No. 1 takes a bullet

It’s been a humbling year for the national album chart compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. In January, the “Dreamgirls” soundtrack claimed the No. 1 spot on the countdown with a paltry 66,000 copies sold nationwide, the lowest total since the SoundScan system began tracking retail sales in 1991. Well, it was the lowest total until the following week, when the soundtrack claimed the bestseller’s crown with 60,000.

Not long ago, the sales chart was the defining bottom line for the music industry. Now? Some managers say they view CDs as promotional items that help sell concert tickets and the “brand” of an artist.

Some hip-hop promoters say they are mulling giving away CDs with concert tickets, a maneuver that Prince tried a few years ago but gave up because SoundScan officials deemed those CDs ineligible for including on the national chart. One L.A. promoter, Chang Weisberg, who is organizing August’s Rock the Bells hip-hop festival in San Bernardino, is mulling selling CDs bundled with tickets down the line because he isn’t so sure that the scan numbers are worth all that fuss. “We might do it anyway,” he said.

Here’s a sign that the weekly SoundScan devotion is losing its hold: The new Smashing Pumpkins album is scheduled to be released July 7, which is a Saturday, not a Tuesday, meaning the album’s first chart week will be cut short and its chart position will suffer. Why go against the decades-long practice of releasing albums on Tuesdays? Because the band likes the numerology of putting the CD out on 07-07-07. And, well, charts are so 20th century.

Geoff Boucher

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Label Starbucks’ music taste bland

PAUL MCCARTNEY’S recent signing to the Starbucks-helmed Hear Music signifies more than a double shot of baby-boomer glamour for the “cafe lifestyle” company. Though the Frappuccino purveyor is living through a drop in stock value and a labor dispute with Ethiopian bean growers, in recent years its impact on music culture has been greater than that of most major labels -- like, say, McCartney’s free-falling former home, EMI/Capitol, whose own stocks took a hit after the announcement.

In music business terms, Starbucks is still a new animal crawling out from under the bones of the major label dinosaurs. Selling Ray Charles and Dylan discs alongside its pricey beverages, it’s claimed a middle-aged audience that largely felt abandoned by conventional music retail. And the “Starbucks sound” has become an umbrella term, like grunge or gangsta rap, that goes beyond musical taste to represent a broader cultural movement. By making the silver (or, as one blog pointed out, mocha-dyed) Beatle its label’s showcase signing, the company sends a strong signal about how that sound will evolve.

Starbucks hasn’t been great at promoting lesser-knowns -- though they do try, with bands such as Antigone Rising and the Low Stars. What a thrill it would have been to see Hear Music sign a younger band such as the Decemberists, which must be feeling insecure as Capitol, also its label, downsizes. Or strike a deal with Vice Records to get Bloc Party’s majestic, maturing rock out to an audience that would probably love it. Or connect with an indie great like Neko Case, who might benefit from a new set of associations.

But for now, we’re stuck with a “Starbucks Sound” duller than last week’s beans.

-- Ann Powers