• Don VanCleave, president of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, had this to say about "adult music" in a recent CIMS email (also at this page at the CIMS website):

"There is a ton of chatter out there about 'adult' music right now. Let me qualify what my idea of Adult Music means - intelligent, not trendy and lasting. In my way of thinking, Adult Music appeals to everyone under 60. The industry tends to focus on the under 24 crowd with disposable second rate crap and does not have a good grip on how to consistently break acts that appeal to a wider audience. I feel that we have totally lost a generation of catalog because of it."

As any record store owner will tell you, and as Don says often, catalog sales are critical for retail. When labels jump from one one-album wonder to another for short term gratification, there is no back catalog to sell to customers.

Don went on to talk about the runaway success of the Garden State soundtrack and two new artists that he thinks could become adult music stars: Ray Lamontagne ("one of the most classic voices in music right now," pictured to the right) and Citizen Cope ("I guess now that Cope has been added to KROQ, he will get the attention that he so richly deserves").

• Bad Boy Records is looking for a new distributor, reports the NY Times. Personally, I think Mr. Combs' label was better when he concentrated on music. Being a jack-of-all-trades entrepreneur hasn't helped his label's sales.

• A Junior Boys CD EP/12" for the song "Birthday" will be out on March 22nd on Domino Records. It'll have three new tracks, one being a remix of "Birthday" and another being a Fennesz remix of "Teach Me How To Fight."

• Out Hud's Let Us Never Speak of it Again will also be out March 22nd. The band's second album for Kranky has ten songs, a few with puns for titles: "One Life to Leave;" "2005: A Face Odyssey;" and "The Stoked American," which I'm going to assume is a play on the title of the book "The Silent American."

• The DanceStar Awards, America's dance music awards show, are leaving Miami, says Danceblogga). DanceStar's founder says it's the "next logical step for the event and the American electronic music scene as we continue to grow." Coolfer is for anything that helps dance music out of its current abyss. The genre has been hijacked by celebrity DJs and the kind of fluffy pop-trance hybrid that gets played on FM dance stations and licensed to jeans commercials. It deserves better.

• RealNetworks almost made a profit last quarter.

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