A story in today's Telegraph (via the Daily Swarm) notes that "half the tracks" on Madonna's upcoming "Hard Candy" have already been licensed for use in various commercials around the globe.
Madonna's single "4 Minutes" featuring Justin Timberlake just recently entered Billboard's Hot 100 at No. 68, which the magazine reports is the 53rd time in her career she's appeared on that particular tally. Yet how well the single -- or album -- performs on the charts may be completely irrelevant, if the Telegraph's story is accurate. The U.K. publication notes that Madonna has already "earned millions" from "Hard Candy," which won't be in stores until April 28.
In addition to the Sunsilk commercial already running, Madonna's music will be used to sell products from Vodafone, Unilever and Fuji, according to the Telegraph. Of course, licensing music to commercials is nothing new, and credit Madonna with finding ways to get her music heard at a time when radio's influence is being increasingly called into question.
But with so much of Madonna's music being licensed and made available to corporate entities weeks before the release of an album, the actual CD release is starting to feel a bit more like a perfunctory exercise rather than anything to get excited about. In Madonna's case, the "Hard Candy" CD is being used as a pop music portfolio to present to potential business partners.
Unlike, say, Gnarls Barkley and the Raconteurs, who designed marketing campaigns that at least attempted to allow fans to live and own the music first, campaigns like the one surrounding "Hard Candy" approach the fan with subtlety of a car salesman.
The Telegraph quotes John Reid, the president of Warner Music Europe and vice-chairman of Warner Music International, who said, "It's not about upfront payments, it's about selling the product. She is a very smart businesswoman who wants to sell a lot of albums."
No doubt, but the plan seems designed to sell a whole lot of singles rather than albums. Indeed, with with half an album already licensed before its release, one wonders why Madonna is releasing "Hard Candy" at all. (For Grammy eligibility?) An artist could record a collection of songs, license them off and then let the agencies on Madison Avenue work their magic. Various album-like packages of singles could then be sold after the fact, based on what songs worked with audiences.
It may not be an attractive reality for a fan of the album, but take heart, it's really only an approach that could be successfully used by pop-and-single-oriented artists. In fact, some singles-minded artists may find that releasing an actual album could be detrimental to his or her career.
Take the case of Flo Rida. The rapper has already sold close to 4 million digital downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and who knows how many ringtones and other digital tchotckes have been moved in the name of Flo Rida's hot single "Low." Nevertheless, the excitement surrounding his singles resulted in a collective shrug for the release of an album, as his momentum-killing debut, "Mail on Sunday," sold 86,000 copies in its first week.
Reality show-bred girl groupDanity Kane lands atop this week's U.S.
pop chart, and gives the graduates of MTV's "Making the Band" its
second No. 1 album. Meanwhile, rap newcomer Flo Rida finds that even a
pair of hot-selling singles doesn't guarantee a six-figure entry.
Danity Kane's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" bows atop the chart, selling
236,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's on par with the
234,000 first-week figure for the act's 2006 debut, which went on to
sell about 922,000 copies.
Entering at a distant No. 4 is Flo Rida, whose "Mail on Sunday" follows
his Top-30 singles "Low," featuring T-Pain, and "Elevator," featuring
Timbaland. "Mail on Sunday" sold 86,000 copies, but the release feels a
bit anti-climactic after the digital sales posted by his singles.
"Low," for instance, has sold 3.4 million digital downloads to date,
which, according to Billboard, makes it the top-selling digital track
of all time. "Elevator" is no slouch, either, having sold 373,000
digital downloads.
Gnarls Barkley's rush-released "The Odd Couple" arrives at No. 18. It
sold 31,000 copies after being released to digital retailers on March
18. The CD had originally been pegged for an April 8 release, but was
bumped up after leaking online.
Of the 31,000 copies sold, 26,000 were
from digital retailers. No surprise, as physical retailers began
selling the album as it arrived throughout the week.
Grammy watch: Gnarls Barkley's debut, "St. Elsewhere," scored an album of the year nod, but its success was driven largely by the runaway hit "Crazy." Thus far, "Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)," the first single off of "The Odd Couple," hasn't taken hold, despite "The Odd Couple" being a fascinatingly weird listen. Reviews on "The Odd Couple" have been positive, but if the album doesn't spawn a breakaway single, it'll be curious if Recording Academy voters are just as kind to the electro-soul duo a second time around. For what it's worth, they should be, as it's an album worthy of being added to the below list.
