Should Radio Pay Artists To Play Music?

Right now, when a song gets played on AM or FM radio, composers and music publishing groups get paid. Should the performers be getting paid as well? That’s what the Performance Rights Act is suggesting, and after kicking around Washington for a while, it looks like action will be taken on it this year.

Forbes Magazine reports about the battle that’s brewing, and who’s taking what sides. The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) is in opposition to the act, stating that paying performers on top of composers and publishers will drive smaller stations out of business. It’s no secret that radio stations are losing money right now, with several radio companies filing for bankruptcy in the death rattle of the last decade. However, any station with less than $1.25 million in annual revenue would be able to play a flat fee of no more than $5,000 per year, which is about 75% of radio stations. Still though, $5,000 is $5,000, and even if that’s less than $100/week for stations, you can’t get blood from a stone, especially if that stone has seen its relevance and audience shrink significantly in the past few years. The NAB and some of the broadcast groups have formed the Free Radio Alliance to try to combat the Performance Rights Act. Read more »

Metal By Numbers 12/16/09: TSO Still Making Cash Registers Jingle

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Unless you’re a metal band. With all the pop and holiday music that nervous parents are buying their kids as stocking stuffers, there’s not a ton of metal in the top 100. In fact, only three hard rock/metal bands are represented. Some of the old standbys populate the rest of the chart, and Susan Boyle has sold over 500,000 copies of her album for the third week in a row. Jeez. Trans-Siberian Orchestra are still selling records, though. Read more »

Metal By Numbers 12/2 – We Guess No One Bought Metal CDs As Gifts

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

…unless it’s Susan Boyle, Adam Lambert or Lady GaGa. Moms and people-who-probably-make-me-uncomfortable across the country bought up the former to the tune of 700,000 copies this week and the Scottish viral sensation was Amazon’s most pre-ordered album of all time.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday saw big sales for lots of industries, including the Blu-ray disc format, but music was another bust (with the exception of the aforementioned debuts). Billboard is reporting that big Cyber Monday hopes for digital downloads didn’t go as planned, and marketers re-strategizing for post-Christmas to take advantage of iTunes gift cards and the like.

There were no notable new metal releases to make a splash on the sales charts this week, but we’ve got plenty of numbers from this week’s top metal sellers for you after the jump.

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Metal By Numbers 11/18: Where’s the Metal?

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

And just like that, it’s the holiday shopping season. How can you tell, other than a TSO album? Well, other than the ridiculous spikes in music sales you’ll start seeing in about two weeks, you’re seeing compilations (Motley Crue, Foo Fighters), box sets (AC/DC) and repackaged albums of remixes and stuff (Hollywood Undead, Lady Gaga).  That said, there really aren’t any real METAL metal debuts this week, so away we go after the jump.

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Metal By Numbers 10/21 – Baroness Has A New Record

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

We’re pretty psyched by the debut of Baroness’ sophomore full length, The Blue Record. The 4,700 they sold was the highest metal debut of the week. Not far below, Skeletonwitch also has a nice start as well. The big winner is the New Moon soundtrack. The music from your little sister’s favorite movie franchise sold 115,000 copies in only three days to debut at #2. Look for it to have an even bigger week after a full week of sales. Dethklok is #1 at metal radio, and in a very slow add week due to the CMJ convention, City of Fire is most added. Read more »

Metal By Numbers 10/7 – A Sales (Nathan) Explosion

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

A few random musings about the chart. Alice In Chains isn’t a lot of peoples’ definitions of metal, but there are definitely a lot of metal elements to this album, which is great (Metal Sucks has our back on this). The top three albums are by female artists or female-fronted bands, with Barbara Streisand, Paramore, and Mariah Carey taking gold, silver and bronze. In fact, six of the of the top ten albums in the chart are female or female-fronted. The top five bands sold over 126,000 each, which hasn’t happened for a while. And then there’s Dethklok, who have another amazing debut. At FMQB, Hatebreed stake their claim as the kings of metal radio. They’ll probably write a song about being number one, standing up, and persevering. Also, Kittie and Every Time I Die debut in the top ten, while Slayer are most added. Check it out after the jump. Read more »

Faith Or Fear Bassist Dies Onstage

The Daily Journal reports that Clarence “CJ” Jenkins, bassist of Philly-area thrash band Faith Or Fear, died onstage this past Sunday of an apparent heart attack. He was 50. While many Insider readers might not know who the band was, their 1988 album, Punishment Area (Combat/Relativity) was huge in Philly, mainly based off the strength of the title track. While they were poised to be as popular as contemporaries like Exodus and Overkill, that didn’t happen, and the band broke up in the early ’90s.

The band had reunited in 2008, releasing the album Instruments of Death earlier this year. The performance Sunday in their home town of Millville, NJ was their first performance there in 20 years. It’s definitely sad that CJ died so young, but music was his life. He had worked at Musikraft LLC, a company that makes necks and bodies for guitars and basses, and he went out doing what he loved best. Watch Faith or Fear perform ”Punishment Area” after the jump Read more »

All-Star Metal Lineup Records “A Song For Chi”

Since November of last year, Deftones bassist Chi Cheng has been in a semi-conscious state following a car accident. While we previously covered the site and charity set up for him, One Love For Chi, an all-star lineup of musicians and friends have recorded “A Song For Chi.” Led by Korn bassist  Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, the instrumental also features members of Metallica, Hatebreed, Slipknot, Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, Sevndust and P.O.D., as well as other Korn members.

Visitors to the site can download the song for free, as well as watch the video, but the hope is that anyone checking out the song will make a donation to help Chi’s medical expenses. All of the musicians donated their time, and 100% of the donations will go to covering his medical expenses. His brother has stated that Cheng’s insurance company stopped paying for his treatment in January, and his mom has said that not only was his house returned to the bank, but even his dog was given away.

We’ll list all those that performed in the song after the jump. While the song itself isn’t all that great, the song isn’t the point. If you’ve ever liked the Deftones, then it’s absolutely a worthy cause to donate.

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Metal By Numbers 8/5 – An Early Winner For Fear Factory Bragging Rights

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

 While Fear Factory and its various offshoots continue to argue endlessly about who owns the rights to the band name, and what members said that he said that she said that they said, it looks like one side project is outperforming another. Guitarist Dino Cazares’ project Divine Heresy has just seen their sophomore album sell about 3,000, good enough for the top metal debut of the week and trumping the 700 or so copies Arkaea sold a few weeks back. Slayer takes most added honors at FMQB, and also debuts in the top ten with just one song.

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Metal By Numbers 5/20 – The Biggest Business Is Green (Day)

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top sellers of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

A very slow week for metal debuts. In fact, with the exception of Aiden, who debut at #95 selling about 5,000 copies of their latest, Big Business have the only other metal debut, selling about 750 copies of Mind the Drift. Got to give Green Day some credit though – the 215,000 copies of 21st Century Breakdown they moved was more than three times the #2 album, and that’s only on four days of sales, since the album was released on a Friday. Hatebreed takes #1 at FMQB, while the mighty Clutch is most-added at metal radio.

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