British based EMI Group reported to the Associated Press on Monday that the company has recruited Rome-native Elio Leoni-Sceti, a former vice president of household products company Reckitt Benckiser, to lead up its recorded music division. Guy Hands, the CEO of Terra Firma (the private equity firm that bought EMI last September) also reported that he will back away from leadership "to become non-executive chairman of EMI." According to the AP, Leoni-Sceti was formerly a "brand manager at Procter & Gamble before moving to Reckitt Benckiser in 1992" and eventually moving up to lead the European division of the company by 2005.

Last month, leaders for EMI's North American branches, including Capitol Records president Lee Trink, left the company due to Terra Firma's preference for no presidents over the label branches in EMI. In the meantime, representatives and leaders for the music company's Artists and Repertoire divisions were given greater leverage and more power over the running of the labels, even though the plan left artists without the traditional representation that label presidents had provided. This news came on the edge of Coldplay releasing Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, with many rumors pointing to that album as a savior of sorts for EMI in 2008.

Since then, Coldplay's album has scored huge around the globe but EMI has fallen to only holding 9% of the music market in the first half of 2008. Guy Hands told the AP that Leoni-Sceti "joins [EMI] at the right time to shape, drive and lead EMI to become the world's most artist-focused and consumer-friendly music company." The new executive may fulfill Hands hopes with his background in brand managing and household products, marketing music in new ways and attracting a larger consumer base.

Despite a 66% drop from first week sales of 721,000 copies, Coldplay's fourth album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends retains the top spot on the Billboard 200, selling 249,000 copies in the album's second week of release. Billboard reported the chart placement Wednesday and noted album sales are down 7.66% in the last week while dropping 13.2% behind the same week totals from one year ago.

The album was released in the United Kingdom three weeks ago tomorrow, while it has only been out in the United States for two weeks. It debuted big in the UK, selling 302,000 copies in the first three days it was out and selling 500,000 copies after ten days. Sales in the U.S. over seven days are obviously larger than the UK figures, pointing to rumored hopes from the band's music label EMI that the album would provide a significant boost for the company during the summer and possibly the year.

I've had the album since it was released, reporting that very day about the packaging of a vinyl and CD copy together that seemed to hint EMI was aware that consumers listen to music more frequently on MP3 players even if they prefer vinyl copies for nostalgia or the entire experience. Two weeks at number is impressive in today's market and even though sales dropped 66%, 249,000 copies is a nice figure for one week. If continued rumors are true that the band will release another album within a year and a half, the future of EMI may be more and more based on the success of one band.

English rock band The Verve, famous for the hit single "Bitter Sweet Symphony" and the ensuing struggle over the rights to the song (eventually awarded to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards because the song sampled a short snippet of a Rolling Stone song), are set to return in August with a new album -- the band's first since 1997's Urban Hymns that featured that bitter sweet single. Billboard reported last week that the new album, titled Forth (Billboard cites it incorrectly as Four) will be released on August 18 in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States.

While the band had not worked together in nine years before reuniting last year to commence work on new music and play a number of festivals, lead singer Richard Ashcroft had enjoyed a semi-successful solo career built on the success that the band had enjoyed in the nineties. He joined Coldplay onstage at Live 8 in 2005 to perform "Bitter Sweet Symphony" to an elated Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay) and cheering crowds. The first single from Forth, "Love is Noise", was premiered on British radio June 23 and will be released a couple of weeks before the album. It is currently streaming from the band's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) MySpace page.

In the United Kingdom, The Verve are signed to EMI Group and will release Forth via Parlophone, but in the United States, a unique release scheme will be utilized, somewhat similar to Radiohead's deal in the U.S. for In Rainbows earlier this year. The band has set up a label, On Our Own, and will release the album through a distribution deal with RED Distribution and Megaforce Records. Previously, the band's albums had been released through EMI's Virgin Records imprint in the United States.

