Music Industry News

[Pamela]

Not a music industry expert? Well, neither are we!!  But, for some people, reading about the industry is interesting.

So, if you are interested in reading about music industry news and info that is not necessarily Clay specific (but may be), it will be posted here.  And, if you are one that is interested in the industry, even in a casual way, please post any articles you may find here. 

Please remember that we have seperate threads for Clear Channel and payola issues.

Discussion is always welcome!

[Pamela]

Clay is no longer with The Firm, but here's an interesting article about them, and a new record label they are creating that intends to be artist-centric.  Interesting to also note that The Firm has signed current AI winner Taylor Hicks.

The Firm Launches Artist-Empowering Record Label Backed by EMI Music  

    BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Firm, Hollywood's
most innovative management company, announced today it is launching a new
artist-friendly music company, with records to be distributed by EMI Music
in the U.S. and licensed for territories around the globe.
    The new music company will take the unprecedented step of splitting all
profits with the artists signed to the venture rather than the traditional
royalty structure. Multi-platinum recording artist and actress Mandy Moore
and rock group Army of Anyone, featuring former members of Filter and Stone
Temple Pilots, are the first to sign to the company.
    Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of The Firm and architect of the new music venture,
said, "This is an opportunity for The Firm to create a new music business
model that shifts power back to the artists and the focus back to the music
itself. While many in the music industry are pessimistic about the future,
we think the possibilities are limitless if we can find fresh ways to
support and nurture great art and the talent that creates it."
"The innovative work we have done with David Munns, Alain Levy and
their team at EMI on Korn, Ice Cube, 30 Seconds to Mars and others has been
lighting the way. They are forward thinkers whose artist-oriented approach
is empowering the creative community. Instead of whining about the
difficulties plaguing today's music business, they are planning for the
future," Kwatinetz added.
    The financial model created for the company is the latest in a series
of deals by The Firm that are reengineering entertainment industry
economics to strengthen common interests between artists and the companies
they work with.
    As a consequence of these deals, The Firm has been evolving into a
unique new kind of Hollywood company with the capacity not only to manage
the careers of film and music artists, but to produce, market and promote
their craft.
    A number of those groundbreaking deals have been supported by EMI
Music, the world's third largest recorded music company.
    "EMI is delighted to distribute The Firm's music company in the U.S.
and bring its artists to a global audience. The Firm's label roster will be
another strong American repertoire source for EMI worldwide," said David
Munns, Vice Chairman EMI Music worldwide. "Jeff shares my view that our
changing industry sometimes calls for breaking the mold and pursuing new
business models. As a result, we're already having success with the
groundbreaking deal we did with The Firm on Korn and we look forward to
this being another solid venture."
    Last year, The Firm engineered an innovative deal that put EMI and Live
Nation in partnership with the band Korn so that all parties benefit from
the rock group's overall success. Korn's first record under the agreement,
"See You on the Other Side," is fast approaching 2 million units sold
worldwide, and the band's touring numbers are exceeding expectations.
    In another recent deal with EMI, Firm client Ice Cube self-financed a
new album and The Firm handled such record company functions as A&R,
marketing, promotion and publicity for the newly created Lench Mob Records,
while EMI handled distribution. The album, "Laugh Now, Cry Later," debuted
top 5 in the U.S. three weeks ago.
    Mandy Moore said: "The current state of the industry challenges us to
conceive innovative approaches in music. It is, therefore, especially
exciting to be part of a venture in which artistic freedom is encouraged. I
am thrilled by the opportunity to join forces with The Firm, as well as
with those I've trusted throughout the years."
    Army of Anyone said: "We are so excited to be a part of the building of
a new business model. We have been looking for a way to regain some
artistic control, and we feel by partnering with The Firm, we are truly
betting on ourselves and our team. For the first time in our career, we are
in control of our own destiny."
    The Firm's music clients have excelled recently and currently are
responsible for 9 of the top 100 and 11 of the top 200 records on the
Billboard chart. Meanwhile, The Firm is aggressively signing new artists
including "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks, and is successfully breaking
new acts including Flyleaf and 30 Seconds to Mars, who are signed to EMI's
Virgin Records.
    The new music company, which has not yet been named, will be housed
within the Firm's Beverly Hills management offices.

PR Newswire

[ACcountryFan]

RHINO ENTERTAINMENT
May 6, 2006

BURBANK, CA -- Superstar Barry Manilow, who recently held the #1 album position on the charts, and Rhino Entertainment announce that "MANILOW: MUSIC AND PASSION" has just gone three-times platinum -- just one month after its release in late March. This represents the first triple-platinum DVD for Manilow.

"MANILOW: MUSIC AND PASSION" was the first title released under the new multi-year agreement with Rhino Entertainment, an industry leader in marketing and distribution of music and television on DVD, and STILETTO New Media. "MANILOW: MUSIC AND PASSION" had a street date of March 28. This two-disc DVD is priced at $24.99.

"This is a milestone for all of us and we are delighted that Barry's success transcends multiple platforms," Mark C. Grove, principal in STILETTO New Media, commented.

Legendary songwriter and performer Barry Manilow celebrated the 100th performance of his hit show, "MANILOW: MUSIC AND PASSION," at the Las Vegas Hilton, and PBS was there to capture all the excitement on stage and behind the scenes. Barry gives his audience the show of a lifetime, delivering favorites such as "Mandy," "Copacabana" and "I Write The Songs" in a high-energy party -- Vegas style! Plus, Barry sings songs from his new No. # 1 album "The Greatest Songs Of The Fifties," which has recently gone platinum, such as "Unchained Melody" and "Venus," as well as songs that have never been captured on film: "If I Can Dream," "The Best Seat In The House," "See The Show Again," "Do You Know Who's Livin' Next Door?," "Come Monday" and "Here's To Las Vegas."

Shot in high-definition, "MANILOW: MUSIC AND PASSION" is an exciting, multi-faceted production that features contemporary hi-tech music and effects mixed with the classic entertainment values of Las Vegas legends such as Sinatra, Presley, Davis and Martin. "MANILOW: MUSIC AND PASSION" is the latest masterpiece from the Showman of our Generation that has people from every generation on their feet, dancing and clapping along, as only he can do. Special features include exclusive, never-before-seen interviews with Barry.

