1. 2013 Billboard Music Awards: BBMA Big Bumps

    May 23, 2013 7:40 PM EDT Show sparks major sales gains. The 2013 Billboard Music Awards drive big sales bumps on the charts this week, thanks to galvanizing performances both spectacular (Bruno Mars, Jennifer Lopez) and stripped-down (Ed Sheeran, Kacey Musgraves). In th ...

  2. Go Time Travel Essentials: Brian Bumbery, Founder of BB Gun Press

    May 23, 2013 7:40 PM EDT Power publicist Brian Bumbery, founder of Los Angeles-based BB Gun Press and former senior VP of publicity at Warner Bros, tracked more than 100,000 miles last year to assist his ever-growing list of A-list talent, including Green Day, Metallica ...

  3. 2013 Billboard Music Awards: The GIF That Keeps on GIF'ing

    May 23, 2013 7:40 PM EDT Billboard worked with Tumblr and a team of GIF artists to merge the second screen with the TV screen in real time. What's a GIF good for? The Internet's favorite moving image format is inescapable on blogs and, increasingly, news sites ...

  4. T&E Report: Montauk, N.Y. The Hamptons

    May 23, 2013 7:40 PM EDT Montauk, N.Y.The Hamptons BROWSE  With moguls and rockers all seeking a sunny escape from Gotham, the music scene on the eastern tip of Long Island has taken on a life of its own. East Hampton and Southampton are still where you'll find the ...

  5. 2013 Billboard Music Awards: Swift's Sweet Victory

    May 23, 2013 7:40 PM EDT The biggest stars in music lit up the stage of Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena for the Billboard Music Awards. But no one beamed brighter than Taylor Swift, who netted eight awards. Accepting her gold statue for top artist, Swift gave pro ...

  6. 2013 Billboard Music Awards: Live! From Backstage!

    May 23, 2013 7:40 PM EDT Billboard live streams brought fans up close and personal with stars preshow and backstage. The action onstage at the BBMAs was matched by the action backstage, and dedicated fans could watch it all unfold live. Billboard broadcast live streams ...

  7. U.S. Recorded-Music Revenue Now Officially Dominated By Digital

    May 23, 2013 7:15 PM EDT Even as downloads slow, streaming is accelerating. Record labels derived more than half of their U.S. revenue from digital accounts for the first time in 2012, according to exclusive retail research by Billboard. That estimate doesn't inclu ...

  8. Daft Punk on Course to No. 1 as Presale Streams Fears are Overplayed

    May 23, 2013 7:15 PM EDT This week, Daft Punk is poised to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with "Random Access Memories," becoming the latest poster child for a digital marketing tactic once thought of as risky but is now starting to crop up with the regularity ...

  9. Oklahoma Tornado on the Industry: Relatively Minimal, Still Big Support From the Business

    May 23, 2013 7:00 PM EDT While Oklahoma's ties to the music industry--particularly the country music industry--are deep, the immediate impact of its recent tornado disaster on the business is minimal. Shows down the line could be affected as the market regains its ...

  10. 2013 Billboard Music Awards: Hitting the Jackpot

    May 23, 2013 6:15 PM EDT The Billboard Music Awards posted their best ratings in a decade, up 28%, showing that live TV and major stars are once again forces to be reckoned with. Taylor Swift and her team clearly know the importance of televised awards shows. She opened ...

  11. 5 Startups Launched in Los Angeles To Watch

    May 22, 2013 8:45 PM EDT Q: Why would anyone launch a cutting-edge startup in Los Angeles? A: Why wouldn't you? Fullscreen Where: Culver City, Calif. Who: George Strompolos, CEO What: Fullscreen is a multichannel YouTube network that reaches more than 100 million s ...

  12. Starting Up in Los Angeles: SoCal Quietly Emerged as One of Digital Music or Media's Hottest Regions

    May 22, 2013 8:45 PM EDT ess than 400 yards from the warm, buttery sands of Venice Beach and tucked away in a modern upstairs live-work space is Vyclone, a media startup co-founded by musician Joe Sumner, son of Gordon, who's better-known as Sting. But today, durin ...

