LOS ANGELES, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- "Tik Tok" might be the sound that doomsayers use as a metaphor for the borrowed time that the music industry is living on, but it also represents a new model for the beleaguered business. Case in point: Ke$ha, the 23-year old pop star whose clock-referencing single racked up the largest Soundscan performance ever for a female artist, selling 610,000 digital downloads in one week last August, on its way to quadruple platinum status. To date, her album "Animal" has sold only roughly 1/5th of that total.

Owen Husney, one-time manager of Prince, has seen things come 360 degrees.

"Albums will continue to fade in importance," Husney, currently the president and CEO of First American Entertainment said. "The future is artists creating music in their bedroom studios, selling them on the Internet, and owning all the publishing and mastering.

Yet Husney isn't alone. Lance Grode, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Law School and whose law firm represented Bob Dylan, The Eagles, and Michael Jackson, confirmed the re-ascendancy of the single.

"The industry has come full cycle. The single was the dominant format until the mid-1960s, but that model has returned," Grode said. "There are more things competing for the entertainment dollar."

Indeed in 2009, only 12 records went platinum, and only 2.1% of the 97,751 albums released sold 5,000 copies. This new opportunity has allowed indie bands like Los Angeles-based Faulkner to take advantage. An outfit compromised of members from Canada, Greece, London and New York, the band has released monthly singles on their 8,000 member Facebook fan page, declared songwriters Lucas Asher and Brennan McGuire, one of which was picked up by Clear Channel Radio. And they aren't alone. Mayer Hawthorne, a retro-soulster on Stones Throw sold 150,000 digital singles of "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out," even after the label gave it away free on its website.

Nor has the single's importance been exclusively confined to the music industry. Film and television supervisors have also been noting its ever-increasing impact.

"It's a downloader's market. The iTunes top 10 matters as much as Billboard," said Julia Michels, the music supervisor on such films as "Just Wright" and "Sex and the City 2." "Labels are using film and television in lieu of radio play, and we're constantly being pitched the single."

Ultimately, the single's dominance proves that the clock hasn't run out on the music business—it's just been wound back.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Thom Yorke Says Pop Is Dead

Bulldog said:

(there, i did it first)

Music Execs Weigh-in on Industry

LOS ANGELES, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- "Tik Tok" might be the sound that doomsayers use as a metaphor for the borrowed time that the music industry is living on, but it also represents a new model for the beleaguered business. Case in point: Ke$ha, the 23-year old pop star whose clock-referencing single racked up the largest Soundscan performance ever for a female artist, selling 610,000 digital downloads in one week last August, on its way to quadruple platinum status. To date, her album "Animal" has sold only roughly 1/5th of that total.

Owen Husney, one-time manager of Prince, has seen things come 360 degrees.

"Albums will continue to fade in importance," Husney, currently the president and CEO of First American Entertainment said. "The future is artists creating music in their bedroom studios, selling them on the Internet, and owning all the publishing and mastering.

Yet Husney isn't alone. Lance Grode, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Law School and whose law firm represented Bob Dylan, The Eagles, and Michael Jackson, confirmed the re-ascendancy of the single.

"The industry has come full cycle. The single was the dominant format until the mid-1960s, but that model has returned," Grode said. "There are more things competing for the entertainment dollar."

Indeed in 2009, only 12 records went platinum, and only 2.1% of the 97,751 albums released sold 5,000 copies. This new opportunity has allowed indie bands like Los Angeles-based Faulkner to take advantage. An outfit compromised of members from Canada, Greece, London and New York, the band has released monthly singles on their 8,000 member Facebook fan page, declared songwriters Lucas Asher and Brennan McGuire, one of which was picked up by Clear Channel Radio. And they aren't alone. Mayer Hawthorne, a retro-soulster on Stones Throw sold 150,000 digital singles of "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out," even after the label gave it away free on its website.

Nor has the single's importance been exclusively confined to the music industry. Film and television supervisors have also been noting its ever-increasing impact.

"It's a downloader's market. The iTunes top 10 matters as much as Billboard," said Julia Michels, the music supervisor on such films as "Just Wright" and "Sex and the City 2." "Labels are using film and television in lieu of radio play, and we're constantly being pitched the single."

Ultimately, the single's dominance proves that the clock hasn't run out on the music business—it's just been wound back.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Thom Yorke Says Pop Is Dead

Thom Yorke claims the music industry will ''completely fold'' in a few months time and has advised aspiring musicians to try to find success on their own.

Thom Yorke has predicted the death of the musicindustry.

The 41-year-old Radiohead frontman - who split from record label EMI in 2007 after recording six albums - has advised aspiring musicians to try and make it on their own, rather than sign a deal with a major company.

In an interview for a new school textbook, Thom claims the mainstream music industry is dying and this will be "no great loss to the world" before telling musicians not to "tie themselves to the sinking ship".

Speaking in the 'The Rax Active Citizenship Toolkit', he added: "It will be only a matter of time - months rather than years - before the music business establishment completely folds."

Following their acrimonious departure from EMI, Radiohead went on to release their seventh LP, 'In Rainbows' initially as a download for which fans could pay what they thought it was worth.

The group were left infuriated when their former record label released a greatest hits compilation, 'Radiohead: The Best Of', in 2008, branding it "pointless".

Thom said at the time: "We haven't really had any hits so what exactly is the purpose? There's nothing we can do about it. The work is really public property now anyway, in my head at least. It's a wasted opportunity in that if we'd been behind it, and we wanted to do it, then it might have been good.

Well many good points but both Hunsey and Yorke are about 8-9 years late on this one. THe Inudstry died a long time ago, when MTV entered the picture and videos and all other media took away from the artistry and better yet the IMPORTANCE of music, no one gives a shit at this point who plays on an album or track, who wrote it, wrote arranged it etc...

The BUSINESS of music is always there, singles are the new crack for the labels, and artist like Kesha and Flo-rida are no more than slaves to sing there little jingles and ringtones make the label millions and clear about 40,000 a year themselves if lucky (and that is the truth on what they make overall on downloads). An artist now that sells a million downloads of a single makes about 35,000 dollars themselves, not a bad job for a label, thats the new slavery, thats the work of the 360 deal.

I just read recently thay L'il Wayne's "Lollipop" grossed about $4 million in download/ringtone sales!!!