Industrial progressive rock band Nine Inch Nails' most recent album The Slip will be available in physical formats on July 22, Billboard reported Wednesday. First reported on May 5, the album is the band's third album in a little over a year and the second since leaving music company Universal Music Group. Unlike other physical releases though, a CD version will be limited to 200,000 copies in the United States, Canada and Japan, while a later vinyl version will be unlimited. Band leader Trent Reznor also told Billboard the album "will remain free to download 'indefinitely' from the band's site."

The availability of a vinyl copy of The Slip versus that of the CD version mirrors similar sentiments that I commented about yesterday. Music company EMI packaged the vinyl version of Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends with a CD version, indicating that despite vinyl's allure, the industry is aware that listeners want versions that can be transferred to portable devices.

NIN leader Trent Reznor was obviously aware of this desire from his fans, since the album will feature an unlimited release for the vinyl version. It could also indicate his own preference, which would not be surprising. Either way, when The Slip is released physically, consumers and listeners will still have the option to download the album for free if they decide to buy a physical copy, whether it's the limited CD or the unlimited vinyl. Numerous formats may seem tedious, but if the experience is part of the joy of listening to music then it is being accommodated.

British band Coldplay's fourth album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends debuted with impressive sales over the weekend, taking the first place position in the UK sales chart based on 302,000 copies sold over only three days. Music newspaper NME also reported that the album's sales are more than the other top five albums combined in the UK. As previously reported though, that figure is still below the sales that its predecessor X&Y sold during its first week in 2005: over 464,000.

The album is released in the United States on Tuesday, and hopes are high that it can duplicate, if not, exceed those sales in the largest music market in the world. X&Y has sold over 3 million copies in the U.S. since it was released three years ago.

Numerous reports indicate that struggling music company EMI is hedging its entire summer and possibly the year on the release of Viva la Vida, even though the band seems to be downplaying the hopes that fuel industry executives: "This time, we were hungry to disassociate ourselves from anything other than improving someone's holiday or bath time." Coldplay's success in the last three days in the UK is no doubt highly prized by EMI and its current owners, private equity firm Terra Firma, after many high profile and selling artists have left the company in the last year.

Coldplay is by no means the only highly successful band under contract at EMI, but the pressure that seems placed on the band will no doubt have an effect on Viva la Vida's success and what happens in the U.S. charts this week.

Two reports indicate that EMI Group's Capitol Records will lose its president by the end of June, and no new leader will be appointed by the major label's new management structure. Lee Trink, the president of Capitol Records, may also be followed by the departure of Capitol Music Group, the regional arm of EMI over North America, chairman and CEO Jason Flom. Billboard notes Trink's "departure would come two weeks after the scheduled June 17 release of the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida," and many music industry watchers expect that album to be the financial and critical hinge that EMI is basing its summer around.

Fox News reported a similar story, but added that Guy Hands and other Terra Firma leaders -- the equity firm that bought EMI last fall -- "don't believe in label presidents." The new structure of EMI labels will feature newly created "A&R Presidents" and heads of marketing, but no one person will singly supports and represents the artists that are releasing albums through EMI. Fox News comments as well that no one at EMI had informed the acts or management representing them, emphasizing the acts that have left EMI in recent months and the acts that sell the most CDs for EMI, like The Beatles and its record label/management firm Apple Corps Ltd.

Like the columnist for Fox News, I have to wonder what in the world is the management of Terra Firma thinking with EMI. First of all, the music company is not the no. 1 of the big four companies. Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) sell far more music and appear to be far better managed than EMI -- even before this rearrangement. It's hard to hope that that new Coldplay album will sell well, at least for the record label. The band and its management are certainly promoting it in superb ways, but with this revelation it seems like EMI is poised to profit from the marketing without any real input or effort. That could be wrong, but when it is an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) commercial that pushes the album more than any other source, it is not the record company I think about. It's the band and iTunes.

