Global recorded music sales shrank by 7.2 percent, from $18.3 billion to $17 billion, through 2009 – meaning the industry has scored fewer sales each year since 1999.

Digital sales grew 9.2 percent and now make up over a quarter of all music income…

But the extra $363 million brought in by digital last year still wasn’t enough to offset $1.74 billion lost from physical sales, says the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s Recording Industry In Numbers report, marking wholesale trade value, not retail value. [Read More]

To promote the tour, Waters’ street team (I guess promoters would be more accurate) have been painting an Eisenhower quote about peace all over walls in major metropolitan areas. But they chose the wrong wall in L.A. recently: They painted over the Elliott Smith memorial wall, a section of concrete that Smith’s fans have been using as a makeshift memorial since his death.

“It was absolutely an accident,” Waters said. “I didn’t want to disrespect Elliott Smith’s fans, and I’ve instructed (the team) to remove the wheat paste immediately. It was a random pasting in the normal course of this, and I want to make it public that we had no intent to offend or cover up something precious.” [Read More]

1 KASKADE DYNASTY
2 LA ROUX LA ROUX
3 CRYSTAL CASTLES CRYSTAL CASTLES (II)
4 ALPHA REV NEW MORNING
5 POSEHN*BRIAN FART & WIENER JOKES
6 MUMFORD & SONS SIGH NO MORE
7 SHARPE*EDWARD & THE MAGNETIC Z UP FROM BELOW
8 TYLER*JOHNATHAN & NORTHERN LIG PARDON ME
9 TROMBONE SHORTY BACKATOWN
10 NEON TREES HABITS
11 TEMPER TRAP*THE CONDITIONS
12 FLORENCE + THE MACHINE LUNGS
13 OSMENT*EMILY ALL THE RIGHT WRONGS
14 WHITAKER*CARLOS RAGAMUFFIN SOUL
15 LOCAL NATIVES GORILLA MANOR
16 BOWEN*WADE LIVE AT BILLY BOB’S TEXAS
17 TALLEST MAN ON EARTH WILD HUNT
18 18 GILBERT*BRANTLEY HALFWAY TO HEAVEN
19 AVI BUFFALO AVI BUFFALO
20 RADIO DEPT*THE CLINGING TO A SCHEME
21 SIDEWALK PROPHETS THESE SIMPLE TRUTHS
22 BOLAND*JASON & THE STRAGGLERS HIGH IN THE ROCKIES
23 ONE ESKIMO ONE ESKIMO
24 COMPA SACRA*EL ULTIMO RAZO SE ALBOROTO EL HORMIGUERO
25 LIVING SISTERS*THE LOVE TO LIVE

Silver Lake’s Dangerbird Records continues to expand its portfolio beyond the local rock scene. After rising to national prominence on the strength of the Grammy-nominated success of the Silversun Pickups, the indie label has been steadily beefing up its roster. Monday, the imprint added our city’s chic, soul-drenched outfit Fitz & the Tantrums to its ranks, securing the act to a label and publishing deal, according to Dangerbird head Jeff Castelaz.

The timing certainly couldn’t be better. The act was welcomed to the Dangerbird family just as it is about to tour with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. The latter are riding high on the recently released and critically adored “I Learned the Hard Way,” which has sold 38,000 copies in its two weeks of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. [Read More]

Spotify spent most of its first year saying it would refrain from adding “social” features and concentrate on just serving music. But the ice in Stockholm has thawed lately and today the music service added just that, amongst its first significant product updates since launching in late 2008.

—New profiles: Users can friend each other by Spotify username or via Facebook graph and send tracks to each other with a new Inbox. New activity appears in a “feed”. Users can share a web link to their in-app profile and add profile details to their blogs.

