David Cook Reveals Song Titles, Discusses Writing Process in New Idolatry Interview
Lots of NEW ALBUM scoop in this latest David Cook interview with Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly . David is hard at work on his next album and working with familiar names like Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk , David Hodges and Brian Howes .

David Cook " NYC Vlog " Song Sneak Peek!
David Coo k vlogs from New York City where he’s been working on songs for his next album, due out later this year.

Video: David Cook - NYC Video Blog
  Amazon (UK) Previous American Idol winner David Cook gives fans a new update via his latest video blog, which was shot in a New York recording studio. David also gives a sneak listen to a brand new song he's currently working on. Related Profiles

David Cook Video Blog from New York City
David Cook video blogs from the studio in New York City with his FlipCam. You can hear new music that he is working on in the background. Omigosh, I'm just a few blocks away from Cook now. Sweet.

Lady Antebellum Debuts At #1
Lady Antebellum’s second album, “Need You Now,” crashes in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 481,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s the biggest debut sales week for any album since Susan Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream” bowed atop the list with 701,000 in November, and the best for a country album since Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” opened at No. 1 on the Billboard with 592,000 copies in Nov. 2008. Many...

On the charts: Lady Antebellum matures into a No. 1 artist
  Adults rule, at least in terms of what's selling on this week's pop chart. Driven by the success of grown-up love song "Need You Now," a late-night tale of boozy desperation, country trio Lady Antebellum soars to the top of this week's pop chart. The band's sophomore effort , for which the single is the title cut, sold 481,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, to give the act its first-ever No. 1 album on the U.S. pop chart.  The Capitol Nashville...

Don't let anyone say the Grammys don't have an impact
As a promotional showcase, the Grammy Awards remain a force. Early results from Nielsen SoundScan show that artists who performed on the CBS telecast are experiencing a relatively major sales boost. With just a couple days of sales tracking, artists are such as Beyoncé and Pink are doubling their sales from last week. The Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift and the Zac Brown Band are also significantly up. Granted, these are artists who don't necessarily need any sales help -- we're...

Super Reasons For Playing The Super Bowl
An article that ran in the New York Times earlier this week describes the reasons music acts jump at the chance to perform a 12-minute set even though they won't be paid for their troubles. Saying results are "often immediate," the Times mentions Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Super Bowl performance from two years ago, citing Nielsen SoundScan numbers showing sales of the band's greatest hits album tripled after the halftime extravaganza. But this year's halftime choice " ...

Lady Antebellum 'Need You Now' is the No. 1 Album in the Country
Lady Antebellum 's sophomore album took the country by storm, as 'Need You Now' is currently the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Lady A's album debuted with 481,000 copies sold, making 'Need You Now' the highest-selling country album since Taylor Swift's 2008 'Fearless,' which debuted at No. 1 with 592,000 copies sold. 'Need You Now''s opening week sales are also the highest for an album released in January since the Game's 'The Documentary,' which...

Haiti charity album tops US chart
Haiti charity album tops US chart Published on : Saturday 30 Jan 2010 11:59 - by ANI London, January 30 : A charity album created to help Haiti earthquake victims has topped the Billboard chart. The album, featuring performances from the disaster relief telethon Hope For Haiti Now, sold 171,000 copies, according to music sales tracker Nielsen SoundScan. The telethon, which saw participation of stars including Jay-Z, Madonna and U2, was said to have raised 66 million dollars, reports The...

2009 Canadian Music Sales Figures Released
2/5/2010 By Greg Pratt The numbers are in, and it looks like the Canadian music sales figures for 2009 are, well, pretty much what you'd expect. There was a 2.2 percent drop in total album sales, a category that includes CDs, vinyl, cassettes and digital albums. In 2008, total album sales were at 35.9 million units; last year, 35.1 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan Canada, Billboard reports. Sales of physical units fell 6.7 percent to 30.3 million in '09 from 32.5 million in...

On the Charts: Lady Antebellum Score Best Sales of Young 2010
Photo: Beck/AFP/Getty The Big News: Lady Antebellum scored the best sales week of the new decade so far as their second album Need You Know debuted at Number One on the Billboard Top 200 with 481,000. Need You Know , the follow-up to Lady Antebellum’s platinum self-titled debut, marks the first time the Grammy-nominated country trio has topped the charts. At Number Two, the Hope For Haiti Now was downloaded another 143,000 times last week according to Nielsen SoundScan, a mere...

Ke$ha Holds Off Taylor Swift On Hot 100
Ke$ha continues her reign on the Hot 100 for a sixth straight week with "TiK ToK," surviving a strong challenge from Taylor Swift , who debuts in the runner-up slot with "Today Was a Fairytale." As reported yesterday, Swift posts the highest opening-week download sum by a female artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan tracking (since 2003), as "Today Was A Fairytale" enters Hot Digital Songs at No. 1 with 325,000. Swift is joined by another new entry in the Hot 100's upper tier, as...

