On the Charts: Digital Songs Close 2012 With Record Sales Week

Psy performs at Times Square in New York City on December 31st, 2012.

WINNER OF THE WEEK: Digital songs. By downloading Psy's "Gangnam Style" for a New Year's Eve party mix last week – and yes, haters, some of us still like that song, and for the record, it's way better than the "Macarena" – I contributed to a record-breaking surge of post-Christmas download sales. The 55.74 million constituted the biggest weekly total ever, including Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" (from 221,000 the previous week to 582,000 last week), "Gangnam Style" (116,000 to 400,000) and Bruno Mars' "Locked Out of Heaven" (226,000 to 497,000). The digital-track boomlet wasn't a surprise, as people spent the days after Christmas redeeming iTunes gift cards, but it was perhaps more dramatic than usual given a fluke in the calendar. In 2012, the post-Christmas buying season was one full week; in 2011, it split into two weeks.

Adele's '21' Is Top-Selling LP for Second Straight Year

LOSER OF THE WEEK: Next week. After absorbing hit after hit throughout the holiday season, consumers have gone back to work, forgotten about iTunes and generally allowed record executives to return to the fetal position. Not to dissuade anyone from reading this column next Wednesday, but the biggest new release I can see on the list is Pet Shop Boys' "Memory of the Future," which is a single, not an album. Last year at this time, even Adele's 21 had a bad week, drawing just 124,000 sales, a drop of 14 percent; this year should be even worse, because the top albums will have to compete with a week involving Adele just to stay ahead of 2012. Still, see the paragraph below – Taylor Swift's Red seems to be on the early edge of its second wind, so that could be exciting.

THE YEAR OF TAYLOR: Although Adele's 21 sold nearly 4.5 million copies in 2012, and was the year's biggest-selling album, it was essentially a phenomenon of the previous year. Taking over was Taylor Swift's Red, which landed at Number Two for the year with 3.11 million sales. It also closed the year on a high – in addition to spawning "I Knew You Were Trouble," which sold a ridiculous 582,000 singles last week, Red hit Number One for the seventh week, selling 241,000 copies in the final week of 2012. Partly, this year-end strength was due to a discount – Amazon MP3 sold the album for $1.99, which, according to Billboard sources, accounted for 30 percent of the weekly sales. That's a huge boost, and almost certainly kept Red above the soundtrack for Les Misérables, which sold 136,000 copies and jumped from Number 33 to Number Two.

Last Week: T.I. Takes Off

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Roger Waters, Michael Jackson 'Immortal' Tour Top Mid-Year Concert Sales

Roger Waters performs during 'The Wall Live' tour in San Francisco

Two years after the most disastrous summer touring season in decades, the concert business has crept back to almost full health, according to mid-year sales numbers released Thursday by industry magazine Pollstar.

Led by Cirque du Soleil's "Michael Jackson: The Immortal," as well as Roger Waters, Van Halen, Drake, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, sales for the Top 100 jumped 11.3 percent, total tickets increased 1.2 percent and average prices dropped from $67 to $61.

"More people are touring, and the shows are doing better than last year," says Mark Campana, co-president of North American concerts for Live Nation, the world's biggest promoter. "And in terms of the economy, I don't want anybody to think we're out of the woods, but we're definitely seeing more people spend more money beyond the tickets when they're out there."

After artists and promoters jacked up 2010 prices for even B-level stars (such as a pre-Voice Christina Aguilera and the Lilith Fair tour), fans stayed away, forcing last-minute deals. Van Halen managed to gross $44.9 million in early 2012 even after abruptly canceling most of its late-summer shows, while the Cirque tour took in $78.5 million, Waters grossed $62 million and Drake and Springsteen scored $30 million apiece. Campana argues artists and promoters have collaborated since then to lower salaries and costs in order to keep prices reasonable: "The industry is working together more effectively."

But not everybody is convinced the trend of decreasing face-value prices and higher sales reflects a healthy business. The problem, says Seth Hurwitz, co-owner of I.M.P., the Washington, D.C., promoter that runs the 930 Club and the Merriweather Post Pavilion, is still that scalpers jack up prices for the best seats beyond typical fans' means. "It pisses people off. It makes it feel like an elitist experience," he says. "And, yes, they will pay it ... and then they don't have money for other shows. Until the hijacking of the best seats stops, this business will continue to have problems."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Roger Waters, Michael Jackson 'Immortal' Tour Top Mid-Year Concert Sales

Roger Waters performs during 'The Wall Live' tour in San Francisco

Two years after the most disastrous summer touring season in decades, the concert business has crept back to almost full health, according to mid-year sales numbers released Thursday by industry magazine Pollstar.

Led by Cirque du Soleil's "Michael Jackson: The Immortal," as well as Roger Waters, Van Halen, Drake, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, sales for the Top 100 jumped 11.3 percent, total tickets increased 1.2 percent and average prices dropped from $67 to $61.

"More people are touring, and the shows are doing better than last year," says Mark Campana, co-president of North American concerts for Live Nation, the world's biggest promoter. "And in terms of the economy, I don't want anybody to think we're out of the woods, but we're definitely seeing more people spend more money beyond the tickets when they're out there."

After artists and promoters jacked up 2010 prices for even B-level stars (such as a pre-Voice Christina Aguilera and the Lilith Fair tour), fans stayed away, forcing last-minute deals. Van Halen managed to gross $44.9 million in early 2012 even after abruptly canceling most of its late-summer shows, while the Cirque tour took in $78.5 million, Waters grossed $62 million and Drake and Springsteen scored $30 million apiece. Campana argues artists and promoters have collaborated since then to lower salaries and costs in order to keep prices reasonable: "The industry is working together more effectively."

