MTV Awards boost Lil Wayne, Adele on music charts (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – While satellite photos of the Apollo astronauts' footsteps on the moon have been in the news, providing a sad reminder of the diminishment of the American space program, MTV's "moon men" have proven to still be very relevant.

The highest-rated MTV Video Music Awards ever translated into a sales bonanza for some of the show's performers in the days that followed -- especially Lil Wayne, whose "Tha Carter IV" went on sale online less than an hour after the telecast's end, and Adele, whose riveting performance of her new single pushed it to the top spot on the digital songs chart.

Lil Wayne's blockbuster album moved an even-better-than expected 964,000 copies, per SoundScan. That's the second-best debut of the year, trailing only Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," which opened with 1.11 million.

Wayne's album had a more profitable debut, in any case, since more than 40 percent of Gaga's first-week tally came via Amazon loss-leader 99-cent sale, while "Tha Carter IV" entered the race without any such pricing-handicap advantage.

The 964K figure wasn't very far off Wayne's career best, which came in 2008, when "Tha Carter III" debuted with 1.01 million. Even a widely pirated leak of the album in the days before the MTV Awards didn't put much of a crimp in the rapper's "blunt blowin'" style.

Having a harder time keeping pace with past successes were the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who, possibly to their detriment, were not the lone token rock band invited to appear on the guitar-avoidant MTV Awards.

"I'm With You" debuted at No. 2 with 229,000 copies -- monumental by most standards, but only about half the 442,000 their previous effort opened with five years ago.

If this was merely an arena-sized debut, compared with the massive figures for 2006's "Stadium Arcadium," some of that could be due to fans taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the new music after the departure of the Chili Peppers' long-time guitarist, John Frusciante.

The other two top 10 entries were dance guru David Guetta's "Nothing But the Beat," in at No. 5 with 58,000, and country singer Jake Owen's "Barefoot Blue Jean Night," which sold 55,000, more than doubling his previous best.

Two returning veterans slipped into the top 30: rock revivalist Lenny Kravitz settled for No. 18, while Glen Campbell's purported final album came in at No. 24.

The already indomitable Adele got yet another leg up from her strikingly stark MTV appearance.

Already the bestselling album of the year, "21" enjoyed an 88 percent sales increase, selling 154,000 and holding steady at No. 3. Her previous release, "19," also saw a 60 percent increase and moved back up to No. 17 on sales of 20,000.

Even more significant was the boost for Adele's new single.

Some questioned her choice to do a slow ballad on the MTV Awards instead of the familiar, up-tempo "Rolling in the Deep."

But her simple performance of the searing, lovelorn "Someone Like You" quickly became one of the telecast's water-cooler moments, at least among the few viewers who still look to the MTV Awards for music -- or the greater number who are pleasantly surprised when it unexpectedly occurs.

The teary tune leapfrogged to the top of the digital songs chart by selling 275,000 downloads, a week-to-week increase of 191 percent.

On the album chart, the biggest MTV-related percentage increase belonged to the relatively unknown band Young the Giant, who, for reasons not immediately apparent, took the token rock slot on the telecast that the Chili Peppers might have enjoyed.

Their self-titled album benefited from a 189 percent uptick, although, coming from such a low position, that only amounted to 10,000 in sales.

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The charts: Streisand, The Game both off their game (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – When it came to first-week sales for his new album, the rapper Game was not on his game. But Barbra Streisand wasn't on hers, either, so Game's "The R.E.D. Album" still had a first-place finish.

The Interscope rapper's latest entered at No. 1 with 98,000 sales -- a big comedown from the 239,000 his previous release came out of the box with three years ago, let alone the 538,000 his freshman album debuted with in 2005.

Game earned a lot of pre-release publicity for a stunt in which his Twitter account encouraged fans to tie up Compton's police lines. But with such dramatically diminishing returns, maybe he needs to call 911 on his career.

