Unfortunately, due to many obligations at home, I haven’t been able to take in any live performances lately. Although my concert-going days are few and far between, luckily for the concert industry, a lot of people still partake. Based on the Billboard 2011 year-end tally of venue ticket sales, there was a whole lot of dancing in the aisles last year. The top-grossing American venue with a capacity of 15,001 or more was the Staples Center in Los Angeles which took in $60,872,868.00 between November 10, 2010 and November 8, 2011. It just “edged” out Madison Square Garden by a couple of million. Keep in mind that these figures do not include revenue from home team sports clubs, strictly concerts and other live events. The O2 Arena in London lead all arenas of this size with a whopping $136,531.810.00 in sales. Personally, I like the more intimate settings, which is usually where you’ll catch the artists I like (I sure miss my favorite venue—S.O.B.’s in NYC). The top club with a capacity of 5,000 or less was The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Unlike most small venues, The Colosseum hosts some of the biggest names in music so it’s no surprise that it had $76,400,771.00 in ticket sales. The top American venue, regardless of capacity, was Radio City Music Hall with a total of $126,909,370.00. All those years living in New Jersey and hanging out in NYC and I’ve never been there. I’ll have to put that on my bucket list. Hit this link to see the results for yourself. Naturally, with all of this money being paid for tickets, there’s going to be a bunch of promoters getting a cut of the take. If you’ve gone to any concerts within the last decade, you can probably guess that Live Nation is the leading promotion company. The shows it promoted grossed over $1 billion. If you’re interested, check out the list of Top 25 Promoters
For those of you who like spilling your drinks on the dance floor, Nightclub & Bar magazine has released its latest ratings for the top nightclubs in America. Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub in Las Vegas was the top earning club with total revenue of $70-$80 million. Wow, that’s a lot of liquor! Of course, I don’t frequent any of the places on this list, but, obviously, a whole lot of people do. So, ladies, if you feel like joining them, put on your best outfits and, fellas, bring a lot of money (because you will be paying for the drinks) and have at it!
I’ve been slacking lately in my blogging on different aspects of the music industry. I’ll try to be more consistent starting this month. There’s no better sector to talk about than the recording industry. Although 98% of the music I listen to, buy and play on my radio shows comes from independent artists, it’s always good to know how the majors are operating. The Nielsen Company in conjunction with Billboard Magazine recently released its annual report on the music industry appropriately titled 2011 Music Industry Report. It’s somewhat detailed so I’ll just give some of the highlights here. Universal Music Group led the all-important metric of total albums sold with a market share of 29.85%. It was close though, as Sony Music had a 29.29% share. Expect UMG’s total to increase substantially next year. That’s because EMI Music’s recorded music division was sold to Universal in November 2011 by Citigroup who had bought the struggling music company earlier in 2011. For physical albums (CD’s, vinyl, etc.), Sony led with a 31.08% market share. Universal led in both digital albums (28.35%) and digital tracks (32.97%).
Another interesting fact is how important the holiday season is to the music business. According to the report, the industry sold 330.6 million albums overall. Of that amount, 75.1 million, or roughly 23%, were sold during the season (from Black Friday to year-end). The one thing that stands out in the report is the fact that singer Adele had a banner year leading all artists in album sales and digital track sales. I have nothing bad to say about Adele, but, frankly, I find this surprising as her songs cannot compare to most of the tunes I play on my programs. But it’s a new era in music. You don’t have to be Stevie Wonder or Earth, Wind & Fire to be considered the best these days. You just have to be a little different and get a whole lot of exposure. But at least one can listen to Adele’s music without cringing, which is more than I can say for most of the music on terrestrial airwaves. Overall, the industry had a good year with sales increasing 7% from the previous year. You can see more industry tidbits for yourself here.
Okay, people. It’s official. I’ve found the new voice that has captured my attention. Firstly, let me admit that I am a sucker for a sensuous female voice, but you don’t have to be a sucker to appreciate the harmonious sounds emanating from the mouth of this month’s featured artist Sarah Fonteyne. Forget all of those top 40 and American Idol female singers. Sarah is the one all true music fans should be checking out. And it’s not just her voice that is amazing. It’s also the sounds of jazzy soul on her initial long–player simply titled Debut. The title of her first single, Beautiful, describes a couple of things–her voice and the track. The music on this song is a perfect complement to her voice. Her vocals bounce over the rolling bass and kick drum. You’ll appreciate the use of muted trumpets (there’s nothing like real instrumentation) . They give this song the perfect blend of soul and jazz. That’s the basic M.O. of the album. Sarah gives us a marvelous remake of The Foreign Exchange’s If She Breaks Your Heart. The sparseness of the track gives us the opportunity to hear Sarah doing work with her vocals. Another choice cut is the nu-jazz tinged Breathe. There’s plenty of other songs worthy of your attention. The production on this album is top-notch and never does the music overtake Sarah’s voice and vice versa. It’s fitting that the album is titled Debut as it could be a blueprint for any up-and-coming soul artist on how to make their own. Hear for yourself below. You can find out more about Sarah Fonteyne at on her website.
