MTV is facing a near 25% drop in viewership in their core demographic of 12-34 year olds.

MTV is facing the same thing every other traditional media (newspapers, radio, TV) is confronted with – a dwindling audience. Why? Because young people aren’t watching TV like they use to, instead they are spending the most time with other forms of media such as video games and the Internet.

MTV will launch 16 new unscripted series over the next 4½ months in order to thwart their unprecedented ratings drop.

“I don’t remember a period of ever making as much significant change at once,” says Brian Graden, president of entertainment at MTV Networks

Sean Combs, Matt Stone & Trey Parker, Donald Trump and Nick Lachey will produce the upcoming reality series.

“MTV’s fight for relevance in the digital age has led it to the same conclusion that many others rooted in the traditional media biz have come to: Big broadband traffic is certainly achievable for traditional media companies, but it isn’t easily monetized with ad dollars.”

“We’re finding out that digital isn’t the holy grail that everyone thought,” says one channel insider.

iTaxes: Good ol’ New York City never disappoints with taxes. New Yorkers people pay the highest taxes in the nation and governor David Paterson just took another swing at the citizens. New Yorkers who download music to their iPods are to see the cost rise by 4%.

“The charge, which has been nicknamed the iTax, will also cover ebooks and other “digitally delivered entertainment services”. (Guardian)

This isn’t good news for the music biz, adding an iTax will increase piracy. Where is Eliot Spitzer when we need him?

Satellite Radio Slashes Employees: Sirius XM Radio will have axed 22 percent of the work force by year-end, meaning they will have cut 458 people from its staff. I remember when CEO of Sirus Mel Karmazin, was speaking at a conference where he was saying Satellite Radio is a better investment than traditional AM or FM. I’m not quite sure about that, I think Sirius XM is falling apart.

The Christmas Blues: “Album sales were down 21.7 percent during the first week of December compared with the same period last year, accelerating from the 17.4 percent decline recorded during the last two weeks of November, according to Nielsen SoundScan.”

Signings: Lost Highway who is the home to Van Morrison and Elvis Costello has recently inked a deal with Morrissey and will release his new album ‘Years of Refusal’.

Digital Sales Surpass A Billion: Individual digital song downloads will reach about 1,040,000 for the year according to the Los Angeles Times. The best digital selling song this year is is Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love,” which sold 3.3 million downloads. Of course this won’t offset the decline of CD sales.

Little Boots -Â (London)

Victoria Hesketh who goes by the name Little Boots plays this little digital instrument called a Tonorion. The UK press has dubbed her a potential breakout star. You think?

The music business heavily relies on the Christmas season to boost their bottom line.

Let’s look at this week physical sales:

Taylor Swift – ‘Fearless’ – 246,841 – Total: 1,519,010
Britney Spears – ‘Circus’ – 200,096 – Total: 705,792
Nickelback – ‘Dark Horse’ – 156,076 – Total: 793,930
AC/DC – ‘Black Ice’ – 110,098 – Total: 1,675,568
Pink – ‘Funhouse’ – 61,381 – Total: 516,700
Miley Cyrus – ‘Breakout’ – 59,565 – Total: 1,192,675
Jonas Brothers – ‘Little Bit Longer’ – 58,608 – Total: 1,270,019
Killers – ‘Day & Age’ – 52,521 – Total: 307,865
Kid Rock – ‘Rock N Roll Jesus’ – 50,420 – total: 2,543,555
Guns N’ Roses – ‘Chinese Democracy’ – 47,193 – total: 364,960
Casting Crowns – ‘Peace On Earth’ – 41,188 – Total: 76,492
Metallica – ‘Death Magnetic’ – 36,136 – Total: 1,442,636
Coldplay – ‘Viva La Vida’ – 35,391 – Total: 2,032, 974
Adele – ’19’ – 19,830 – Total: 278,491
Kings of Leon – ‘Only By The Night – 15,694 – Total: 15,694

Digital Songs (Totals):

Britney Spears ‘Circus’ – 365,050
Lady Gaga ‘Just Dance’ – 1,179,661
Kanye West ‘Heartless’ – 634,091
Britney Spears ‘Womanizer’ – 1,420,612
Katy Perry ‘Hot N Cold’ – 2,043,816
Pink ‘So What’ – 2,324,367

Surprisingly, Britney Spears has broken T.I.’s record for the “Biggest Jump in Billboard History”. Who would ever think Spears would be as meaningful as Madonna? But it looks like she did it. Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless’ is the biggest country digital album debut in the history of Nielsen’s Soundscan, and the 4th biggest digital album debut to date, behind only Coldplay, Jack Johnson, and Kanye West.

Fox’s Roger Friedman says Rick Rubin will be slowly removed from his head post at Columbia Records.

“I’m told that Sony Music may have found a solution to their mess with Rick Rubin. They’re going to quietly offload him to a side label deal, and remove him from the main company.”

Rubin faced criticism when he took the high paying job as co-chairman of Columbia Records. In fact, The New York Times said when it comes to scouting and signing new artists, producer-run labels have a spotty history.

Unfortunately, it looks like reality is setting in:

“Sources say, and it makes sense. As I told you last week, Rubin has been a costly adventure for Sony. He’s produced a hit album for another label — Metallica, for Atlantic — and several CDs that were interesting but failed to spark sales,” says Friedman.

It’s also been said that Rubin moved the Sony Offices from Los Angeles to the more expensive Beverly Hills – a risky move in a time when labels are shrinking.

Not only that, Rubin was recording tracks for U2 only to find out the band rejected his tracks.

Looks like Rubin got himself in a turmoil, regardless, we can thank him for the fantastic Metallica album. But next time, turn down the volume!