NEAR TRUTHS: LATE-WEEK MOVES

BIG RED HEAT: Ron Perry’s Columbia is enjoying a flurry of activity with a hotly anticipated album from Tyler, The Creator (who just announced the lineup of his Camp Flog Gnaw fest, which sold out before said announcement); a big streaming record with JENNIE (who, like ROSÉ and LISA, is a newly solo BLACKPINK member), whose “Mantra” is Top 20 global at Spotify as of this writing; Addison Rae, whose “Diet Pepsi” is fizzing at Pop radio and has racked up about 135m global streams on the Spot; and Halsey, whose new album just dropped (single “Ego” is Top 30 at Pop) and whose physical sales are booming. It doesn’t hurt to have one of the biggest singles of the year in Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” which could well earn some Grammy love.

STROM AND DRANG: With the Travis Scott album and tour cycle winding up, manager David Stromberg appears to be at work on a fascinating new chapter as an advisor to Kanye West. Will the resourceful Stromberg find that his company’s name, Unmanageable, is truly fitting in this case? Many others have trod where he treads now and then beaten a hasty retreat. Then again, the manager may have just the skill set required.

HIS SONG: The City of Hope gala honoring Jay Marciano is said to have raised a record sum (reportedly $7.5m so far), and the semi-casually attired crowd of biz peeps in attendance—most of them a global selection of managers, agents and arena and stadium promoters who do business with the widely beloved Marciano—looked like any other delirious throng of cheering fans when Sir Elton John took the stage.

UNITS: The back-to-back #1 chart bows by BBR/Republic’s Jelly Roll and Atlantic’s Coldplay have occasioned much chatter among bizniks and data nerds given the surprisingly small role played by streams in their totals.

That a title’s SEA can be lower than 25% of a chart-topping title’s first week is certainly noteworthy; what conclusions can be drawn about the artists and their projects? With streaming the economic engine of labels’ bottom lines, how are they able to support projects by artists that don’t generate big streams?

Coldplay’s first-week streams were 11% of their total, and the album was off 82% in its second week. Jelly’s first-week total was 27% streams but he’s only down by about 40% in total week-two sales with 60k.

The methodology of the chart, to put it bluntly, is fucked. Digital album sales are the primary culprit, with all manner of chicanery taking place late in the chart week, and the thumbs placed unevenly on the scale by Luminate and Billboard have been an issue on an almost weekly basis. The labels have made some moves to curb these excesses—except when they need the eggs.

More recently, the chart overlords have taken strongly punitive steps in hopes of stopping what they consider an abuse of these late-in-the-week moves by certain companies. The use of $4.99 digital album downloads to jack up the chart on Wednesday or Thursday is cut-out promo schlock in modern-day drag. Meanwhile, charges of bullshit are shouted from the rooftops on both coasts and some consider this a huge waste of time and money.

Both Jelly and Coldplay command huge fan bases and are strong performers on the road. Jelly has earned north of 200m global Spotify streams on a few songs and Coldplay has several in its catalog that are now well north of 2 billion. But it’s abundantly clear that both can vault to the top of the charts even if their latest music isn’t commanding major streams.

MAMA, I’M COMING HOME: Another successful Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony is in the rearview, and certain biz peeps are still wiping away tears over the Ozzy Osbourne tribute. The ailing rock titan delivered his gracious speech from a Gothically appointed throne while Sharon and the rest of his clan wept in the audience. It was good to see Oz getting his flowers.