The cameras never stopped rolling. They followed Barry everywhere -- before the show and after the show. This intimate look at Barry's work has been compiled into two compelling featurettes that not only give the fans an inside look at what goes into producing his live Vegas show and the PBS Special, but also the outtakes during the shoot -- like when Barry lost his voice singing "Unchained Melody" and didn't know if he could go on with the show.

Barry Manilow is the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time. He has sold 75 million albums, has performed over 3000 concerts and has had 28 platinum records. Barry is a Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winner, as well as an Academy Award nominee.

BARRYNET

[Pamela]

'Supernova' aims sky high

Reality TV now the vehicle of choice for many aspiring singers

BY RAFER GUZMÁN
Newsday Staff Writer
July 5, 2006

When Ryan Star heard he was chosen to be one of 15 contestants on the CBS show "Rock Star: Supernova," he weighed his options. Continue to struggle as an unsigned singer-songwriter? Or showcase his talents on a twice-weekly network television series in front of millions of viewers?

He turned down the series.

"I was like, 'I don't have time for that,'" Star recalls. "I was in the middle of getting live recordings for my next show and talking to distributors. I was doing my work, and that was more important to me."

Star, a 28-year-old Dix Hills native born Ryan Stahr, eventually reconsidered; you'll see him tonight when "Rock Star: Supernova" makes its premiere at 8 p.m. on WCBS/2. But Star's clear-headed, career-oriented attitude points to a shift in the way everyone - from contestants to viewers to the music industry - is approaching reality TV. Gone are the days when Fox's "American Idol" was considered a fleeting fad. These days, television is beating the music industry at its own game, by finding talent, creating stars and, most importantly, selling records.

"As an artist, it's harder and harder to get your music out there," says Tamara Conniff, executive editor of Billboard. Radio stations are consolidating, record labels are merging and the music business generally has less money to spend on massive publicity campaigns, she says. "The vehicles with which to present artists to the consumer is what's at issue. And television is a great vehicle to do that."

The first season of "Rock Star," which followed the '80s-era band INXS as it searched for a new singer, became a modest hit last year. Despite a slow start, the series scored high among audiences in the coveted 18-to-49 range and finished the season with 7.9 million viewers. With winning singer J.D. Fortune, a re-invigorated INXS released the album "Switch" (Epic), its first in eight years, and scored a hit single with "Pretty Vegas." Suddenly, the once-moribund band was back in business and touring the world.

(snip)

Despite its successes, reality television still hasn't launched what the music business would call a "career artist," though the first "American Idol" winner, Kelly Clarkson, continues to release hit singles and albums.

Subsequent winners and top finishers such as Clay Aiken have yet to prove their longevity. And while INXS built on its former popularity to help sell a respectable 362,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, Supernova is essentially an unknown quantity.

Star says he'll take his chances. "This is 2006. Labels don't know what they're doing anymore, they can't break artists; radio's all over the place," he says. "TV is the new label. They know how to get you in front of people. And that's all anyone wants to do."

©Newsday.com

 

[ACcountryFan]

An explanation of how CD sales are tallied

Nielsen SoundScan is an information system that tracks sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada. Sales data from point-of-sale cash registers is collected weekly from over 14,000 retail, mass merchant and non-traditional (on-line stores, venues, etc.) outlets. Weekly data is compiled and made available every Wednesday. Nielsen SoundScan is the sales source for the Billboard music charts.

BILLBOARD

[ACcountryFan]

Elton Curating Fashion Rocks, Busy With New CD
by Jonathan Cohen, NY
July 6, 2006

Elton John will curate and perform at the third Fashion Rocks concert, to be held Sept. 7 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event will air the following evening on CBS. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit John's own AIDS foundation.

The artist has selected a host of superstar artists to join him at the show, including Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Kanye West, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Nelly Furtado, Jamie Foxx, the Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Scissor Sisters, Rihanna, the Pussycat Dolls and Daddy Yankee.

The evening's fashion segments will produced by KCD, known for its work with Versace and Calvin Klein.

John is currently hard at work on his next studio album, "The Captain and the Kid," and debuted a song from the project, "The Bridge," last week at his annual White Tie & Tiara Ball in England. Details of the album, due late this year, were first revealed by John to Billboard last September.

The artist will resume his ongoing Red Piano show at Las Vegas' Caesar Palace on Tuesday (July 11). He also appears on "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'," the first single from the upcoming Scissor Sisters album "Ta-Dah," due Sept. 26 via Universal Motown.

ELTON

[Pamela]

Good stuff Jerry!

[ACcountryFan]

Tony Bennett recruits for b'day album

06/14/2006 12:51 PM, AP


Tony Bennett has recruited more than a dozen music heavyweights, including Bono, Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand, to sing on his new album, "Tony Bennett: Duets/An American Classic."

The album of 18 songs, to be released Sept. 26, also features duets with Stevie Wonder, the Dixie Chicks, Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, Elton John, Diana Krall, Sting, George Michael, k.d. lang, James Taylor, Tim McGraw, John Legend, Juanes and Michael Buble.

Bennett, who will be 80 on Aug. 3, croons standards including "I Wanna Be Around" with Bono and personal favorites including "Smile" with Streisand and "The Very Thought of You" with McCartney.

"Each duet artist brought their own soul and sensibility to their song performance and it was a wonderful gift for my birthday to be able to record with these talented musicians," Bennett said in a statement.

He also performs a solo version of his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," accompanied by pianist Bill Charlap.

In a statement Tuesday, Columbia Records Chairman Steve Barnett said, "It's an honor and a privilege to wish Tony a very happy 80th birthday and to thank him for giving us the gift of so much magic and so much music over the years."

TONY

THANKS, PAMELA!! I WAS LOOKING FOR BILLY JOEL THINGS AND ONE OF THE ARTICLES WAS WHAT I FOUND AND PASTED HERE. IT'S FROM LAST MONTH BUT IT SPOTLIGHTS A SEPETMBER CD FROM TONY...IF THE CD RUMORS ABOUT CLAY HOLD TRUE AND THERE is A CD IN SEPTEMBER, THIS WILL BE ANOTHER CD OUT ON THE MARKET AT THE SAME TIME AS YOU CAN SEE. THEY SAY SEPTEMBER 26th FOR TONY's DUET CD TO BE OUT.

