The headlines say “The Strolling Bones are ready to hit the road again” and “Even better than they were thirty years ago”

“The Rolling Stones have announced that they will go on the road at the end of 2002 and play dates in the UK in 2003. The tour will last a year and include live Internet broadcasts. The concerts will be used to promote an album which the group will record this year. The Stones’ last tour, Bridges to Babylon, lasted two years and helped to secure their position as the most successful touring band in pop history.”

Taylor Swift is on track to be the first female in the Nielsen SoundScan era to have two albums cross the million unit mark in a single week. According to Billboard, sources indicate that first-day sales of Red were north of 500,000, including a record-setting 160,000 units on day one. The only other acts to sell more than a milli twice are the Backstreet Boys, N’SYNC and Eminem.

Taylor and the team of course are promoting this new album heavily and endlessly.

“On Monday and Tuesday, she’ll be in New York’s Times Square for appearances on Good Morning America. She’ll perform Tuesday on The Late Show With David Letterman. Her Wednesday schedule includes a visit to ABC’s The View for a performance and chat, and she will appear Thursday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

And if that’s not enough, she will guest Friday on ABC’s Katie with Katie Couric and will be featured that night on ABC’s All Access Nashville With Katie Couric — A Special Edition of 20/20. Also this week, look for Taylor on Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, E! News and Extra.

She’s on the cover of the current issues of Rolling Stone, Glamour and the UK edition of Marie Claire.” (CMT)

Lastly, the team has gone as far as coupling her new album with Papa John’s Pizza. For just $22, you can order a physical copy of the album along with a large one-topping pizza.

Taylor everywhere!

Taylor Swift is expected to sell more than 1 million copies of her new album ‘Red’ in its first week. Swift has managed to stay on the top of charts but it comes with a price. Her music is still crafted for the 12-14 year old female even though Swift is now 22. At her age age many have graduated college and are entering the work force if they are fortunate to find jobs. Regardless, Swift has to figure out her own personal narrative if she wants wants to be known as a story teller since her new album crosses over to the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Katy Perry, an album that is crafted for the top 40 audience. Although Swift’s new radio singles certainly rival Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” her reputation as a poet could be at stake.

Check out her latest album review from The Guardian and NY Daily News.

Although many artists go to great lengths to stay on the charts, I haven’t seen anything quite like this. Justin Bieber’s fifteen minutes of fame are coming to an end. Below is a piece from Showbiz 411.

“In a move of utter desperation, Bieber’s management– according to several entertainment sites–supposedly created a hoax this week to promote his new video. Bieber tweeted that his computer and camera had been stolen. Next, a lewd, nude picture of purportedly him turned up on TMZ. Then a new official video came out, and it turned out that the picture wasn’t of him, and that the video was the supposed material that had been stolen.

http://www.eonline.com/news/353581/justin-bieber-stolen-laptop-a-hoax-singer-releases-nicki-minaj-music-video-thanks-alleged-thief

The net-net: the song, “Beauty and a Beat,” has not caused much of a stir on iTunes, where downloads put it at around number 50. On YouTube, there have been over 5 million free viewings for the very expensive looking video, but– and this might be important– only 255,000 times have fans “liked” it. And 22,000 haven’t “liked” it. “Beauty and a Beat,” disposable pop featuring Nicki Minaj (who has to be paid), is clearly a loss leader for the tour.

Bieber’s album, “Believe,” has not been much of a hit. Another single, “As Long as You Love Me,” has been a very modest hit.

And the tour: Bieber has started his tour with Carly Rae Jepsen in Canada, his birthplace. There, the ticket sales look ok. But in the US, it’s a different story. The secondary ticket market is flooded. Hundreds and thousands of tickets are available on Stubhub.com depending on the sizes of the venues. At Madison Square Garden, it’s a buyer’s market, that’s for sure.

And that’s interesting for everyone because a recent report out of Nashville suggest that Bieber’s management is scalping its own seats to make more money.

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/19616981/documents-show-bieber-is-scalping-his-own-tickets

Phil Williams, reporting out of Newschannel 5 in Nashville, uncovered a cache of documents that show how Bieber’s team is allegedly ripping off fans. According to Williams, Bieber’s management hasn’t responded to the accusations. It’s a must-read story, however, and explains why there are so many tickets on Stubhub. Of course, the irony will be that the marked up tickets don’t sell. The Bieber team could go to the cleaners.

Scooter Braun, Bieber’s manager, has been incredibly clever meantime about diversifying. He clearly has “45 rpm” ears. He picked up Carly Rae Jepsen’s single, “Call Me Maybe,” and turned it into the event of the summer. The album isn’t really selling, and she’s likely done. But Braun likely made a tidy sum from the single. By next year at this time he’ll be saying “Call me, maybe” to Jepsen.

Braun also picked up a novelty single from Korea, called “Gangnam Style.” It’s in the top 3 this week. It’s the “Mambo No. 5? of 2012. No Bieber single has ever sold like “Call Me Maybe” or “Gangnam.” By the time Braun is done, he’ll be living in several mansions. The artists will be trivia questions. It’s the long tradition of the music business.

But with the allegations of scalping, the hoax with the nude picture and the stolen computer stuff, Braun–and his partners, which include Usher– have no doubt seen the darkness at the end of the tunnel. If I were Justin Bieber, and I owned that $100,000 silver car he drives around, I’d be selling it and putting the money into treasury notes right now. That is, if he actually owns it. Or anything.”

Mumford and Sons sold 600k of their new CD ‘Babel’ in the first week which marks the biggest selling debut of the year. Babel‘s amazing sales far outshine the next-best debut of the year, Justin Bieber’s Believe, which sold 374,000 copies in its first week.

“Of the 600,000 copies that Babel sold, a whopping 420,000 (72 percent) of them were digital albums. That’s the second-biggest digital sales week ever behind Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, which sold 662,000 digital copies thanks, in part, to its controversial 99-cent deal on Amazon.”

The Music business is exceptional with absolutely no formula or guidelines. One week it’s a Korean gangsta rapper, the next week it’s a couple of white guys with banjos.