Don't Throw Out The CD's Yet

Just got back from the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, and while digital is growing it is still only 5% of the overall sales. Watching the media you would think digital is all there is. The whole virtual world is such a confusing medium for everyone in entertainment. You know the future is in those boxes and wires, but in what form is it finally going to become a truly mass media?

The NARM folks have noticed large increases in Country and Urban downloads. The country surge looks like it may be mostly coming from the high tech Rascal Flatts fans. The Chicks are doing well in this area, too.

New product coming in the 4th quarter should spice up the rather ok sales seen in the first 6 months of 2006. I am enjoying a 154 minute preview of the Jerry Lee Lewis duets CD. It's a wow kind of lineup that ranges from Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton to Ringo, Merle and Toby. The full cd is out in late September.

The new DVD of Jimmy Buffett live at Wrigley Field is good too. What a bunch of crazy fans captured in this double dvd set.

At Best Buy, just saw a demo of the new DVD HD machine. It played on a 50 inch approx. Plasma ... Another wow!!!!!! It's almost too good. Saw the film King Kong and it looked 3D and you notice every little detail. I think the price was like $499.00.

No shortage of Rock music at the Summer country star shows. Songs from Zeppelin to AC/DC and beyond. It's a new world order and with that said, talked to KISS guy, Gene Simmons. He told me that he loved Nashville and hates that some press make it uncool to like Country. He said he really liked the classic guys like Charley Pride ,George Jones and knows the deep catalog of Conway Twitty. Someone needs to get Gene on a Conway salute CD. Where is that by the way???????????????????????

The whole Dixie Chick concert tour spin is interesting. They are playing where they can make money. Simple as that. How weird is it that they can't seem to get a large audiences in those 14 canceled cities. Houston? Tampa? Knoxville a college town? Things indeed have changed for those talented women.

And the Tennessean did a nice feature on comedy and Music Row. It is the red headed step child of Music Row. It's maybe just not Beverly Hills cool to do country roots comedy. Foxworthy and the Blues Collar Comedy gang are just the latest with the late Jerry Clower one of the best at selling items like 8 Tracks and cassettes. Whatever format the common man used at the time. Comedy pays a lot of bills and is cheap with a potentially huge payoff. Never have understood why the Opry never got back into comedy after the death of Minnie Pearl!

And I don't know what to think about the continued consolidation of the world ... R & R and Billboard. It seems like a bad thing but who knows anymore.