Veteran music manager Peter Mensch who has handled the career for Madonna, Metallica and Def Leppard says the writing’s on the wall for Justin Bieber. He also blamed incompetent management.

“He said: ‘His manager Scooter Braun is scared s***less.
‘I don’t know what Bieber’s problem is. His career is over in three years anyway,’
He also told the Sun he does have one trick up his sleeve that he thinks would help the troubled teen.
He said: ‘I’d take Bieber to the woodshed and spank him.’

“It has been a difficult year already for the teen star. He has been dumped by his fellow popstrel and movie actress Selena Gomez , following a string of allegations he had been unfaithful. He has also been late for concert dates, and was taken to hospital in London after collapsing during his run of concerts in the English capital. Perhaps the most noteworthy incident was when he had to be held back by his own minders when he tried to get into a fistfight with photographers. But even more seriously, it is now likely he will be facing criminal charges for allegedly spitting on and threatening his neighbour”

Phil Ramone, a record producer and engineer who worked with some of the biggest music stars of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand, died on Saturday in Manhattan. In his 2007 memoir, “Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music,” written with Charles L. Granata, Mr. Ramone defined the role of record producer as roughly equivalent to that of a film director, creating and managing an environment in which to coax the best work out of his performers. Read more

Nearly two years after launching in the U.S. primarily via word-of-mouth, Spotify will air its first in a series of U.S. TV ad commercials on NBC’s “The Voice” Monday night as part of a larger branding campaign valued at over $10 million in media spend. The campaign, titled “For Music,” will feature digital and social media ads, with additional TV spots to air on NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” as well as Viacom’s MTV, MTV2, VH1 and other networks in the coming weeks.

A trio of spots released online Monday afternoon, created by ad agency Droga5, take a more existential approach to the streaming music service, focusing more on the feelings that music evokes rather than any specific product offerings. It’s an interesting tactic for a company that recently touted its 6 million paid worldwide subscribers at South By Southwest earlier this month.

One spot, which airs tonight on “The Voice,” features a crowdsurfer sailing across a sea of packed fans at a concert, with a voiceover posing the question, “Why can a song change the world?” The speaker then offers a list of answers, including, “Because we were all conceived to a 4/4 beat. Because music can’t be stopped. Can’t be contained. It’s never finished.” Read more

Justin Timberlake could sell a million records in The 20/20 Experience’s first week of release, making it his second No. 1 album and his highest sales debut ever. No easy feat, especially in this unpredictable musical climate, but the business-savvy singer understood you have to do more than just promote the music if you want to break records.

Timberlake managed to saturate the news cycle leading up to his album’s release with TV commercials, late night comedy stints and a very smart Target sponsorship, which managed to bump up his sale predictions from an initial figure of 500,000 copies to Billboard reporting it was looking like he had sold 950-975,000 copies by the end of the week. (The final sales stats for The 20/20 Experience are expected, at the latest, Wednesday morning.) Even more impressively, he accomplished all this without making you feel sick of him.

Timberlake seemed to be everywhere leading up to his third album’s release on March 19. His latest release marked his return to music seven years after releasing 2006’s FutureSex/LoveSounds, a record that sold 684,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Timberlake took over your television, from those Bud Light Platinum commercials that featured the brand’s Creative Director performing “Suit & Tie” alongside some very thirsty fans to his fifth time hosting SNL, which gave the NBC show its highest-rated episode in 14 months. Not to mention JT joined Jimmy Fallon for a week-long Late Night residency that had him not only previewing songs off the album, but showing how funny he really is with skits that ranged from a barbershop quartet rendition of “Sexy Back” to a Michael McDonald impression that featured McDonald himself. Read more

Beyonce is the midst of controversy by telling her audience to bow down in her new single. While Beyoncé fans are (mostly) loving the superstar’s gritty new single “Bow Down/I Been On,” Keyshia Cole is not impressed. “Can’t stand when people all self righteous when it’s convenient it makes them look good,” the R&B singer tweeted Monday. “Lmao! But can still talk sh-t when convenient 2 FOH.”

On Sunday, Beyoncé debuted “Bow Down”, which features the singer defiantly repeating the lyric “Bow down, bitches” in full-on Sasha Fierce mode. Another line seems to reference husband Jay-Z: “I took some time to live my life, don’t think I’m just his little wife.” Read more