New Anticipated Releases: Death Cab For Cutie’s new album, Narrow Stairs is out today. Pick up a copy at your local record store or pick up a digital copy at iTunes by clicking here. Death Cab is the benchmark for the indie bands, they got it down to a science. If you don’t believe us, just stream the album here..

10 Years new record, Division is out today. The album is #6 on the iTunes Chart and is expected to land in the top 15 on the Billboard album charts. Who said rock is dead? Rock is alive and well, just have to do it right. Pick up a copy on iTunes by clicking here.

Idol Ratings Continue To Slip: Even though American Idol ratings are slipping away, the show itself is still huge. Cowell suggests that the viewership may just be bored. We haven’t got the right personalities at the moment,” Simon Cowell told a reporter over the weekend. They’re “very media-savvy. They say the right things. They don’t argue with me. It’s too safe at the moment.”Things are too old-fashioned,” Cowell said.

TVT Records Set to Meet Its Maker? Pitbull, the top-10 rapper has been angry for months at both the label and its owner, Steve Gottlieb, and has even gone on the radio to urge listeners not to buy his 2007 release, “The Boatlift”. TVT Records is scheduled to be sold out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. According The NY Post, “There are said to be about 30 investors weighing whether to make a bid on TVT. If the bidding is less than robust, unsecured creditors may only receive pennies on the dollar”. “I just want to make sure my artists are taken care of and I do right by my creditors,” Gottlieb said.

Rise Fast, Fall Hard: The queen of pop marketing wasn’t astute this time as in the past — or simply, her record company didn’t care since she was leaving. After one week, Madonna’s”Hard Candy” has fallen a whopping 71 percent in sales to No. 5 says Fox’s Roger Friedman.

But…

Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love” is a smash. And say what you will, but Lewis’ American success is directly related to Clive Davis and his team at J Records. Only in the record business would execs be dumb enough to tamper with that formula says Friedman.

Leeds Laid Off: Jeff Leeds the Los Angeles music biz reporter who wrote for The New York Times has been laid off. “I feel badly for him because he’s always had a good handle on his beat. He also writes regularly and breaks news. “It came as a surprise. H was upset to be cut,” an insider tells me. “But it’s an odd beat to cut because it’s not like there’s overlap”.

Thomas C. Rubin talks about the tremendous change in the media and entertainment industry at the 2008 Leadership in Media Forum.

The birth of the multimedia Internet, unlike previous technological changes, has been more like a giant comet strike upon the media ecosystem.

Are we creating a healthy and sustainable new media ecosystem for anyone, old or new?

“The facts suggest that the new ecosystem as presently configured is, in fact, not able to adequately sustain grassroots creators.

“Both the corporations and the kids, it seems, want the use of our music without having to pay for it. If musicians are to have a chance of enjoying a fruitful career, then we need to establish the principle of artists’ rights throughout the Internet – and we need to do it now.”

“The New York Times noted the decision had “incited talk of a revolution in the music industry.” Hardly. It’s not even the future of Radiohead. Just last week, without releasing sales figures, the band called the experiment “a one-off … moment in time” and announced they’d never do it again”.

“The problem is not confined to the music scene. Blogging site Valleywag recently cut the pay of bloggers by a third. And as for the creators of amateur video content, seemingly the web’s favorite medium, they are learning that while being an online video star is certainly fun, the reality is it just doesn’t pay”.

‘Can Anyone Survive In The New Media Environment‘ is a must read. We want to hear feedback and solutions…

Save Chicago Culture

“Imagine a Chicago with no Metro or Double Door or Schuba’s. Imagine a Chicago with no Royal George or Bailiwick or Athenaeum. Imagine a Chicago where local music is only heard in the suburbs and theater is limited to Wicked and Jersey Boys.”

“Scary thoughts. But if the City of Chicago’s City Council doesn’t hear your voice by Wednesday, May 14, they can become reality.”

Just maybe we can stop the plotting, read the full details here.

