Growth Stories on the Big Chart
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Sony Music executive VP Lisa Ellis and Warner Interscopé s Berman thinks patience and persistence Bros. Records executive VP /GM Diarmuid Quinn are can reverse an album's downward trend, so long as the who for music delivers. "We launched big on the All- American among those reach medical lexicon to de- Sales scribe a consumer stretched by the day's innumer- Gra]uate Bypass f No.100 Album Rejects. We had a top 10 debut on [second album "Move Year Artists' Artists** During Year able entertainment options, invoking the term Along "J and were thrilled out of our minds. "Attention Deficit Disorder." DANGER 1992 38 21 11 958 "Then the record dropped and dropped, but we MOUSE, of Ellis says, "I think the consumer has ADD. You con- Gnarls didn't stop working it. We worked single after sin- stantly have to be a moving target. The consumer is no Barkley, a 1993 50 12 915 gle after single, and we woke up one day and found duo in a (63,.. we're almost at 2 million records. I think there are longer in one place. You have to be more strategic, and unique 1994 43 29 : 13 319 you have to be more places." a lot of examples of artists in all genres where the class. (605 ) (40%) "There's a first-week mentality that pervades a lot of music does cut through. You persevere and keep 1995 40 48 12 619 I entertainment properties, not just music," Quinn says. (45 %) (55%) working it and you can be successful. think [Epic] "There's a bit of a mind -set change, and I think it has did a great job with the Fray. Look how well Octone 1996 30 53 `,_ 12114 to do with the sort of ADD quality that everybody seems (36 %) (64 %) has done with Flyleaf." to have these days. Goodman says Lyric Street signed Trent Tomlinson 1997 32 48 13 484 "There's so much coming out and it's like, 'OK, (40 %) (60 %) five years ago, but didn't release his "Country Is My what's happening now ?,' and two days later it's out of Rock" album until March 2006. "We're trying to be 1998 30 16 018 mind and they're on to the next thing," Quinn adds. (33%) more intentional about getting an artist comfortable, knows who he she is mu- "It's even getting hard, on rock bands and pop acts, to 1999 27 60 16 880 making sure that an artist or sustain after that first week. It's a rare day you see what (30 %) sically and what kind of records need to be made. Then Once, happened to Michael Bublé [recently] where [his album] nearly two -thirds of acts crack- 2000 : 24 54 16389 it takes us so long to develop these singles at radio to went from No. 2 to No. L" ing the top half of The Billboard 200 (31%) (69 %) get to any real critical mass. The array of new -media products, coupled with the for the first time started relatively 2001 17 16 465 "With Trent, we dropped the album when the sin- (19 advent of digital distribution, creates a challenging en- slowly. That trend has reversed. Last %) gle went top 20, but it never made it to the top 10. It vironment, RCA's Corson says. "It's a singles market year, of more than 100 breakthrough 2002 16 87 - 14 031 took us another 39 weeks to get the second single (16 %) (84%) and music has become kind of disposable and tran- acts, only five failed to debut in the near the top 10. In the meantime we had two ac- sient, but there are also competing products between top 100. The chart at the bottom of 2003 15 67 13,808 counts, based on how they handle inventory, take (18 %) (82%) games and films, DVDs and whatnot. And in the on- page 29 shows why this might be a the title out. We had to go back and say to them, 'This line world, it's so competitive. You are fighting against problem. Also notable: The sales 2004 20 72 13,719 is still a vital and ongoing title,' and strike a deal to (22%) (78%) every kind of media. average for the No.100 position has get them back in the project." Sales for the album 2005 12 89 12,368 I my who dropped to 8,150 for the first 32 stand at 242,000. "The multitasking that watch kids do, are (12%) (88%) 16 and 18 ... they can be sitting on their computer weeks of this year. Marty Diamond, head ofbooking agency Paradigm's 2006 99 11,265 doing their homework listening to their iPods, and (95%) New York office, says, "I work with Sara Bareilles," a IM'ing people and on the phone and accomplishing 'Defined as those acts that during the calendar year new artist who bowed seven weeks ago at No. 45 on became a Heatseekers graduate artist. Generally, this means that the act's album graduated from the 21 most of it. But what are they invested in? developing artists chart (Top Heatseekers) and rose into The Billboard 200 in the July issue. "Great start, but the top 100 on The Billboard 200. "I think their investment in brands and experiences "Those acts that, with their first charting album on The you know what? She has been on tour with Aqualung. Billboard 200, debuted within the top 100. is a very different proposition," Corson says. "I'm talk- She has been on tour with Mika. She's on tour with ing mostly young people here, but it does have a halo Rocco DeLuca. She is going to be on tour with Maroon effect that bleeds over into other segments and demos. year. From 1994 to 1999, R &B /hip -hop averaged only 5. She is going to go out with Jon McLaughlin. [Bareilles People have less hours in the day and they are asked seven graduates per year, and during the next seven hasn't] been on the radio yet. It's just starting, but it's and tasked to do more, and with more competition for years, that average plunged to 1.4. Columbia artist Lyfe been a patience play." the entertainment dollar and for your attention." Jennings is the lone R &B or hip -hop artist to graduate In fact, this week marks the seventh artist of 2007 since the start of 2005. graduating from Top Heatseekers (for more on this, A BAD RAP? see Over the Counter, page 57) to the upper half of The While no genre is immune from the larger trends out- Billboard 200, with A Fine Frenzy making a 131 -96 leap lined in this piece, Billboard's number -crunching re- Growth Stories on the big chart. vealed that the stakes are highest for new rap artists. Of course, that's not to say there aren't still artist devel- Virgin has been purposefully methodical in its break- "You hear people in meetings say, 'If this rap record opment success stories (see chart, above). Sony Music's ing of the act, essentially a one -woman -vehicle, Seat- doesn't come out high, we're outta here. We might as Ellis cites Jennings' first album, "Lyfe 268 -192," as a re- tle native Alison Sudol. According to Capitol Music well put a bullet in it and go on to the next record,' " cent example of slow but steady growth. Released in Au- Group president Lee Trink, the label has sidestepped UMRG's Monaco says. "There's no belief that the gust 2004, it reached the Heatseekers chart a couple of giant marketing spends. Instead, it has created buzz records can move up later." weeks later in the Sept. 9 issue and etched its first Bill- by inviting industry for intimate performances at Goldstuck says, "In the hip -hop world, everything board 200 ink at No. 193 in the Oct. 2 issue. It didn't peak Sudol's mother's house, showcasing the album's depth is front -loaded, and I think the average hip -hop con- at No. 39 until the Sept. 2, 2006, issue, reaching plat- by licensing multiple tracks to TV and covering such sumer wants something when it is fresh and new, and inum status along the way. usual bases as iTunes and MySpace. three months later they have moved on." "We put the album out before the airplay, sold a "This is all putting a nice foundation there for word - "I think a lot of the new hip -hop and R &B acts have couple of thousand units and let it build from there," of- mouth" promotion, Trink says. "It shows in how this been forced to, and designed to, come out of the gate Ellis says. "He was out, very modestly, in a van with 30.5 ()/, album has progressed. The second week was the only competitive with everybody else," Ellis says. "It's not his guitar and a sound system. He wasn't flying around one that went backward." culturally the kind of genre where you get in a van and first class, and would play anywhere someone wanted reaches the top 100 for Now Virgin has parlayed the growth into A Fine drive around the country, the way a rock band can." to pay attention to him. By the top of 2006, he was a a graduate or bypass Frenzy's selection as a VH 1 You Oughta Know artist- The Inc.