Consumers, apparently, wanted another version of "Bohemian Rhapsody," this one sung by the Broadway-ready cast of the Fox hit "Glee." Timed for release with last week's season finale, the six-track EP "Journey to the Regionals," the latest in a series of cash-in "Glee" products, debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart, which is published by industry trade Billboard Magazine.

The set also contains choir-backed renditions of "Over the Rainbow" and yet another take on Journey's jukebox anthem "Don't Stop Believin'." In its first week of release, the collection sold 152,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. There's more "Glee" in the top 10, as the cross-media hit also owns the No. 7 position on the tally with "Glee: The Music, Volume 3." That album has sold more than 280,000 copies. 

The success of the "Glee" EP will no doubt be used by the media as evidence of a sort of pop-culture changing of the guard. "Glee" keeps the latest companion to vampire soap opera "Twilight," the soundtrack to this summer's "Eclipse," outside of the No. 1 position. That set, featuring the likes of Metric and L.A.'s Beck, debuts with 144,000 copies sold.

Yet bet on "Eclipse" to be a sales force throughout the summer. In its first full week of release, the soundtrack to "New Moon" sold 153,000 copies, and it moved more than 260,000 copies in 10 days (the album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and Nielsen SoundScan tracks data through the end of business on Sunday). "New Moon" has sold more than 1.1 million copies, and the soundtrack to the first installment of the undead romance saga has sold more than 2.5 million copies. 

The multi-part vampire soap opera series "Twilight" lightly sinks its fangs into the Los Angeles music scene with its rock-focused soundtrack to "Eclipse." The sonic companion to the third edition in the series will feature a cut from one of Silver Lake's most famed residents, Beck, as well as the Los Angeles-via-Philadelphia trio Eastern Conference Champions. 

Britain's over-the-top theatrical rockers Muse will anchor the soundtrack, but the collection, like the one that accompanied "New Moon," once again takes an indie-centric focus. Low-key worldly rockers Vampire Weekend, anthemic roots rockers Band of Horses and electronic-laced Canadians Metric also appear on the Alexandra Patsavas-curated collection, due in stores June 11.

The soundtrack to "New Moon" roped in the likes of St. Vincent, Thom Yorke and L.A.'s Sea Wolf. Similarly, "Eclipse" boasts a cred-boosting lineup sure to draw some interest from those who have no stake in whether or not the girl who played Joan Jett gets cozy with a vampire or a werewolf. 

Beck, for instance, is paired with Bat for Lashes, the moniker for the mystical and adventurous English singer/songwriter Natasha Khan. It's not Beck's only soundtrack this summer, as the artist will be all over "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World."

Often hailed as one of the music industry's bright spots, the licensing of songs to film and television isn't immune to the recession or the general industry downturn, according to top music supervisors who spoke this morning at an industry conference hosted by Billboard and the Hollywood Reporter. Declining budgets for music, changing fee structures and broad single-artist deals, such as NBC's recent move to draft Bon Jovi as an "artist in residence," were cited as examples that could limit licensing opportunities in the year ahead.

As physical CD sales have tumbled, major label publishing revenues have experienced an upswing. For the nine-year period beginning in 1999, CD sales dipped 45%, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released at the conference. Meanwhile, Warner Music Group's publishing arm Warner/Chappell saw a 19% uptake in film , TV and ad licensing revenue for the three-year period beginning in 2006.

However, ad spending for the first half of 2009 dipped 15.4%, compared with the same period in 2008, according to conference figures. Music supervisor and KCRW-FM (89.9) deejay Thomas Golubic, speaking on a morning panel about the state of music supervision, noted that music is the first item that will be cut from a production budget.

Some budgets become so low, Golubic said, that "you know you are making deals that are almost unfair."

Anyone breathlessly watching the sales of the soundtrack to "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" as some sort of indication of the franchise's continued stability should now know that all is well with the teenage soap opera. In its first full week in stores, the soundtrack climbs to No. 1, selling 153,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

On last week's chart, the album came in at No. 2, trailing pop vocalist Michael Bublé, and shocking those who expected the power of "Twilight" to be untouchable. Yet a number of factors played into "New Moon's" No. 2 ranking. One, the soundtrack is out a month in advance of the film (Nov. 20.). Two, "Twilight" may be big, but Bublé has been endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, the ultimate pop-culture trump card. Third, the soundtrack to "New Moon" was released on a Friday, giving it only a three-day sales week.

