Black Friday: Music Sales were down from 10 to 30% and big name albums released for Black Friday didn’t perform up to expectations according to merchants. Kanye West’s ‘808s & Heartbreak’ will sell in the 425k range down from the previously projected range of 800k. Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” is expected to sell at 250,000-260,000, not the predicted 300,000-784,000 units. Sales at Music specialty store Newbury Comics was down 21% and label executives said hit-album sales were off significantly at big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble.

Axl is Missing? Speaking of Chinese Democracy a source said that the album would have had a better chance of going #1 if Axl had been prepared to show his face. Chinese Democracy climb to number two on U.K. Albums chart, beaten by The Killers’ “Day & Age” which landed at #1 on the chart. The source said that the disappointing result happened because the band missed out the album’s promotion project. “People have been trying to contact him for two months and he’s been completely AWOL. You would have thought after spending 15 years on an album you might do a few weeks promotion,” the source explained.

Signings: Phoenix based pop/rock band The Summer Set have signed a co-publishing deal with Razor & Tie.

Can Radio Save Itself? Not to long ago, Radio ruled the world, but now is facing competition from iPods, the internet, and satellite radio. Advertisers are now spreading the dollars, and although radio is still a popular medium for advertising, many companies have pulled back due to current economic conditions. Even though the audience for broadcast radio is actually growing, stations cannot seem to increase their revenue says the New York Times. Some say there are signs of hope. To illustrate: “radio now reaches more than 235 million listeners in a week, versus 232 million last year, according to a study by Arbitron. But those people are listening to the radio less: fewer than 19 hours a week, versus about 20.4 in 2005.” Also, Radio executives are hoping that HD Radio will catch on with consumers.