  13. Taking the Biscuit: One Direction Teams With Nabisco in U.S. Tour Deal, Joint Social Media Bush

    May 22, 2013 8:35 PM EDT One Direction's 2013 North American tour has been sold out for nearly a year, ever since tickets went on sale just months after the British boy band's American breakthrough in March 2012 when "Up All Night" debuted at No. 1 o ...

  14. The Doors' Ray Manzarek: Model Heritage Artist Playing Key Role in Building Band's Valuable Legacy

    May 22, 2013 8:35 PM EDT Ray was the galvanizer," says Jeffrey Jampol, manager of the Doors since 2003 and a producer of the 2010 Grammy Award-winning documentary on the band, "The Doors: When You're Strange." "Jim Morrison had the vision and Ra ...

  15. Booker T. Jones' Returns to Revitalized Stax Records for Accessible, Guest-Filled Album

    May 22, 2013 7:20 PM EDT Forty-three years after leaving Memphis for Los Angeles, Booker T. Jones has been reunited with the label whose sound he helped define, Stax Records. He left at a time of turmoil and change in ownership at Stax in 1970, but he rejoins, coinciden ...

  16. Executive Turntable: Soundcloud in NY, Universal, RCA Nashville, ASCAP, Astralwerks, New West Records

    May 22, 2013 7:10 PM EDT DIGITAL SoundCloud will open a New York office in the coming months and has hired former Pandora employee Dan Gerber to help build its presence in the market. Gerber, formerly national director of strategic partnerships at Pandora, will be Sound ...

  17. The Deal: Kobalt's Royalty Play With Prince

    May 22, 2013 7:10 PM EDT WHAT: Prince, the master of DIY on a grand scale, will begin issuing both his own music and records from new artists (picked by Prince himself) through Kobalt Label Services, a unit of Kobalt Music Group. Details of the deal are still vague, and ...

  18. Further Dealings: Wentworth Media & Arts, Warnter/Chappell + Lionsgate, Imagine Dragons, Sony/ATV

    May 22, 2013 7:10 PM EDT Former EMI chairman/CEO Eric Nicoli and three partners from the entertainment, finance and brand worlds have unveiled a new entertainment finance, production and distribution venture. Wentworth Media & Arts, based in London and backed by Bri ...

  19. Good Works: Linkin Park's Chester Bennington Supports Sobriety

    May 22, 2013 7:10 PM EDT Supporting Sobriety Like many famous musicians before him, Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington has battled drug and alcohol abuse. In early rehab stints, he struggled with discussing his problems, but later found comfort in surrounding himse ...

  20. AM/FM: Not Dead Yet

    May 22, 2013 7:05 PM EDT Perception: Broadcast radio is on the way out, and digital is on the rise. Reality: Listeners continue to have a local connection to AM/FM. The abundance of digital music options frequently results in the same question: Why do people still liste ...

  21. Lateral MGMT's Next Move

    May 22, 2013 7:05 PM EDT Talent company, home to Paloma Faith and Taio Cruz, opens up in Los Angeles with focus on A&R, marketing. Anglo-Scandinavian management/publishing company Lateral MGMT is coming to the United States. The firm, which operates out of London an ...

  22. Business Matters: Talk Radio

    May 22, 2013 6:50 PM EDT The debate surrounding Internet royalties is heating up again--and taking on a different shape. Last year the Internet Royalty Fairness Act conversation focused on royalties. This year the two sides are painting themselves as the more artist-fri ...

  23. Opinion: The End of Big Business

    May 22, 2013 6:50 PM EDT It may seem counterintuitive in the age of big-box retailers and even bigger banks to talk about the end of big business. But the reality is that many of its traditional advantages are fast eroding thanks to digital technology. We're living ...

  24. Sound & Vision Column: 'Voice' Is Heard

    May 22, 2013 6:50 PM EDT People are attracted to hits. It's doubtful anyone reading this isn't working under that assumption and attempting to better understand how to increase any project's popularity. TV, more than any other medium, magnifies the differ ...

  25. Gear: Howard Benson's Round-the-Clock Rock

    May 22, 2013 6:25 PM EDT Work flow, more than any piece of gear, is how Howard Benson believes his 9-month-old studio operation in Woodland Hills, Calif., distinguishes itself. Based on methods developed at the Bay 7 studio in North Hollywood, Benson has created an effi ...