Rather than go for Twitter pranks, Streisand went a more traditional route -- a QVC campaign -- to boost "What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman," which is available in both single- and double-disc editions. But interest just wasn't as high as it was for her standards album, "Love is the Answer," which enjoyed a surprise bow at No. 1 with 180,000 units two years ago. The new album sold 66,000 to enter at No. 4.

The top 10's biggest surprise was a No. 6 entrance by Pistol Annies, the all-female country trio formed as a side project by Miranda Lambert. "Hell on Heels" sold a rootin', tootin' 42,000 copies despite not being available for sales in retail stores.

It was nearly a digital-only release, except for a physical CD that was available on the group's Web site. But because it turned out to be less of a cult item than expected, the label is meeting demand by going to retail with a limited quantity of discs, according to a Sony Nashville spokesman.

Disney saw some green with a Muppets tribute album, featuring indie acts like OK Go and Weezer, that debuted at No. 8 with 30,000.

Among holdovers, the Jay-Z/Kanye West collaboration nearly enjoyed a third week at the top, falling slightly short of rival Game's high-water mark with 94,000. Adele's "21" also got bumped down a spot, to No. 3, with 82,000 -- a figure that's likely to see a significant boost next week after her heralded MTV Awards performance.

On the singles side, Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" moved back up to No. 1 on the digital songs chart with sales of 217,000. The real Jagger should be so lucky these days, right?

Things will heat up considerably with the next chart, which will be topped by Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter IV." Based on the first two days of sales, the dreadlocked jailbird's comeback is currently projected to sell as many as 900,000 copies its first week.

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Charts: Jay-Z & Kanye album on top for second week (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – In a week that saw other worldwide rulers being run out of their palaces, it was pretty clear that Jay-Z and Kanye West would be keeping their jointly held throne. And, sure enough, the rappers' collaborative album dominated the Billboard/SoundScan album chart for a second week, even with a 59 percent decline in sales.

"Watch the Throne" sold 177,000 units in its second week, after moving 436,000 the week before. The album probably would have sold even more the first week - and fewer the second week - if not for an odd release pattern that had the long-awaited set available only at iTunes for the first four days of its release.

The latest numbers reflect the first full seven-day frame where "Throne" could be found in retail stores as well as online.

Jay-Z and West certainly weren't facing any opposition from well-armed rebel forces. It could hardly have been a slower week for new album releases, with the only top 10 entries being a No. 6 bow for country's Eli Young Band, whose "Life at Best" entered with a career-best 35,000 copies, and a No. 8 debut for Blue October, which represented 27,000 in sales for the independent art-rockers' "Any Man in America."

Even less threateningly, a greatest-hits set from the band Breaking Benjamin came in at No. 22 with 14,000 units. Oscar winner Jeff Bridges' first post-"Crazy Heart" musical effort, produced by T Bone Burnett, came out of the box with a mountain of media attention but just 13,000 in sales to debut at No. 25.

Legions of Adele supporters should relish the news that her "21" album crossed the 3 million mark this week, one of the few times in recent memory that's been achieved by someone not named Taylor Swift. The disc registered yet another uptick in sales for the week, increasing 10 percent to move another 80,000 units and nudge the album back up two spots to No. 2.

For any serious debut action, you had to look over to the digital songs chart, where Lil Wayne had an instant No. 1 with "She Will," which sold 255,000 singles, knocking Maroon 5 to second place.

It didn't exactly own the chart, but the only other song to debut in the digital top 30 was Lady Antebellum's "We Owned the Night." The second single the country trio has released to tease their upcoming album came in at No. 22 on sales of 59,000.

Next week's album chart should be a little more interesting, with Twitter wiseguy The Game squaring off against Barbra Streisand, who has not been igniting any emergency-line flash mobs to publicize her new album, but taking the QVC route instead.

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Music Charts: Jay-Z & Kanye fall short (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Does nearly a half-million copies sold constitute the glass being half-full or half-empty? That's the question with Jay-Z and Kanye West's enormously ballyhooed joint project, "Watch the Throne," which debuted with first-week sales of 436,000, a strong but less-kingly-than-expected tally.