[Pamela]

Country sales up; other genres slip
Crossover acts increase sales 18%; Christian music up, too

By RYAN UNDERWOOD
Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, 07/08/06

Music City lived up to its name as a midyear sales report issued Friday showed double-digit percentage gains for country and Christian albums.

The news was made all the sweeter for Nashville's music industry as the same set of Nielsen SoundScan numbers showed an industry-wide drop in album sales of 4.2 percent for the first six months of 2006.

Country album sales spiked 17.7 percent compared with the first half of 2005, while album sales in the Christian and gospel category increased by 11.6 percent. Both genres of music claim Nashville as their home.

And among the Top 10 selling albums across all formats, three were in the country category: Rascal Flatts' Me and My Gang; Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts; and the Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way.

"Obviously, this has been a very strong year so far for country," said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts and senior analyst for Billboard magazine. "But you've got three albums in particular carrying the freight for the rest of the genre."

And on two of those albums, Mayfield said, you have to look at the circumstances surrounding them.

"You look at the Dixie Chicks and they sort of fall out of the genre now — in part by choice," he said. In addition to that, country has been able to ride the coattails of Carrie Underwood's "American Idol" popularity.

"You have to count that. If she was not the American Idol, she would not have sold as much," he said. "That's not to diminish at all what she's done because none of the other American Idol winners' albums have sold this much."

In the case of Rascal Flatts, which had the second-best album sales according to the data released Friday, that group has been gaining significant attention in the pop world on top of its appeal with country audiences.

They make music that appeals to the 25- to 54-year-old females who listen to country radio, and their music also works well with young women under 25, which is where the "passion buyers" are, said Randy Goodman, president of Nashville-based Lyric Street Records, the trio's record label.

Other top sellers included the surprise-hit soundtrack to the Disney made-for-TV movie "High School Musical," which finished No. 1 in midyear sales, and British rocker James Blunt's album, Back to Bedlam, which landed at No. 3.

Digital album sales climbed 126 percent for the first half of this year, while sales of single tracks increased 77 percent, according to the report. Included among the top digital album sellers were the Dixie Chicks and Rascal Flatts, as well as the album St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley, a work fueled largely by word-of-mouth over the Internet.

In the Christian and gospel genre, Alan Jackson's Precious Memories album accounted for a sizable piece of the format's gains, said John Styll, president of the Nashville-based Gospel Music Association.

"Having Alan Jackson in there was a nice addition," he said, adding that the genre still would have gained more than 6 percent without that album. "Overall, I think these numbers bode well for the year."

The midyear report was a good sign for Music Row after a down 2005.

For the 12 months of 2005, Christian and gospel sales dropped 8.1 percent and country declined 3.3 percent. Album sales overall fell 7.2 percent last year.

While Friday's midyear report puts both genres on a positive trajectory to end 2006 in the black, Lon Helton, Nashville bureau chief of the trade publication Radio & Records, said it's hard to predict from these numbers how the rest of the year will shake out because you don't know what else is in the pipeline.

"I think the statistic here that's most encouraging for country music is not the percentage gains, but the fact that three of the Top 10 selling albums were in country," Helton said.

Billboard's Mayfield said the numbers seem to be pointing to a good 2006 for both formats, however.

"It would take something pretty disastrous to affect the second half of the year," he said.

©Tennessean.com

[Pamela]

Music Sales Report Mixed

By Charles Duhigg, Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2006

The music industry received mixed news Friday: Declines in sales leveled off thanks to an increase in digital downloads, but consumers bought fewer new releases this year.

Sales of music albums in the U.S. declined by 4.2% in the first half of the year, to 270.6 million units, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data released by Nielsen SoundScan.

The drop, however, was mostly offset by a 77% increase in digital sales of music tracks. The 280.9 million digital singles sold in the first six months of this year — the equivalent of 28 million albums — brings the effective number of albums sold to 298.7 million units, a 0.2% increase over last year.

"I think it might be too early to say this is good news," said Geoff Mayfield, a senior analyst at Billboard magazine. "But it definitely means that we can be optimistic about the digital marketplace."

The data also indicated that few musical blockbusters had captured the public's attention this year. The biggest seller so far — the "High School Musical" soundtrack — sold 2.6 million copies. In comparison, 50 Cent's "Massacre," the bestseller of the same period last year, had sold more than 4 million copies by the end of June.

In fact, only 22% of the albums sold this year were released in 2006. Last year, 39% of the first six months of sales were new releases.

Albums by Rascal Flatts, James Blunt, Mary J. Blige and Carrie Underwood are this year's other top-five sellers.

"When you make vast libraries of songs available online, people begin to buy forgotten albums," said analyst Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media Inc. "People are buying older songs because they can. They're beginning to buy what they want, instead of what is just available in stores."

Reflecting the paucity of hits, sales in two of music's most popular genres — R&B and rap — were down a combined 20%, to about 83 million albums. Alternately, sales of country and Christian/gospel albums increased by a combined 15%.

The battle for market share among the four companies that dominate music sales remained relatively static. Warner Music Group had the biggest gain, increasing its share of album sales in the U.S. by 2.6 percentage points to 19.3%. EMI Group, which is locked in an acquisition battle with Warner Music, lost 0.4 of a percentage point of its market share, falling to 10%. Universal Music Group remained dominant, selling more than 1 in 3 current albums purchased in the U.S. The half-year's biggest loser was Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which lost 1.5 percentage points, falling to 26.3%.

Despite continued problems with music piracy and illegal peer-to-peer computer networks, overall sales of albums, singles, music videos and digital music totaled 564 million units, a 23% increase over the same six-month period last year.

©LA Times (registration required)

Code:

U.S. Album Sales
Album (artist)..............Year to date(in millions)

High School Musical (various)..........2.62
Me and My Gang (Rascal Flatts).........2.00
Back to Bedlam (James Blunt)...........1.66
Breakthrough(Mary J. Blige)............1.50
Some Hearts(Carrie Underwood)..........1.48
Now 21 (various).......................1.36
King (T.I.)............................1.33
Taking the Long Way (Dixie Chicks).....1.27
Amore (Andrea Bocelli).................1.13

All the Right Reasons (Nickelback).....1.07

Industry total
Total album sales.....Change 
(in millions).........from 2005
270.6.................-4.2%

Digital album sales...Change 
(in millions).........from 2005
14.7..................+126%

Source: Nielsen SoundScan

[Pamela]

Renshaw Meets Azoff

Monday, Jul 10, 2006

Manager Simon Renshaw and his artist roster - Dixie Chicks, Clay Aiken, Miranda Lambert, Bo Bice and Anastacia - are affiliated with Front Line Management, Pollstar has learned.

