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 Rolling Stone reports that following two fizzled-out fourth quarters
in a row, the major record labels have prepared a superstar-packed
holiday shopping season, with U2, Beyoncé, Dr. Dre,
Metallica, AC/DC, Jay-Z and top American Idol stars
dropping albums through the end of 2008, label sources say. For an
industry mired in an eight-year slump, with album sales down 11
percent so far this year, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the
pre-Christmas schedule is a rare bit of good news. "I'll probably
stay guarded [on whether] it starts turning things around," says
Lon Lindeland, Best Buy's senior entertainment manager, "but it
certainly doesn't suck."
The fall starts with Metallica's Rick Rubin-produced 10th studio
album, Death Magnetic, which is due September 12th. New
releases from Jennifer Hudson, Pussycat Dolls, Akon, T-Pain and
Kings of Leon will follow in September and October, but the quarter
doesn't truly pick up until November, with the Killers, David Cook,
David Archuleta, Black Eyed Peas and R. Kelly. (Even Guns n' Roses'
Chinese Democracy has a chance: A source tells Rolling
Stone that a November release date has been selected in case the
band decides to put it out.)
Retailers expect U2, Eminem and Beyoncé for Thanksgiving
week, though Eminem's label, Interscope, wouldn't confirm the
release. "It's kind of going back to that [Thanksgiving week] a
couple of years ago," says Andrew Gyger, Virgin Entertainment
Group's senior music product manager, referring to 2004, when
Eminem, U2 and Gwen Stefani came out at around the same time. "That
was ridiculous."
Read the full story here.
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