2009 Grammy album of the year contenders:
Gnarls Barkley, "The Odd Couple" Radiohead, "In Rainbows" Lupe Fiasco,"The Cool" Sheryl Crow,"Detours" Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, "Raising Sand" Mary J. Blige, "Growing Pains"
Picture: Danity Kane, by Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times
The Grammy brand extends into the world of touring next week, with an April 3 date in Chicago. It's the first of five Grammy-sponsored shows (a cell phone provider is also involved, and getting into the gigs requires one to navigate around the company's Web site).
The Chicago show features singer/songwriter Cat Power and R&B singer John Legend. Legend's nice, but expected, as he may as well be a Grammy spokesman these days, but Cat Power? Maybe someone in Grammy Land confused her with Grammy singer/songwriter of the moment Feist, but Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) is a far more inspired choice. She'll be performing to support her recently released "Jukebox," its nicotine-scarred soul worthy of some Grammy recognition in 2009.
But what's even more curious about the lining about of Cat Power is the fact that she's never actually won a Grammy. No matter, Grammy could do wonders for its brand if it stopped paying attention to the artists who won the things. Yet even more perplexing is the fact that Cat Power records for an independent label, and independent labels accounted for a grand total of zero nominations in this year's pop field.
The Grammy shows will hit New York, Miami, Dallas and Los Angeles throughout April, but thus far artists have only been announced for the Chicago date.
When “21” opens on Friday, it will come complete with scenes that feature ubiquitous singles such as Rihanna’s “Shut Up and Drive” andPeter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks.” Securing the mega-hits was the easy part, as composer-producer David Sardy eventually found out. But if one wants to remix the Rolling Stones, one better be able to work in handcuffs.
The pop-and-dance-focused compositions that dot “21” accompany a glossed-up tale of a rogue group of card-counting students who take Las Vegas casinos for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Inspired by the Ben Mezrich nonfiction book “Bringing Down the House,” the film turns the high-stakes risk of card counting into a teenage romp.
And the man who placed such mainstream hits in the college-kids-gone-gambling film is former noise rocker-turned-producer Sardy. Having gotten his start in late-'80s hardcore band Barkmarket, Sardy went on to produce or mix music for the likes of British rockers Oasis, metal faves Slayer and alt-rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among many others.
Tapped for “21” to produce the soundtrack and recruit artists for the film, Sardy ended up composing a host of original compositions, including a cut with Duke Spiritvocalist Liela Moss, who takes a break from her rock band to lay some acerbic vocals over a beat-heavy cut. A soundtrack was released last Tuesday, and Sardy says his score will be officially issued this spring. Despite the pop-heavy feel of “21,” Sardy’s music accounts for what he estimates as 60% to 70% of the music on screen.
He’s also the one responsible for bringing in Belgium electro-rockers Soulwax to remix the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and for nabbing James Murphy, the man behind disco-punksLCD Soundsystem, to compose an original song for the film (Sardy had done some mixing work on LCD Soundsystem’s 2007 album “Sound of Silver”).
Sardy will soon be working on the Paul Rudd film "I Love You, Man," and talks here about his first major film project and the decision to remix the Rolling Stones.
The LCD Soundsystem song has gotten a fair amount of press, but when watching the movie, it’s so heavily slanted toward popular music that it’s not obvious to catch a lot of the original compositions.
Yeah, I wrote a ton of music for the movie, and it’s all meant to have the feel of an awesome record collection, as opposed to a classical score. So I was kind of writing a traditional score, but with nontraditional score instruments. Where there would be cellos, we were using a synthesizer and a distorted bass guitar. Where there was high frequency, there would be crushed and distorted and stretched cymbals, as opposed to symphony drums.... But I’m glad it had that affect when you were watching it. That’s the idea. It hopefully makes watching the film feel current or exciting.
On the subject of current, you’re dealing with some pretty well-known pop songs. Isn’t that approach going to make the film feel dated?