Details were scarce at press time, but informed sources confirmed that Renshaw is involved with the management company run by Irving Azoff and Howard Kaufman.

From Pollstar Daily News Service - subsription only. Thanks to walkiki at the CH for the info.

[ILClaymate]

The Graying of the Record Store
By ALEX WILLIAMS
Published: July 16, 2006

SO this is an evening rush?

On a recent Monday, six people — soon enough four, then two — were browsing the bins of compact discs at Norman’s Sound and Vision, a music store on Cooper Square in Manhattan, around 6 p.m., a time that once constituted the daily rush hour. A decade ago, the number of shoppers might have been 20 or 30, said Norman Isaacs, the owner. Six people? He would have had that many working in the store.

“I used to make more in a day than I probably make in a week now,” said the shaven-headed Mr. Isaacs, 59, whose largely empty aisles brimming with punk, jazz, Latin music, and lots and lots of classic rock have left him, many afternoons, looking like a rock ’n’ roll version of the Maytag repairman. Just as troubling to Mr. Isaacs is the age of his clientele.

“It’s much grayer,” he said mournfully.

The neighborhood record store was once a clubhouse for teenagers, a place to escape parents, burn allowances and absorb the latest trends in fashion as well as music. But these days it is fast becoming a temple of nostalgia for shoppers old enough to remember “Frampton Comes Alive!’’

In the era of iTunes and MySpace, the customer base that still thinks of recorded music as a physical commodity (that is, a CD), as opposed to a digital file to be downloaded, is shrinking and aging, further imperiling record stores already under pressure from mass-market discounters like Best Buy and Wal-Mart.

The bite that downloading has taken out of CD sales is well known — the compact disc market fell about 25 percent between 1999 and 2005, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, a trade organization. What that precipitous drop indicated by the figures doesn’t reveal is that this trend is turning many record stores into haunts for the gray-ponytail set. This is especially true of big-city stores that stock a wider range of music than the blockbuster acts.

“We don’t see the kids anymore,” said Thom Spennato, who owns Sound Track, a cozy store on busy Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. “That 12-to-15-year-old market, that’s what’s missing the last couple of years.”

Without that generation of buyers, the future looks bleak. “My landlord asked me if I wanted another 10-year lease, and I said no,” Mr. Spennato said. “I have four years left, then I’m out.”

Since late 2003, about 900 independent record stores have closed nationwide, leaving about 2,700, according to the Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a marketing research company in Studio City, Calif. In 2004, Tower Records, one of the nation’s largest chains, filed for bankruptcy protection.

Greta Perr, an owner of Future Legends, a new and used CD store on Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, said that young people never really came back to her store after the Napster file-sharing upheaval of the late 90’s; she has responded by filling her windows with artists like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. “People come in and say: ‘I remember when I was 20, Steve Miller’s second record came out. Can I get that?’ ” she said.

Industry statistics bear out the graying of the CD-buying public. Purchases by shoppers between ages 15 and 19 represented 12 percent of recorded music in 2005, a decline from about 17 percent in 1996, according to the Recording Industry Association. Purchases by those 20 to 24 represented less than 13 percent in 2005, down from about 15 percent. Over the same period, the share of recorded music bought by adults over 45 rose to 25.5 percent, from 15 percent.

(The figures include CD’s and downloaded songs, with CD’s still an overwhelming share of the market in recorded music, 87 percent, in 2005.)

The dominance of older buyers is especially evident at smaller independent stores in metropolitan areas, where younger consumers tend to be more tech-oriented and older music fans tend to be more esoteric in their tastes, said Russ Crupnick, an analyst with the NPD Group, a market research firm.

At Norman’s, which is 15 years old and just around the corner from New York’s epicenter of punk, St. Marks Place, shoppers with nose rings and dewy cheeks are not unknown. But they may only be looking to use the automatic teller machine. A pair of teenagers — he with ink-black dyed hair, and she in ragged camouflage shorts — wandered in one evening recently and promptly froze in the doorway, stopped in their tracks by an Isaac Hayes cut from the 70’s.

They had the confused looks of would-be congregants who had stumbled into a church of the wrong denomination; they quickly shuffled off. Most of Norman’s other customers were old enough to remember eight-track tapes. Steven Russo, 53, for instance, was looking for jazz CD’s. Mr. Russo, a high school teacher in Valley Stream, N.Y., said that he values the store for its sense of camaraderie among cognoscenti as much as its selection. “It’s the ability of people to talk to people about the music, to talk to personnel who are knowledgeable,” he said.

Richard Antone, a freelance writer from Newark whose hair was flecked with silver curls, said his weekly trip to the store is a visual experience as well as an auditory one. “I remember how people admired the artwork on an album like ‘Electric Ladyland’ or ‘Sgt. Pepper’ as much as the music,” he said.

The lost generation of young shoppers — for whom a CD is a silvery disc on which you burn your own songs and then label with a black marker — will probably spell doom for Norman’s within the next five years, said Mr. Isaacs, the owner. Several of his downtown competitors have already disappeared, he said.

Some independent owners are resisting the demographic challenges. Eric Levin, 36, who owns three Criminal Records stores in Atlanta and oversees a trade group called the Alliance of Independent Media Stores, representing 30 shops nationally, said that businesses losing young customers are “dinosaurs” that have done nothing to cater to the new generation. Around the country, he said, shops like Grimey’s in Nashville, Shake It Records in Cincinnati and Other Music in New York are hanging on to young customers by evolving into one-stop hipster emporiums. Besides selling obscure CD’s and even vinyl records, many have diversified into comic books, Japanese robot toys and clothing. Some have opened adjoining nightclubs or, in Mr. Levin’s case, coffee shops.

“Kids don’t have to go to the record store like earlier generations,” Mr. Levin said. “You have to make them want to. You have to make it an event.”

