Top Current Albums

All Time Low ‘Nothing Personal’ (62,912)
Black Eyed Peas ‘E.N.D’ (62,556)
Rob Thomas ‘Cradlesong’ (41,006)
Lady Gaga ‘Fame’ (33,086)
Kings Of Leon ‘Only By The Night’ (29,985)
Jeremih (28,515)
Green Day ’21st Century Breakdown’ (22,638)

Comprehensive Albums

Michael Jackson tops the Comprehensive Album Chart once again. Besides Maxwell, Michael Jackson “Number Ones’ sold more copies than the current top 5 artists on the Billboard Chart.

Number Ones (348,507)
Thriller (263,803)
Essential Michael Jackson (147,808)
Off The Wall (106,513)
Bad (97,201)
Dangerous (67,394)

Pop/funk act Modern Science has become a Kings favorite. The band just finished their debut album with producer Kevin Churko (Ozzy, Shania Twain, Britney). For fans of Duran Duran, Crowded House and George Michael. This two-piece pop act effectively captures the eighties with songs like Look Where You’re Walkin’ and Wrong Things Said The Right Way. Modern Science will be performing with Toad The Wet Sprocket at Voodoo Beach in Las Vegas on July 30th. Contact jason@jinconline.com

Check out the Fort Worth, Texas brother/sister pop group The Iveys who are Fuse TV’s unsigned artist for July. Their songs consist of soaring melodies and harmonies which isn’t surprising being that they grew up listening to their dad’s record collection, from The Beatles to the Rolling Stones, Queen to The Eagles. Our Favorite track is
The Promise. Contact stephen@pingpongmusic.com

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