Trent Reznor talks about illegal sharing site Oink: I’ll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world’s greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted… it existed because it filled a void of what people want – Trent Reznor. (valleymag)

Its Britney Bitch, hehehe: Zomba estimates Britney Spears new album “Blackout” will open in the range of 330,000-350,000. “In the zone,” Spears’ last studio album, opened with 609,000 in 2003.

New Music: Check out Jacqueline Rose. She is sitting at #53 on the top 100 country artists on myspace. Her music falls somewhere between Natalie Merchant and LeAnn Rimes. Listen to the track Euphoria.

Clear Channel Motto ‘only play what people know’: Radio should not open the flood gates to mediocrity, but if a new artist or older artists wrote a great record that is bubbling and reacting, then forgoodness sakes, put it in rotation. Why give the middle finger to new music when it could potentially grow you’re audience? Clear Channel Radio condemns innovative thinking.

Everybody wants something new. Consumers don’t want to live in the dark ages seeing or hearing the same things over and over. Tooth paste companies, The automobile industry, the pharmaceutical companies are always offering something NEW. What makes radio immune to NEW?

Imagine if HBO didn’t play any movies that dated past 1994? You can’t imagine this. But this is how Clear channel runs its business. Of course radio listenership is declining and the dwindling people that still listen primarily use it for white noise. The future of Clear Channel radio is bleak…

This Week Sales…

Carrie Underwood ‘Carnival Ride’- 527k
Coheed and Cambria ‘No World For Tomorrow’ – 62k
Springsteen ‘Magic’ – 51k
Paramore ‘Riot’ – 16k
James Blunt ‘All The Lost Souls’ – 12k

Indie act from Indianapolis Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s have signed to Epic. We are also hearing reports that Immortal Records may have folded.

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Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays (pictured) said that the radio industry must embrace new methods of reaching listeners and yet the The No. 1 album is not being played on any radio stations….

According to Fox’s Roger Friedman Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from Bruce Springsteens “Magic.” But it’s OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as “Dancing in the Dark,” “Born to Run” and “Born in the USA.”

Just no new songs by Springsteen, even though it’s likely many radio listeners already own the album and would like to hear it mixed in with the junk offered on radio.

Why? One theory, says a longtime rock insider, “is that the audience knows those songs. Of course, they’ll never know these songs if no one plays them.”

“Magic,” has sold more than 500,000 copies since its release on Oct. 2 and likely will hit the million mark. That’s not a small achievement these days, and one that should be embraced by Clear Channel.

The Bottom Line: I couldn’t agree more with Roger Friedman in that Clear Channel has done more to destroy the music business than downloading over the last 10 years. Although the calender year is 2007, we have to many people living in the DARK AGES. If the Clear Channel Motto is ‘Only Play Tracks That People Know’ then its obvious why radio listenership is declining at a fast pace. Whats more ironic is that these out of touch execs are great at running companies into brick walls.

The Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays said that the radio industry must embrace new methods of reaching listeners and populating new forms of media with its content if it hopes to compete in the widening world of consumer media.

New Methods to reach listeners? and proclaiming to rock station to only play tracks that people know? Mark Ways statements are nothing more than a dog and pony show.

Starbucks signs first developing artist: Hear Music, the label started by Concord Music Group and Starbucks, has signed Hilary McRae as the company’s first developing artist. As far as the future of the label, Lombard says the goal is to release records by eight artists in the next year. (Billboard)

Tension between Epic and Jennifer Lopez: According to insiders Epic Records is fed up not only with J Lo’s dwindling album sales, but with the amount of money it’s costing to promote her. “She costs too much money and doesn’t sell enough,” says the source, who is familiar with the issue. “Her last album cover alone cost $60,000 in hair and makeup, lighting, photographers, re-touching, etc. The video budget was in the neighborhood of $300,000.” Lopez performed on “Good Morning America” earlier this month, and all the costs were absorbed by the label. “Epic had to eat the cost for that entire performance”. Her new album ‘Brave’ was her first studio album to not debut in the top 10 on Billboard’s charts.

New signings: Young actress Evan Rachel Wood is reportedly signing with Interscope Records. Story of the Year formerly on Maverick has signed to Epitaph Records. Metal act Gwen Stacy has signed to Ferret Records. Arizona rock act 32 Leaves who is currently in the studio with Elvis Baskette have been upstreamed to Republic Universal.

Terra Firma on thin ice with EMI : EMI could be facing big challenges, including a possible sale of its physical distribution business. Terra Firma CEO Guy Hands has been asking for additional equity from outside firms just 3 months after the purchase, while some say that Hands is already disillioned with his purchase. (NYPOST)

Rockers turning into Hustlers: Bands are making less money since record sales are evaporating. Bands are getting creative in order to generate new revenue streams. Television commercials, tour sponsorships, and merchandise is now an essential piece of an artists portfolio. Read the column
‘ If it’s Retail, Is it Still Rock?‘ that discusses different brands rockers are pairing up with.

Marketing Britney: Sony BMG paid Britney a cash advance of nearly $4 million for the album. J Records are confident with the album and its commercial appeal that they are shipping 750,000 to one million copies of the CD to retailers even though she parted ways with her manager, music-business lawyers, and publicist. They expect first-week sales of roughly 400,000 to 500,000 copies. I hope J Records are keeping those fingers crossed since the first single “Gimme More” quickly lost momentum in radio airplay, a key driver for album sales.

Hulu to compete with Youtube: Fox and NBC prepare to launch a video site Hulu.com an advertising-supported online video site in a bid to seize viewers YouTube. It is not clear why Fox and NBC could not have cut their own content distribution deals without having to band together. It is equally unclear why anyone would go to the Hulu site if the content can be seen at larger web properties. (full article)

New Music: Check out the track Maybe Tonight by Colors in the Air.