Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) may be in a lawsuit with online retailer AnywhereCD, but the company is doing something right, and that appears to be their advertising. With the coming summer music season, all of the major albums by big artists are being released. Warner will release Linkin Park's third album Minutes to Midnight on May 15th, a highly anticipated album by the rock sextet.

The company appears to have taken the enormity of that band into their consideration of how to best market the album. The biggest change in album marketing I've noticed is the appearance of TV commercials that feature the new single "What I've Done" over the album art, followed by the release date (I've rarely seen a new album by such a large band marketed this way). Additionally, the album has been available for pre-order on Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store since mid-April, well before pre-orders are typically made available, and features "secret bonus tracks" that are exclusive to that store. In my local Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) store's weekly ad this morning, the album is also available for pre-order and carries special pre-order offers. The album is still two weeks from being released.

These rather minute advertising successes may not increase album sales, but they certainly increase the awareness listeners will have of the album and the release. That is what makes Warner's success this month vital for the company, especially as their prices slowly rise. Last week alone they increased steadily to gain nearly a $1.