Look for the album to pretty much maintain its residency near the top of the chart for the next few weeks. Soon, a "New Moon" mall tour will launch -- coming to Hollywood & Highland on Nov. 6 with performances from Death Cab for Cutie, Sea Wolf, Band of Skulls and more -- and the trek should give the Chop Shop/Atlantic album plenty of steam heading into the film's opening weekend.

Vocalist Michael Bublé maintains his grip on the top of the pop charts, withstanding a challenge from the international phenom that is teen soap opera "The Twilight Saga." Bublé's Oprah Winfrey-endorsed "Crazy Love" sold 203,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, to once again lead the pop chart. In about 10 days of release -- "Crazy Love" was released off-cycle on a Friday rather than the typical Tuesday -- the album has racked up 350,000 sales.

How impressive is that? The hype for Mariah Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" began way back in June, and the superstar release has sold 250,000 copies in three full weeks of release.

Buble also fends off the much-hyped soundtrack to "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," which lands at No. 2 on the strength of 115,000 copies sold. Yet "New Moon" is likely in it for the long haul. The soundtrack to the first film sits at No. 63, having sold just under 2.3 million copies to date.

Additionally, "New Moon" won't be released in theaters until Nov. 20, and expect the soundtrack to still be in the upper echleon of the chart when the film hits theaters. Earlier this year, the soundtrack to "Hannah Montana: The Movie" opened with 146,000 copies sold and fell short of the top spot on the pop 200.

Yet the album was released two weeks in advance of the film and eventually moved into the top spot. Heading into this week, it was the third-bestselling soundtrack of 2009, tallying 1.6 million in sales thus far. Only Michael Jackson's "Number Ones" and Taylor Swift's "Fearless" have sold more in 2009. 

The soundtrack to "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is released off-cycle today, rather than the typical music industry release day of Tuesday. It's out a month ahead of the film, which hits theaters nationwide on Nov. 20, and whether or not it will have the same retail impact as the music companion to the first film remains to be seen.

But this is much is certain: The "New Moon" soundtrack is definitely much more of a piece than the soundtrack to "Twilight." It's moody, music-to-get-sad-to, definitely, but music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas has put together a collection of songs that captures the drama of young love without drowning in it. Released once again on Patsavas' Chop Shop label, which is associated with Warner Music Group imprint Atlantic, "New Moon" is, on a whole, more inventive than the scattered radio-ready rock that permeated its predecessor.

Track-by-track reactions below.

1. "Meet Me on the Equinox," Death Cab for Cutie. There was reason for skepticism when it was announced that Death Cab would be composing the lead single for "New Moon." Patsavas was keeping things in the family, tapping an Atlantic act she'd worked with before (see "The O.C."). It all seemed a bit predictable, but "Meet Me on the Equinox" packs a few surprises. If the chorus of "everything ends" leaves little to the imagination, the rhythm skips an anxious beat, all while the harmonies and golden guitars lead a path out of the darkness.

2. "Friends," Band of Skulls. Despite the Death Cab opener, it's clear from Track No. 2 that this is not going to be a completely melancholic album. "Friends" launches with some fiery bursts of guitar fuzz, and comes loaded with start-and-stop stomping riffs. "My friends, they are so beautiful," sings Russell Marsden, but he delivers the line with such garage rock swagger that the lyrical cheesiness is completely forgotten. The song swings too, giving "New Moon" a combo rock 'n' roll anthem, make-out song. 

3. "Hearing Damage," Thom Yorke. When the Radiohead frontman unveiled a handful of new songs in Los Angeles, they came off as electro-dance rock 'n' roll for the art-house set. Yorke's "New Moon" tune is a little warmer than those glitchy, yet funky, rock 'n' roll cuts. The stereo buzz that permeates much of the song creates a rather warm sound, and Yorke's vocals threaten to disintegrate into a hum, which is exactly what they do in the final moments. "They say you're getting better, but you don't feel any better," Yorke sings, not exactly the reassuring lover, but not exactly distant, either. Love at its most tension-filled.

4. "Possibility," Lykke Li. Tension gives way to heartache here, and Sweden's Lykke Li could melt the coldest of hearts with this sparse tearjerker. A slight scratch in her vocals cuts through the song's intimately innocent feel. "Tell me when you hear my heart stop," she sings, while a backing choir inflects the sparse piano with gospel undertones -- a brief, largely a cappella prayer.

If reports out of San Diego's Comic-Con are correct, "Twilight" sequel "New Moon" will have an exponentially stronger soundtrack than the first film in the franchise. Director Chris Weitz is quoted as saying Radiohead's Thom Yorke and indie singer/songwriter Bon Iver are booked for the sequel to the vampire soap opera, both supposedly contributing new songs.

