Dolly Parton Releases Album on Own Label

The over-40 set is the mainstay of album sales

(NEWSER) - These days, if you want to sell CDs, you're best off targeting the over-40 crowd. In a bizarre twist on music industry logic, older buyers have become a relatively potent force in music sales. The reason: "Adults don’t steal, because we don’t know how to," one older music producer tells the Boston Globe . “We're still married to the concept of ‘put the CD in the car, put the CD in the library.’" More»

Billboard.com ties MP3 and ticket sales to its famous charts

(NEWSER) - As circulation of its print magazine continues to fall, Billboard is looking to transition to the digital age with an overhauled website designed to be a one-stop shop for pop music, USA Today reports. Billboard.com now allows all visitors, not just subscribers, to look at its 51-year archive of sales charts, and it has integrated those charts with links to artist information, MP3 downloads, and concert tickets. More»

Second album has a twang, but don't typecast her: She likes Radiohead, too

(NEWSER) - Holly Williams is a descendant of country legends—Hank Williams was her grandfather, Hank Williams Jr. her father—but she’s no “cowboy hat-wearing country girl,” she tells the Telegraph. The singer and boutique owner, who admires artists from Dolly Parton to Radiohead, releases her second album Tuesday, and she says she hopes Nashville is ready to see that “you can do things outside the box and still be successful.” More»

There's 'a heart beneath these,' Parton tells capacity crowd

(NEWSER) - Dolly Parton roused the crowd at the University of Tennessee’s graduation ceremonies today, during which the singer/tycoon received an honorary doctorate, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. “I am Dr. Dolly!” she said. “When people say something about ‘double-d,’ they will be thinking of something entirely different.” Parton also had some sage advice: Your parents “are as proud of you as they will probably ever be,” she told the grads. “Seems to me like a good time for you to ask them for a loan.” More»

(NEWSER) - Tim McGraw has a message for fans regarding his new greatest hits album: I'm sorry. McGraw issued a statement today ripping into his label, Curb Records, for releasing Greatest Hits 3 only 2 years after Greatest Hits 2, CMT reports. The country star says he had nothing to do with it and would have preferred to release a new studio album. The move, he says, is part of a ploy by Curb to delay his plans of jumping ship. More»