November 20, 2010
ED CHRISTMAN AND GAIL MITCHELL
Posting an online stream of a new song has long been a standard way of stoking public interest in a forthcoming album. But when Sony Music Entertainment released a stream of the new Michael Jackson song, "Breaking News," the subsequent controversy (Billboard.biz, Nov. 8) over whether it really featured Jackson's vocals probably wasn't what the major had in mind.
Still, most music merchants doubt the buzz will dent sales of "Michael," which is due Dec. 14 and expected to become one of the year's top-selling albums.
"Any publicity is good publicity," says Sue Bryan, GM of music and video at J&R Music World. "I heard about the controversy, but I think it will help sales and the album will do well."
At the same time, some merchants say they were taken aback by what they believed was the lackluster quality of the song, expressing concerns that it wasn't the best choice to inspire consumers to buy the album on street date.
"Breaking News" has already drawn a mixed reaction at radio. The song debuts this week on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Bubbling Under chart, which lists the top 25 titles that have yet to reach the 100-position Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs tally. It logged 1.1 million impressions on 52 R&B/hip-hop stations after just two days of airplay, according to Nielsen BDS. Among all stations monitored by BDS, "Breaking News" registered 302 plays on 177 stations, amounting to an audience of 2.6 million since its arrival.
But 94% of the song's two-day audience among Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs' reporting stations was logged Nov. 8, according to BDS, with 50 stations playing the song Nov. 8 and only four on Nov. 9. Among monitored stations of all formats, 152 stations played the song on Nov. 8 but only 40 did so the following day, BDS said.
Reports on TMZ.com about alleged Jackson family concerns that "Breaking News" featured the vocals of an imposter spread like wildfire in the blogosphere. However, in the days since "Breaking News" began streaming on Nov. 5, Sony Music has steadfastly insisted that the recording is authentic.
But the debate will likely become a moot point by Nov. 15, when Sony releases the first official single from the album, a duet with Akon titled "Hold My Hand." Sony provided Billboard with a preview of the track, which is noticeably stronger than "Breaking News" and features clearly identifiable vocals by Jackson. The track will be available at iTunes and other digital retailers.
Merchants hope "Hold My Hand" will provide a stronger introduction to "Michael," which will carry a $10.25 wholesale cost and a $13.98 list price and have an initial U.S. shipment of 900,000 units, according to retail sources. Sony is projecting first-week CD sales of 340,000 and digital album sales of 60,000. That projection is similar to debut-week sales of Jackson's album "This Is It," which sold 373,000 units in its first week and has sold 1.6 million units since its release in October 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Sony hasn't yet released a track listing or producer credits for the album. Grammy Award-winning producer C. "Tricky" Stewart says he worked on two songs for "Michael": "Stay" and "Keep Your Head Up." Stewart describes "Stay" as a "midtempo, adult R&B, feel-good record" while "Keep" is more of a "classic Michael Jackson message song. It starts small, gets big and ends with a big choir and big drums—the Michael Jackson sound that everybody has come to know and love." ••••
Additional reporting by Gary Trust.