It is still over a week and a half until Coldplay's fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, is scheduled for release, but the album leaked online through a torrent Wednesday. The band's first album in just over three years has already proved itself popular with a highly downloaded single and has become the highest pre-sale album ever in Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store, according to NME.

Prefix magazine speculates that the album's leak has raised serious issues for the band's label, privately-held EMI. Prefix reports that the albums second single, title track "Viva la Vida" has seen 510,000 downloads already, not as impressive as the two million its predecessor "Violet Hill" moved. The magazine also speculates that the leak will make it "unlikely that the album will be the rousing success that EMI had hoped." This just seems to disregard the consumer base and the band's large fanbase.

Arguably, the 510,000 downloads of "Viva la Vida" should be interpreted as that many presale downloads for the album, since the single and album pre-order are bundled together in iTunes. If that is the case, first week sales will be an impressive, rousing success. Coldplay and EMI have taken the next logical, and predictable, step to combat the online leak. NME reports that starting tonight the album will be available for streaming from the band's MySpace page.

I've been thinking about free digital downloads for a while now, and with the success such models have seen in the last seven months or so (since Radiohead's In Rainbows was released), it would seem only natural that the record labels would recognize that value in their product should not be based on money or profits. Automatically I realize that the kind of suggestion I have made is detrimental to the music industry and the artists that produce music, even when some of the said artists are embracing free download business models. Nevertheless, it is not surprising in the least to see the music industry fighting tooth and nail to retain some control over the business they rightly think they should control.

British rock trio Muse revealed to music newspaper NME Friday that the band's new material may be released more "organically" in the future, versus reserving it for an album release. This idea of taking the "album" out of the equation is something that many bands have been quoted as saying in the last couple of years, most notably Radiohead. Drummer Dom Howard is quoted as saying that the new methods of digital releasing and downloading "presents a canvas to do whatever you want and just release music as and when it is ready to release," that is, more organically.

The new "canvas to do whatever you want" should not indicate that Muse (or any other band) is "against the concept of releasing an album in the traditional format." Howard maintains, "If we group a bunch of tracks together, it's because they're meant to be together as a unit." The new formats are most exciting for new listeners and consumers, in Howard's opinion, since they do not typically purchase an album on CD. Despite Radiohead's success at releasing an album solely via the internet (and for free), Howard also denied that Muse would duplicate that method. He and his Muse bandmates just remain open to new ideas for the music industry.

Organically released music would make more sense in the market as it grows closer and closer toward single-track downloads. The most obvious case in favor of releasing music as soon as it is ready is Coldplay's recent free download of single "Violet Hill" in support of the band's new album. While it was not released as soon as it was ready and was intended to directly promote the album, it did enjoy high downloads and put word about the band, the band's return, and the new album out there rapidly and well in advance of the album's release next month. Singles did not originally correspond directly to albums, so why shouldn't the music industry return to that idea?

Well, it's here again. Next Wednesday, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival kicks off in Austin, Texas. I won't be attending, so don't look for a sequel post to this one about how much fun I had or what acts I saw perform. Needless to say though, many music listeners and fans will be attending the festival, now in its 21st year. If there is a larger festival in terms of sheer number of venues, I am not aware of it. But, the fact that more than 1400 acts perform in 65 venues makes the amount of music just immense, in the simplest of terms.

These numbers follow a previous blog by me about how concerts and music festivals are only positive forces for the music industry. The only problem is that there is no "real" way to translate the experience of attending the shows outside the actual festival. Of course, that does not stop Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes store from including music and videos from various performances, but these always seem to be the largest acts and the venues they play. I'm reminded of the Coldplay videos that were showcased on iTunes last year.

In any case, if any readers are attending the festival next week, I implore you to enjoy the music for what it's worth because you won't experience music that way anywhere else (especially on a CD or from a download). Of course, the advantage of live musical performances is always that the experience is better than listening to an album in your home, or at least that is this blogger's opinion and past experience. At the same time, opening a new CD for the first time and listening to an album has its perks as well, but that is another story and opinion for another time.