Continuing their efforts to reward music fans who still patronize independent record stores, a coalition of small retailers will be offering exclusive releases on Nov. 26 from rock, pop, R&B and country artists including U2, Metallica, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix and many others.

The special releases are part of indie retailers' "Back to Black Friday" promotion for the day after Thanksgiving, typically the heaviest shopping day of the year.

Many are being released on vinyl, which gives rise to the "back to black" theme. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Cee-Lo, Iron & Wine and Drive-By Truckers are among the other acts participating.

"These exclusive pieces not only create nice sales, but a lasting memory and connection between the customer, the store, the employee and the artist, whose importance can't be overstated," Mike Batt, who owns Silver Platters, a Seattle indie music store, said in a statement Thursday.

The store owners also seek to increase awareness of existing retailers each spring with National Record Store Day, which also has become something of a cause celebre among pop and rock stars.

"Many of the great indies have disappeared in recent years, but Record Store Day is giving us yet another chance to show appreciation to this wonderful endangered slice of Americana," Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers said in the same statement.

Among exclusive high-profile reissues coming to the indie stores for the holiday season are a special edition of Harrison's 1970 solo triple-album "All Things Must Pass" and a Hendrix holiday EP, "Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year."

-- Randy Lewis

 
Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now” album, which was released Monday, is shaping up to have possibly the biggest first-week sales of any album this year, according to Billboard. The 20-year-old singer-songwriter’s third album is expected to log sales of at least 800,000 to 900,000 copies by Sunday, Billboard reports.  That would put it ahead of the year’s current first-week sales champ, Eminem’s “Recovery,” which posted initial sales of 741,000 in June.

The trade publication gives it a shot at topping 1 million copies in its first week, which would make it the first album to hit that mark since Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” sold 1,006,000 copies in 2008 during its first week.

Swift’s collection appears to be doing better than retailers expected. A month ago, Billboard cited industry projections of 750,000 copies for "Speak Now" in the first week. It also is generating largely favorable reviews, scoring an 81, out of a possible 100, at the Metacritic aggregrate review site.

The enthusiastic response to the album runs counter to the downward trend of overall record sales, which in the latest reporting period were 14% lower than in the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Just two weeks ago, Toby Keith’s “Bullets in the Gun” set a new record for the lowest sales figure for a No. 1 album debut –- 71,000 copies -- since SoundScan began monitoring retail sales in 1991.

Swift also would counter the trend of artists who have been unable to match or top their previous sales figures. Her 2008 sophomore album, “Fearless,” debuted at No. 1 after selling 592,000 copies in its first week of release.

Swift is in the midst of a blitz of media appearances this week in conjunction with the release of “Speak Now”; next year, she plans to embark on an international tour.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of Taylor Swift performing at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Country good ol' boys Zac Brown Band and slick pop band Maroon 5 battled for the top spot on this week's pop chart, a bout between two former best new artist Grammy winners. The trophy, in this case, signifies each act's crossover appeal. The Zac Brown Band makes a backwoods country sound safe for pregame tailgates, and Maroon 5 dabbles in funk and soul, but never enough to dirty their designer look.

With "You Get What You Give," the Zac Brown Band follows its major label breakthrough, 2008's "The Foundation," with a No. 1 album. The Atlantic Records album sold 153,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the fast-rising country stars their first ever chart-topper on the pop tally. The first-week sales are just a small dent in the total sales notched thus far by "The Foundation," an album that this week sits at No. 22 and to date has sold just under 2.3 million copies. 

While Maroon 5 still scored a top 5 album, the news isn't quite as good for the Adam Levine-led slicksters. The act's "Hands All Over" lands with significantly less pop than its 2007 effort "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," the latter of which bowed with 429,000 copies sold, according to the Billboard archives. By comparison, "Hands All Over," despite its provocative cover, muscles 142,000 copies sold.

Last week's No. 1, Linkin Park's "Thousand Suns," dips more than 70%, selling a little less than 70,000 in its second week. That gives the Agoura Hills rockers a two-week total of 311,000 copies sold. Its last, 2007's "Minutes to Midnight," sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week.