But the news was much better for Katy Perry: She finally assumed a throne she's had her eye on for a while.

The take for "Watch the Throne" will be spun in different ways, taking into account the peculiarities of its release. For the first four days of the week, the Jay-Z/West album was an iTunes exclusive, so you could argue a mere three days of brick-and-mortar sales isn't enough to tell the tale.

On the other hand, because of the unusual lack of advance leaks, anticipation for the project should have been at enough of a fever pitch to make for a day-one blockbuster.

But even strong reviews and word-of-mouth didn't add up to "Throne" debuting as mightily as either of the rappers' most recent solo efforts.

The New York Post reported that Jay-Z spent $95,000 on a single bottle of champagne at a Miami party celebrating the album's launch last week. Until next week's results offer a better picture of the album's legs, he may want to switch to sparkling cider for a few days.

As for Perry, her "TGIF (Last Friday Night)" song finally hit No. 1 on the Billboard 100, marking the first time a female artist has had five singles from one album reach that mark. Leaving gender out of it, she's now tied with Michael Jackson, whose "Bad" album generated five No. 1 hits back in the day.

It had seemed like Perry had missed her chance at being able to thank God for a fifth chart-topper, since "TGIF" was showing signs of fading last week. But her label, Capitol, had some tricks up its sleeve, goosing the tune by releasing a Missy Elliott-helmed remix, sales of which were counted together with the old version.

iTunes also put the different versions of the song on sale for 69 cents. It also happened that the previous long-time No. 1, LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem," finally shed a little momentum at an opportune moment for Perry.

Decamping far away from any kind of throne room was the soundtrack to "Glee 3D," which entered the album chart at No. 16 with a shockingly modest 20,000 copies. All eight previous full-length "Glee" TV soundtracks had entered in the top 5, and three of them bowed at No. 1 (including last year's "Journey to Finals" disc, which had first-week sales of 152,000, more than seven times as many as this one managed). Maybe Sue Sylvester's warning in the trailer was taken literally by music consumers as well as moviegoers.

Luke Bryan has plenty to be gleeful about, coming in at No. 2 with his sophomore album, "Tailgates & Tanlines."

Bryan's is the second-best country bow of 2011, trailing only Brad Paisley's. He sold 145,295 copies, beating the opening tally for Eric Church three weeks ago by just 300 units.

Country men are well represented on the album chart right now, claiming six of the top 20 spots. Church moved down three positions to No. 5, still ahead of Jason Aldean at No.6, Blake Shelton at No. 14, the Zac Brown Band at No. 19, and Trace Adkins, who took a 17-spot tumble to No. 20 in his second week.

Putting the lie to the idea that 45 million viral-video views are a predictor of album sales, 13-year-old web phenom Greyson Chance fell to No. 65 in his second frame, selling 7,000 of his Ellen DeGeneres-mentored album for a two-week total of 21,000.

Although Perry rules the roost on this week's Billboard 100 song chart, "TGIF" didn't top the digital singles sales chart. That honor belonged to the Maroon 5/Christina Aguilera collaboration "Moves Like Jagger," which picked up plenty of steam from finally having a video released. It sold 219,000 downloads, generating the kind of upward chart movement even Jagger could envy.

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Winehouse back on top of British charts (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Fans of soul star Amy Winehouse on Sunday sent her back to the top of Britain's album chart, a week after the 27-year-old was found dead at her London home.

Grammy Award-winning album "Back to Black", which first hit the top spot in 2007, dislodged fellow soul diva Adele's 21 from the summit while Winehouse's debut release, "Frank", also recharted at number five.

The singer also occupied five spots on the singles chart top 40 with Back to Black placing at eight while a box set of Frank and Back to Black entered the album chart at number 10.

The five-time Grammy winner was found dead at her north London home last Saturday. A cause of death has yet to be established, although it is not being viewed as suspicious.