But diversification is not always an option for smaller stores with little extra space, like Norman’s. Mr. Isaacs’s continued survival is due in part to a side business he runs selling used CD’s on Amazon and eBay. He buys them from walk-in customers who are often dumping entire collections.

Unlike the threatened independent bookstore, with its tattered rugs, dusty shelves and shedding cats, indie record stores in danger of disappearing do not inspire much hand-wringing, perhaps because they are not as celebrated in popular imagination as the quaint bookshop. (Record geeks can claim only “High Fidelity,’’ the book and movie, as a nostalgic touchstone.)

Still, the passing of such places would be mourned.

Danny Fields, the Ramones’ first manager, points out that visiting Bleecker Bob’s on West Third Street in the late 70’s was “like experiencing the New York music scene” in miniature — it was a cultural locus, a trading post for all the latest punk trends. “Dropping into Bleecker Bob’s was like dropping into CBGB’s,” he said. (You can still drop into Bleecker Bob’s.)

Dave Marsh, the rock critic and author of books on popular music, noted that rockers like Jonathan Richman and Iggy Pop honed their edgy musical tastes working as record store clerks.

“It’s part of the transmission of music,” said Mr. Marsh, who recalls being turned on to cult bands like the Fugs and the Mothers of Invention by the clerks at his local record store in his hometown, Waterford, Mich. “It seems like you can’t have a neighborhood without them.”

NYTIMES ~ have to pay to access after one week

[Pamela]

US Radio Hangs Up on Madonna
July 21, 2006, 3:35 PM ET
Michael Paoletta, N.Y.

Madonna is in the midst of a sold-out North American trek that may end up being the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist. But this on-the-road success is not carrying over to American radio airwaves. In the United States, the three singles from Madonna's latest Warner Bros. album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," have not been embraced by mainstream top 40 radio.

"Hung Up" got middling airplay, "Sorry" was barely played, and "Get Together" has been all but ignored by pop stations. Naturally, this state of affairs has left executives at her Warner Bros. label -- and more than a few fans -- wondering, what gives?

More than 3,300 fans have signed an appeal at petitiononline.com. The "End the Madonna on U.S. Radio Boycott" petition is addressed to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark P. Mays. Message boards at Entertainment Weekly and VH1, among others, are rife with everything from support for Madonna to conspiracy theories about why she can't crack the radio dial.

Warner Bros. was aware that the songs on "Confessions" could present challenges at mainstream top 40 radio, acknowledges Tom Biery, senior VP of promotions at Warner Bros. "Top 40 radio is so hip-hop-driven," he says. "We were coming in with a global pop star who made a dance record."

Guy Zapoleon, president of radio consulting firm Zapoleon Media Strategies, calls it an "interesting dilemma for the woman who certainly held the 'Queen of Pop' title for almost 15 years." Madonna's ability to redefine herself is well-documented, and Zapoleon says that this has helped her keep a "leading edge" to the new group of pop music fans that comes along every three to five years.

 
But this time, Madonna may have turned left while the pop climate was turning right. Other pop chameleons such as Nelly Furtado and Mariah Carey reinvented themselves with recent rhythmic/hip-hop-leaning singles. Madonna opted instead to return to her dance-pop roots.

According to Dom Theodore, regional VP of programming for Clear Channel and PD of top 40 WKQI Detroit, today's programmers consider each Madonna song on a case-by-case basis to determine if it fits mainstream top 40, adult top 40 or both. Or neither.

For Theodore, the sound of "Confessions on a Dance Floor" skews more retro-adult top 40 than mainstream top 40, while recent club tracks like Rihanna's "SOS" have "more hip-hop credibility." The Rihanna track may reference an early-'80s dance hit (Soft Cell's "Tainted Love") but Theodore believes it does not have the same "retro '70s feel" as the Madonna tracks.

Madonna has had no such airplay problems internationally. Since its release last November, "Confessions on a Dance Floor" has topped the charts in 29 countries and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide, according to Warner Bros. For the week ending July 15, the album's third single, "Get Together," had a radio audience of fewer than 1 million listeners in the United States (aggregate, based on market size and station share). Conversely, in the United Kingdom, where all three singles have been A-listed by BBC Radio 1, the single had 38.4 million listeners.

Except for dance radio outlets like KNGY San Francisco, KNRJ Phoenix and KNHC Seattle, Madonna is missing from the terrestrial radio landscape in the United States. John Peake, PD at KNGY, believes that mainstream top 40 radio programmers have completely missed the boat on this project. "When 'Hung Up' didn't get instant callout, the stations gave up on it," he says. "If they had given it more time, the callout would've come home."

"Confessions" has been healthy at retail: It has moved 1.5 million copies, already double that of its predecessor, 2003's "American Life," which has sold 666,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. File-sharing stats from BigChampagne and support from MTV's "TRL" are also solid. But, Biery says, "Radio still looks at callout research."

As Warner Bros. gears up for the release of the album's fourth single, "Jump," Biery remains optimistic, especially since the song was heard in TV and radio spots for the film "The Devil Wears Prada." The label will take a different strategy with this single, Biery says. "We'll begin with AC and hot AC formats," he notes. "Our goal is to have a true hit record with callout and then bring it back to the mainstream top 40 world."

©Billboard

[KSChristian4Clay]

Universal Music Publishing Group Signs Legendary Songwriters Hall of Fame, Academy Award, GRAMMY, Golden Globe, Tony Award Winning Composer Carole Bayer Sager to an Exclusive, Worldwide Administration Agreement 

