Hot Music Beat

Michael Jackson has made over $20 million in record sales since his death, it has been revealed.

The 50-year-old pop legend died on June 25 after he reportedly suffered a heart attack.

Jacko is at the top of the iTunes charts in every country apart from Japan and it is claimed his post-death sales could beat those of Elvis Presley, whose estate reportedly brings in $48 million each year.

However, the money will reportedly be used to pay off the star’s massive debts despite claims he made $2 billion in the 40 years of his career.

Source: Splash News

Black Eyed Peas ‘The E.N.D.’ Lands At #1 On The Billboard 200 Chart

Black Eyed Peas’ “The E.N.D.” bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 304,000 — the hip-pop act’s best sales week ever. It’s also the first No. 1 album for the group, which had previously gone as high as No. 2. Its last set, 2005’s “Monkey Business,” bowed in the runner-up slot with a then-best 291,000. It had the unfortunate luck to come out the same week as Coldplay’s “X&Y,” which kept the Peas’ at bay when it started at No. 1 with 737,000. -via Billboard.com

Black Eyed Peas – “I Gotta Feeling” (VIDEO – Explicit Version – Brief Nudity)

I Gotta Feeling Video:

No Line On The Horizon, the new album from U2 featuring the single “Get On Your Boots” is in stores now. The album is the band’s 12th studio album and their first release since the nine million selling album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, released in late 2004.

The new album, produced by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, has been chose as Amazon’s “Deal of the Day” for today’s release and offers special pricing for one only.

No Line On The Horizon is also being released in a standard format with a 24- page booklet and in digipak format. The digipak includes an extended booklet and the album’s companion film “Linear” by Anton Corbijn. A limited edition package with album, cd and 64-page magazine will also be available, featuring the band in conversation with artist Catherine Owens, and new Anton Corbijn photographs. No Line On The Horizon will be released on 180gm vinyl.

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Get On Your Boots – U2

Not only is Britney Spears’ Circus the # 1 album on iTunes today, but the title track is the # 1 single and # 1 requested ringtone too. Britney fever is in the air, and now is the time for fans everywhere to rally together to make her the highest debuting female artist of 2008! That means Ms. Spears needs to sell over 600,000 copies of Circus this week alone. Help give Britney the ultimate birthday gift this year and an automatic gold record.
While you’re in the Circus spirit, check out this birthday video that a few super fans made for Britney’s big day.
Britney Spears fan video:

It seems only yesterday that the world didn’t even know who Taylor Swift is but it’s obvious now that the country singing sweetheart has made it big and is doing so quickly. The blonde beauty is projected to move huge number for her new CD which came out last week. Numbers from her first day sales have the singer on track to sell about 600,000 copies of her new album. She may also be on track to beat the sales of her ex Joe Jonas and the other two Jonas Brothers’ most recent album ‘A Little Bit Longer’ which debuted to 525,402 copies sold in its first week.

Oklahoma hard-rockers Hinder are gearing up to release their Take it to the Limit album on November 4th. The band has been posting video pieces chronicling the entire recording process on a new widget. They’ve also included video bios on each member where fans can take a glimpse into a day in their life. The band’s debut album, Extreme Behavior has sold close to 3 million copies and their “Lips of An Angel” single was inescapable on rock and pop radio.

WIDGET EMBED CODE:

Plain White T’s have just released the first single off their forthcoming album Big Bad World. The track, “Natural Disaster” can be previewed on the band’s MySpace page. myspace.com/plainwhitets

Plain White T’s have also just announced they will take part in the first ever Rockband Live Tour with Panic At The Disco, Dashboard Confessional and The Cab. Information and tour dates can be found at rockbandlivetour.com.

Big Bad World hits stores September 23rd.

She better enjoy all the glory while she’s on top because her days as the new sensation are numbered. I doubt she’s going to have staying power but as of right now, Miley Cyrus has the #1 album in America. The Disney skank’s new record ‘Breakout’ sold 371,000 copies this past week which makes it the second biggest debut by a female artist this year. She only came in behind Mariah Carey’s first week sales of 463,000 for ‘E=MC2’ in April. Congratulations go out to Miley. I hope you don’t blow it all on a new camera to take even more skanky pictures of yourself.

Mel B, more famously known as Scary Spice, has revealed that she will be performing a duet with Janet Jackson on her upcoming solo album. With the help of Janet, Mel hopes to conquer the UK singles chart following her previous failed attempts. Her last single ‘Today’ didn’t even make it to the UK singles top 40. Scary says “I’m not scared of having another try. I am working with the best producers ever. I am now ten tracks in to my new record.” I’m just hoping that her collaboration with Janet doesn’t sound anything like whatever’s on Janet’s album because we all know how that turned out.

Want to catch one of the summer’s hottest tours? The Veronicas are currently rocking out on the Verizon VIP Tour with Natasha Bedingfield and Kate Voegele, and you can win a pair of tickets to a show! Test your luck and check out full details about the contest here
.The Veronicas recently released their album Hook Me Up on iTunes in the US.

Today is a landmark day for Tokio Hotel as the pop-rock quartet unleash SCREAM their first English language full length to hit the U.S. The States will see four different versions of the album that each include three exclusive bonus songs with “Live Every Second,” “1000 Oceans,” and “Durch den Monsun.” While all versions include the three bonus songs, iTunes, Hot Topic and Best Buy versions will come packed with extra exclusive content. To make things extra, extra special for fans Tokio Hotel has provided a unique code in each CD which will give fans access to a V.I.P section of Tokiohotel-us.com where even more exclusive content will live, including band blogs, never before seen videos, a live chat with the band and much more.

Fans can also catch Tokio Hotel live, or on TV, today as the band storms MTV’s TRL set for a live performance of “Ready, Set, Go!” and on May 9th on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Scream is in stores now! Check www.tokiohotel-us.com for more information!

