This Day in Music…January 15

View Adam’s new video while you can…

Nice.

From Hits Daily Double, sales predictions for next week’s chart:

YOUR WEAKEND CHART PREVIEW: Heading into the big football weekend, Vampire Weekend looks pretty much like a sure thing for #1 next week. This will be the very first #1 record for ADA, and a big deal indeed for indie rock in general. (Incredible album, btw—see Trakin Care of Business for the details). Here’s how things are shaping up:

You may now return to handicapping the over/under for the NFC and AFC match-ups. (1/15a)

In other news:

SIMON SAYS: Simon Cowell turned down $100 million to stay at American Idol, a source told Page Six, a different TV source said it was for less than $100 million and Fox declined to comment. “If I thought it would lead to the death of Idol, I genuinely wouldn’t have done it,” Cowell said, but acknowledged he was frustrated with the Idol judging, saying: “On X Factor, you get to mentor the artists, so you have more of a role. It’s frustrating sometimes when you sit there [as a judge] and you haven’t been able to change their songs, or how they perform, or what they wear.” Asked who will join him on The X Factor panel, Cowell said, “It’s pointless hiring judges who don’t know anything about the music business. I’ll probably go and find someone who did what I did for a living. I was an A&R guy for 20 years. I thought Tommy Mottola would be a good choice. He was the guy who was the head of Sony—he guided Mariah—very flamboyant, knows what he’s talking about.” As for Paula Abdul, he said, “I’ve been talking to Paula for a long time. It was always my intention in one way or another to carry on working with her.” (1/15a)

Rumor Mill

I found this cautionary tale at The Velvet Rope, and although it’s from November 2009, it’s new to me…

The movie for that Saturday afternoon was 1967’s Journey to the Center of Time, a leaden hunk of sci-fi schlock. The show was WISN’s “Shock Theater,” hosted by Toulouse No-Neck, your typical horror movie host whose schtick included throwing a dummy of himself off the Sky Ride at Summerfest. It would have been a less-than-ideal setting for a performance by any rock band, much less one with the international recognition of Badfinger. This was the British band once hailed as the successor to The Beatles, a classic power-pop group that had several big hits in the late 1960s and early ’70s. True, the band’s fortunes had declined in the intervening years, but it still seemed inconceivable that Badfinger was reduced to performing on “Shock Theater.”

If the episode seemed bizarre, it was merely one incident in a dark two-month period when Badfinger was marooned in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Magazine

It’s pretty long but definitely worth reading.

More on the collateral damage over at UMG:

Universal Music Group went into 2009 much the same way it did 2008, boasting an industry market share of more than 30%, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it the largest of the four major labels. Yet the continued dominance of the company hasn’t made it immune to the year-after-year sales declines afflicting the music industry, and today the company further streamlined its label and distribution divisions.

UMG cut about 50 staffers today, according to label sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, less than 1% of the company’s worldwide workforce of 8,000. Cuts were made across multiple labels as well as UMG’s distribution arm, Universal Music Group Distribution, which is headquartered in Universal City. Labels affected included Verve and Interscope.

Los Angeles Times

Almost forgot about this one:

NEXT STOP, AN ISLAND IN THE SUN: Weezer and IGA are rumored to be ending an association that dates back to 1994, when the band released its debut LP on Geffen. The company, which has split with Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, continues its move away from the commercially limited Rock sector. Industry veterans note that deals made three or four LPs ago tend to have huge, escalating options that are essentially unattainable in today’s marketplace, so it makes no sense for their labels to go forward with them. (1/15a)

Rumor Mill

Let’s see if this works:

In other news:

Sales of The Beatles: Rock Band game during the holidays turned out to be less than fab.

Including foreign sales, The Beatles: Rock Band sold more than 1.7 million units worldwide.

and:

Overall, sales of music video games plunged 46% to $1.06 billion last year, according to NPD. It was the largest decline of any genre, indicating that the once red-hot music gaming trend, which took off with the original Guitar Hero in 2005, is losing steam. Part of that drop, however, is because in 2008 more music games were sold with pricey instrument controllers than last year.

Los Angeles Times

In Idol-related news:

Ashley Newton will take the helm at Columbia Records Group as president. The appointment comes from co-chairmen Steve Barnett and Rick Rubin.

Newton has been executive vp, A&R at RCA since January 2003 where he oversaw projects from artists like the Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, daughtry, Ray LaMontagne, Velvet Revolver, Imogen Heap, David Cook and Adam Lambert.

Hollywood Reporter

Another fun “diminishing returns” story regarding Idol:

With a rush of publicity over the departure of Simon Cowell, “American Idol” returned this week for a ninth season, promising once again to introduce the next batch of fresh-faced pop stars.

Take for example Katharine McPhee, who came in second place on Season 5. Her first, self-titled record came out three years ago on RCA, and opened at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart. But a year later she was dropped by RCA, and last week she released her second album, “Unbroken,” on Verve, an imprint of Universal Music Group. (Sony Music Entertainment, RCA’s parent, has the contractual option to release music by “Idol” contestants.) “Unbroken” opened at No. 27 with 15,000 sales, and to date both albums have sold a combined 380,000 copies, a modest number for any aspiring pop star.

New York Times

More on the other Simon:

The offstage turmoil around “American Idol” continues to grow as Simon Fuller, chief executive of 19 Entertainment and the creator of “American Idol,” is expected to announce soon that he is starting a new company to pursue film and other entertainment projects separately from 19 Entertainment and its publicly traded parent, CKX.

The move could raise questions about the growth prospects for CKX, which bought 19 Entertainment in March 2005. CKX’s revenue and profit declined in the first nine months of last year as ratings for “American Idol” fell for the third consecutive year and as the national recession took a toll on sponsorship deals for the program.

New York Times

A few Idol Boxscores have shown up; let’s start with those from AI7:

Demi Lovato, David Archuleta
Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, N.H.
Oct. 29, 2009
$196,542
4,493 / 5,400
1 / 0
$127.50, $14.99
AEG Live

Demi Lovato, David Archuleta
Dunkin’ Donuts Center ,Providence, R.I.
Oct. 30, 2009
$243,381
6,132 / 6,132
1 / 1
$127.50, $14.99
AEG Live

Demi Lovato, David Archuleta
Trump Taj Mahal, Mark Etess Arena, Atlantic City, N.J.
Nov. 1, 2009
$240,507
4,847 / 4,847
1 / 1
$127.50, $39.50
AEG Live

And then there’s this:

The Fray, Jason Castro
Lifestyle Communities Pavilion, Columbus, Ohio
Dec. 8, 2009
$40,740
1,358 / 2,000
1 / 0
$30
PromoWest Productions

From AI6, we have Jordin showing up at a couple of Jingle Balls:

Q102 Jingle Ball: The Fray, Cobra Starship, Jordin Sparks, Justin Bieber, Owl City, Pitbull, Wonder Girls, Jay Sean
Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, N.J.
Dec. 9, 2009
$357,789
6,973 / 6,980
1 / 0
$75.50, $48
Live Nation

93.3 FLZ Jingle Ball: The Fray, Jordin Sparks, Pitbull, Boys Like Girls, Kesha, 3OH!3, Sean Kingston, Jason Derulo, Iyaz, We are the Kings
St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Fla.
Dec. 13, 2009
$179,285
4,493 / 6,849
1 / 0
$129.33, $89.33, $59.33, $19.33
Ledge Entertainment

And here we have an AI2-AI3 combo:

Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Fantasia, Ruben Studdard
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Ga.
Jan. 2, 2010
$299,840
3,626 / 3,924
1 / 0
$89, $59
CoBall Entertainment