Butch Walker’s “I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart”, One Haven Music, debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Heatseeker Chart and #116 on the Top 200; during the first week, the album hit iTunes #1 Rock Album and #13 overall Top Albums.  We distribute this album physically and digitally and 59% of the sales were digital. We secured features on iTunes (USA, Canada, Australia), Napster, Zune, Lala, ThinkIndie and Shockhound and Butch was Amazon’s Artist of the Month. PS - If you watched the Grammys a few weeks ago, Butch was the guy rocking out on the Banjolin next to Taylor Swift.

Surfer Blood’s “Astro Coast”, Kanine Records, debuted at #2 in Billboard’s Heatseeker Chart and #119 on Top 200.  We distribute this album physically and digitally and 66% of the sales were digital.   We worked hand in hand with AOL to promote Surfer Blood through an album premiere on AOL Music, featured artist for AOL’s MP3 of the Day, AOL Video of the Day, and an AOL Interface in-studio performance. This album is also being sold through Urban Outfitters’ in the USA. Spin Magazine says, “You’ll be hearing more from this band for sure”.  We agree.

German acapella metal group VAN CANTO made their Top 100 debut in Germany this week with “Tribe Of Force”, their third album on the Napalm label. The album entered the Media Control charts at number 83. To drive digital sales we marketed the album to all our chart relevant stores in Germany, securing features on iTunes, Vodafone and Mediamarkt,  as well as several placements on Amazon.de, among others. At the same time we also pushed the band’s previous two albums at reduced prices to coincide with the release of the new album, which helped the albums to take over the top 3 positions in Amazon’s hard rock charts.

Local Natives just released their first album “Gorilla Manor,” Frenchkiss Records, which a critic at NPR just called “my surprise album of the year“ Through lots of promotional support at iTunes, this album landed on iTunes US Top Albums chart at #15.  We also created an exclusive digital bundle that Local Natives is selling directly to their fans through their website. What’s more?  77% of the total album sales were digital!

RJD2’s latest “The Colossus” debuted at #4 in Billboard’s Heatseeker Chart, #168 on Top 200 new albums, and #30 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.  We distribute this album physically and digitally and 52% of his sales from the first week were digital. In addition to significant placements across our retail stores, we worked with Topspin to create a store that features a variety of different bundles including CDs, digital downloads, vinyl, and merch. We just caught RJ on his current tour and were in awe of how he juggled multiple turntables.

Congrats to all of these artists and labels!