Well, you’re hoping that when you’re picking those songs, you’re getting a song that works for the scene and that everyone digs, and the hope is that it will also be timed nicely. Your goal is to make the movie work, and everything else falls after that. If we get it right here and there, hopefully you’re picking a song that has a classic resident-of-the-moment kind of feel.
What was your directive when you were brought in?
They kind of left it up to me. They said, "These are the characters, and they’re in college." That was the directive. What’s going on right now, and what are people listening to? If you’re making a movie, or making a record, you have to hope that you’re making something that’s classic enough that by the time it comes out, it’s still going to feel timeless and fresh.
What was your role in co-producing LCD Soundsystem’s “Big Mistake”?
James and I had been talking about working on stuff for ages. We had been talking about me producing some stuff for his label, so it was more a question of what would work with our timing. It just worked out great that we could come up with a song for this movie.... LCD is probably the coolest band out there. His lyrical and production work is so spot-on that I just kind of went, "Yes, sir."
Was it your call to remix the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”?
That was a song that was there from the very first cut of the movie. So the debate was: Do we leave it as is, or do something with it to make it feel like the rest of the movie? ... We were talking about doing a remix for the Stones, and the question was, "Who is going to completely destroy this?" On some level, if you’re going to mess with the Stones, you’re going to have to go pretty far to make it exciting, I think.
There’s probably an age-dividing line on [the remix]. If you’re over a certain age, you’re just completely and utterly offended by it, and if you’re under a certain age, you don’t care. You dig it or you don’t.
So you went to Soulwax with an assignment?
Yes, the idea was try it and see if it worked. It was a conundrum, since the original is in the movie, and as the credits roll, it switches to the remix. That just kind of upped the ante of the party feel of the end of the movie. It’s a triumphant ending. The remix has become kind of controversial in certain circles. People either think it’s the most heinous thing they’ve ever heard, or the coolest thing. If you’re getting that kind of reaction, that’s something.
Going after a Stones piece, that’s a pricey little endeavor.
And to shred it from the original masters. They sent over an engineer with a briefcase with a handcuff on it. I am not exaggerating. He sat with the Soulwax guys and watched their every move. I’m 100% serious. It was something out of a James Bond film.
So you have to be cuffed to mix the Stones? Is that conducive to the creative process?
Well, I think the Soulwax guys are so on it. I think they were into the ludicrousness of it all. So was I. When I was told about it, I just started laughing. It was so straight-up crazy that you had to dig it.
Photo: From left, Sam Golzari, Kate Bosworth, Jim Sturgess, Aaron Yoo and Josh Gad in "21"; credit: Columbia Pictures
In a week when two major pop acts are challenging the relevancy of first-week sales numbers, rapper Rick Ross topped the U.S. album chart with his latest, "Trilla." The album enters at No. 1 after selling 198,000 copies.
Yet changes are ahead for the weekly sales tally.
On Monday,the Raconteurs, which features the White Stripes' Jack White, announced that its latest, "Consolers of the Lonely," will be released March 25, writing in a statement that the group does not want the album "defined by its first week's sales." "Consolers of the Lonely" had been pegged for late April release.
Then genre-hopping pop act Gnarls Barkley rushed its latest, "The Odd Couple," to digital retailers on Tuesday, two weeks early, and has been shipping the album to physical stores throughout the week. Manager Jeff Antebi of Waxploitation said the concept of promoting an album for a big first-week sales number was no longer relevant.
"It's a big deal in the context of the old guard -- where you land on the Billboard Top 200," Antebi said. "To a lot of people, that's the goal. . . . I think it's an outdated, completely impractical, strategic mind-set. It is just as outdated as releasing a single three months early."
After the industry has seen straight-to-Web releases from Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead, Antebi said record companies will soon be releasing albums, then promoting them after the fact, adjusting the marketing plan based on what is or isn't working. As an example, Antebi said the top-downloaded Gnarls Barkley song on iTunes was "Going On," and not the singles "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)" or "Who's Gonna Save My Soul."
"You should service press and service radio after you have serviced retail," Antebi said.
"Odd Couple" will show up on next week's chart, and Antebi said the success of the album would be better evaluated in a year, not a week.