A Change In Direction: Are the Timbaland produced dance records coming to an end? The recent beat induced Duran Duran record quickly dissipated and the new Ashlee Simpson record, ‘Bittersweet World‘, will quickly fall off the charts and disappear into oblivion. Simpson’s first album, Autobiography, debuted at number one in the U.S. with first week sales numbering around 398,000 copies and was certified triple platinum. So why did she trade in pop rock for club beats? I certainly don’t know..

Oh No, Not Again!: Universal Music Canada has joined the search for Canada’s version of Miley Cyrus. “The Canadian label will offer a record contract to the winner of “The Instant Star,” a summer reality talent show from YTV, Canada’s kids cable channel, and producer Tricon Films & Television, that will bow July 18″. “The homegrown series will see young Canadians age 15 and younger compete for singing stardom. CTV’s rival summer “Canadian Idol” series has a cutoff age of 16″.

Pay Attention Please: It’s harder to keep one’s attention because we are living in a globalized world with to many options and an influx of information.
TV viewership continues to slide and some wacky neuroscientist’s even claim that modern technology including video games is changing the way our brain works. Todays artists need to arm themselves with information and need to understand that mediocrity will no longer hold any value. The one good thing of having to many options is that mediocrity will fall between cracks forcing greatness to prevail. How does an album once again become more important than a video game? It has to be great.

New Music: Canadian rock band, Social Code, who is signed to Universal/Canada will be performing a show at the Mercury Lounge (NYC) on May 20th. The band signed with SL Feldman Booking and just finished tours with Hedley and Sum 41, will be the main support to Theory of a Dead Man in June. The band are free agents in the US. Listen to the track
Everyday Late November and The Shortest Line. For more information email here.

Combining Music and Art: The Wall Street Journal wrote a piece about a Minneapolis band called Cloud Cult. They combine music With live paintings onstage. Instead of profiting from t-shirts, the band sells
paintings and other eccentric souvenirs. One painting sold $1,000 — about as much as the group typically gets paid to perform. The band also spent $15,000 to have its CD pressed and packaged, which is more than double of the typical rate because Cloud Cult insists on using non-toxic inks and recycled packaging instead of standard plastic jewel cases. This band seems like a dream for an indie fans — only if they could sell comic books too…

I Want To Be Popular: This interesting video of John Mayer popped up on the blogosphere. His good musicianship and personality allows him to hang out with the popular kids in high school. For some reason his music never struck a chord with me..

Have you seen the new video for ‘Pretty Buildings‘ by People in Planes? Check it out here. It’s good, original and different.

Listen to the new track Actions and Motives by alternative act 10 Years that comes off the Division record which be will be in stores this tuesday May 13th. The songwriting became so intense and divisive that the band almost broke up during the recording process. The band will be performing on the Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution Tour this summer.

Unsigned midwest act One Less Reason gives us another reason how today’s artists can reap rewards from the net. Their numbers show them selling 30,000 units independently and logging 100,000 PAID downloads. Their website welcomes upwards of 12,000 visitors each day, so it is no wonder why retailers are knocking on the door of this unsigned wonder. “They are in an incredible position, marketing wise” says their publicist Stephanie Christie, “To be able to open for acts like One Republic and book Top 40 radio interviews one day and dominate the charts of Alternative Addiction and active rock radio the next day is quite impressive.” Check out the live performance for A Day To Be Alone uploaded on YouTube by a fan.

Listen to In All Honesty by Safe As Houses. Also listen to Addicted by Jacqueline Rose who is Clear Channel’s artist pick of the month.

Seattle based indie band Barcelona’s “It’s About Time” was added to regular rotation on Seattle’s 107.7 The song was #10 most requested twice last week. Check out the music video here.

We want to hear new music. We don’t care about Myspace plays, but you must have at least one. We also want to see decent pictures, including close ups. We noticed many artists today don’t know how to take decent pics. Go ahead and find yourself a good photographer. If your singer isn’t photogenic you may as well find another one. More importantly, the pictures on your myspace shouldn’t look like they belong in your high school year book. Email tips@kingsofar.com along with a link to your myspace, and let us know your favorite song.