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David Bowie Single Banned from Charts
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: The Charts, Dance, Electronic, Rock, iTunes, New Releases, Sales,
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David Bowie's new single has been banned from the UK charts.
The legendary singer released "Where Are We Now?" - his first track in 10 years - on Tuesday to coincide with his 66th birthday and it shot straight to the top of the iTunes downloads chart. But as well as being sold, it is also being given away to fans who pre-order his album, so chart bosses say it cannot be counted.
The Official Charts Company said, "It is not possible to distinguish album sales from track sales from the retail data."
Bowie's album, The Next Day, is out in March but already tops the iTunes chart with advance orders.
Yesterday, it was revealed Bowie wanted his new album cover to be as "minimal and undesigned as possible." The main picture on The Next Day was made by the singer with design company Barnbrook, and features the cover of his 1977 album Heroes in black and white, with the middle part obscured by a white block featuring the album's title.
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Gotye Has Biggest Selling Song of 2012
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, The Charts, Alternative, Rock,
Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" was the biggest selling song of 2012 in the US. The Belgian-Australian singer's track sold 6.8 million copies, beating Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," which was second, with 6.4 million sales.
"Somebody That I Used to Know (Featuring Kimbra)" became a phenomena in 2012, catapulting the previously unknown artist to the spotlight. The song has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and reached number one in more than 23 national charts, becoming the fourth most downloaded track of all time.
Speaking of the track, Gotye - real name Wouter De Backer - said he doesn't mind if it's his only successful single: "I would take a sort of perverse pleasure if a certain part of the public think of me as a one-hit-wonder. I'd be in some good company."
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Nicki Minaj Blames Target, Walmart Over Poor Album Sales
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Artist News, Gossip, The Charts, Hip-Hop & Rap, Pop,
When all else fails, blame your retailers.
Nicki Minaj was recently asked about why she thinks that the re-release of her Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded album (titled Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up) didn't perform as well as its predecessor.
"It is hard to get the album because the stores basically said that the last few re-releases they had put out did not do well and they didn't want to take a chance. So, Target and Walmart is not selling the album. Target is actually my biggest retailer - they've always been my biggest retailer. They've sold the most Nicki Minaj albums ever, so, thank you, Target. But I wish you could've sold this one."
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| The Huffington Post
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Poor Album Sales Don’t Bother Nelly Furtado
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Artist News, Gossip, The Charts, Pop, New Releases,
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She might not be flying like a bird with her latest album sales, but Nelly Furtado won't let that stop her from making music.
Her new album, The Spirit Indestructible, is the follow-up to her 2009 Spanish-language album Mi Plan. Before that was her career-boosting album Loose, which featured her hit single, "Promiscuous." The Spirit Indestructible failed to meet album expectations, selling a mere 6,000 copies (debuting at 79 on Billboard) compared to Loose's 219,000 in its first week (in which it debuted at number one).
"Just like a lot of my albums, actually. I have very few albums that debut high," Furtado said. "I've had kind of everything happen to me commercially and at different levels," she says. "I've had different scenes and I've dabbled in a lot of markets so I see the music world as very global and I'm always looking for new avenues and opportunities, so one chart or anything doesn't necessarily [mean anything]."
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Billboard Crowns Rihanna as Top Pop Star
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, The Charts, Hip-Hop & Rap, Pop, R&B / Soul,
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Rihanna has been named Billboard's Top Pop Artist of the last 20 years.
The "Diamonds" hitmaker tops the music magazine's list of the most successful artists in the history of its Pop Songs chart, which started on October 3, 1992. The magazine awarded her top spot for her achievements on the chart, which include 34 appearances with 21 top ten hits, and nine number one songs, an accolade she shares with Katy Perry, placed at sixth on the list.
The top ten was dominated by solo women singers, with Usher the only male, and Black eyed Peas the only group. Pink is in second place, followed by Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson and Mariah Carey.
Katy comes in next, and New York based radio program director Sharon Dastur, reminisced about the first time she worked with her: "Katy's very first single, 'I Kissed a Girl,' had just recently come out and we were playing it on [radio station] Z100. We started to feel an early buzz on the song, but the masses still weren't that familiar with who Katy was. We invited her to come on-stage at our Jingle Ball to help introduce one of the acts performing. We weren't sure if the crowd would be familiar with her by name, so we suggested that when she went out there, she should sing the hook of 'I Kissed a Girl' a capella. As soon as the crowd heard that, they sang every word along with her. Katy has told us that she'll always remember that moment."