As for the rest of this week's tally, the 27th volume of the "Now! That's What I Call Music" compilation series enters at No. 2 with 169,000 copies, and Snoop Dogg's "Ego Trippin' " lands at No. 3 with 137,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Rapper Fat Joe debuts at No. 6 with "Elephant in the Room" (46,000 copies), and Miley Cyrus is back in the Top 10, at No. 10, with her live album, "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best Of Both Worlds Concert" (34,000 copies).
Photo: Gharls Barkley in Los Angeles, 2006. Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times
If the Grammys attempt to honor the past year in music, the annual South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, hopes to foretell its future. So why wait for Recording Academy voters to (maybe) come around?
That's not to say there hasn't been overlap. Amy Winehouse was a SXSW buzz act last year, playing (and cancelling) a handful of shows throughout the event. And Grammy-nominated acts such as the Arctic Monkeys, the White Stripes, LCD Soundsystem and Lily Allen, among others, have all played SXSW. Here’s some of the best of SXSW, and, in a just world, what Grammy each artist would win. Photo: Autumn De Wilde
Grammy-nominated act the Raconteurs are forgoing the traditional four-month lead time for a new album and will release its sophomore set, "Consolers Of The Lonely," in one week. The album will be available in a variety of formats and at a number retailers, including digital outlets, mom-and-pop shops and "corporate superstores," according to a statement from the act's publicity firm, Presshere.
Additionally, the Raconteurs, featuring Jack White of the White Stripes, singer/songwriter Brendan Benson and members of the Greenhornes, will not include any bonus tracks tied to a specific format or retailer. The latter has been an unfortunate trend in the music biz of late, sending fans on a virtual scavenger hunt to track down all the random tracks assigned to various retailers.
The move follows such straight-to-the-Web releases by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, but neither offered as quick of a turnaround to traditional retailers as the Raconteurs are promising. Record labels have traditionally asked for three or four month lead time to get in album into stores, plotting radio singles, interviews and retail campaigns. The band's statement notes that "some places couldn’t move this fast," and will not have the album available on March 25, although such stores are not singled out.
Wrote the band in a statement, "The Raconteurs are forgoing the usual months of lead time for press and
radio set up, as well as forgoing the all important 'first week
sales.' We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere
at once and then marketing and promoting it thereafter. The Raconteurs
would rather this release not be defined by it’s first weeks sales,
pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it for you before you get
to hear it."
Insta-reaction: It's about time that a major record label, in this case Warner Bros., and a successful act not only did away with old industry standards, but roped in traditional outlets (record stores) as well. With music inevitable leaking to the Internet, the concept of a multi-month set-up for a new album is quickly becoming irrelevant, if it isn't already. While the Raconteurs are doing away with the concept of releasing an advance single designed to build hype, such a move meant more when radio was king, and it isn't anymore. Like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, the Raconteurs are turning their album release into a news story, and creating excitement about an album, rather than having each single dissected as it makes its way online.
Once 10 p.m. rolled around in Austin, Texas, I started to feel like I was back in Los Angeles. The fourth and final night of the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, ended with an in-demand party thrown by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.
Perez brought a bit of Los Angeles down to Austin, with fruity drinks, mini-cupcakes, gift bags (I didn't take one) and hairstylists offering free makeovers. If the music biz is hurting, the Perez biz is apparently doing just fine, and he kicked his self-proclaimed "one night in Austin" with the dance-pop of Robyn, a singer Perez called the most exciting artist in pop music.
Perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but it's hard to fault Perez's taste in pop stars. She took the stage in a flowing black outfit, which the Swedish singer used to strike a vampire pose. There was a charming simplicity to Robyn's synth pop. Dual drummers laid down easy-to-groove-to beats, and Robyn stood close to the mike, keeping the emphasis on her spunky vocals. A delicate guitar touch mixed with brimming new wave on "Be Mine," and she turned '90s hit "Show Me Love" into a sparse number carried only by her vocals and a light, spacious beat.
I stopped back by the party close to 2 a.m. Outside of Robyn, and a supposed surprise guest appearance from N.E.R.D., I confess to being unfamiliar with the acts Perez booked (Shwayze, Dragonette, UltravioletSound, among others), but the few minutes of the band I caught in the early morning was an upbeat, snythy new-wave act. When a stranger walked by and said I looked jaded, I decided to call it a night.