Friends and family attended Winehouse's Jewish funeral at Edgwarebury Cemetery in northwest London on Tuesday, where her father delivered a eulogy which ended with the words: "Goodnight, my angel."

The singer fought a well-publicised struggle with drugs and alcohol, famously singing about her refusal to seek treatment in her biggest-selling single "Rehab".

But she had to scrap a European comeback tour after stumbling through the opening performance in Belgrade on June 18.

Winehouse's family was set to meet with government officials on Monday to discuss the possibility of setting up a drug rehabilitation centre in her name, The Times reported Monday.

Mitch Winehouse, Amy's father, will meet crime minister James Brokenshire and Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz to discuss drugs policy and treatment.

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Amy Winehouse tops UK charts 8 days after death (AP)

LONDON – Amy Winehouse's album "Back To Black" has climbed back to top of the British album chart, eight days after the singer died in London.

The Grammy award-winning album was also No. 1 in 2006 when it was released. Also on Sunday, Winehouse's debut album "Frank" reached No. 5.

Winehouse has also left a trove of unreleased music, but no decision has been made about whether it will be released.

The 27-year-old soul diva, who had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, was found dead of unknown causes at her London home on July 23.

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Adele tops UK charts as music world mourns Winehouse (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Singer Adele and boyband The Wanted held their positions at the top of the British album and singles charts on Sunday, a day after the music world began mourning the death of soul singer Amy Winehouse.

Sales of the late 27-year-old singer's recordings rocketed in the hours after news spread of her death at her home in north London on Saturday.

The Official Charts Company said sales of Winehouse's albums had increased by 37 times in the few hours remaining in the period monitored for the weekly ranking. Track sales were up 23 times.

That was enough to propel her Grammy-winning 2006 release "Back to Black" to No. 59 in the album charts and to push the album's title track to 81 in the singles chart.

There was no change in the top five positions in the singles charts, with the Wanted's "Glad You Came" at No. 1 for a second week.

It was much the same in the album charts, where Adele remained at No. 1 and No. 3 with her releases "21" and "19," while Beyonce stayed in second place with her fourth studio album "4."

(Reporting by Tim Castle)

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"Adjustment Bureau" tops DVD, Blu-ray sales charts (Reuters)

By T.K. Arnold T.k. Arnold – Wed Jun 29, 8:14 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "The Adjustment Bureau," a quirky sci-fi romance starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, debuted at No. 1 on the DVD sales chart Wednesday, followed by fellow rookies "Unknown" and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules."

The moderately successful theatrical features helped knock incumbent champ "True Grit" to No. 5 on Nielsen VideoScan's sales chart during the week ended June 26, while "Battle: Los Angeles" fell two to No. 4, also in its second week.

On Nielsen's dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart, "The Adjustment Bureau" and "Unknown" also scored a No. 1 and No. 2 debut, respectively. They were followed by "Battle: Los Angeles" and "Wimpy Kid."

The top rental, according to trade publication Home Media Magazine, was "Just Go With It," which jumped two places in its third week. None of the new DVD champs appeared on the rental chart because they come from studios that enforce a 28-day window before they become available on Netflix and Redbox.

(To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog "Fan Fare" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/)

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Beyonce, others enjoy "Glastonbury effect" in UK charts (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Beyonce heads the British album charts at the midweek stage, with "4" outselling its nearest rival by three to one boosted by her weekend appearance at Glastonbury, sales data showed on Wednesday.

According to the Official Charts Company (OCC), the 29-year-old R&B star is set to top the ranking by the end of the week, which would be her second British number one.

She was one of several acts to enjoy the "Glastonbury effect," where media exposure of one of the world's biggest music festivals boosts performers who appear.

The event ran from Wednesday to Sunday, with U2, Coldplay and Beyonce grabbing most of the limelight with their headline slots on the final three days.

Besides her new album, Beyonce's single "Best Thing I Never Had" was on course to enter at number six, one of seven tracks by the singer in the Top 75.

