Weekly Register: Thanksgiving Stuffs Sales Carts

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Cassadee Pope

The Thanksgiving shopping spree reminds me of the Spanish saying, “Barriga lleno, corazon contento.” Literally it means, a full stomach makes a contented heart. And in some ways maybe that explains why right after Thursday’s turkey feast Americans rush to fill Black Friday’s retail coffers.

Thankfully the purchasing furor also extended to music as overall album sales leapt up 44% week over week and country album sales increased a welcome 80% for the same period. Of course savvy music marketers were waiting for shoppers with open arms and special values. For example, Amazon had $4.99 deals for Carrie Underwood (+349%), Chris Young (+198%), Jason Aldean (+157%) and Jake Owen (+320%). Kenny Chesney (+305%) and Miranda Lambert (+74%) were priced at $6.99. Walmart and Target had similar great deals.

There was also great news for Adele whose blockbuster album, 21 passed 10 million U.S. sales this week and Rihanna logged her biggest-ever first week sales with Unapologetic, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 238,000 copies. So let’s scan the scans and see what happened to country’s music-makers.

Country Album Spike
The holiday spurred weekly sales of 1.62 million country album units moving the yearly stats handsomely from +2.5% to an increase of 3.1%. As the grid boxes show, country is doing much better than the industry overall which is -3.9% behind last year.

There was lots of good news on this week’s chart as most titles shared in the holiday bounty with increased sales numbers. All three of the holiday titles from Blake Shelton (No. 4; 53k), Lady Antebellum (No. 5; 52k) and Scotty McCreery (No. 6; 50k) showed weekly increases. Topping the album list was Taylor Swift (No. 1; 185k), Jason Aldean (No. 2; 103k) and Carrie Underwood (No. 3; 74k).

Reality Tracks
The power of reality TV has been previously proven with country music stars like Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Kelly Clarkson and newcomer Scotty McCreery. But this week we saw a first as The Voice finalist Cassadee Pope’s version of “Over You” topped the country track chart by a comfortable margin downloading over 152k units and pushing Florida Georgia Line and Taylor Swift to positions two and three, respectively. Pretty incredible to see a relative unknown topple the biggest superstars… Interestingly, Miranda’s version of  “Over You” also gained ground with an increase of 500% and 40,000 units to reach No. 7.

The holiday sales season is officially underway…  stay tuned…!

Jerrod Niemann To Livestream Chicago Concert

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Jerrod Niemann fans around the world will be able to view his Chicago Joe’s Bar concert over the web via laplive.tv this Thursday (11/29) at 9 p.m. CT.

“The concept of my new album is celebrating where country music has been and where it is headed,” said Niemann. “So we’re using the internet to bring fans worldwide all together to one room.”

Access to view the HD stream will be $4.99 in advance, $6.99 day-of-show­ with twenty-five cents per ticket donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The night of the show, Niemann is asking fans to tweet their location using the hashtag #jrodlive and handle @jrodfromoz to find out the most bizarre, outlandish places where fans are watching.

To purchase tickets, visit https://laplive.tv/watch/jerrodniemann.

Weekly Register: Navigating The Holiday Highway To 2013

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As we prepare to load up the sleigh and head over the river and through the dale to Grandmother’s house for the annual turkey fest there’s several thoughts running through our mind. We think about that favorite casserole we’re looking forward to, a glass (or two) of Granny’s homemade rum-filled eggnog and yes, we wonder, “What about country sales?”

For the week ended 11-18-12, country scanned 901k album units. To break even with last year we now need to sell 1.257 million per week for each of the six weeks remaining in the 2012 sales season. This should be quite achievable, especially with two more Big Machine debuts lined up Rascal Flatts (11/19) and Florida Georgia Line (12/4) to help boost totals. (Country albums sold 2.2 million in the last week of 2011.)

Chartwise, country holds few surprises this week, except for the No. 7 debut from Aaron Lewis (21k). The lineup includes Swift (No. 1; 144k and nearing the 2 million mark), Aldean (No. 2; 40k) and then three holiday offerings from Lady A (No. 3; 34k), Shelton (No. 4; 29k) and McCreery (No. 5; 23k). Little Big Town (No. 6; 21k), Underwood (No. 8; 16k), Bryan (No. 9;16k) and Church (No. 10; 14k) round out the Top 10.

Clicking over to the country tracks department we see Florida Georgia Line reigning again this week with “Cruise” notching 80k more units and hitting Platinum status. The duo’s upcoming album debut is rumored to hit impressive 60-90k first week numbers which could make this act one of the year’s brightest success stories.

TEA Updates
MusicRow’s TEA Index sums physical, digital and TEA albums (track equivalent albums; 10 tracks=1 album) then calculates the percentage of total album sales that come from TEA. The idea is to measure the TEA effect against total album sales. (The numbers are gathered by industry sources from Nielsen SoundScan.) As a baseline, the 2011 full year TEA Index was 25% country and 27.7% all-genre.

