jGerson
I knew the Beastie Boys would kill it this week. It’s too bad that they fell behind British songstress Adele, who currently holds the number one spot on the Billboard 200. I’m guessing not too many people are checking for Tony Yayo’s commercial mixtapes these days… the real story this week is that the New Boyz sold nearly 46,000 copies of their latest single, “Better With The Lights Off” featuring Chris Brown, which is crazy impressive.
Beastie Boys “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2” – 128,192 (50% digital) – [Read Review]
Big Scoob “Damn Fool” – 2,050 (21% digital)
Kidd Kidd “The Reallionaire” – 323 (55% digital)
Blitz The Ambassador “Native Sun” – 217 (92% digital)
A-Wax “Nightmare From Elm Street, Vol 3: The Street Tape” – 58 (100% digital)
Tony Yayo – “El Chapo” – 153 (100% digital)
Blue Sky Black Death – “Noir” – 502 **two week cumulative** (73% digital)
It’s official – Russian billionaire, Len Blavatnik, purchased Warner Music Group this week for a whopping 3.3 billion dollars in cash; that’s $8.25 per share, a 34.4% premium on the six month average share price of $6.14. It’s still unclear what this purchase will mean for the industry giant besides the fact that the company will go private and become less transparent. However, everything is not all said and done on the seller’s end. WMG bidders and billionaire brothers, Tom and Alec Gores, are considering a revised bid to outweigh Blavatnik’s 3.3 billion dollar offer. A source told Bloomberg, “Warner Music’s board can consider higher offers for 30 to 60 days…the size of a new bid will hinge on any breakup fee pledged to Blavatnik, and whether the company reports higher-than-estimated earnings on May 10….the Gores are contacting Sony Corp.’s music division and Vivendi SA’s Universal Music to join them.” Maybe everyone knows something that I don’t, but it seems like this is possibly the worst time to invest in record labels. Then again, I don’t exactly have billions of dollars to invest in extravagant manners, so I’m not one to talk.
About two months ago, I stated, “anything you can do, Google can do better.” Well, Google seems eager to prove my point, as yesterday it finally unveiled its long-awaited cloud music locker. At the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, Google’s Paul Joyce presented Music Beta, a digital music locker similar to Amazon’s Cloud. Music Beta by Google functions as both a music player and a remote hard drive capable of storing up to 20,000 songs, album art, and playlists, which can be synchronized to any computer or Android phone. It also contains an Instant Mix feature similar to iTunes’ Genius. Because of licensing issues with major labels, Music Beta is yet to feature a download store or full streaming services, which is a major flaw in my opinion, as it doesn’t really distinguish itself from other options, such as Amazon, except in brand name. The service has yet to officially launch, so sign-up for Music Beta is currently by invitation only. You can request an invitation here.
Rumors are circulating that Google has nabbed Lady Gaga to endorse Music Beta by scheduling the official launch to coincide with the release of her forthcoming album, Born This Way. The two have reportedly struck up a partnership which will allow everyone who signs up for the music service to stream Gaga’s album on May 23rd. This could potentially give Google the out-the-gate momentum they need to topple streaming platforms that have been around longer but have failed to gain substantial fandom such as Rdio and MOG.
You can check out a short video describing all the features of Music Beta below.