But not everybody is convinced the trend of decreasing face-value prices and higher sales reflects a healthy business. The problem, says Seth Hurwitz, co-owner of I.M.P., the Washington, D.C., promoter that runs the 930 Club and the Merriweather Post Pavilion, is still that scalpers jack up prices for the best seats beyond typical fans' means. "It pisses people off. It makes it feel like an elitist experience," he says. "And, yes, they will pay it ... and then they don't have money for other shows. Until the hijacking of the best seats stops, this business will continue to have problems."

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On the Charts: Sales Are in 'The Hunger Games' Favor

'The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond'

WINNER OF THE WEEK: The soundtrack on fire, The Hunger Games. The Billboard 200 chart is no stranger to dystopias, having been something of a barren wasteland itself in 2011 sales, but it is marking huge returns for the soundtrack of the most anticipated movie of the season. The theatrical adaptation to Suzanne Collins' novel corralled Taylor Swift, the Arcade Fire, Miranda Lambert and other prominent artists for its soundtrack, which enters the charts this week at Number One. Swift's "Eyes Open" also landed fourth on the singles chart.

The Hunger Games is only the sixteenth soundtrack ever to debut at the peak of the Billboard 200. (The last was Michael Jackon's This Is It in November 2009.) The most recent multi-artist effort to reach a comparable showing was The Twilight Saga: New Moon in 2009, though its sonorous odes to bestiality/necrophilia actually entered Billboard at Number Two. If anyone's surprised by Team Katniss' victory this week, they must've had their eyes and ears shut tight: the film netted over $150 million in its opening weekend. 

LOSER OF THE WEEK: One Direction, the British heartthrobs that could. Earlier this month, we posited that this could be a new golden age for boy bands, and that seemed vindicated last week when the U.K. singing sensations topped the charts with 176,000 sales of Up All Night. A bit inconceivably, the feat made them the first British group to ever reach Number One in the U.S. with a debut album. This week, however, One Direction took a precipitous 69 percent decline in sales, slipping to fourth with a tally of 55,000. What could account for this worrisome drop-off? We could shake our canes and pin it on the fickle nature of the group's tweenage demographic (kids today, rabble rabble, etc.), but it's probably more closely linked to that scamp Justin Bieber and the hype surrounding his newly released single, "Boyfriend." At any rate, don't discount One Direction just yet; their track "What Makes You Beautiful" gained one spot to number seven on the Ultimate Chart, which measures online trends, so their viral presence remains strong.

THE FUN. DON'T STOP: This week, "We Are Young" by Fun. featuring Janelle Monae became the best-selling song of the year, with a sixth week at Number One on the singles charts and 387,000 sold (up 11 percent from last week). They've moved 2.39 million copies/downloads of it to date and remain atop the Ultimate Chart this week, too – and the buzz means that their ubiquity as a band should outlast their current iTunes streak. Glee can take a lot of credit for this – they covered "We Are Young" in the past season – but its accountants must be frantic right now.

LAST WEEK: One Direction's Big Debut, Springsteen's Slide

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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On the Charts: Sales Are in 'The Hunger Games' Favor

'The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond'

WINNER OF THE WEEK: The soundtrack on fire, The Hunger Games. The Billboard 200 chart is no stranger to dystopias, having been something of a barren wasteland itself in 2011 sales, but it is marking huge returns for the soundtrack of the most anticipated movie of the season. The theatrical adaptation to Suzanne Collins' novel corralled Taylor Swift, the Arcade Fire, Miranda Lambert and other prominent artists for its soundtrack, which enters the charts this week at Number One. Swift's "Eyes Open" also landed fourth on the singles chart.

The Hunger Games is only the sixteenth soundtrack ever to debut at the peak of the Billboard 200. (The last was Michael Jackon's This Is It in November 2009.) The most recent multi-artist effort to reach a comparable showing was The Twilight Saga: New Moon in 2009, though its sonorous odes to bestiality/necrophilia actually entered Billboard at Number Two. If anyone's surprised by Team Katniss' victory this week, they must've had their eyes and ears shut tight: the film netted over $150 million in its opening weekend. 

LOSER OF THE WEEK: One Direction, the British heartthrobs that could. Earlier this month, we posited that this could be a new golden age for boy bands, and that seemed vindicated last week when the U.K. singing sensations topped the charts with 176,000 sales of Up All Night. A bit inconceivably, the feat made them the first British group to ever reach Number One in the U.S. with a debut album. This week, however, One Direction took a precipitous 69 percent decline in sales, slipping to fourth with a tally of 55,000. What could account for this worrisome drop-off? We could shake our canes and pin it on the fickle nature of the group's tweenage demographic (kids today, rabble rabble, etc.), but it's probably more closely linked to that scamp Justin Bieber and the hype surrounding his newly released single, "Boyfriend." At any rate, don't discount One Direction just yet; their track "What Makes You Beautiful" gained one spot to number seven on the Ultimate Chart, which measures online trends, so their viral presence remains strong.

THE FUN. DON'T STOP: This week, "We Are Young" by Fun. featuring Janelle Monae became the best-selling song of the year, with a sixth week at Number One on the singles charts and 387,000 sold (up 11 percent from last week). They've moved 2.39 million copies/downloads of it to date and remain atop the Ultimate Chart this week, too – and the buzz means that their ubiquity as a band should outlast their current iTunes streak. Glee can take a lot of credit for this – they covered "We Are Young" in the past season – but its accountants must be frantic right now.

LAST WEEK: One Direction's Big Debut, Springsteen's Slide

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »