Signings: Tori Amos has teamed up with Universal Republic Records. Her upcoming Universal Republic debut is currently scheduled for a late spring/early summer 2009.

A slew of Executives at Terra Firma involved in the structuring of EMI Music have left the company. To find out who is exiting read here.

The Opening: Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Chinese Democracy‘ debuted at No. 3 with 261,000 copies - not bad for a Best Buy exclusive and without press set-up.

Amazon Launches MP3 Store in the UK with the most recent albums from Kings Of Leon, Coldplay and Girls Aloud being sold for £3. This is another blow to Apple.

New Report: Digital music sales now account for 18 percent of the U.S. music market and will grow to 41 percent in five years according to Forrester Research. The report also said that 55 percent of U.S. online consumers will pay to download digital music in 2013.

Original A&R Guy Booted From Listening Party: Tom Zutaut, the A&R guy who signed Guns N Roses to Geffen Records in the mid 80’s, was booted out of the “Chinese Democracy” listening party, held at the Roxy Theater in West Hollywood, California last Tuesday (November 18). Tom Zutaut said this:

“I believe that love and hate are a complicated thing but ultimately the same thing. I love Axl and think ‘Chinese Democracy’ is a genius body of music. “It is sad and disappointing to me that those around Axl would lie to him to fuel his hatred towards me with imaginary events used to drive a wedge between us. I love him deeply, will always love him and wish only the greatest success to one of the world’s last true creative musical sparks with a god-given voice. I am proud of my contributions to his career and am always there for him should he one day become enlightened to the truth of what surrounds him. It is also sad that he doesn’t mention the hard work I put in on my short involvement with ‘Chinese Democracy’with even a ‘Thank You’ considering lesser players are credited or thanked in the liner notes — even those who ridiculed him, belittled and made fun of him behind his back while I defended his genius ’til those around him poisoned him against me with distortions and lies. “I wear his hatred as a badge of honor as it would be far worse for him not to care at all.”

Recommended Show: Buffalo rock act Settings will be performing at the Key Club in Hollywood, California tonight. Listen to the songs Walk Away and Creatures.

Black Friday: Music Sales were down from 10 to 30% and big name albums released for Black Friday didn’t perform up to expectations according to merchants. Kanye West’s ‘808s & Heartbreak’ will sell in the 425k range down from the previously projected range of 800k. Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” is expected to sell  at 250,000-260,000, not the predicted 300,000-784,000 units. Sales at Music specialty store Newbury Comics was down 21% and label executives said hit-album sales were off significantly at big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble.

Axl is Missing? Speaking of Chinese Democracy a source said that the album would have had a better chance of going #1 if Axl had been prepared to show his face. Chinese Democracy  climb to number two on U.K. Albums chart, beaten by The Killers’ “Day & Age” which landed at #1 on the chart. The source said that the disappointing result happened because the band missed out the album’s promotion project. “People have been trying to contact him for two months and he’s been completely AWOL. You would have thought after spending 15 years on an album you might do a few weeks promotion,” the source explained.

Signings: Phoenix based pop/rock band The Summer Set have signed a co-publishing deal with Razor & Tie.

Can Radio Save Itself? Not to long ago, Radio ruled the world, but now is facing competition from iPods, the internet, and satellite radio. Advertisers are now spreading the dollars, and although radio is still a popular medium for advertising, many companies have pulled back due to current economic conditions. Even though the audience for broadcast radio is actually growing, stations cannot seem to increase their revenue says the New York Times. Some say there are signs of hope. To illustrate: “radio now reaches more than 235 million listeners in a week, versus 232 million last year, according to a study by Arbitron. But those people are listening to the radio less: fewer than 19 hours a week, versus about 20.4 in 2005.” Also, Radio executives are hoping that HD Radio will catch on with consumers.

From One Pimp To Another: Ashlee Dupree, the former escort who brought down NY Governor Eliot Spitzer has inked a deal with Violator Management who is headed by Chris Lighty. Violator past clients included rappers like 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes and Mobb Deep.

Most Popular Sellers @ 5.00 Bucks: Amazon is preparing for the online Christmas shopping blitz and is selling the most popular albums for 5.00 each. Some artists include Coldplay ‘Viva La Vida’, Death Cab For Cutie ‘Narrow Stairs’, and Metallica’s ‘Death Magnetic’. The entire list is here.

It looks like 300,000 fans will purchase Guns N Roses ‘Chinese Democracy’ in the first week. The former Skid Row singer Sebastion Bach who sang backup on Sorry recently chimed in on Chinese Democracy..

“As soon as I dropped the needle on ‘Chinese Democracy’, I was captivated by the sound of this record, & the thought, talent, & care put into this piece of Art, from all involved. The power, clarity, separation, & production of this music is nothing short of incredible. As loud as I want, I can still hear the vocals, guitars & everything else perfectly clear, with the bass rumbling my guts (& below) just like it should. When Axl rips into the line “even with an iron fist” in the first song, the blood in my veins starts to boil & the intensity does not let up until the end of Side Four.”

Did you listen to Chinese Democracy yet? It’s not a victim of the loudness war folks.

Atlantic Records says digital sales have finally surpassed CD sales. Most of their musics sales in the US are now from digital products - ala digital music downloads and ringtones.

“We’re like a college basketball team on an 18-2 run,” said Craig Kallman, Atlantic’s chairman and chief executive.

The future still looks clouded even though a milestone has been achieved - “While digital delivery is becoming a bigger slice of the pie, the overall pie is shrinking fast.” The hope has been lost that digital sales would make up for declining sales of CD’s. The music industry is now hoping to profit from other businesses including concert tickets and artist merchandise, but the live business is shrinking too. Unfortunately, only a few legendary artists can fill arenas and they are usually unwilling to share the slice of the pie.

The transition of moving to a digital business has made things more complicated. Of course others believe they found somewhat of a solution. “I think we’ve figured it out,” said Julie Greenwald, president of Atlantic Records. “It used to be that you could connect five dots and sell a million records. Now there are 20 dots you can connect to sell a million records.”

“Replacing compact disc sales are small bits of revenue from many sources: Atlantic Records’ digital sales include ring tones, ringbacks, satellite radio, iTunes sales and subscription services”. At the same time, record labels — Atlantic included — are spending less money to market artists. In the pre-Internet days, said Ms. Greenwald, “we were so flush, we did everything in the name of promotion.” Among the cutbacks are less spending to produce videos and to support publicity tours when a new album is released.”

Coldplay To Split? Chris Martin hinted that the end of Coldplay may be near. “I’m 31 now and I don’t think bands should keep going past 33″, said Martin. “Up until the end of next year, we’ll just go for it in every sense. I don’t believe in time off… We’ve still got our own hair, we can still fit into our musical trousers and we’ve got to make the most of that.”

Velvet Revolver has split with RCA Records. Velvet Revolver continues their long search for a new lead singer. Velvet Revolver fell apart because there were too many big egos in the band said Weiland  — and I’m including myself. “It wasn’t necessarily about bad egos, just big egos, and unfortunately, it just mistakenly kind of eroded.”

‘Chinese Democracy’ has broken all kinds of records after being streamed on MySpace. The “listening party”, has had the largest listeners for an artist album stream launch on the site to date.

Simon Cowells management company and Jordan Sparks have parted ways. The 19 Recordings label will continue as Jordin’s record company with its joint venture partner, Jive Records.

Southern tinged alternative rock band Kings of Leon are finally making a significant impact at radio in their home country with their recent single, “Sex on Fire”. The band who has played some of the biggest festivals overseas and has seen great success elsewhere, but wouldn’t even be recognized at a Nashville Wal-Mart seem to have their breakthrough with their fourth album, “Only By The Night”. The success of “Sex on Fire” is set to help spawn another hit with second single, Use Somebody”. Now time will tell if this band can maintain their home turf success.

Drum & Bass Goes Mainstream: Popular Australian drum & bass band Pendulum are another band who could start being recognized stateside thanks to their sizzling, genre bending single, “Propane Nightmares”. Can this track make a serious impact at alternative radio and beyond, here in America?

Signings:
Staying in Australia, it was previously reported that emo rock act Closure in Moscow had signed with Science Records, but have now apparently struck a deal with Equal Vision (Chiodos, Circa Survive) instead. A seemingly perfect home for this band, EVR has seen strong sales and popular tours featuring bands already on their label, so Closure in Moscow should do nothing but help this label maintain their strong reputation in this particular music scene.

Interscope has reportedly signed California rap duo LMFAO who could fit in easily on a tour with everyone’s favorite recent Universal signing Hyper Crush. If you’re not blinded by the flashy Myspace page, or distracted by track titles like, “I’m Not a Whore” and “I’m in Miami Bitch” then you might want to try out the track, “YES”. The track is lyrically ridiculous, but I find it catchy as hell. Whether you like it, or hate it, this may very easily end up alongside Katy Perry and Pink singles on the Top 40 chart.

Quick Picks:

Red – “Never Be The Same” - one of the singles from the band’s upcoming album, “Innocence & Instinct”, guess it was time for a power ballad.

Picture Atlantic – “Circe” - won an opening slot for Coldplay in July.

Middle Class Rut – “Busy Bein’ Born

Dallas Osborn currently attends San Francisco State University and works on the Live 105 (KITS) Action Team.

Taylor Swift sold 592,000 copies of her new record making herself immune from the dwindling record biz.  She is more than an artist, she is a role model and a figure head to a certain segment in this generation.  Christina Aguilera ‘Keeps Gettin’ Better” came out just in time for the Christmas holiday but sold only 72,869.  Old School marketing strategies cannot get the public excited to spend 10 bucks on a diva that graces the pages of tabloid mags and gossip columns. Pink’s ‘Funhouse’ sold 52,000 records this week. Metallica’s ‘Death Magnetic’ sold 31,000 records, can we say they cameback? Regardless, The Day That Never Comes is a classic song.  AC/DC ‘Black Ice’ sold 105,146 with a total of  1,320,000.

Guns N’ Roses new release expects to sell 600k in its first week, which would make this one of the biggest releases of the year. Once again, where are the new artists?

13 years later, Guns N’ Roses ‘Chinese Democracy’ can be streamed in its entirety on myspace.

Guns N’ Roses began to write and record new music in 1994. Ex-bassist Duff McKagan is quoted as saying, “The band was so splintered at that point that nothing got started”. Slash has criticized Rose for making the band seem “like a dictatorship”. Slash quit the band in 1996; drummer Matt Sorum and McKagan left soon afterwards.

Chinese Democracy is a collaboration of artists who include:

* Axl Rose – lead vocals, backing vocals
* Robin Finck – lead guitar, backing vocals
* Bumblefoot – lead guitar
* Richard Fortus – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
* Tommy Stinson – bass guitar, backing vocals
* Dizzy Reed – keyboard, piano, percussion, backing vocals
* Bryan Mantia – drums, percussion
* Frank Ferrer – drums, percussion
* Chris Pitman – synthesizer, programming

Former members who are featured

* Buckethead – lead guitar
* Paul Tobias – rhythm guitar

Additional musicians

* Sebastian Bach – backing vocals (uncredited)
* Patti Hood – harp
* Marco Beltrami – orchestral arrangement
* Paul Buckmaster – orchestral arrangement

The Cost Of The Record: According to a March 2005 New York Times article, production costs for the album have reached $13 million

Virginia pop rock outfit My Favorite Highway who spent years on the scene finally signed to Virgin Records after generating excitement with their new full length.  My Favorite Highway caught the interest of KOAR when they released their first track ‘Murder On The Radio‘.  During the course of the years, the band dropped the rock roots and gravitated towards the pop direction ala Jason Mraz and The Fray.