LOS ANGELES, July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Music Publishing Group
(UMPG) announced today the signing of legendary, Academy Award winning
composer, Carole Bayer Sager, to an exclusive, worldwide administration
agreement. Sager was previously signed to Warner Chappell.
    Carole Bayer Sager has enjoyed one of the longest hit streaks in
contemporary pop, with her chart success spanning across several decades.
Carole Bayer Sager's lyrics can be found in scores of the most popular and
successful songs for more than 25 years. From the universal lyrics of the
Grammy winning, "That's What Friends Are For," the personal message of
"Don't Cry Out Loud," the fun Academy Awarding-winning, "Arthur's Theme,"
to the emotional message of "On My Own" and the spiritual message of the
Golden Globe winning and Oscar-nominated song "The Prayer," Carole's lyrics
have become part of the American vocabulary and her songs have become
standards. Honors for her work include an Academy Award (seven
nominations), A Grammy (nine nominations), two Golden Globe Awards (seven
nominations), A Tony award (2 nominations), an induction into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame, the 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Whitney Houston Foundation, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
    David Renzer, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group said of
the signing, "Carole Bayer Sager is one of the true modern legends of the
songwriting community. We at UMPG are deeply honored to have entered into
this new deal and are already enjoying working closely with Carole as she
continues to write more amazing songs and future hits."
    Born in New York City, Carole began writing poems as a child and began
songwriting while still a student at the High School of Music and Art. In
1966, still in her teens, Carole co-wrote her first No.1 hit, "A Groovy
Kind of Love," for the English group The Mindbenders, popularizing a new
word in the process. This song which Phil Collins reintroduced to listeners
23 years later, again climbed to No. 1, this time becoming the most
performed radio hit of 1990. Neil Diamond also included it on his 1993
album, "Up On The Roof."
    "That's What Friends Are For" recorded by Stevie Wonder, Elton John,
Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight, co-written with Burt Bacharach, Carole's
former writing partner/husband, was the No. 1 song of 1986 and won the
Grammy Award for "Song of the Year." Carole and Burt donated their
publishing moneys from the song to the American Foundation for AIDS
Research. The song has continued to heighten awareness of this critical
disease as well as raising over two million dollars for research and care.
    That same year, "On My Own," (recorded by Patti LaBelle and Michael
McDonald) was not only a Grammy nominee, but also the No. 1 song on three
different Billboard chart lists simultaneously. There had never been a time
when two songwriter-producers topped two lists with two different No. 1
songs in the same year. Carole and Burt shattered that mark and more.
"That's What Friends Are For," and "On My Own" topped three lists. Ten
years later in 1996 "On My Own" topped the country charts when Reba
McEntire with Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride and Linda Davis re-recorded
it and received a Grammy nomination for best Country Collaborations With
Vocals.
    Bayer Sager has always credited Carole King with having a major impact
on her career and was thrilled to have recently worked with her. King
performed "Anyone At All," co-written with King for the Nora Ephrom film
"You've Got Mail." The three also collaborated on "My One True Friend"
performed by Bette Midler for Universal's film "One True Thing" with Meryl
Streep. Most importantly to Bayer Sager, she has gotten the opportunity to
co-write along with King for King's long-awaited forthcoming LP.
    Her collaborations with Marvin Hamlisch resulted in two Oscar
nominations, "Looking Through The Eyes Of Love" from "Ice Castles" and
"Nobody Does It Better" from "The Spy Who Loved Me." Lyrics which Carole
co-wrote with Hamlisch and Neil Simon can be heard in the Tony Award
winning musical, "They're Playing Our Song." She also wrote songs for Bob
Fosses' Broadway musicals, "All That Jazz" and "Dancin."
    Her creative songwriting collaborations in 1994 and 1995 earned her
back to back Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for "Look What Love Has
Done" from the feature film, "Junior and "The Day I Fall In Love" from the
film "Beethoven." Two of her songs were nominated for Grammy's in 1996 --
"When You Love Someone" recorded by James Ingram and Anita Baker and
previously mentioned, "On My Own." Other Bayer Sager collaborators have
included Albert Hammond, Bette Midler, James Ingram, Neil Diamond, Dave
Stewart, The M&M Girls, Rodney Jerkins and The Corrs' latest LP, Talk
Around Corners, which has sold over four million copies.
    Most recently, Carole's efforts have resulted in an Oscar nomination
and a Golden Globe Award for Celine Dion/Andrea Bocelli's duet of "The
Prayer" co-written with David Foster for the Warner Bros. Motion picture,
"The Quest For Camelot." "The Prayer" duet with Andrea Bocelli is featured
on Celine Dion's new Sony LP, These are Special Times and was performed by
them on Celine's CBS holiday TV special, the 41st Annual Grammy Awards and
the 67th Annual Academy Awards.
    Carole's songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as Barbara
Streisand, The Doobie Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson,
Dolly Parton, Robert Flack, Peabo Bryson, Johnny Mathis, Kenny Rogers,
Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Carly Simon, Leo Sayer,
Dionne Warwick, Phil Collins and even Carole herself. Her first album,
"Carole Bayer Sager," spawned a No. 1 international single "You're Moving
Out Today" and was a platinum LP in England, Germany, Japan and Australia.
Two more albums followed with another hit single, "Stronger Than Before"
from the Burt Bacharach produced album, "Sometimes Late At Night."
    About Universal Music Publishing Group
    With 47 offices in 41 countries worldwide, Universal Music Publishing
Group (UMPG) is part of the Universal Music Group and one of the industry's
largest global music publishing operations. Owning or administering more
than 1 million copyrights, UMPG's writers and catalogs include: U2, Elton
John, 50 Cent, Dave Grohl, Prince, Diana Krall, Ludacris, Godsmack, Ice
Cube, Vanessa Carlton, Mary J. Blige, The Corrs, Eve, Musiq, Jill Scott,
Brian McKnight, No Doubt, Blink-182, 3 Doors Down, Beastie Boys, Anastacia,
Fatboy Slim, DMX, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Paul Simon, the catalog of
Henry Mancini, among many others.

Universal Music Publishing Group

[Pamela]

TRACKS TRUMP ALBUMS
Digital Song Sales Increase As CD Sales Drop
BY ED CHRISTMAN
July 22, 2006

While digital track sales continue to grow (much to the delight of the labels) the decline of the CD is accelerating to the chagrin of brick-and-mortar merchants.

For the 26 weeks ended July 2, unit sales of digital tracks outpaced albums—physical and digital—by 3.8%, with track transactions totaling nearly 281 million units versus album sales of 270.6 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Overall, U.S. sales for the first half were up 23.7% to 564 million units, versus the 456 million units tallied in the first half of 2005.

Digital tracks are the primary reason for cheer, leaping 77% from 158.8 million transactions in the first half of 2005. But album sales are down 4.2% from the 282.6 million units the U.S. industry garnered in the first half of 2005. The rate of decline for the half increased from the 3.3% drop in album sales for this year's first quarter.

