Fairfax, VA pop act The Downtown Fiction will be performing at the Knitting Factory in NYC on July 13th at 6pm. A new song ‘Best I Never Had‘, off their forth coming EP produced Stacy Jones (American HI-FI), can be heard on their myspace. Contact: greg@controlny.com

Trent Reznor offers advice for unknown artists trying to get noticed.

* Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) – your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one.

If you’re forging your own path, read on.

* Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters. ”

http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?30,767183

Bottom Line: Trent offers some great marketing advice but it all comes down to the songs. In fact, Head Like A Hole, the first single to chart on Hot 100 Singles broke Nine Inch Nails. It’s all about a great song and a good original video will help as well. The track Rehab launched Amy Winehouse, Misery Business propelled Paramore to instant fame, and Just Dance put Lady Gaga on the map. Of course, the artist needs to backup the song with an incredible live show. I can’t think of something more unfortunate than a great song being sung by a faceless artist, which is common. If you are that artist who wrote that song that broke Trent, Gaga, and Paramore, then we want to hear it. Email tips@kingsofar.com

Long Island 4 piece act Push Play has just signed to Wind-up Records. For fans of Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. The first single “Midnight Romeo” will be released late July and the music video will feature star Emily Osment who is currently starring in The Disney Channel’s television show Hannah Montana. Listen to the track Midnight Romeo. Contact: suebaran@starlitevisions.com

Check out Dallas Electro Pop act The A-B Theory.  For fans of Owl City and Moby. The A-B Theory consist of Jesse Smith who wrote the entire album himself and won over critics after posting his songs on myspace. Jesse has been working on his next release, “Houses” (due early 2010 and being recorded with Dan Hunter of PlayRadioPlay), and is currently booking a summer tour. Check out the track
Fatal Flaw Attractions. Contact: theabtheory@gmail.com

Jackson’s catalog of solo albums sold 800,000 copies in the Unites States, an increase of 90% compared to the previous week according to Billboard.

“Physical albums accounted for 82% of Jackson’s sales last week — 656,000 physical albums versus 144,000 download albums”.

Jackson’s total song download sales this week total 2.2 million downloads. With that said, Michael Jackson made records, not singles.