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Mumford and Sons’ Babel Success
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: The Charts, Folk, Rock, New Releases,
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Mumford and Sons' new album Babel has achieved the biggest sales week of 2012 in the US Billboard Chart. The group sold over 600,000 copies of their second LP in America, but Daniel Glass - of their US label Glassnote - says the boys won't be getting over-the-top gifts to celebrate their success: "No new cars. We have something we think is very special... we hug. We're big huggers. We will give them a big hug and compliments on their job."
Daniel says he always knew the band - made up of Marcus Mumford, "Country" Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane - would be successful as they're so talented and work really hard, especially when on tour. "I can go back to the beginning and I knew we were signing a very talented band to our roster. They delivered incredible music for a second time... and the work that was done, it's very empowering and shows a lot of confidence when a band goes out for almost two months playing new music from the new album for their fans and shares it with them and makes the fan experience so wonderful and inclusive. The attitude of Mumford and Sons is that fans really do come first and word of mouth is important. They've let you in on new music for a long time and it's not a marketing ploy. It has been that unfurling and exposure going on for a year and a half with the new music," he said.
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Gotye OK Being a One Hit Wonder
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gossip, The Charts, Alternative, Rock,
Gotye doesn't mind being seen as a one hit wonder. The singer's track "Somebody That I Used to Know" has been one of the biggest singles of the year worldwide, and he doesn't mind if it's his only successful track.
"I would take a sort of perverse pleasure if a certain part of the public think of me as a one-hit-wonder. I'd be in some good company," he told NME.
The Australian musician added he knows his real fans have been listening to his sound develop over three albums, but accepts most people will only associate him with his mega hit. "If I go on to never make any music that is as commercially successful as this and that means that there's a divide between some people's perception of me in the pop sphere versus the actual music I've made, and people actually taking the time to listen to the rest of it, then I think that's actually kind of interesting."
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Madonna's latest album is set to have the biggest second week sales drop in chart history.
The 53-year-old singer's new record MDNA debuted at the top of the US album charts last week after achieving sales of 359,000. However, according to Forbes, in its second week of release, sales fell to approximately 46,000, making it a record-breaking 88 per cent fewer copies sold.
Reports say Madonna's first-week sales were inflated by CDs that were bundled with the purchase of concert tickets for her upcoming tour. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 185,000 copies of MDNA were sold as part of the ticket package deal, meaning that only 179,000 were individual album sales. Without these ticket package sales, MDNA would have placed at Number two on the charts behind Lionel Richie's Tuskegee, which achieved 199,000 copies that week.
Forbes' Roger Friedman believes Lionel was robbed of the number one position: "That promotion artificially inflated Madonna's numbers, putting her first before Lionel Richie and his Tuskegee album. I do think that all the people involved in the Madonna ticket-CD deal should apologize to Richie for denying him his rightful place at number one."
Gallery: Madonna Set for Huge Sales Drop
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Paul McCartney has warned One Direction being compared to The Beatles could be a "kiss of death."
The Beatles are one of the biggest bands in history, but Paul - the group's songwriter and bass player - thinks too much pressure is put on artists when they're compared to such iconic acts, and instead people should just call them "the next terrific band."
"There are so many bands who all get called, 'The next Beatles'. Suddenly it puts an awful lot of pressure on them to be the next Beatles. Oasis were, 'The next Beatles' once if you remember. It's a pressure, because suddenly you've got to live up to all the things that we did, and it was a different time. So let's just call them, 'The next terrific band.'"
One Direction are currently taking America by storm, and earlier this month made history by becoming the first UK act to top the American chart with their debut album, Up All Night.
Paul wishes the boy band well for the States, where they are returning for another tour later this year: "They're doing well in America. It's good - good luck lads."
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One Direction Tops US Album Charts
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Concerts / Tours, Performances, The Charts, Pop, New Releases,
One Direction have become the first British group to enter the US charts at number one with a debut album.
The "What Makes You Beautiful" hitmakers - Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson - made history by selling more than 176,000 copies of their Up All Night album since its release last Tuesday.
"We simply cannot believe that we are number one in America! It's beyond a dream come true for us. We want to thank each and every one of our fans in the US who bought our album and we would also like to thank the American public for being so supportive of us," Harry said.
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