  26. Questions Answered: Steve Stoute, Founder/CEO of Translation

    May 22, 2013 6:20 PM EDT What did you wake up thinking about this morning? The first thing I thought about was, "How can I become a better leader in order to lead this organization forward?" And that's the first thing I think about every day. The goal tod ...

  27. My Day: John Hamlin, Senior VP of Music Events & Talent at CMT, Executive Producer of CMT Music Awards

    May 22, 2013 6:20 PM EDT John Hamlin is used to wrangling on-camera talent. After 20 years as a "60 Minutes" producer working with Mike Wallace and Anderson Cooper, Hamlin now corrals the likes of Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan as executive producer of the CMT Mu ...

  28. Tickets To Go: How Tablets & Smartphones Affect Fans' Purchasing Behavior

    May 16, 2013 7:35 PM EDT Live music fans are embracing mobile at a remarkable pace. According to Live Nation, 14% of Ticketmaster sales in North America were purchased on mobile platforms in 2012, double the number that did so in the previous 12 months. In March, Live N ...

  29. Activist Investor Dan Loeb Calls Sony Corp.: You're Breaking Up

    May 16, 2013 7:35 PM EDT Sony Corp.'s entertainment assets, including the world's second-largest recorded-music group Sony Music Entertainment and half of No. 1 music publisher Sony/ATV, could be spun off from its corporate parent if the board heeds a call fro ...

  30. The Billboard Cover Story - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: Shot Callers

    May 16, 2013 7:20 PM EDT Macklemore & Ryan Lewis aren't just making records, they're setting them: biggest-selling download of 2013, the first duo to send first two singles to No. 1 on the Hot 100. And they've done it all their way--letting the indust ...

  31. Streaming War Breaks Out As Google Beats Apple to the Punch With Subscription Service

    May 16, 2013 7:10 PM EDT Google, in its drive to conquer all Internet platforms, rolled out the latest piece of its plan: All Access, an on-demand music streaming service akin to Spotify and with a radio feature to rival Pandora. In debuting the service for U.S. listene ...

  32. Justin Bieber is King of Digital After RIAA Counts Streaming

    May 16, 2013 7:10 PM EDT Justin Bieber's "Baby," featuring Ludacris, has become the highest-certified single in history now that the RIAA incorporates on-demand streaming numbers into its gold and platinum certifications for digital songs. Elton John' ...

  33. The May 2013 Publishers Quarterly: Unknown Songwriter Cathy Heller Writes Her Own Checks

    May 16, 2013 7:05 PM EDT In the year prior to the April 30 release of her debut full-length album, Cathy Heller took home more than $100,000 from synch licenses of her songs. The rest of her ledger sheet was almost all goose eggs-little income from download sales, no gi ...

  34. The May 2013 Publishers Quarterly: SONGS Looks for Big Hits & The Long Term

    May 16, 2013 7:05 PM EDT 20 1 0 0 All music publishing firms live for big hits, but SONGS Music Publishing is also in it for the long term. For all SONGS founder Matt Pincus talks about his firm's top songwriters, he more often comes back to music publishing companies that ...

  35. The May 2013 Publishers Quarterly: Sony/ATV Rides High

    May 16, 2013 7:05 PM EDT Sony/ATV Music Publishing stands firmly as king of the hill for both the publishing and country quarterly rankings. For the first quarter, Sony/ATV, which administers EMI Music Publishing, compiled a 22.4% share, which, while down from the previ ...

  36. The May 2013 Publishers Quarterly: Shane McAnally is the Prodigal Songwriter

    May 16, 2013 7:05 PM EDT Songwriter/producer Shane McAnally, who recently scored two No. 1 country hits and a No. 1 entry on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, is the textbook Nashville overnight sensation. "It only took me six months to get a record deal, ...

  37. Over the Counter: Lady A Is Tops; 'Gatsby' Starts Strong

    May 16, 2013 6:40 PM EDT Lady Antebellum collects its third No. 1 on the Billboard 200 while 'The Great Gatsby' bows at No. 2 Country trio Lady Antebellum earns its third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 as "Golden" debuts with 167,000 copies, accord ...