After staying pretty flat for most of the year the TEA Index dipped in November to 29.07%. (See graph below.) We expect it will shrink further in December, before rising sharply in January. More album buyers come into the marketplace during the holiday season and tend to choose physical product for gifts. Those that do purchase digital gift cards, give them out under the Christmas tree, and so January TEA jumps as they get redeemed song by song.

Looking at a few of the underlying Country TEA Index numbers through 11-18-12, albums scanned 35.38 million units and track downloads totaled 145 million. Comparing the current stats (29.07%) to last year’s base line number (25%) shows a continued mouse-driven shift in consumer buying habits.

As our Thanksgiving sleigh merrily slides across the frozen tundra, it’s probably best to let some of the big picture issues facing our industry wait until we return from the holiday. For example, margins and profits?

In the meantime, be safe, hug your loved ones and enjoy the moment.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Jon Pardi Seeks Ultimate Party Animal in Contest

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Jon Pardi is gearing up to award a trip for two to his “End of the World Party” in Chicago on 12/21/12 through a contest on his Facebook page.

Known for his high energy stage performances, the Capitol Records Nashville artist seeks like-minded fans to send in photos that answer the question “Are You A Pardi Animal?” Personally chosen by Pardi, the grand prize winner and guest will receive airfare and hotel accommodations for the “predicted” end of the world in a party he will host at Joe’s on Weed Street.

The top 10 finalists who receive the most fan votes by Dec. 5 will receive an autographed copy of Pardi’s single, “Missin’ You Crazy.”

“We’ve named this the Year of the Pardi and if the world is really going to end that day, I can’t think of a better place to be than Joe’s on Weed,” said Pardi.

Pardi is currently touring on the Tie One On Tour with Frankie Ballard and Miss Willie Brown in support “Missin’ You Crazy.”

Top Digital Companies Form Strategic Partnership

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Five digital music leaders have combined forces to become a sort of music biz Voltron, which established artists can take into battle every day. The strategic partnership, involving Topspin, Artist Growth, Firebrand, Ingrooves Fontana, and Pledgemusic, was announced by Topspin CEO Ian Rogers yesterday (11/15) at Billboard’s FutureSound conference in San Francisco.

“Increasingly, artists and managers need an end-to-end solution to fund their projects, then market and distribute them, then hit the road,” said Rogers. “The Internet has given artists the ability to connect directly with fans, bundle their rights to create new value, and keep a daily eye on their business — without licensing their rights. But artists still need to work with experts who add real value to make the most of this Internet-created opportunity.”

By combining tools for funding, distribution, and marketing, the new partnership will allow users to combine rights for recorded music and merchandise, raise funds, build fanbases, and make money without having to surrender ownership. The relationship between the companies is non-exclusive. Artists looking for a one-stop solution are encouraged to contact any of the partners and mention the integrated marketing partnership for more info.

Ticketmaster Forms Partnership With Walmart

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Walmart and Ticketmaster have announced a strategic partnership to provide consumers more ticket purchasing capabilities both in stores and at walmart.com.

A pre-determined pool of tickets will be available to Walmart customers for major league sporting events, FELD Entertainment family events, arts & theatre performances and more. The new “Walmart Ticket Values” program featuring “Tickets under $30” is available in approximately 1,200 Walmart stores or online for in-store pickup or delivery by mail.

“By partnering with Ticketmaster, we are able to offer our customers the best selection of live event tickets at an everyday low price,” said Seong Ohm, SVP of entertainment merchandising for Walmart U.S. “We hope our customers will take the time to enjoy a game, concert or show.”

“We collaborated with Walmart to introduce another convenient ticket buying option on Walmart.com and fans can choose to have their tickets mailed or available for in store pick up at their Walmart,” said Sandy Gaare, EVP of retail partnerships, Ticketmaster.

Weekly Register: Give The Gift of Music!

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Florida Georgia Line's breakout single "Cruise" goes No. 1 where it really counts—on the sales charts! Weekly Register is now predicting Platinum status for the track next week.

Seven more weeks and the 2012 sales year will be complete. YTD country sales are up 2.4% which isn’t fireworks and champagne, but looks better when compared with overall industry sales, currently down -4.1%.

So what should we expect before the last notes of “Auld Lang Syne” echo down the office hallways? Firstly, there’s a few more album stocking stuffers scheduled such as Rascal Flatts (11/19), Florida Georgia Line (12/4) and a Nashville soundtrack (12/11). We also have holiday albums from Lady Antebellum, Blake Shelton and Scotty McCreery which are already feeling the holiday love as folks bring them home to get in the spirit.

Compared with last year, country sales need to average 1.206 million albums for each of the remaining seven weeks to break even with 2011. A quick glance at last year’s performance shows that five of the corresponding seven weeks easily passed the million mark. Not surprisingly, the 2011 week just before Christmas was the biggest cash register event with country album sales reaching 2.186 million units. Will 2012 country sales push ahead of the previous year? Sure seems likely, but it’s doubtful we’ll increase our Y/Y gain much above where it stands currently.

Tracks are showing a 13.5% gain Y/Y which slipped a bit this week from last week’s 14.8% tally. Still there’s a lot of factors that could affect the final shopping outcomes—everything from weather to concerns about the economy.

