speakers.

There’s something about you, I don’t know what you got
But you and me girl, we’re gonna give it a shot

That’s what we do with recording acts, we give them a shot.  And if we like what we hear, we dedicate ourselves to them.  We don’t care if they’re on the hit parade, we just need to hear everything they do.

Like Winwood’s 2003 album "About Time".  I’d say it’s a return to form, but it’s more than that.  It not only has the greatness of yore, it tests new limits.  If you were lucky enough to see these tours, with Jose Neto working out on the guitar, with Stevie ripping "Dear Mr. Fantasy", you’ll never forget them.

I was convinced my favorite Winwood solo track was "Night Train", from "Arc Of A Diver".  And that’s great, but it’s got a different feel from "Luck’s In".  "Night Train" sounds like an alienated excursion on the Trans-Europe Express.  "Luck’s In" sounds like life. Like you’re strolling alone in your backyard garden.  Like you’re in your room, staring at the walls.  Music when done right doesn’t bounce off of you, it’s a companion.  You can be on a mountain cliff, in the middle of the desert, scared as hell or lonely. But when you start to sing a great song to yourself, you feel calm, completely connected.

That’s how I feel listening to Stevie Winwood’s "Luck’s In" right now.

Did you read that story in the "Wall Street Journal" about the iPhone/iPod Touch becoming a gaming platform?

That’s Doug Morris’ mistake.  He thinks the iPod is merely a music machine.  He thinks he’s got all the leverage, when he’s losing power daily.

In the seventies, the first thing you did upon moving into a new apartment was set up your stereo.  You dropped the needle and played your vinyl as you unpacked.  If you were starting anew, having left a relationship, maybe you went to the local record store and purchased six or a dozen records to start completely over, with music that was special to you only.

You snipped the speaker wire, hooked the JBLs/Advents/ARs to the amp, and then plugged in your turntable.  You dropped the needle and you got…euphoria!

I just had that experience.  The modern equivalent of it.

I’ve had a Sonos system forever.  But I found it too cumbersome to search for the music I wanted to hear, by time I finally found it, I’d lost the urge.  But now I have instantaneous access, because my Sonos system is controlled by my iPod Touch!

I won’t say hookup was easy.  I was on the phone with their ever so helpful tech person for a couple of hours.  We were especially frustrated that the system wouldn’t see the music on my computer.  This gentleman wanted me to enable screen-sharing, he wanted to go deep into my Mac via the Terminal to root around and try to fix the problem.

I said no.  Because when I upgrade my machine and have a problem, who am I gonna call?  I keep my computer stock, I don’t need any more upgrading trouble than I’ve already got.  He recommended doing the combo update, that it might fix the problem.

Yeah, right.

I took an hour from my day.  I repaired permissions, downloaded and installed the 10.5.5 combo pack, repaired permissions again and then it worked!  I was like a dad on Christmas morning, finally having figured out how to build that bicycle!

Then we installed the Sonos app on my iPod Touch and I’ve been in hog heaven ever since.  Playing music in each and every room of my house.

I just think of a track, and then I dial it right up!

You see we installed Napster.  And Pandora.  We had trouble with Sirius and LastFM.  But I just picked up the iPod Touch and typed in what I wanted to hear via Napster the same way you send an e-mail on your iPhone.

What did I listen to?

David Ackles’ "American Gothic".

The Beach Boys’ "Marcella", which I’d heard on Tom Petty’s "Buried Treasure" show on XM.

A bit of 10cc.

And now I’m listening to Stevie Winwood.  The original solo albums.  She bought the first one just before we moved in together, I bought the second right after I moved out.  Do you know "Night Train"?  It’s the soundtrack of my move-in!

I even fired up my real stereo.  To listen.  I hadn’t played a CD in years.  And I may never again!

All because of the iPod Touch.

I didn’t even have to attach it to my computer, in order to sync it.  I downloaded the app wirelessly!  Just like you download a game.  To be able to control my Sonos system, in order to be able to hear the history of music through my entire house.

It’s a couple of hundred bucks for the Sonos system.  And you’ve got to have an iPod Touch or an iPhone.  And a stereo.  But when you do, you tell yourself this is the way it’s supposed to be.  All your music at your fingertips.

Sonos Controller for iPhone

Apple’s iPhone Faces Off With the Game Champs