Music releases a chemical in the brain that has a key role in setting good moods, a study has suggested. The study, reported in Nature Neuroscience, found that the chemical was released at moments of peak enjoyment. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal said it was the first time that the chemical – called dopamine – had been tested in response to music.

Dopamine increases in response to other stimuli such as food and money. It is known to produce a feel-good state in response to certain tangible stimulants – from eating sweets to taking cocaine. Dopamine is also associated with less tangible stimuli – such as being in love.

"This paper shows that music is inextricably linked with our deepest reward systems."

Click here to read more…. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12135590

Music can create a positive environment in the Work Place:

Businesses looking to create a more positive environment in their workplace might want to make use of some appropriate music, it has been suggested, which may interest those focusing on their management skills.

According to Ellis Rich, chairman of PRS for Music, music might have a role to play when it comes to things like staff motivation and customer retention.

He stated: "Music is a key element – it creates a positive atmosphere, enhances the mood and influences spending behaviour."

Firms could see their profits positively impacted through the use of music, Mr Rich went on to say, with a "pleasurable environment" being created by it.

The commentator was speaking after the publication of new figures from Entertainment Media Research and published by Music Works, relating to the benefits of music among businesses.

As many as 82 per cent of respondents to a business survey noted that their company benefits from the use of music, Music Works revealed.

Source: http://www.managers.org.uk/news/music-can-create-positive-atmosphere-workplace

Jeff Keith lead vocalist of Telsa and the band’s lead guitar player, Frank Hannon have been working in the studio recording tracks an"acoustic" style album that Tesla has been planning to release for the 20th anniversary of their multi platinum ’5 Man Acoustic Jam’

Sugarland will continue their The Incredible Machine Tour into 2011 and return to the road this spring with guests Sara Bareilles, Little Big Town and Matt Nathanson (each guest performing in selected cities).

The boys from Jersey sold an impressive $201.1 million worth of tickets worldwide this year in a concert economy that was on the downslide. Around the world, ticket sales for the top 50 tours dropped 12 percent, and in North America, they dropped 15 percent.

Hot on the heels of the rockers is Lady Gaga, the only woman in the top 10 tours for 2010. Gaga and her Monster Ball tour placed fourth on the list. The best of the rest includes Metallica, Michael Bublé, Paul McCartney, the Eagles and Roger Waters

Fans will still have to pay top dollar to get close to the stage, audience members content with seats in the back of the house will find some good deals, including some top tickets for as low as $10 before service fees. Of course, those deep discounts will mostly apply to artists who are having a hard time selling out large venues. Ticket prices for hot acts such as Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber–who currently have no trouble selling out arenas — or Taylor Swift, who now sells out stadiums — within hours of going on sale, will continue to be fairly high.

Recovery has sold 3,146,000 copies since its release in June. That’s nearly as many copies as last year’s sales champ, Taylor Swift’s Fearless, sold in the entire calendar year (3,217,000). The total for Recovery includes 759,000 digital copies. That’s more digital copies than any album has ever sold in a calendar year. The old record was held by Coldplay‘s Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, which sold 617,000 digital copies in 2008.

Recovery has headed Nielsen/SoundScan’s year-to-date chart since Sept. 26, when it pulled ahead of Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now. That country/pop smash is #2 for the year-to-date. Taylor Swift’s Speak Now is #3. This marks the third time in Nielsen/SoundScan history that country acts have been responsible for two of the year’s top three albums. Billy Ray Cyrus‘ Some Gave All and Garth Brooks‘ Ropin’ The Wind were the top two albums of 1992. Rascal Flatts‘ Me And My Gang and Carrie Underwood‘s Some Hearts ranked #2 and #3, respectively, for 2006.

Taylor Swift is on track to become the first artist in Nielsen/SoundScan history to have an album rank among the year’s top three in three consecutive years. In addition, Swift will become only the second artist in this period to wind up in the year-end top 10 in four straight years. Mariah Carey scored from 1993 through 1996.

This is the third year in a row that Swift has had the year’s top-selling album by a female artist. No other female artist in Nielsen/SoundScan history has had the top album of the year three times. (Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Alanis Morissette, Britney Spears and Norah Jones each scored twice.)