Some other noteworthy moments from Saturday night:
Kid Sister: The Chicago rapper, performing with her brother Josh "J2K" Young, will be heard from quite a bit in 2008, having her debut album due out on Warner-affiliated Downtown Records this summer. She took the stage 20 minutes late and copped to being drunk, but it certainly didn't affect her performance or hurt her smooth flow. The siblings ("We're a family band," Kid Sister said) raced around each other on "Beeper," with Kid Sister bringing a higher-octane contrast to her brother's more measured approach. All the while, producer A-Trak (Kanye West) gave her room to play with and kept the crowd dancing.
Los Campesinos! One of my favorite performances of the week was the second-to-last show I saw. The seven-piece from Wales was an absolute trip. With song titles like "This Is How You Spell, "Hahaha, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics," there's reason to be skeptical. But the band's pure zest and desire to fill every crevice of an arrangement with a hand clap or a smattering on the xylophone or a fragment of a guitar solo resulted in a pogo-worthy good time. Lyrics are loaded with pop-culture references but mostly just about breaking up, and guitar riffs cut out to let the violinist shred, recalling, at times, a more spastic and upbeat version of the adventurous, genre-hopping Mekons. All in all, it's like watching an entire band suddenly stricken with ADD, and the Los Campesinos are perfectly orchestrated chaos that ends up being irresistibly catchy.
The Virgins: Having liked the sleazy, dancey songs available for sampling on the act's MySpace page, I had been curious to check out the buzzed-about New Yorkers. I finally caught up with them at a 1 a.m. showcase and was surprised by how much more polished the band's sound came off in person. It was a bit disappointing. Although the Virgins strove for a Rolling Stones swagger, the band's bass-driven melodies and lower-register guitar notes at times recalled the Strokes but without the their knack for a hook.
As recently as four years ago, all the talk about a failing major label model didn't seem to stop the annual South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, from sending hordes of A&R reps and journalists on the prowl for the next big thing. Yet this year, the event has felt more and more like a traditional festival, one where the music -- and not the deal -- takes center stage.
Perhaps there's a relatively simple explanation for this. At a Saturday afternoon panel about the state of A&R, this dizzying statistic was thrown out: In 2000, the major labels employed more than 400 A&R executives. As of the start of SXSW in 2008 that number has dwindled to below 70, according to panel moderator Rodel Delfin, an editor with trade publication Hits Magazine.
And the ones who survived, said David Ayers, an executive with the Chrysalis Music Group, are "70 guys out there who are terrified. " Added A&R veteran Berko Pearce, "It doesn't matter if he's making $800,000 or $50,000, any A&R executive is expendable at the moment."
In a climate where job security has become the primary concern, talk around the Austin Convention Center on Saturday focused heavily on new business models, be it the much ballyhooed "360 deal," in which a label sees a cut of touring, merch and licensing revenue, among other facets of a band's career, or increased Madison Avenue-style branding techniques.
Across the hall at a panel on the pros and cons of 360 deals, Frank Gironda, a VP with Nettwerk Management, shot down the idea of such an arrangement, arguing that they make little sense at a time when major labels are trimming staff.
"You may as well do a deal with UBS or Paine-Webber," he said. "They want a piece of your revenue streams, but are not doing anything to actually develop them ... Why should we try to bail [the labels] out when they're struggling in their business?"
Gironda used the example of Nettwerk-managed gypsy punk act Gogol Bordello, a group he said is currently without a record deal. He noted the Gogol Bordello makes the majority of its money on touring, followed by merchandise and licensing. "Record sales," Gironda said, "are not insignificant, but they're not driving the business ... It might make less sense to do a 360 deal as all our other revenue streams are very profitable."
Jeff Krasno, president of Velour Music Group (Kaki King, Jesse Harris), countered that a label is investing in much of what makes a band's career, including publicists, who could cost as much as $4,000 per month. Yet he seemed to hint that 360 deals may not be a model that will work for all parties.
"It's not an illegitimate argument," Krasno said. "I think it's a legitimate argument, but that's where this whole system may break down. We need a new model."