'Haiti' benefit stays at No. 1
Canadian music lovers continued to be in a giving mood. The compilation "Hope For Haiti Now" remained at No. 1 for a second consecutive week, selling just under 20,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan data. The charity effort has now sold almost 40,000 copies since its release two weeks ago. Country act Lady Antebellum, fresh off their appearance at Sunday's Grammy Awards, made the biggest debut of the week, landing at No. 2 with their second album, "Need You Now" (14,000). The big...

'Music's biggest night' focuses on Big Three
These aren't the best of times for the music business. But no amount of fretting - album sales were down 12.7 percent in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan - can get in the way of the industry throwing a star-studded prime-time party in celebration of itself. That annual fest is called the Grammy Awards, and its 52d iteration will be broadcast live from Los Angeles tonight from 8 to 11:30 p.m. on CBS3. The Grammys' mission has always been, allegedly, to reward "artistic...

Lady Antebellum's 'Need You Now' Hits No. 1 On Billboard 200
L ady Antebellum's second album, "Need You Now," crashes in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 481,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's the biggest debut sales week for any album since Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" bowed atop the list with 701,000 in November, and the best for a country album since Taylor Swift's "Fearless" opened at No. 1 on the Billboard with 592,000 copies in Nov. 2008.   Lady Antebellum Talks 'Need You Now,' CMA Awards Glory ...

Lady Antebellum tops the albums chart
The biggest band in the country this week is officially Lady Antebellum . The country trio sold a very nice 481,000 copies of their sophomore album Need You Now , according to Nielsen SoundScan, securing the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart. As Billboard notes, that’s the biggest opening week anyone has managed since Susan Boyle’s blockbuster 701,000 bow last November. Lady Antebellum’s success was the only thing preventing the all-star Hope for Haiti Now charity...

Lady Antebellum tops charts with 'Need'
On the strength of its titular hit single, Lady Antebellum's new "Need You Now" swept in at No. 1 on the national album chart this week. Hot country trio's Capitol Nashville release sold 481,000 units in its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan data for the week ending Jan. 31. Group's self-titled debut release remains potent on the chart, hanging in at No. 15 with a 32% gain this week, moving 24,000. It's an upbeat stanza for struggling EMI Music, fourth-ranked among the big...

January Inner Machine Q&A's now live
John is back answering the monthly Q&A's for January during a break in tour rehearsals... protecting your voice, David Cook, an album update, the acoustic tour and more. Inner Machine

American Idol News Round-Up: Still Number One, Ellen vs. Simon & More
We're just one hour away from Hollywood week, when hopefully we'll have a lot more news about the season 9 contestants who can actually sing. Until then, there is still plenty of American Idol related news to report. Today we have a sneak peak of a new David Cook track from high above Time Square, the first official un-photoshopped photo of the judges, and more on Simon and Ellen's brewing feud, if there's a feud at all.

U.S. civilian worker missing in Iraq
Baghdad, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. Military officials said they were searching for a 60-year-old Army civilian worker who vanished while on assignment in Baghdad. Issa Salomi of El Cajon, Calif., last was seen Jan. 23, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement. A video posted Thursday on an Iraqi Web site showed a man identified only as an American who was being held hostage. The kidnappers said they were the same group that kidnapped Peter Moore, a British citizen freed Dec. 31 after more...

Iraqi militants post video of kidnapped US citizen
An Iraqi militant group says they kidnapped a US citizen because the Iraqi government reneged on its promise to obtain the release of members of the group held in US-run Prisons and arrested more of its members. On Saturday, the League of the Righteous said they abducted US Military contractor Issa T. Salomi, 60, a US citizen of Iraqi origin. The Pentagon said he went missing in Baghdad on January 23. "This is a direct response to the arrests of leaders of our group two weeks ago," an...

Restating the case for intervention in Iraq.
The following is a dense paragraph of apparent prescience that was first published in 1998:

Memo 'shows Blair deal with Bush'
The leader of Plaid Cymru's MPs has said he has a memo showing Tony Blair and George Bush struck a secret deal to invade Iraq a year before the 2003 war.

US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq offered Internet service
Soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are being offered an Internet service primarily aimed at companies in Asia. The new service offers high-speed Internet access with out the need for phone lines, cable or dial-up modem. TS2 Satellite Technologies company is using satellites to power their Internet service. For Soldiers deployed to the war zones this service can allow for communications back home. Many of the Soldiers arrive in Afghanistan and Iraq with their own lap top hoping to stay in...