Likewise, this is the third time that Eminem has had the year’s top-selling album by a male solo artist. No other male artist has had the top album of the year three times. (Garth Brooks and 50 Cent each scored twice.)

Lady Gaga’s The Fame ranks #5 for the year. It ranked #4 for 2009. It will become the fourth debut album in Nielsen/SoundScan history to make the year-end top 10 twice. It follows Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill (her American breakthrough), Evanescence‘s Fallen and Taylor Swift’s Taylor Swift.

The year-to-date top 10 includes two other debut albums: Justin Bieber’s My World 2.0 and Drake’s Thank Me Later. (These two albums were preceded by hit EPs).

This has been a good year for pop, which accounts for four of the year’s top 10 albums. This has also been a good year for rap, R&B and country. Each of these three genres accounts for two of the year’s top 10 albums.

But this has been a rotten year for rock. The year’s best-selling rock album, Linkin Park’s A Thousand Suns, ranks #34 for the year. This will be the lowest that the year’s top rock album has appeared on a year-end list in the Nielsen/SoundScan era. The only other time there was no rock album in the year-end top 10 was in 2002, when the year’s top rock album, Creed‘s Weathered, ranked #16 for the year.

Four acts (Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Susan Boyle and Lady Gaga) each have two albums in the year-to-date top 20. This suggests that as sales dwindle, a few key acts are increasingly dominating the scene.

Here are the 10 albums that have sold the most copies so far this year. The tally after the title is the total number of copies the album has sold through the week ending Dec. 12. I also show how many of the total sales were digital. Some of these albums sold additional copies prior to this chart year (which began with the week ending Jan. 10). If an album ranked among the top 200 albums of 2009, I show its 2009 ranking and sales tally.

Without further ado, here are the 10 albums that have sold the most total copies so far this year.

1. Eminem, Recovery, 3,146,000 (includes 759K digital). This is the fifth time that Eminem has had an album in the year-end top 10. It’s also the fifth time he has had the year’s top rap album. That’s more than any other rapper. (50 Cent came out on top twice.)

2. Lady Antebellum, Need You Now, 2,934,000 (includes 370K digital). This is the year’s biggest album by a group/duo and by a country artist.

3. Taylor Swift, Speak Now, 2,348,000 (includes 430K digital). This is the fourth year in a row that Swift has had the year’s best-selling country album. That tops Garth Brooks and Shania Twain, each of whom was responsible for the year’s top country album three times.

4. Justin Bieber, My World 2.0, 2,147,000 (includes 180K digital). This was Bieber’s first full-length album, and is the year’s best-selling debut album. It is also the year’s top album by a pop artist, by a teen artist and by an artist from outside the U.S. (Bieber is Canadian.)

5. Lady Gaga, The Fame, 1,528,000 (includes 361K digital). This is the year’s best-selling album that was released prior to 2010. It sold an additional 2,238,000 copies in 2009, which made it that year’s #4 album. (It sold an initial 150K copies in 2008, its year of release.)

6. Susan Boyle, The Gift, 1,363,000 (includes 26K digital). This is the second year in a row that Boyle has had an album in the year-end top 10. I Dreamed A Dream was #2 last year. This is also the second year in a row that a Boyle album has been the year’s best-seller by a British artist.

7. Sade, Soldier Of Love, 1,287,000 (includes 192K digital). This is the first time in the Nielsen/SoundScan era that Sade has had an album in the year-end top 10. This is the year’s top R&B album.

8. Drake, Thank Me Later, 1,211,000 (includes 251K digital). This is the first time that a rap artist’s debut album has finished in the year-end top 10 since Nelly scored 10 years ago with Country Grammar (#7 for that year).

9. Usher, Raymond V Raymond, 1,157,000 (includes 153K digital). This is the second time that Usher has finished in the year-end top 10. He had the #1 album of 2004, Confessions.

10. The Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D., 1,088,000 (includes 210K digital). This is the third time that the Peas have had an album in the year-end top 10. The E.N.D. sold an additional 1,787,000 copies in 2009, which made it that year’s #7 album. The Peas also had the #5 album of 2005, Monkey Business.

As a bonus, here are six other albums that achieved distinctions this year, along with their rank on the year-to-date list.