Among others to benefit from Glastonbury with big gains in the album rankings were Chase & Status, Mumford & Sons, Aloe Blacc, Noah & The Whale, Plan B, Elbow and Coldplay.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Can Owl City soar back to top of the charts? (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Adam Young still remembers the feeling he had prior to playing his first show as Owl City.

"The whole time leading up to it I was trying to put it in the back of my head," he says of the gig, which took place February 13, 2009, at Minneapolis' Varsity Theater, not far from his tiny hometown of Owatonna, Minn. "Then I show up and the place is sold out, and it's way bigger than I thought it would be.

"I'm standing backstage before I go on, just so terrified. I didn't know if I could be the frontman, if that fit who I was," Young recalls with a laugh. "But the second I stepped onstage it ignited such a passion for re-creating this stuff I made in my basement. I was like, 'Wow, this is really what I want to do.'"

Two years after the ascent of Owl City's electro-emo single "Fireflies" forced Young to transform from a home-recording hobbyist into a Billboard Hot 100-topping pop act, this soft-spoken 24-year-old faces a different challenge: to convince listeners that the Owl City story is one worth following on the outfit's second major-label effort, "All Things Bright and Beautiful," due June 14 from Universal Republic.

"Everyone always says that the sophomore release built on freshman success is the hardest thing you'll ever have to do," Young says. "I've definitely lost a lot of sleep worrying about it."

Universal Republic co-president Avery Lipman adds, "A hit like 'Fireflies,' is it a blessing or a curse? The answer is 'yes.'"

What eases everyone's anxieties is that Young is a proven album-seller. "Ocean Eyes," Owl City's 2009 full-length, has moved 1 million units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (Last year's "An Airplane Carried Me to Bed," by Young's side project Sky Sailing, sold 26,000.)

"That kind of puts Adam in a different category in terms of other artists who've come out with big singles," Lipman says. "There's clearly a greater connection that exists out there, something that brought kids in and made them want to buy albums and tickets and merchandise."

Tracked like the debut was at home in Owatonna, "All Things Bright and Beautiful" is unlikely to alienate anyone who bought "Ocean Eyes." Though Young says he sought to showcase more of his love for "abstract hip-hop," the new set still seems custom-designed, as Lipman puts it, for "lying in a field somewhere, staring up at the stars and thinking about life."

According to Owl City's manager, Steve Bursky, Universal Republic initially floated the idea of Young working on the new album with such top 40 hitmakers as Dr. Luke and Starsmith. "But what made 'Fireflies' so successful was that it wasn't that," Bursky says. "At a time when everything on the radio all sounds the same, it cut through. My advice to Adam was, 'Do what you do -- go in your basement and create.'"

Universal Republic marketing VP Frank Arigo says highlighting that method is the centerpiece of the label's campaign. "The thing we've made an effort to do is give Adam's fan base an inside peek at his creative process," Arigo says, pointing to a five-minute making-of video that's racked up nearly half a million views since its March 18 debut on Vevo. Additional behind-the-scenes content, including Young's track-by-track walk-through of the album, will be rolled out through release date on Vevo, Facebook and Owl City's official web site.

"This is stuff we didn't have access to last time," says Arigo, who adds that in terms of a "direct connection" with fans, "Adam is one of the best we have. When he tweets, it's not coming from the label or management."

Bursky echoes Arigo's point, acknowledging the value of radio play in the success of "Fireflies" but identifying the risk in "putting Adam in a place where we're relying on things we can't control. I can't control if the PD at likes the new Owl City record," he continues. "But I can control how we keep our artist engaged with his audience."

To that end, Owl City will kick off a six-week North American tour June 13 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It's a trip Young says he's anticipating with far less dread than he did that first show in Minneapolis.

"I'm still figuring out how to get back into the swing of things after stepping out of the head space of making the record," Young says. "But now I wouldn't trade the challenge for the world."

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

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