When Kanye West opened up with 957k while 50 Cent topped 691k, Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman Antonio “L.A.” Reid said the sales are proof that music fans will still buy albums as long as the quality is good.

“Market conditions certainly have changed in the last few years, but the
decay we are seeing has more to do with the lack of quality in music,” he said.

The Bottom Line:

L.A. Reid is one of the few executives in the music business other
than Rick Rubin who acknowledges or at least speaks out that the decay in the music business is due to quality, in what KOAR calls the CREATIVE DROUGHT. Unfortunately, many other executives have fell to the idea that the lack of sales is mainly due to technology.

Many execs and music labels spend their long days in meetings thinking about selling music. This is a BAD OMEN. We can be rest assured with this mentality that the quality of music will continue to suffer. Instead execs in music labels need to focus on CREATING quality music with potential artists. Many execs will argue, it’s not that easy – ok fine, lets continue..

The Music business consists of ART and COMMERCE.

There is a lot of mediocrity out there that consumers will bypass. We have so many more releases, more genres, more artists, more competition. To many releases clogging up the arteries. Music labels do not set up a record for a year, its all about the first week. Music Labels cannot focus on 10 releases for the full year. When companies work more than three records they are overwhelmed.

You would think that with more competition we would have better music. The long tail is wrong, its just the opposite. With more competition we have less heroes because it gets watered down.

We know there is no such thing as artist development, instead we have priorities now.

Music Labels want FACTS. If there is not a story, a label won’t work a record. If you are that type of artist that is radio driven and you have lukewarm radio, you will get lukewarm attention – unless you are a multi-dimensional band. A multi dimensional band does not rely on radio for success – radio is icing on the cake. A multi-dimensional act has great songs, great players, great live performance, and has a true unique vision. Multi-dimensional artists are AFI, Slipknot, and Foo Fighters in the rock world, 50 Cent and Kanye in the Hip Hop World.

Our best guess that the creative drought may in fact have resulted from technology. We can make people sing in tune that cannot sing. What does this mean? It tells me that we have lead singers that should not be singers. Developing………………

Apple and music companies fight claim that iTunes pricing hurts British Consumers, while Apple accuses the music companies of preventing
it from operating a pan-European, one-price service. (WSJ)

Myspace has created a new ad-system that will display ads
based on what’s in your profile. MySpace says the new system increased the
chances of a user clicking on a banner ad by 80%.

This Week Sales…..

Kanye West 956k
50 Cent 691k
Kenny Chesney 386k
Fergie 40k
Nickelback 34k