14. Taylor Swift, Fearless, 818,000 (includes 121K digital). Last year’s #1 album ranks a very respectable #14 this year. That is the gentlest drop from #1 of any year-end champ since at least 1992. It surpasses Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, which, after placing #1 for 2001, ranked #17 for 2002.

28. Various Artists, Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album, 592,000 (includes 166K digital). This is the year’s top soundtrack album. This is the third time in the past five years that a TV soundtrack has outsold the year’s top soundtrack to a theatrically-released movie.

34. Linkin Park, A Thousand Suns, 547,000 (includes 143,000 digital). This is the year’s top rock album. This is the third time that Linkin Park has had the year’s top rock album. The band also came out on top for 2001 (Hybrid Theory) and 2003 (Meteora). This tops Pearl Jam and Creed, each of whom had the year’s top rock album twice.

44. Various Artists, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 488,000 (includes 138K digital). This is the year’s top soundtrack to a theatrically-released movie.

78. Michael Jackson, Number Ones, 357,000 (includes 30K digital). This 2003 compilation is the year’s #1 catalog album for the second year in a row. Note the low digital number: People want the CD as a remembrance.

xx. Broadway Cast Album, Wicked, 159,000 (includes 57K digital). This is the year’s top Broadway cast album for the third time in the past five years. (It fell behind Jersey Boys the past two years.) No ranking is shown because it isn’t in the year’s top 200.

Michael Jackson’s Live In Bucharest is the year’s #1 music video, with sales of 109,000. Jackson also had the #1 music video of 2009 with Number Ones, which posted a much healthier sales tally of 558,000.

New On DVD: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse—which many people feel is the best of the series so far, also new on DVD… “Inception” with Leonardo DeCaprio, it’s writer-director Chris Nolan’s first film since The Dark Night and also new for the small screen, Shrek: Forever After.

Singer/Superstar Prince dropped by – completely unannounced – on The View to plug his Welcome 2 America" concert series. The crowd loved it. He gave each of the hosts a pair of tickets to the show before leaving abruptly.

ABC has set Feb. 9 for its new comedy Mr. Sunshine. The series stars “Friend” Matthew Perry as a self-absorbed manager of a sports arena. It also stars Allison Janney who you probably remember from The West Wing

A sad case finally comes to an end, Dane Cook’s half-brother Darryl McCauley has been ordered to pay back $12 million to Cook in restitution, after pleading guilty to embezzling funds from the comic/actor. McCauley was sentenced to five years in prison on larceny and forgery charges. McCauley’s wife, Erika, was also sentenced to 3 years in prison on two counts of larceny. Dane Cook called his half brother’s embezzling "a terrible betrayal… "

Kanye West’s fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, debuted at No. 1 on the chart selling 496,000 copies.

The 53rd Annual Grammy Award Nominations were announced and Eminem is up for 10 awards, Bruno Mars for 7, and Jay-Z and Lady Gaga with 6 nods are among the favorites.

Forget about the Grammy, Lady Gaga told fans at a concert in Poland last week that her upcoming album, Born This Way, is going to be “the greatest album of this decade”.

U2 is having issues on Broadway. After a long delay and budget concerns their highly anticipated Spider-Man play opened for its preview run. There were a few technical problems that caused delays and the reviews were not good. Many critics wrote that the plot was too complicated, too convoluted and that the costumes and effects were not that great. U2’s Spider-Man will have a six week pre view run before having its official grand opening to audiences.

And Skip to next paragraphEntertainment Weekly named Taylor Swift Entertainer of the Year, and at just 20 years old, she is the youngest person ever to be so honored…

Justin Bieber goes 4 for 4! Bieber was nominated for 4 American Music Awards and won all of them, including Artist of the Year.

And just in time for Holiday Gift buying, The Beatles are available on iTunes for the first time ever. So far very good for the Fab Four, since becoming available on iTunes last week nearly 500,000 albums and two million individual singles worldwide have been sold.

December 11th the Nobel Peace Prize Concert will take place in Oslo, Norway. Artists from around the world will gather to help spread the message of peace and celebrate the Nobel Peace Prize. The event is going to be hosted by Denzel Washington and Anne Hathaway and some of the artists participating, include Colbie Callait, Barry Manilow, Elvis Costello, and Herbie Hancock

Harry Potter fans are generating big box office and huge buzz with the latest installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1. And Cher is back with her first film in 11 years, it’s called , “Burlesque” and co-stars Christina Aguilera –in her feature film debut.

