Album Sales Week Of 3/8/11 (Lupe Fiasco, Raekwon, WC, Reks + Industry News)

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The numbers are in and Lupe Fiasco is winning this week.  Unfortunately for him, the reviews are also in and it looks like the critics aren’t too pleased.  Even though Lupe’s fans did all the work by supporting one of their favorite artists, I’m sure that Atlantic will take all of the credit.  Overall these album sales are very impressive, especially for the two lesser known releases of last Tuesday.

Lupe Fiasco “Lasers” – 204,169  (56% digital)  [read review]

Raekwon “Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang” – 28,897  (32% digital)   [read review]

WC “Revenge Of The Barracuda” – 2,156  (38% digital)

Reks “Rythmatic Eternal King Supreme” – 1,073  (54% digital)  [read review]

Shad “iTunes Sessions” – 108  (100% digital)

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As many already know, this week is SXSW. This is a great experience for all those in or traveling to the Austin area as you can witness some great shows and get exposed to new music that you might not normally have a chance to hear.  You don’t want to miss the Village Voice Media showcase sponsored by iHipHop Distribution and featuring such artists as Wu-Tang Clan, Erykah Badu, Yelawolf, Marz Lovejoy, Rocky Business and others.  This all takes place Thursday March 17th at Austin Music Hall.  Click here for more details

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We all know that most up-and-coming artists aren’t making what they used to. This week, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (AKA “IP CZAR”), Victoria Espinel, detailed in a White House report how the government supports artist’s rights.  Espinel made it clear that she believes “unauthorized streaming” should be a federal offense.  According to the document, Espinel also urges radio stations to properly pay royalties to artists that appear in rotation.  This is a tough issue because as we know record labels “used to” pay stations to play their music because they viewed airtime as a form of advertising.  Now that labels aren’t recouping on projects, they’re looking for a new form of revenue.  Let’s not forget, terrestrial radio is hurting these days…

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Anything you can do, Google can do better.  A hacker recently found out that the number-one site on the web is looking to one-up Soundcloud and other streaming services by offering a way to synch your entire music library to google.com, making it streaming and accessible from anywhere in the world.  “Once the leaked Honeycomb music player is correctly installed on Android, users synced their music libraries to Google’s servers. Since the service hasn’t been made publically available, they haven’t run into any storage limits”  Reports indicate the service is months away from release.