—Library changes: Spotify’s no longer just a cloud player – now users can play local files, like iTunes. Tracks and albums can be “starred”, popping them in a favourites folder. Spotify will also wirelessly sync music files to mobile without USB sideloading. [Read More]

1 VEIL OF MAYA ID
2 FLORENCE + THE MACHINE LUNGS
3 MUMFORD & SONS SIGH NO MORE
4 FLATFOOT 56 BLACK THORN
5 MURDER BY DEATH GOOD MORNING, MAGPIE
6 SEXTON*MARTIN SUGARCOATING
7 SHARPE*EDWARD & THE MAGNETIC Z UP FROM BELOW
8 TEMPER TRAP*THE CONDITIONS
9 LA ROUX LA ROUX
10 CARY BROTHERS UNDER CONTROL
11 SECRET & WHISPER TEENAGE FANTASY
12 PAPER TONGUES PAPER TONGUES
13 EVELYN EVELYN EVELYN EVELYN
14 MORNING BENDERS BIG ECHO
15 SCHOOL GYRLS SCHOOL GYRLS
16 GILBERT*BRANTLEY HALFWAY TO HEAVEN
17 MARLING*LAURA I SPEAK BECAUSE I CAN
18 TITUS ANDRONICUS MONITOR
19 NEON TREES HABITS
20 LOCAL NATIVES GORILLA MANOR
21 ONE ESKIMO ONE ESKIMO
22 PJ MORTON WALK ALONE
23 JEDI MIND TRICKS ARMY OF THE PHARAOHS: THE UNHO
24 SURFER BLOOD ASTRO COAST
25 SIDEWALK PROPHETS THESE SIMPLE TRUTHS

TOP 25 NEW ARTISTS: WEEK ENDING 04/04/2010

Good chance that if you’re reading this story, you haven’t bought a CD in a long time. Would you think about it if CDs were cheaper?

That’s what Universal Music Group is hoping. The world’s biggest music label is pushing a plan to sell all its CDs at a retail price of $10 or less, Billboard reports. Given that all the big labels are currently selling discs at wholesale prices of $10 to $12, that’s a big price chop. [Read More]

The new Apple tablet is being billed as the ultimate portable entertainment device — a cross between a netbook PC and an iPhone — so how does it stack up as a music device? To find out, we took it for a quick spin. [Read More]

With the first quarter of 2010 now completed, the good news for the U.S. music industry is the slowing decline of album sales. And another observation is the emergence of the non-traditional sector as the largest U.S. retail channel, displacing the mass merchants.

The bad news, however, is that for the first time since digital track sales took off in 2003, a quarter has closed with a downward trend. But that decline is mitigated by the Nielsen SoundScan calendar adjustment.

Album sales were down 7.9% to 82 million units, from the 89 million scanned during the corresponding period in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s in contrast to the 13.5% decline that occurred in between SoundScan’s first quarters in 2009 and 2008. [Read More]

1 PAPER TONGUES PAPER TONGUES
2 FLATFOOT 56 BLACK THORN
3 SCHOOL GYRLS SCHOOL GYRLS
4 MUMFORD & SONS SIGH NO MORE
5 ENVY ON THE COAST LOWCOUNTRY
6 JEDI MIND TRICKS ARMY OF THE PHARAOHS: THE UNHO
7 TEMPER TRAP*THE CONDITIONS
8 LA ROUX LA ROUX
9 SHARPE*EDWARD & THE MAGNETIC Z UP FROM BELOW
10 MORNING BENDERS BIG ECHO
11 SIDEWALK PROPHETS THESE SIMPLE TRUTHS
12 NEON TREES HABITS
13 GILBERT*BRANTLEY HALFWAY TO HEAVEN
14 LOCAL NATIVES GORILLA MANOR
15 DUM DUM GIRLS I WILL BE
16 TITUS ANDRONICUS MONITOR
17 ADELITAS WAY ADELITAS WAY
18 FLORENCE + THE MACHINE LUNGS
19 STONE*ANGUS & JULIA DOWN THE WAY
20 ONE ESKIMO ONE ESKIMO
21 ISLES & GLACIERS HEARTS OF LONELY PEOPLE
22 CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS GENUINE NEGRO JIG
23 LEO*TED & THE PHARMACISTS BRUTALIST BRICKS
24 OF MICE & MEN OF MICE & MEN
25 BONNIE PRINCE BILLY & THE CAIR WONDERSHOW OF THE WORLD
25 SURFER BLOOD ASTRO COAST