By Jim Farber – Daily News

In an era ruled by pop and R&B acts, a scrappy rock band just racked up the most downloaded CD of the year.

“Only By The Night” from Kings of Leon has earned the title of top selling digital album of the year so far, according to iTunes, enjoying sales of just under 400,000 units. (Apple doesn’t release exact figures for its downloads, but SoundScan Nielsen does, and the overwhelming majority of those come from iTunes).

Another edgy rock album took the No. 2 spot – the “Twilight” soundtrack – followed by the debut from shock dance queen Lady GaGa at No. 3. Each enjoyed sales in the 330,000 to 350,000 range. (The two works switched positions on SoundScan’s list, which demonstrates the narrow margin between general downloading figures and iTunes’ own). [Read More]

By Patrick Mcgeehan – NewYork Times

At a glance, the far corner of the main floor of J&R Music looks familiar to anybody old enough to have scratched a record by accident. There are cardboard boxes filled with albums by the likes ofMiles Davis and the Beach Boys that could be stacked in any musty attic in America.

But this is no music morgue; it is more like a life-support unit for an entertainment medium that has managed to avoid extinction, despite numerous predictions to the contrary. The bins above the boxes hold new records — freshly pressed albums of classic rock as well as vinyl versions of the latest releases from hip-hop icons like 50 Cent and Diddy and new pop stars like Norah Jones and Lady Gaga. [Read More]

By The Beatles.com

Following the September 9 (9-9-09) debut of The Beatles’ digitally re-mastered catalogue on CD, Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are pleased to announce the worldwide release of a limited edition of only 30,000 Beatles Stereo USB apples on December 7 (December 8 in North America, December 16 in Japan). [Read More]

By Patrick Fallon – XLR8R

Trip-hop veterans Massive Attack are set to follow up their recent Splitting the Atom EP with the fifth full-length album of their near two-decade career, entitled Heligoland.Coming February 8 from Virgin, the UK production duo’s new record features high-profile vocal work from Blur frontman Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, Martina Topley-Bird, Guy Garvey, and TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe. Current Attack members Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall also collaborated with DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy and Portishead’s Adrian Utley on a few songs throughout Heligoland. The forthcoming album’s release will also be followed by tour dates, to be announced next year, from the seasoned production team both in the UK and the US. [Read More]

By Stephanie Murg – Unbeige

Visionaire is always among the things we’re most thankful for, so what better time to tell you about the new issue? The fifty-seventh edition of the art-meets-fashion triannual brings together images from 365 artists in the format of an electronic 2010 calendar. The works that light up the sleek HD screen were selected by 52 influential figures from the worlds of art, design, fashion, and film. Curators including Zaha Hadid, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Louise Bourgeois, and Rei Kawakubo, chose works by artists from Richard Artschwager toAndrea Zittel. [Read More]

By Andrew Adam Newman – NewYork Times

As physical formats and devices have shrunk, revenues for the audiobook industry have grown, since it is more convenient to listen to an iPod while exercising and commuting than fiddling with CDs. Digital downloads grew to 21 percent of the industry’s total sales in 2008, from 6 percent in 2004, according to the Audiobook Publishers Association.

It is all the more odd, then, that Hachette Audio recently announced that the latest audiobook by David Sedaris, “Live for Your Listening Pleasure,” which features readings before audiences, would be available on the least portable of formats: vinyl. [Read More]

By MOG

If there is one big lesson that hip hop can teach you is that all good things must come to to an end even if your selling millions of records and making millions of dollars in the process. If it isn’t working anymore, it just isn’t working. So in the wake of the whole Beanie Sigel/Jay-Z (now 50 Cent) thing I decided to look up some high profile hip hop endings… and some of them will surprise you… and some of them you’ll probably see coming a mile away. [Read More]

By Rob Harvilla – The VillageVoice

For a new musical with no cartoon-character tie-in, no jukebox of smash pop hits, and no boldface celebrity stars to thrive on Broadway in the waning post-apocalyptic months of 2009, the performances most crucial to success aren’t necessarily given by the folks onstage, or behind it, or regarding it from the luxe front-row seats reserved for patrons and investors. Look instead to the same-day discount TKTS booth—more specifically, the eager, increasingly bundled-up young helpers who lurk nearby to soothe and summarize, cheerfully proselytizing for the daunting list of shows from which you (or your mother, or your grandmother) must choose. If the show can’t sell itself, it’s up to them.[Read More]

By Stephanie Murg – Unbeige

We’ve followed “Stages,” the Nike-sponsored art exhibition to raise awareness and funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, from its Los Angeles launch toits Paris debut, and now the show has opened stateside in a dazzling installation at New York’s Deitch Projects. The aim of Stages, named for a term that can describe the progression of cancer or a cycling competition, is nothing short of “uniting the worlds of art, philanthropy, and sport in a unique celebration of human potential” through the newly commissioned works of 23 artists, a diverse bunch that includes Ed Ruscha, Cai Guo-Qiang, Christopher Wool, KAWS,Jules de Balincourt, and Rosson Crow. Armstrong hatched the idea with Nike president and CEO (and fellow art collector) Mark Parker to “offer artists a forum in which to convey the Livestrong ideals and portray what the movement means to them and how they see it changing the world.” [Read More]

By Stephanie Murg – Unbeige

As if you needed another good reason to purchase the fine formulations of Kiehl’s Since 1851, the L’Oreal-owned apothecary brand has launched a limited-edition holiday collection of its famed Creme de Corps that features label artwork by KAWS, the artist also known as Brian Donnelly. Better still, Kiehl’s is donating 100% of its net profits from the sale of the creatively labeled lotion toRxArt, which brings contemporary art to healthcare facilities. [Read More]