There's a certain serendipity to Paramore's opening slot on the upcoming and much-anticipated No Doubt return tour. Fans of the latter might remember the video for "Don't Speak," where No Doubt's three male members look daggers at bejeweled frontwoman Gwen Stefani as they're cropped out of a magazine shoot.

A similar thing might have happened over the last two years to Paramore. The young Tennessee pop-punk quintet vaulted into the charts on the strength of such buoyant singles as "Misery Business," the "Twilight" soundtrack cut "Decode" and their platinum-selling 2007 sophomore album "Riot!"

But Paramore's ochre-haired spitfire singer, 20-year-old Hayley Williams, inadvertently but understandably gleaned much of the spotlight during that rise. Her striking aesthetics and outspoken personality made her something of a tabloid regular, all while personal troubles brewed among her bandmates. Paramore canceled part of a European tour last year because of, as Williams said in a blog post, "internal issues that have been going on in this band for quite a while now," ones that they had to work on "at home and on our own terms."

"The room just got smaller and smaller as more people were looking on," Williams said on a couch in the home of producer Rob Cavallo, where the band is wrapping up tracking its as-yet-untitled third album. "You start to resent it, and a lot of that anger and emotion needed to come out, especially for me."

If there were doubts as to the band's future then, their forthcoming album should remedy them. The album is both about band members' grievances with one another, and a document proving they're finally past them.

The soundtrack for "Twilight," the film based on Stephenie Meyer’s vampire book series, sinks its teeth into the top of the national sales chart, debuting at No. 1 after selling 165,000 copies during its first week of release.

The album, which includes songs by Linkin Park, Perry Farrell, Paramore, Muse and other rock acts, hit retail in advance of the Nov. 21 general release date for the movie. It kept AC/DC’s “Black Ice” from logging a third consecutive week at No. 1, dropping to No. 2 with sales of 160,000 copies.

Hinder’s latest, “Take It to the Limit,” arrives at No. 4, the hard-rock group posting first-week sales of  81,000 copies. Andrea Bocelli takes the No. 8 slot with his new release, “Incanto,” which sold 62,000 copies last week.

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Brad Paisley makes the Top 10 on the overall pop album chart, debuting at No. 9 with sales of  54,000 copies of his largely instrumental album “Play.” That was enough to take the top spot on the country album chart, Paisley's fourth album to reach No. 1 on that list, according to Billboard.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Chop Shop/Atlantic

Plenty of bands and artists count the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" books among sources of inspiration, but there may be only one that can credit "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke for its very existence.

The Los Angeles-based Twilight Music Girls stress they're not so much a band as a collective of  individual singer-songwriters, but there they are, lining up gigs at the 2009 edition of Twi-Con and performing Sunday (Nov. 16) at Borders in Westwood as part of an afternoon of "Twilight" music and discussion.

Actors Michael Welch and Peter Facinelli are scheduled to be on hand, and four of the five Twilight Music Girls will perform, singing songs of love, desperation and being obsessed with a vampire. Or, as Lyndzie Taylor may sometimes introduce her "Twilight"-inspired tunes to the non-bookstore crowd, "nerdy things."

Read more Ready for Twi-rock? on the Los Angeles Times' Entertainment News and Buzz blog, which is maintaining a daily 'Twilight' countdown.

While our cubicle pals have been counting down the days until the release of "Twilight," Pop & Hiss has been largely immune to the hype surrounding the teen vampire romance flick (largely -- "Twilight" has managed to bleed over a bit).

But perhaps the release of the soundtrack would change our tune?

Naw, not if judging by the video from the flick from FOFOB (friend of Fall Out Boy) Paramore. In the clip, singer Haley Williams and Co. are ready for a role in a daytime soap, looking oh-so-sad-and-confused in a forest.

One of the more tuneless bands in the FOFOB camp (try, instead, the playful vamp of the Hush Sound), Paramore's "Decode" song clunks along as it flirts with power-ballad territory, trying to draw-out the melodrama by scribbling  lighter guitar notes arounds its assembly-line riffs. Entertainment Weekly calls Paramore's "Decode" a song with "Evanescence-like romanticism," and seems to mean that as a compliment, but it also underscores the act's modern rock anonymity.

Our friends at The Playlist put together a fine post, running down alternate songs for the "Twilght" soundtrack, which also features Linkin Park, Muse and Iron & Wine. The Playlist gets at the biggest problem with Paramore's "Decode," and seemingly, the rest of the Alexandra Patsavas-supervised soundtrack: that it lacks any sense of fun -- any self-awareness that the end-of-the-world, blood-and-death metaphors for teen romance aren't really the end of the world.