Have you ever heard of a lumberjack who sings over soulful, groove-filled melodies. Well, you have now. I’d like to introduce to you Mr. Miles Bonny, this month’s featured artist. He’s not a real lumberjack, but he’s definitely chopping up the beats. And, he has served them up on his latest project, Lumberjack Soul. As an underground music aficionado, I have learned to ignore appearances and just enjoy good music, but it’s easy to see why he labels himself as a lumberjack with his NFL offensive lineman-type beard. But trust me, that is the only thing akin to a lumberjack on this album. He’s not serving up pancakes, but he is serving us the butta. It’s no surprise Miles is adept at this soul music thing as he is based in Kansas City where the blues, jazz and soul permeate the air like the smell of KC barbecue. On top of that, Miles is a trumpeter with a background in hip hop. His long player starts off with the bass guitar and bass drum-driven Lumberjack Soul. This is the perfect introduction to the soulfulness you will hear throughout the album. Next up is a remake of Raphael Saadiq’s Still Ray, although this is called Still Miles and it’s just as funky. Other standout songs are Yes I Do, 5 O’Clock Suff and, my song of the year, Learning To Fly, guaranteed to be one of the best songs you’ve ever heard on the underground soul scene. Miles Bonny has done all the strenuous cutting and heavy hauling. All you gotta do is listen. Check out Learning To Fly below and then go here for more info on Miles.
This month’s featured artist is from way down south. The southern hemisphere, to be exact. I’m talking about Australian-born, New York City-based soul singer Orly. Don’t get it twisted. This ain’t Olivia Newton-John singing over show tunes. The beautiful Orly belts out soul with the best of those in the nu-soul underground on her self-titled EP. Orly’s voice rides smoothly over her jazzy tracks as evidenced on “Why”, “Till You’re Gone” and “Be With You”. You can read more about Orly at orlysings.com. Check out a free download from Orly:
Sometimes, putting in time at your craft seems like a fruitless waste of time. But, of course, there are those times when you feel like you’ve struck gold. The moment I found this month’s featured artist, S. Poitier, is one of those “struck gold” moments. There may have been a bit of serendipity involved in how I found out about Mr. Poitier. I discover artists in many ways (word-of-mouth, internet searching, artist submissions, etc.). I found out about S. Poitier by meticulously clicking on album after album on a particular music retailer’s site. I must have gone through about sixty albums, basically choosing by what the album cover looked like or what the title was. Yes, it was a totally random clicking expedition. I then came along S. Poitier’s Life & Love. I decided to check it out and the rest is history, as they say. You know the feeling you get when you find some money in your pocket that you didn’t expect to be there. Well, that’s the feeling I got when listening to the smooth sounds of S. Poitier. S. Poitier happens to be a pastor in Memphis,TN. However, this is not a gospel album. His music is pure soul. The songs are all about life and love, not fire and brimstone. The lyrics are left to the listener to interpret as he or she sees fit. A perfect example of this is the nu-soul infused I Love You with its rolling groove and rim shot percussion. The cut Rocket Ship actually gives you the feeling of being in one hovering over the Earth. And it also has a hint of drum-and-bass which one wouldn’t expect out of an artist from Memphis. S. Poitier also shows off his jazzy side on the swinging So Fine. S. Poitier is definitely an artist to watch (and to hear). Hopefully, my luck won’t run out and I’ll find another album as good as his in the near future. Check out S. Poitier’s website here for more in-depth information.
Continuing my series of blogs on the top companies in various music and entertainment industries, here is the latest information on the biggest musical instrument retailers of 2010. This information comes straight from the pages of Music Trades magazine and its annual Top 200 list. Guitar Center being at the top of this list is no surprise. It is the most ubiquitous of all musical instrument stores. The company also owns Music & Arts Center, which specializes in band and orchestra sales, and Musiciansfriend.com, an internet-only retailer. In fact, many of the companies on this list, like Sweetwater (#3), have only one location but sell most of their goods via the internet. What may be a surprise to some, Best Buy, the consumer electronics giant, is also on this list (#6) with in-store instrument retailing currently available at 103 locations as well as on line. If you own an instrument, it’s likely from one of the Top 200 stores, or possibly, one of the top 25 I have listed here.
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