Hot Music Beat

After only including releases from the previous 18 months to calculate the best selling albums on the Billboard chart, Billboard will now be incorporating catalog releases due to the massive sales of both Michael Jackson and The Beatles. The sales chart on November 25 will be the first tally of the comprehensive chart. In digital music news, 4 artists have already broken Rihanna’s track sales record of 9.9 million digital songs in 2008, including the late King of Pop, Lady Gaga, the Black Eyed Peas and Taylor Swift. The biggest news is probably that the country singer is the only artist that outsold Michael’s album this year in sales. Congratulations!

Singer Lady GaGa has the most downloaded tune in the five-year history of the Official UK Downloads Chart.

Internet users have gone crazy for the 23-year-old’s single Poker Face, making it the most downloaded song ever.

Kings of Leon’s track Sex On Fire came in second, closely followed by GaGa’s first single Just Dance.

GaGa, real name Stefani Germanotta, said: “I am honoured to be the songwriter and performer behind the No.1 and No.3 songs.”

Source: Splash News

As an early holiday present to their fans, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus are offering a free download of their brand new song “Pen and Paper” on their official fan group site. The Florida melodic-rockers posted this bulletin on their MySpace today:

“Want an early present? Have you been good? Then mosey on over to The Alliance community section of RedJumpsuitAlliance.com for a FREE download of the track “Pen & Paper ” from RJA’ s upcoming album Lonely Road (02/03/09) right now.

Just go a little down and to the right, and it’s right there in the music section waiting for you. Play loud and tell all your friends.

Happy Holidays from RJA!”

Tour dates:
12/07/2008
Ford Amphitheatre
Tampa, FL
97X Next Big Thing 8

12/09/2008
Amos’ Southend
Charlotte, NC
WEND X-Mas Show

12/10/2008
The National
Richmond, VA
WDYC Snow Ball

12/13/2008
Orbit Room
Grand Rapids, MI
w/ Taking Back Sunday

12/14/2008
The Fillmore
Detroit, MI
The Night 89X Stole Christmas

12/16/2008
The Station
Portland, ME
w/ Lost On Liftoff

12/19/2008
Dothan Arena
Dothan, AL
Jingle Bell Rock 2008

01/09/2009
Floyd’s Music Store
Tallahassee, FL
w/ American Science, Stages & Stereo, Tickle Me Pink, The Becoming, And Then There Was You, Vega Under Fire

01/10/2009
The Masquerade
Atlanta, GA

01/12/2009
The Marquee
Tulsa, OK

01/13/2009
Diamond Ballroom
Oklahoma City, OK

01/15/2009
People’s
Des Moines, IA

01/16/2009
The Eagles Club
Milwaukee, WI

01/17/2009
Reggie’s Rock Club
Chicago, IL

01/21/2009
20th Century Theatre
Cincinnati, OH

01/23/2009
The Omni
Toledo, OH

01/24/2009
Agora Ballroom
Cleveland, OH

01/25/2009
Mr. Small’s Theater
Millvale, PA

01/30/2009
Hooligans
Jacksonville, NC

01/31/2009
Jester’s Pub
Fayetteville, NC

02/03/2009
Freebird Live
Jacksonville, FL

02/04/2009
Varsity Theatre
Baton Rouge, LA

02/06/2009
Java Jazz
Spring,TX

02/07/2009
The Pontiac Garage
Dallas,TX

02/21/2009
RNA Showgrounds
Brisbane, AU
Soundwave Festival

02/22/2009
Sydney Entertainment Center
Sydney, AU
Soundwave Festival

02/27/2009
Melbourne Showgrounds
Melbourne, AU
Soundwave Festival

02/28/2009
Bonython Park
Adelaide, AU
Soundwave Festival

03/02/2009
Steel Blue Oval
Perth, AU
Soundwave Festival

03/05/2009
Alabang Town Center
Manila, PH

03/06/2009
Greenbelt
Manila, PH

03/07/2009
Glorietta Mall
Manila, PH

03/08/2009
Trinoma
Manila, PH

Two members of The Smashing Pumpkins are involved in a lawsuit against Virgin Records America. James Yoshinobu Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky-Brown are claiming that the label has screwed them out of ringtone fees and other stuff. They say that back in 2005, five years after the band broke up, Virgin negotiated a deal solely with front man Billy Corgan for the electronic transmissions (ringtones, downloads, computer files and whatever else), without ever getting their consent. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages in the suit filed in LA County Superior Court. Why does it take some people a lot of time before filing suit? You would think that a year without getting royalties would have made them do something already.

Tokio Hotel stormed the Billboard album charts with SCREAM, the band’s first U.S. full length to date. Landing at #5 and #6 on the Alternative Albums and Rock Albums charts respectively and in the top 40 of Billboards Top 200 it is safe to say – Tokio Hotel have more than arrived.

In their next step in U.S. domination, Bill, Tom, Georg and Gustav, will find themselves in millions of living rooms as their ballad, “Monsoon,” is released as downloadable content for Rock Band!

If Tokio Hotel have it their way, they’ll be back in the States this August rocking out live for fans old and new. Keep up-to-date on tour information and the latest news in the world of Tokio Hotel at tokiohotel-us.com!

Season 7 of American Idol may have the most talented group since the inception of the show – though that’s what they always say every season – but it hasn’t helped with the ratings any. The ratings are so down that the show is finding some new ways to get the cash to roll in. In a first, FOX is partnering with iTunes to offer Idol fans the opportunity to download the performances, both in audio and video format, of all the contestants the days after the show airs. Here’s a bit of my mind for FOX: no one would buy into this ploy. This is what TiVo and YouTube are for.

Gina released her debut album “In Search of Cleo” with some very special shows at The Box in NYC. Not sure if you are familiar with any of the tracks from the record, but here is the MP3 for “Pretty Girls On Prozac”. Its got a dark, edgy feel that is totally unique…I think you’ll dig wiredset.com/media/ginagershon/03%20Pretty%20Girls%20On%20Prozac.mp3

Gina’s keeping it real and doing this release independently so the only places to purchase the album are from her official site:
ginagershon.com

He’s been battling YouTube uploaders and several fan sites over the use of material in any way possible and people have gotten mad over it. But now, Prince is looking to make nice with his supporters the best way he knows how. And that’s through song all you purple-loving people.

Prince released a new track on his site called ‘PFUnk’ and even gave the song to PrinceFansUnited.com. It’s a site that was formed by 3 of the largest Prince fan sites as a way to fight back against Prince’s orders of cease and desist.

Make up your mind Prince! Either you’re with them or against them!

Isn’t it amazing when you don’t have to follow anyone’s rules except your own? That’s exactly what Radiohead is doing.

Now that the band is no longer signed to a major record label, they are choosing to give away copies of their new album, ‘In Rainbows’ which would be out next week. The band members are letting fans choose to pay as much or as little as 90 cents, the credit card processing fee to download the album from their site.

But if you’re a die-hard fans, pay something around $80. That’s the price of the new Radiohead box-set which includes the new album on CD, 2 vinyl records, another CD with additional songs, photos, artwork and lyrics.

Old school is getting into new school. Ringo Starr joined Paul McCartney in embracing digital downloads. He announced on Monday that his early solo albums released under Capitol/EMI can be downloaded online by this summer.

By August 28, his post-Beatles albums will be available via iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Zune Marketplace and other major music services. EMI will also release a greatest hits compilation entitled ‘Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr’ spanning his career as well as ring tones.

The rest of Starr’s albums after 1975 are already available online. The rest of McCartney’s post-Beatles work is also available. It was last fall that John Lennon and George Harrison’s solo works were cleared for release as well.

In addition to that, McCartney and EMI confirmed that the entire Beatles catalog is getting remastered for a digital launch by the end of the year to early 2008. It just goes to show that these guys aren’t too big for the web world.