Chart Tipping
The top 7 this week are all newly released offerings. Swift (No. 1; 196k), Aldean (No. 2; 48k), Lady A holiday (No. 3; 27k), Little Big Town (No. 4; 25k), Shelton holiday (No. 5; 24k), McCreery holiday (No. 6; 20k) and T. Keith (No. 7; 20k). Filling out those that scanned over 10k units for the week are Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Hunter Hayes and Zac Brown Band.

In one of the year’s nicest surprises, Florida Georgia Line catapults itself to the No. 1 country tracks position this week with over 81k downloads. Next week the song will go platinum passing the one million sales mark. FGL also performs a neat trick—outselling BMLG label mate Taylor Swift this week. The Red chantuese’s “We Are Never Ever….” now in its 12th tracks chart week scanned over 73k units for a RTD (release to date) total of 2.520 million.

As noted on our grid, country track sales are up a robust 13.5%. To see this gain with a more sedate album perspective divide by 10 (TEA=track equivalent albums; 10 tracks=1 album).

Peering accurately into the future will be a bit easier after the we get numbers for the Thanksgiving sales week ended 11/25/12. That milestone will leave us with only five additional weekly periods.

In the meantime, stay warm and tell friends to, “Give the gift of music…”

eBay and AEG Align

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eBay Inc. and AEG have announced a global partnership that will involve venue sponsorships and technology integrations. Multiple eBay digital properties and AEG venues will be included in the multi-year agreement aimed at improving live event experience for fans worldwide.

Beginning in Q1 of 2013, eBay’s StubHub ticket resale property will becoming the exclusive secondary ticketing outlet for AEG venues and its AXS Ticketing platform. StubHub will also be the official Secondary Partner of the Staples Center, the LA Kings, and the LA Galaxy starting with the 2013-2014 seasons. Additionally, PayPal will become one of AXS Ticketing’s new payment methods, and AEG’s BandMerch will be available in the eBay marketplace.

“Technology is revolutionizing commerce, and eBay Inc. is working with leading companies around the world to use our platforms to bring innovative new experiences to consumers,” said Devin Wenig, president of eBay marketplaces. “Integrating our technology platforms with AEG is a natural fit for eBay Inc., and allows our companies to give fans nearly unprecedented access to the events, performers and athletes they love.”

”eBay is one of the most complete and well-rounded e-commerce and technology companies in the world and pairing our combined capabilities and global reach is an exciting opportunity” said Tim Leiweke, president and CEO, AEG. “This partnership will help bring even deeper digital resources and online marketing reach to the AXS Ticketing platform and will allow us to continue to transform the live event fan experience.”

RIAA Issues Fall Gold & Platinum Recognitions

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Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line, and Carrie Underwood are among the artists receiving Gold & Platinum certification Awards from the RIAA in October.

Swifts “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was certified 2x multi-Platinum to mark the singer’s sixth career double-Platinum song, attributing to her more than 33 million career downloads sold.

Republic Nashville duo Florida Georgia Line also earned high marks for the Big Machine Label Group with, “Cruise,” receiving a first-time digital song certification alongside Havana Brown (“We Run the Night”), Driicky Graham (“Snapbacks & Tattoos”), Imagine Dragons (“It’s Time”), Kreayshawn (“Gucci Gucci”), and French Montana (“Pop That”).

Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away” was certified Platinum, denoting more than one million downloads sold since its release, alongside Justin Bieber’s “As Long As You Love Me” and Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Otis.”

October’s Gold certified albums included Glassnote Records’ Mumford & Sons sophomore album Babel, which easily surpassed the mark with first week sales exceeding 600k. Additionally, the Mumford crew earned its first double-Platinum download certification for “Little Lion Man” and a third Gold single award for the new track “I Will Wait.” Dave Matthews Band’s Away From the World and P!nk’s Truth About Love also earned Gold album status.

In total, 38 digital single awards and 8 album certifications were issued for October. The Black Keys, Postal Service and Madonna additionally received notable sale benchmarks.

McCreery Partners With Bojangles

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Bojangles’ restaurant chain has announced a new partnership with American Idol star and Mercury Nashville artist Scotty McCreery, who will be featured in the company’s multimedia ad campaign.

As part of the campaign, fans can get a free song download of “First Noel,” “Jingle Bells” or “O Holy Night” from McCreery’s new album Christmas with Scotty McCreery. Cards with a unique download code will be available beginning Nov. 26.

TV spots and radio commercials include the singer’s “Water Tower Town” remixed as “Bojangles’ Town,” in addition to in-store posters and counter cards featured across the company’s 10-state footprint.

“I’m proud to partner with a great Southern brand like Bojangles’ that’s been such a big part of my life growing up in the Carolinas,” said McCreery.

McCreery, a longtime fan of Bojangles, has previously been seen sporting an “It’s Bo Time!” t-shirt and eating Bojangles’ meals throughout his time on American Idol.

The young singer recently wrapped with Brad Paisley’s Virtual Reality Tour 2012, and is currently pursuing his undergraduate degree at N.C. State University.