Madonna has just released an embeddable widget allowing fans to stay up-to-date on the latest news, video, audio, photos, contests, and more. The widget also features audio and video of “4 Minutes” featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, the first single from the forthcoming Hard Candy.

Hard Candy hits stores April 29.

Check out the fourth webisode from the “Being…Ashlee Simpson” series at Pepsi Smash on Yahoo! Music. See Ashlee try to go incognito and escape from the paparazzi as she continues shooting photos for Bittersweet World. Ashlee loves hanging out at the beach, so this time around she headed to Venice where she quickly realized that posing for pictures in a public place can get kind of embarrassing.

Bittersweet World hits stores April 22.

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The album cover for Scarlett Johansson’s debut album ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ has been released and it’s quite obvious that someone got inspired by Snow White. The album which consists almost entirely of Tom Waits covers, with one original song called ‘Song for Jo’ which serves as the album’s centerpiece will hit stores on May 20m Tuesday. Two tracks – ‘Falling Down’ and ‘Fannin’ Street’ feature the guest vocal styling of David Bowie while members of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Celebration and Stars like Fleas play on the album which was produced by Dave Sitek. That’s a lot of star power in one album!

The Veronicas are back! The 23-year-old twin sisters from down under have a new album and a new twist to their sound. The pop-punk influences on their award-winning debut album have been updated to an electro-dance sound that is bound to get you on your feet.

Already named a “Breaker Artist” by AOL and called “Australia’s rockingest twins” by Blender, The Veronicas have proven to be at the top of their game. Hook Me Up, the girls’ sophomore release, has already sold over 130,000 albums in Australia and secured them their first # 1 single.

Lisa and Jessica’s vocal chemistry, funky style, and killer hooks make a perfect recipe for success. The Veronicas are set to
unleash their single “Untouched” in the US!

After three sold out shows in the U.S. Tokio Hotel continues to set their sights on a Stateside invasion. It has just been announced that Tokio Hotel and their video for “Ready, Set, Go!” will be featured on MTV’s Discover & Download series the week of March 10th. If you’re only as good as the company you keep then Tokio Hotel is on the edge of stardom as past Discover & Download artists include Paramore, Plain White Ts and Amy Winehouse.

Check out the video for “Ready, Set, Go!” on the band’s official Imeem page. While you’re there watch the latest video added by Tokio Hotel for a brief introduction to the band and to see what they had to say on their time spent in the U.S. and their future plans for America.

The first full length from Tokio Hotel, Scream, will hit stores April 29th.

If you would like to include Tokio Hotel on your site via feature, interview, contest, etc. please let me know and we will set something up!

Tokio Hotel official video for “Ready, Set, Go!”

Chart-topper Duffy has revealed she went solo because all the peoples she worked with kept trying to pull her.

The sexy songstress will complete the double tomorrow when debut album Rockferry joins single Mercy at the top of the chart.

And I can reveal the soulful star has always been a popular young lady. She has told how she was forced to go it alone as she was fed up of fleeing attention from male bandmates and producers.

Duffy said: “I was collaborating with a lot of people. But every band I got into it was like I had a boyfriend. Every producer wanted to marry me or wanted to be in a duet. I was always running away from something. So I thought, just sing and stay away from the politics. And then I was discovered.”

That was certainly a wise move. Her brilliant debut album is set to shift around 180,000 copies in a week. That can be enough to get you a No1 in the States and it is heading towards the top five fastest-selling UK debuts. On Thursday she celebrated with a mesmerising performance at Bush Hall, West London.

The biggest cheer of the night was for the enchanting Stepping Stone, a future smash hit.

And Duffy revealed a secret heartache behind the track — it is directly aimed at a mystery man from her past. The Welsh singer said the song has some “revenge in it”, adding: “I wrote it about when I fell in love for the first and only time. But I didn’t have the balls to tell him. He still doesn’t know this is about him.”

Janet Jackson has a new album coming out soon and it’s poised to impact in a big way. However, if you go back in time, you can’t say so much about her last two albums. The singer recently spoke candidly about why she thinks her last two albums failed to sky rocket saying “I think it was the music. The albums weren’t right.” Okay. At least she didn’t blame the Super Bowl like what her main squeeze Jermaine Dupri likes to do. Well actually, he likes to blame Justin Timberlake but the blame for the Super Bowl is in there somewhere.

Ashlee Simpson is in a good place. She has two multi-platinum records that debuted back to back at the top of the charts and collectively sold more than four million copies in the U.S. alone. She has two sold-out tours under her belt, a tight-knit family, a loyal fan base, and a burgeoning second career as an actress. So when it came time to create her third album, she wanted the music to represent where she was at in life.

“Life is really good right now. I’m young. I love my life and I enjoy my time off too. I wanted to celebrate all that on my next record. I wanted to make music people could shake their booties to and use beats for the first time. I wanted to sing fun songs. Basically, I wanted to make a party record.”

Ashlee teamed up with power producer Timbaland on her new single “Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)” making it destined for dance-floor anthem status. The track immediately rocketed to the Top 20 pop singles on iTunes and received its TRL debut. The video for the hauntingly catchy song takes your imagination on a wild ride through a dreamlike world of surrealism.

Kylie Minogue is a sell out – in a good way. The Australian singer sold out all eight of her UK shows in less than two hours which prompted promoters to add another seven UK shows to her schedule. Tickets went on sale at 9AM on Monday for the eight original scheduled shows and by 10AM the promoter added the extra shows to meet the demand.

Kylie has a lot to party for apart from that. Her new album ‘X’ is #1 in Australia and #4 in the UK during its first week of release. She has also agreed to perform at the Brit Awards in February which will be hosted by Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne.