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

Talent show guru Simon Cowell is taking his popular television formula to find new stars seeking fast fame to YouTube, joining a growing trend of companies using the Internet to bypass traditional broadcasters. Cowell, the mastermind behind global TV franchises “The X Factor” and “Got Talent”, unveiled plans on Monday for the first global audition channel, called The You Generation, that will be launched in 26 countries on March 20. Syco Entertainment, Cowell’s joint venture with Sony Music, said it had teamed up with YouTube to run 26 fortnightly contests over the next year to give people the chance to upload audition videos showing their skills and win a cash prize. Our mission is to discover the world’s next big YouTube stars and showcase their amazing and unique talents on The You Generation channel,” they said in a joint statement. YouTube, the video-sharing website set up in 2005, has become a new way to uncover talent, most notably launching the career of Canadian teen pop star Justin Bieber. Read more

Prince loomed over South By Southwest Music–first as a rumor, then as a confirmed booking that sent fans scurrying around Austin for a ticket giveaway, and finally as a smooth force whose nearly three-hour performance ended at 3 a.m. He led his 22-piece New Power Generation band through a dizzying run of classics, obscurities and covers.

He followed an emphatic set by A Tribe Called Quest, whose four members were tight despite rapper Q-Tip’s quip that they got hired for the show “at the last minute.” Later, pausing among songs like “Can I Kick It” and “Bonita Applebum,” when he sensed the crowd wasn’t reciprocating Tribe’s energy, he cracked, “maybe we should break up again for the third time.” Read more

From Showbiz 411:

Rob Thomas–not the one from matchbox twenty– really wanted to make a movie of his long-cancelled TV series “Veronica Mars.” So he launched a Kickstarter campaign with Kristen Bell and other stars of the show that left the air 8 years ago.

Thomas writes on the Kickstarter site: “Warner Bros. wasn’t convinced there was enough interest to warrant a major studio-sized movie about Veronica and the project never got off the ground. After that, I tried to tamp down expectations. I didn’t want to be guilty — at least not twice — of building up hope when the odds seemed so long. Still, without fail, in every interview I do or every place I speak, I get the “will there be a Veronica Mars movie?” question. Even after a couple of years of downplaying the chances, I’d still run across blog postings headlined, “will Rob Thomas shut up about the Veronica Mars movie, already!” I was trying to. I promise.”

As Bell says in the video below, if they get $2 mil, they’re on to shoot this summer. It’s great pr, a fun video, and it builds on viewer loyalty. So I guess by summer 2014 we will have “Veronica Mars: The Movie.” Why not?

As of this morning, they’ve raised $2.5 million– a record for an indie film on Kickstarter–and it keeps climbing.