Album sales have been dropping in recent years, but most figured that Perry had attained a level of pop stardom that would enable her to defy downward sales trends. Three of her songs ("I Kissed A Girl," "Hot N Cold" and "California Gurls") have topped the 3 million mark in digital sales. She received back-to-back Grammy nominations for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance the last two years (and will probably be in the running in that high-profile category again when this year’s nominations are announced in December). She was even on the cover of Rolling Stone in August.

So what happened? The most obvious problem is that the album should have been released a few months ago, when "California Gurls," Perry’s monster-hit collaboration with Snoop Dogg, was at its peak. "California Gurls" topped 200,000 in weekly sales in each of its first nine weeks of release. Its sales peaked at 359,000 in the week ending June 13. (The old adage "strike while the iron’s hot" comes to mind.)

Perry’s follow-up single, "Teenage Dream," is a big hit, but at least so far, it’s not a "California Gurls"-style smash. It sold 259,000 copies in its biggest week to date.

lso, fans may simply prefer buying Perry’s songs one at a time. Perry’s debut album, One Of The Boys, has sold 1,283,000 copies since its release in June 2008, which is a solid total. But the four hottest songs from the album, "Hot N Cold," "I Kissed A Girl," "Waking Up In Vegas" and "Thinking Of You," have sold a combined total of 11,084,000 digital copies.

The pattern seems to be repeating with Perry’s new album and its key songs. "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream" have already sold a combined total of 4,968,000 copies.

Teenage Dream is far from a flop. The album sold 192,000 copies in its first week, which was the eighth biggest first-week total so far in 2010. It was the best showing so far this year by a female solo artist, bigger than Ke$ha’s opening week with Animal (152,000 in January). But Ke$ha was a new artist at the time. More was expected from Perry, because this is her second album.

Teenage Dream sold 88,000 copies in its second week, which pushed it from #1 to #4 on The Billboard 200. (It sold fewer copies in its second week than Eminem’s Recovery did in its 11th week.)

Teenage Dream is, to be sure, off to a far faster start than Perry’s debut album. One Of The Boys sold 47,000 copies in its first week in June 2008. After two weeks, it had sold 81,000. But that was before Perry became a star.

In years past, after an artist had a string of hits, a major magazine cover, several high-profile TV appearances and a pair of Grammy nominations, fans would be comfortable stepping up to an album purchase. The fear in the industry is that fans no longer think that way.

Ed Christman, a senior correspondent for Billboard, writes this week that EMI shipped 1 million copies of Perry’s album prior to its Aug. 24 release, based on high expectations from such "big-box retail chains" as Walmart, Target and Best Buy. The album’s softer-than-expected opening could make those chains more cautious about future orders. As Christman writes, it "has sparked worries that the album’s performance may affect retail orders for other superstar releases due later this year."

The music industry may have simply pinned too much hope on Perry’s album. The industry has been starved for a big hit this summer. No albums have topped 200,000 in weekly sales since Eminem’s Recovery, which was released in June. (It exceeded that mark in each of its first three weeks.)

Virtually everyone in the industry thought Perry would top 200,000. Billboard reports that first-week estimates ranged from a low of 300,000 to a perhaps unrealistically high of 700,000.

"California Gurls" is one of only three songs in digital history to have topped the 300,000 mark in weekly sales four or more times. The others are Flo Rida’s "Right Round" and "Love The Way You Lie" by Eminem featuring Rihanna.

What we’re seeing is that having such a monster hit is no guarantee of strong album sales. Eminem’s Recovery is a blockbuster, with sales of 2,420,000 copies in just 11 weeks, but Flo Rida’s R.O.O.T.S. (Route Of Overcoming The Struggle) has been just a modest hit, with sales of just 264,000 copies since its release nearly 18 months ago. (Perry’s album will probably wind up somewhere in the middle. She is neither an album-selling titan like Eminem or an almost purely "singles artist" like Flo Rida.)