Other notes from this week's pop chart:

For hip-hop heads of legal drinking age, the name Fat Beats inevitably conjures memories of teenage years spent trawling through racks of vinyl, in-store appearances with the latest underground stars (during a period when "underground" didn't require scare quotes) and encyclopedic employees often pulled from the top ranks of the Los Angeles DJ scene.

And now, the iconic hip-hop retailer will close its last two remaining brick-and-mortar locations in New York and Los Angeles -- another apparent casualty to ever-dwindling record sales and interest in vinyl among hip-hop consumers. The closures reflect the final act of contraction for a chain that had previous shuttered its locations in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Tokyo.

“The closing of Fat Beats is just like one of my friends passing away,” DJ Premier said in a prepared statement. “They promoted vinyl at its highest degree for the culture of good music, and that makes it more difficult to say goodbye.”

Underpinning the statement is the reality that while vinyl has seen an upsurge of interest among indie rock fans, hip-hop fans have moved away from the format in recent years. This reality has been compounded by the rise of illegal downloading, free mix tapes and the general difficulty of finding popular rap records on vinyl.

The New York location will close its doors on Sept. 4, with L.A.'s Melrose Boulevard outpost shutting down on Sept. 18. A spate of goodbye celebrations and sales are planned in the interim. Fat Beats' online store, distribution business and Brooklyn-based record label will remain extant.

“This is the start of a new era in Fat Beats,” Fat Beats owner and president Joe Abajian said in a prepared statement. “We’re adapting to meet the needs of our demographic by revamping and improving our existing systems. While our website, which stocks everything available in our retail stores, continues to do very well, we’re still exploring our options for alternate retail locations in the future. We’re proud of our legacy and will continue to reinvent ourselves."

With the closure of one of Los Angeles' last remaining hubs of independent hip-hop, expect a flurry of tributes to pour in over the next 30 days. In the meantime, this reminiscence from local rapper TiRon nicely captures the store' s place in LA hip-hop culture and illustrates why it will be sorely missed.

-- Jeff Weiss

Rhino Records founder Richard Foos will briefly resurrect the now-defunct Rhino store in Westwood to liquidate a major chunk of his private music collection for charity.

After four decades in Southern California, Foos is moving with his family to New York, and rather than transport thousands of LPs, 45s, CDs, videos and assorted music paraphernalia, Foos decided to open a Rhino pop-up store for two weeks from May 17-31. Proceeds from the sale will go to Chrysalis Enterprises, an L.A. organization that helps jobless and homeless people find employment.

Foos, who started the similarly minded Shout! Factory reissue label after selling Rhino Records to the Warner Music Group more than a decade ago, anticipates selling 100,000 items with a goal of raising $100,000. In addition to culling from his own collection, Foos is getting donated merchandise from friends and associates to include in the sale.

 
Last week, country trio Lady Antebellum became the first artist of 2010 to cross the million-sold threshold. Smooth R&B masters Sade should hit that mark by the end of the month, as Epic effort "Soldier of Love" continues to top the U.S. pop chart, selling an additional 126,000 copies in the U.S. this week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. 

To date, "Soldier of Love" has sold 820,000 copies, a total it has reached in just three weeks. Sade's 1994 "Best Of" set is also getting a boost, having returned to the charts and resting at No. 114 this week. The hits collection has sold more than 1.6 million copes.

Meanwhile, Lady Antebellum continues to hold at No. 2, and the Capitol Nashville album rings up an additional 114,000 copies sold, increasing its five-week tally to more than 1.1 million. Johnny Cash's posthumous "American VI: Ain't No Grave" (American Recordings) is the week's top debut, and enters the chart at No. 3 with 54,000 copies sold. 

The prior volume in the series with producer Rick Rubin, "American V: A Hundred Highways," landed at No. 1 when it was released in the summer of 2006. First week sales of the latter topped 88,000 copies, and gave Cash his second No. 1 album on the overall pop chart (the artist has had far more toppers, of course, over on the country chart). 