  38. Further Dealings: Parlophone & Warner, Third Man Records, Manatt Phelps & Phillips

    May 16, 2013 5:05 PM EDT Entertainment law firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips announced that it is launching a digital media practice and an investment fund targeting early-stage startups. Manatt, whose legal clients include Sugarland, the Eagles, INgrooves and BMI Right ...

  39. Good Works: Donnie Wahlberg is Boston Strong

    May 16, 2013 5:05 PM EDT Boston Strong Boston native Donnie Wahlberg attended high school not far from where two bombs went off during the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three and injuring hundreds. Wahlberg, an actor and longtime member of New Kids on the Block ( ...

  40. The Deal: Jammin' With The Brand

    May 16, 2013 5:05 PM EDT WHAT: As the 30th anniversary of Bob Marley's iconic "Legend" looms, new projects are rolling out to celebrate the milestone. On May 15, Hyundai began airing a commercial called "Signs" that premiered a remix of "Th ...

  41. Executive Turntable: Universal South East Asia, Roadrunner Records, Big Deal Music, Island Def Jam, SuperKollider

    May 16, 2013 5:05 PM EDT RECORD COMPANIES Top 40 promotion veteran Tommy Nappi has been tapped as VP of promotion at Roadrunner Records. Most recently serving as VP of top 40/rhythm promotion at Warner Bros., he'll oversee pop promotion for Roadrunner, Fueled by Ra ...

  42. Happening Now: 'Fitz & the Tantrums' Major-Label Debut Pushes the Band to New sales & Chart Levels

    May 15, 2013 8:30 PM EDT A change in schedule turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Fitz & the Tantrums' new album, "More Than Just a Dream," which debuts at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 with 15,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Th ...

  43. Bubbling Under: Passenger, A Great Big World, Dakota Bradley, Chrystian

    May 15, 2013 8:30 PM EDT Passenger On The Move "All the Little Lights" (Black Crow/Nettwerk), the third album from British folk-rocker Passenger (aka Mike Rosenberg), reached No. 7 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart and No. 8 on Folk Albums earlier t ...

  44. Happening Now: 'The Great Gatsby' Soundtrack Scores No. 2 Debut Thanks to Targeted Strategy

    May 15, 2013 8:30 PM EDT It wasn't a 99 cent download or a "Saturday Night Live" TV spot that drove "The Great Gatsby" to a No. 2 debut on this week's Billboard 200. According to Interscope VP of film and television marketing and soundtrack ...

  45. Retail Track: Bricks and Clicks

    May 15, 2013 7:35 PM EDT NARM's Music Biz convention, held May 6-9 in Los Angeles, may not have had the sizzle that music industry events are known for, but it covered a lot of things that matter, if the industry is ever going to grow healthier. NARM has successful ...

  46. On The Road: The Long Game

    May 15, 2013 7:35 PM EDT The aggressive and ambitious bid by a partnership led by Barclays Center developer Forest City to transform the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on New York's Long Island sends a clear message that developer Bruce Ratner and his team aren& ...

  47. Digital Domain: Getting Paid

    May 15, 2013 7:35 PM EDT YouTube debuted its paid subscription model on May 9, reigniting a decades-old debate about just what types of content viewers would pay to see online. The simple answer is high-quality, exclusive content not available elsewhere, especially when ...

  48. Jason Isbell Goes His Own Way With New Label for Solo Album "Southeastern"

    May 15, 2013 6:45 PM EDT If not for the Alabama Crimson Tide and Grimey's Records stickers on the back window of a well-traveled truck and the music-gear trailer in the driveway, nothing would suggest that one has arrived at the residence of Jason Isbell. In the Na ...

  49. Scouting Report: Rapper/Poet Watsky

    May 15, 2013 6:35 PM EDT Rapper/poet Watsky is busy extending his fan base beyond the viral realm, having launched the international leg of his Cardboard Castles tour. Nearly 95% sold out, according to manager Kevin Morrow, the trek comes hot on the heels of Watsky sell ...

  50. Gear: Boi-1da is a Basement Beatmaster

    May 15, 2013 6:35 PM EDT It's hard to imagine a more unassuming hit factory than Boi-1da's home studio in Whitby, Ontario, which is 45 minutes from downtown Toronto. On a well-kept block of identical, modest McMansions, in a house he shares with his daughter, ...

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