Dominic Pandiscia, executive vice president of EMI Music Services, told Billboard’s Christman that he was happy with Perry’s launch. That’s predictable, coming from an executive who oversees North American sales for EMI labels (which includes Perry’s label, Capitol). Label executives always put the best possible spin on their artists’ sales.

But Pandiscia made a further statement that carried the ring of truth. "The magnitude of the marketing plan is about driving overall revenue around the project, including track downloads, ringtones and video sales. Album (sales are just) one component of it."

Pandiscia’s point is it doesn’t matter to a record company if the money comes from individual song downloads, album sales, ringtone sales or video sales, as long as it comes.

Perry is far from the only artist who does better with individual songs than with albums. Train’s feel-good hit "Hey, Soul Sister" has sold 4,516,000 digital copies. That’s 10 times as many copies as the album the song came from, Save Me, San Francisco, which has sold 451,000 copies.

The first three hits from B.o.B’s B.o.B Presents: The Adventures Of Bobby Ray have sold a combined total of 6,870,000 copies. The album itself has sold just 386,000 copies, again, not bad, especially for a new artist, but way below what you might expect for such a hit-laden album.

Here’s the most dramatic current example: The first two smash hits from Taio Cruz’s Rokstarr ("Break Your Heart," featuring Ludacris, and "Dynamite") have sold a combined total of 5,298,000 copies. The album itself has sold just 105,000 copies.

Of course, the biggest single factor inhibiting the sales of Perry’s album is that album sales are down across the board. Only two albums have topped the 2 million mark so far this year: Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now, which has sold 2,593,000 copies since its release in January, and Recovery. Just seven albums have sold 1 million or more copies so far this year. Just 21 albums have sold 500,000 or more copies so far this year.

Incidentally, this is the 14th consecutive week that either Perry or Eminem has had the #1 single on the Hot 100. "California Gurls" had six weeks on top in June and July. It was bumped by "Love The Way You Lie," which had seven weeks on top, before yielding to "Teenage Dream" this week.

One act that may be relieved that Perry’s album is underperforming is the rock band Disturbed, which rang up first-week sales of 179,000 copies of its new album Asylum. If Perry’s album had lived up to expectations, Asylum might have debuted at #2. As it is, Disturbed was able to maintain its streak of four consecutive albums to debut at #1.

I have more to say about Perry, Eminem, Disturbed and the rest of the acts in this week’s top 10 in my regular Chart Watch blog, which is posted each Wednesday. If you missed it, here’s a link

Eminem’s "Recovery" sold 187,000 copies during the week ended July 25, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its total stands at almost 1.7 million.

Ross’ fourth album "Teflon Don" followed at No. 2 with 176,000, ending an unbroken string of No. 1 debuts for his previous releases. His last set, 2009′s "Deeper Than Rap," arrived with 158,000.

A week ago industry observers had projected that Ross had a good shot at a No. 1 debut. However, "Recovery" held on strongly with a small 14% weekly sales decline. Chalk that up in part to its sale pricing at Target and Best Buy and the continued popularity of its single "Love the Way You Lie." It reigns atop the Digital Songs chart for a fifth straight week.

Sheryl Crow’s "100 Miles From Memphis" debuted at No. 3 with 55,000 copies. The singer/songwriter’s last effort, "Detours," debuted and peaked at No. 2 with 92,000 in 2008; she has yet to claim a No. 1 album.

The "Kidz Bop Kids" series continues its profitable run on the Billboard 200 as "Kidz Bop 18" bounces in at No. 5 with 43,000.

The Jonas Brothers’ soundtrack to their Disney Channel TV series "Jonas L.A." surfs in at No. 7 with 32,000. The trio’s previous studio album, "Lines, Vines and Trying Times," debuted at No. 1 a year ago with 247,000 copies.

As for the rest of the top 10, Drake’s "Thank Me Later" slipped one to No. 4 (47,000); Justin Bieber’s "My World 2.0" was also down one, to No. 6 (39,000); the "Now 34" compilation jumped four to No. 8 (27,000); Lady Antebellum’s "Need You Now" rose two to No. 9 (25,000); and Lady Gaga’s "The Fame" was up three to No. 10 (24,000).

Overall album sales totaled 5.3 million units, up 2% from the previous week and down 15% from the year-ago period. Year-to-date album sales stand at 169.7 million, down 12% compared with the same total at this point last year.