Here's one product you didn't see during the Super Bowl. Roy Orbison's signature song "Pretty Woman" now shares the name with a perfume. Julie Neigher over on sister blog All the Rage has the details, and sampled a scent of "Pretty Woman" last week at Apothia Fred Segal. Amber, bergamot and cedar were the aromas she signaled out. She writes:

Barbara Orbison (Roy’s widow) has created a fragrance aptly named “Pretty Woman.” Of course, one thinks immediately of the iconic song and film. Not a bad thing, considering both were hits (and you know what they say -- three’s a charm). However, Barbara claims that she had this fragrance fantasy long before knowing Roy. “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to create a perfume that speaks to women everywhere. I believe that within every woman there’s a pretty woman, and my signature fragrance helps bring out that inner confidence and spirit.” 

When I chatted with Barbara (who has the most extraordinary green eyes), she captivated me with her intelligence, business savvy and effusion about her work. She plans to extend the line to face creams and candles. (She already sells a pure perfume oil in the form of a roller ball -- great for women on the go.)

Besides creating “Pretty Woman,” Barbara is an entrepreneur and also manages Roy’s legacy. She executive-produced a limited-edition box set of the definitive Roy Orbison collection (including 107 songs, a 96-page book on his life, and tracks never heard before). Packaged in linen in a chic monochrome black and white, the collectible is available for purchase at Apothia. You can indulge yourself by buying some tunes as well as Barbara’s fragrant opus, making it the perfect one-stop-shop for Valentine’s Day.  

--Julie Neigher, All the Rage

Read: 'Pretty Woman' may score a hat trick with new fragrance

Photo: Roy and Barbara Orbison. Credit: Barbara Orbison

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas acts as a sort of barometer of what's to come in gadgets and technology. This year, exhibitors were obsessed with 3-D television and open software platforms. But in some areas of the Las Vegas Convention Center last week, vinyl records, a century-old technology, were a hip centerpiece. The vinyl resurgence has been written about before, but it was largely exclusive to hipsters and fogies, not tech geeks or clarity-focused audiophiles.

Yet, after being supplanted by three formats, vinyl lingers.

Crosley, which licenses the name from the legacy manufacturer, drew crowds as onlookers continually recited lines about vinyl being cool again and the peculiarity of Best Buy carrying records. About half of Crosley's sizable booth was devoted to record players of varying types. Some are delightfully retro, with a brown, wooden finish, while others are cutting-edge (as progressive as you can be while still housing those giant Frisbees).

"This is our business," said Crosley spokeswoman Meagan Hardin. "Every singer that releases a CD also has it on vinyl. Stores might not sell it, but you can find it."

Retro lovers and devout music listeners will seek out their favorite bands' records at thrift shops and in the darkest corners of eBay.

ION, which also had a booth at the CES, has built a business on the vinyl revival. It recently introduced a number of turntables, some stand-alone. ION's flagship product converts records into digital audio files.

ION spokesman Winston Eade said astute listeners appreciate having the vinyl versions of their albums. It produces that signature "warmer" sound versus the colder audio of its digital counterpart. And that warmth even comes across in digital conversions.

The ION Profile turntable contains an iPod dock that lets you transfer tracks from the record directly to a portable music player. The ION Profile Flash is the high-end device, containing an SD card slot. It instantly cuts tracks into separate files, so that while the transcoding process is happening, you can "get yourself a cup of tea," Eade said.

The newest product is the ION Profile Play LP, a consumer-entry model that is powered by a computer's USB connection. ION is hoping a cheap turntable will encourage an entirely new generation to jump onto the vinyl fad that's proving to be anything but.

-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian

Photo: Crosley's booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times

Dance artist Ke$ha benefited from post-holiday online shoppers, setting a new record on the Billboard charts for the most ever digital single sales for a female artist. Her "TiK ToK" sold 610,000 digital tracks, according to Nielsen SoundScan data released by Billboard, besting Lady Gaga's "Just Dance," a cut that set the record exactly one year ago when it sold 419,000 copies, reports Billboard. 