Earlier in the afternoon at a branding panel, licensing songs to commercials or corporate outlets was pitched as the new model. "A CD today is nothing more than a transferring device," said Jeremy Wineberg, an A&R executive with Invisible DJ Records, which began by placing hip artists in high-end clothing outlets like Ron Herman and Fred Segal, and is now directly signing artists.
While the panelists pointed out that adventurous rock act Wilco recently "got blasted" for linking with Volkswagen, Wineberg argued that the question of an artist losing credibility by partnering with a corporate entity is irrelevant.
"As major labels are wanting to partake in touring [revenue] via 360 models," Wineberg said, "they're taking more and giving less ... You're always going to lose fans [by doing an ad]. You're always going to gain new fans. But you can't, as an artist, turn down opportunities to bring in money."
The third night of the South by Southwest Music Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, brought much-hyped performances from the Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward collaboration She & Him, as well as Santogold, the New York-based dance singer who's earning comparisons to the globe-trotting electronic rap of M.I.A.
The band was taking the stage before Santogold, and I opted to see the Ting Tings and skip performances from sleazy dance rockers the Virgins and New Zealand pop act Ruby Suns to ensure I didn't miss the buzzed-about electronic artist on after the pair. Based on the strength of the Ting Tings' show earlier in the week, it didn't seem like a bad trade-off.
It wasn't, as the peppy pop duo shined on the big outdoor stage of Stubbs. With a debut album not yet released, the act's danceable power-pop -- brightened with sassy electronic loops -- proved to already be arena-ready.
The act's set-closer "That's Not My Name" could have gone on forever, a smashing arms-in-the-air sing-along number with a hip-hop brashness, a slinky beat and a booming grand finale. There's a new-wave influence in the group's electronic bounce, but little about the band sounds retro. Lead singer Katie White is a dashing burst of energy that demands attention, and drummer Jules De Martino gives her giant, spacious beats that let her have her way with the stage.
If I went home without seeing another band I'd be ecstatic, as the Ting Tings delivered the best performance I've caught at SXSW. In fact, I haven't been able to stop listening to the few songs on the group's MySpace pagesince returning to my hotel an hour ago. Having caught the band at an afternoon party the day before, the Ting Tings impressed, but the full-scope of the act's range wasn't apparent until seeing the members absolutely own a larger stage.
Other highlights from Day 3 of SXSW:
Worldly beats: For all the attention the nice but forgettable Vampire Weekend has received for bringing a world-music bent to indie rock, New York's Yeasayer did them one better, bringing to life a captivating rock 'n' roll safari at an afternoon showcase. Keyboards sounded like they belonged in a Peter Gabriel song one moment, and mimicked bird calls in another. The guitars give the act a bit of roughness, but some dizzying, chant-like harmonies soften things up.
Stage presence: The aforementioned She & Him was the last full-set I saw of the night, and actress-turned-indie rocker Deschanel proved to be the real deal. Like all of Ward's music, there's a timelessness to She & Him, and the band sounds like it comes from another era. Deschanel has a gorgeous, almost understated way of singing, handling Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me" with a shy seductiveness, and gracing a more upbeat vintage-sounding rock ditty such as "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" with a calm coolness. She turned to the keyboards for"I Thought I Saw Your Face Today," and laid down a strolling melody for Ward and his band to gradually build a mini-orchestra around her.
Hype, in perspective: There's a lot to like in Santogold. The producer-turned-rocker-turned-rapper already appears a seasoned performer, with a sunglass-sporting backing crew showing off some choreographed dance moves and bringing some extra power to her choruses. Her beats pop like bubble wrap, and Santogold can navigate a backing mix of multicultural electronic noises, '80s synths and monster-movie sound effects with a hip-hop flair and a rock 'n' roll punch. She'll surely be one of the most talked-about artists coming out of SXSW, but as long as the world is comparing her to M.I.A., the latter has more to say.
No doubt, but the plan seems designed to sell a whole lot of singles rather than albums. Indeed, with with half an album already licensed before its release, one wonders why Madonna is releasing "Hard Candy" at all. (For Grammy eligibility?) An artist could record a collection of songs, license them off and then let the agencies on Madison Avenue work their magic. Various album-like packages of singles could then be sold after the fact, based on what songs worked with audiences. 