The album sales decline can be attributed to CD albums, which were down about 19 million units, a 7% dip that was only partially offset by the 126.4% growth of digital-album transactions to 14.7 million units.

Universal Music Group widened its U.S. market-share lead over Sony BMG Music Entertainment even though its share was down slightly to 31.7% from the 32% it had in the first half of 2005.

UMG, including titles handled by Universal Music Group Distribution and Fontana, also landed at No. 1 for R&B, rap, Latin and alternative rock albums as well as current albums.

At midyear, the UMGD-distributed Buena Vista Music Group was riding high with the two biggest sellers: the "High School Musical" soundtrack with 2.6 million copies scanned, and Rascal Flatts' "Me and My Gang" with almost 2 million.

In the year's first half, 16 albums scanned more than 1 million units versus 17 last year. So far three downloaded songs have passed the million mark. Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" leads the way with 1.5 million scans, followed by Sean Paul's "Temperature" with 1.2 million units and Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" with 1 million.

UMGD was tops in digital tracks, capturing a 32.6% share, up from the 32.1% the company posted in the first half of 2005. Second-ranked Sony BMG's digital track share dropped to 25.2% from 27.8%. WEA's share grew to 20.6%, up from 16.4% for the half.

EMI Music Marketing had a slight uptick in digital-track market share, going to 7.8% from 7.6% in the first half of 2005. The independent sector saw its collective market share drop to 13.7% from 16.1%.

Other highlights from Nielsen SoundScan's midyear results:

• Country was the fastest-growing genre with a 17.7% jump in album sales. Other gainers: Christian/gospel (up 11.6%), Latin (7.9%) and soundtracks (12.6%). Classical, new age and metal also enjoyed sales gains.

• R&B suffered the biggest genre decline, a 22.4% drop to 53.8 million units. Alternative was down 9 million units to 50.9 million copies.

• Sony BMG was No. 2 to UMG in the album market with a 26.3% share, or 71 million units, down from 27.8%, or 78.5 million units. Still, Sony BMG was the top album distributor in country, classical, hard rock and gospel and on the Heatseekers chart.

• Warner Music Group was the only major to gain market share in the first half, growing to a 19.3% share from 16.7%. SoundScan credited WMG with all of Ryko Distribution's sales for the half even though WMG did not acquire the indie distributor until the end of May. If only Ryko's scans for June are included, WMG still shows an 18.8% share.

• The independent sector—excluding the major-owned indie distributors RED, Caroline, Fontana, Ryko and Alternative Distribution Alliance—tallied a 12.8% share of the albums market in the first half of the year. The fourth major, EMI, stood at 10%.

• Nontraditional retail outlets such as CD sales on the Internet, album sales at concerts and mail-order houses accounted for 11% of total album sales, the first time such outlets reached double figures. Mass merchants were slightly off pace, while chain stores and independent accounts continued to steadily lose market share.

©Billboard (subscription only)

[Pamela]

Bob Dylan pacts with iTunes for preorder deal
Tue Aug 8, 2006 12:29pm ET
By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Bob Dylan has teamed with Apple's iTunes Music Store to offer fans who pre-order his new album through the retailer first crack at tickets for shows on his fall tour.

"Modern Times," his first release in almost five years, is due August 29 via Columbia. Pre-order participants will receive a ticket presale code the following day, giving them a week-plus jump on the September 9 general public onsale. Tour dates have yet to be announced.

The iTunes version of "Modern Times" will feature five bonus Dylan videos: "Cold Irons Bound" (shot during the filming of the feature "Masked & Anonymous"), "Blood in My Eyes," "Things Have Changed," "Love Sick" (from the 1998 Grammys) and "Jokerman."

In addition, Apple has created the mammoth Dylan digital boxed set "The Collection," featuring every song from his studio albums as well as 42 rarities and an exclusive digital booklet. The box will sell for $199 and will also be available August 29.

Dylan will begin his third annual summer tour of U.S. minor league baseball stadiums Saturday in Comstock Park, Mich.

©Reuters

[Pamela]

Album Sales Numbers Leave Retailers Numb
By Chris Morris

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (Aug. 7) - A sluggish release schedule during the past three months has led to a major crash in album sales, according to data released during the annual convention of music retailers.

From May to July, album sales plummeted 10% from the year-ago period, executives at tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan told attendees at the National Assn. of Music Retailers confab Friday.

Only seven albums debuted with sales of more than 200,000 units, compared with 14 titles that performed at that level during the same period in 2005.

"There was definitely something going on with releases during this time period," said Chris Muratore, director of retail relations and research services for Nielsen Entertainment. "The top of the chart is really hurting."

Two weeks ago, Nielsen SoundScan reported the lowest week for total album sales (8.9 million) since January 1994 and the second-worst total since the firm began tracking sales in 1991. By contrast, album sales declined just 1.7% during the first four months of this year.

This year's biggest debut was metal band Tool's "10,000 Days," which bowed in May with 563,000 units sold. Last year's top debut, English rock band Coldplay 's "X&Y," entered with 737,000 units in June.

Noting that 70% of album sales in 2005 were produced by albums released before the fourth quarter, Nielsen Music president Rob Sisco added, "The release schedule seems to be fairly backloaded this year."

Product glut continues apace, with current figures indicating that the music industry is well on the way to a record-busting release year. Last year, an all-time high of 60,000 titles were issued in the United States. So far in 2006, nearly 37,000 titles have been released. That number includes 13,000 albums released solely in digital form.

A small number of releases continue to drive the vast majority of sales. In 2005, just 1% of the released titles -- 700 releases -- accounted for 80% of total sales, while 86% of the albums sold fewer than 1,000 units. A mere 100 titles made up 43% of the business.

Nonetheless, digital sales continue to be the major growth segment of the business. Sales of all digital albums to date this year already have surpassed the 16.2 million-unit total for all of 2005.

For the same period, sales of digital tracks are up 75% compared with 2005; an average of 45 million tracks have been sold every week this year. The all-time best-selling digital track, Daniel Powter's "American Idol"-driven hit "Bad Day," came out this year, moving 1.7 million units.

The rise of digital sales -- which has spiked dramatic growth in the nontraditional retail column, as sales at chains, independents and even mass merchants have declined -- comes as cold comfort to beleaguered brick-and-mortar retailers, who heard more less-than-encouraging statistics from Russ Crupnick, president of NPD Music, the music information division of research firm the NPD Group.