Ke$ha, one of The Times' 2010 "faces to watch," will release her RCA debut, "Animal," on Jan. 5. The 610,000 copies sold of "TiK ToK" fall shy of setting a new overall record for single-week download sales, but Ke$ha had a hand in the title holder as well.

Rapper Flo Rida sold 636,000 copies of his "Right Round" last February, Billboard reminds us, a song that feature's Ke$ha's non-credited vocals. Ke$ha spoke to the New York Times about declining to appear in the Flo Rida video for "Right Round," and Jon Caramanica's story notes that Ke$ha received "no payment for her work" on the track.

“You have to be patient, you have to do things right,” Ke$ha explained to the New York Times. “If you want to be a legitimate artist, it’s more important what you say no to. I knew he would want me to be some sexpot, shake my booty and whatever.”

 
British singing sensation Susan Boyle continues her dominance of the U.S. pop charts, with her orchestral-lite takes on boomer standards hitting a sweet spot with music buyers. In three weeks, her "I Dreamed a Dream" has sold a stunning 1.8 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, surpassing 2009 releases from such mega-stars as Eminem and Green Day, and even overtaking another TV-made phenomena --  the soundtrack to "Hannah Montana: The Movie," which has sold 1.7 million copies since its release in the spring. 

How far can Boyle go? Expect her sales to coast through the holidays. It will be worth watching to see what happens in January, when music sales typically plummet. With comfy-soft renditions of "Daydream Believer," "Amazing Grace" and more, Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" is clearly built for holiday-timed sales, and it's taking full advantage.

Her album hit another milestone this week too, racking up an additional 582,000 copies sold. Billboard reports that "I Dreamed a Dream" is the first album by a woman to sell 500,000 copies in each of its first three weeks since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. If Boyle's pace stays relatively steady, and with three sales weeks left in 2009, including the two biggest of the year, her album could top 3 million copies sold and quite possibly become the year's top seller. But one week at a time.  

As evidenced by Miley Cyrus just a few months ago, a little controversy rarely hurts in the sales department. Adam Lambert is on track to beat retail expectations for his RCA release, "For Your Entertainment," according to early returns compiled by keeper-of-the-charts Billboard Magazine.

The artist appeared on the "The Early Show" this morning on CBS, noting that some of his more aggressive moves on his American Music Awards appearance weren't all rehearsed. "The song lyrically is sexual, and I was just performing the lyrics of my song," Lambert said. "I think in the future I will probably make a little bit more of an effort to stay consistent with what I do during rehearsal to what I do during the show. That's something I'm learning now, and that way if anyone has a problem with what I'm doing, it can be explored during rehearsal."

But all the chatter and debate isn't stopping people from picking up his first post-"American Idol" release. Billboard writes that "For Your Entertainment" should sell at least 225,000 copies when it debuts on next week's chart, and could possibly move more with post-Thanksgiving shoppers invading retailers. Lambert's promo tour continues tonight with an appearance on the "Late Show With David Letterman."

 
Director Davis Guggenheim tracked three generations of guitar virtuosos in his "It Might Get Loud," focusing on the philosophies behind the sounds of Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White. Sound in the film is paramount.

Yet when "It Might Get Loud" is released on home video, it won't be with a giant Blu-ray or HD push that advertises the latest in high fidelity. Instead, the film will be distributed digitally by Apple's iTunes store, which will sell "It Might Get Loud" exclusively from Dec. 8 through Dec. 22.

"I used to think that the quality of downloading music on iTunes was a barrier for me," Guggenheim said. "I just didn’t think it would be good enough. But in the last year, I’ve put 75 movies on my laptop … There are some movies you need to see in a theater or see on Blu-ray. I think for some fans that’s important. I think some people will need to see this on Blu-ray, but some will need to see it on a Tuesday night at 11 p.m. on iTunes. I don’t think it’s an either/or thing."