Leading off his presentation of a new consumer study based on input from 4,000 respondents, Crupnick pointed out that shoppers are "overstored, overstimulated and overoptioned."

He said, "Consumers are not becoming less loyal . . . (but) once I get into my car, I've got so many more choices."

Crupnick said that even though sales and shipments of physical product have declined, overall consumption of music -- through such media as satellite radio, online radio and burned discs -- actually was up 12% in 2005.

"There's an awful lot of sharing that's driving consumption," he said, "but the paid part of it is very small."

Shoppers are, in Crupnick's words, "committed, distracted and seeking core retail values" -- stock, selection, organization and ease of transaction. Price, he continued, isn't the issue, since 54% of the respondents said they considered music an excellent or very good value.

The chilling news presented in the NPD study is that consumers aren't that interested in exploring the digital music experience in a retail environment. Crupnick said nine out of 10 respondents were unaware of digital kiosks in brick-and-mortar stores, while a mere third of those surveyed expressed interest in buying in-store digital downloads. (However, 75% of online music purchasers were intrigued by the digital store concept.)

Among a variety of other bundled value-added options posed by researchers, consumers favored packaged discount coupons ("America loves a deal," Crupnick said) and DVDs with exclusive content. "If you can give them an interesting bundle, they're very interested in purchasing it," Crupnick said.

One option just didn't fly with shoppers: a vinyl LP with a download card for a digital version of the same title. Crupnick said, "Everybody under 25 said the same thing: Nobody knew what a turntable was."

©Reuters

[Pamela]

Top Acts Offer Covers For AIDS Benefit CD
August 08, 2006, 4:00 PM ET
Katie Hasty, N.Y.

Stars like Madonna, Alicia Keys and Sheryl Crow have lent covers to an AIDS research benefit compilation, due Sept. 12 via Sony BMG in the United States and Nettwerk in Canada.

"Between the Covers" rounds up famous remakes of songs like Lenny Kravitz's "American Woman" and Crow's "The First Cut Is the Deepest," with proceeds to benefit the T.J. Martell Foundation. Eric Clapton's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," U2's "Everlasting Love," Tori Amos' "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and the Dixie Chicks' "Landslide" are also included.

In conjunction, VH1, VH1 Classic and Logo will air a Sept. 12 half-hour special on the project, hosted by the Bacon Brothers, whose cover of the Beatles' "If I Needed Someone" can be found on the album.

Here is the track list for "Between the Covers":

"American Woman," Lenny Kravitz
"Everlasting Love," U2
 
"American Pie," Madonna
"Downtown Train," Rod Stewart
"Ol'55," Sarah McLachlan
"Smells Like Teen Spirit," Tori Amos
"Landslide," Dixie Chicks
"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," Eric Clapton
"Cold Cold Heart," Norah Jones
"This Woman's Work," Maxwell
"The First Cut Is the Deepest," Sheryl Crow
"If I Was Your Woman/Walk on By," Alicia Keys
"If I Needed Someone," the Bacon Brothers
"Dancing in the Streets," David Bowie and Mick Jagger

©Billboard

[Pamela]

'Idol' Auditions Begin Today In Pasadena
August 08, 2006, 11:00 AM ET

The competitors preparing to take the field today (Aug. 8) at the Rose Bowl had "American Idol" fame in mind, not football. Producers of Fox TV's talent show braced for an onslaught of would-be contestants as auditions for the sixth season were scheduled to begin. The search was to continue in six other cities through September.

The series has demonstrated its prowess as a starmaker by turning unknowns including Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood into overnight sensations. As the top-rated TV show last season, it has shattered expectations that it couldn't sustain its popularity.

"American Idol" also continues to deepen its pop culture imprint. Taylor Hicks, the latest winner, and finalists from last season are on tour, other contestants are pursuing solo careers and Lifetime is airing a movie about and starring past winner Fantasia this month.

On the new season that begins airing in January, "American Idol" will up the ante with a songwriting contest in which professionals and amateurs will have the chance to compose tunes for the finalists.

Upcoming auditions for singers will be held at the Alamodome, San Antonio, on Friday; Continental Air Arena, East Rutherford, N.J., Aug. 14; Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 21; FedExForum, Memphis, Tenn., Sep. 3; Target Center, Minneapolis, Sep. 8; Key Arena, Seattle, Sept. 19.

Those intending to try out were asked to register up to two days before an audition, but that offered no guarantee of being seen and heard on the big day. "If our time is running short the producers may walk around the venue to pick out people to audition ... based on performing ability, look, style, personality and other factors," according to guidelines posted on the show's Web site.

Passing the initial scrutiny is just the beginning, with follow-up auditions to winnow the pack even more. Those rejected in one city can jump to another and try again.

©Billboard

[Pamela]

Elton Unveils 'Captain' Track List, Release Date
August 11, 2006, 4:25 PM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Elton John has set a Sept. 19 release date for his new studio album, "The Captain and the Kid." As first revealed here last September, the Rocket/Island set is a sequel to the artist's 1975 album "Captain Fantastic and the Dirt Brown Cowboy." First single "The Bridge" will be available Aug. 22 from Apple's iTunes Music Store.

"It was [Sanctuary Group CEO Merck Mercuriadis'] idea, because he said, 'You're always saying how [songwriting partner] Bernie [Taupin] has become the Brown Dirt Cowboy' -- he lives on a ranch in Santa Ynez [Calif.] -- and I'm this guy who plays concert after concert, buying art, buying photographs, living a very lavish lifestyle," John told Billboard. "I've become Captain Fantastic."

John will premiere the material at an intimate Sept. 6 show at Rose Hall in New York. Members of John's Rocket club have first crack at tickets starting today (Aug. 11) via EltonJohn.com.

The artist will kick off a North American tour in support of "The Captain and the Kid" Sept. 15 in Sacramento, Calif.

Here is the track list for "The Captain and the Kid":

 
"Postcards From Richard Nixon"
"Just Like Noah's Ark"
"Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (NYC)"
"Tinderbox"
"...And The House Fell Down"
"Blues Never Fade Away"
"The Bridge"
"I Must Have Lost It on the Wind"
"Old '67"
"The Captain and the Kid"

©Billboard.com