By Leila Cobo 7 minutes ago

MIAMI (Billboard) - Playing popular dance music in Mexico has become an increasingly deadly proposition, with a string of murders striking regional Mexican acts.

In particular, the December kidnapping and murder of Sergio Gomez, lead singer of popular duranguense group K-Paz de la Sierra, highlights artists' need for security when playing Mexico's lucrative dance circuit of rural towns and municipalities.

Despite the dangers, few managers and artists are reluctant to cut Mexican tours short, particularly now that the regional Mexican touring circuit in the United States is suffering from lower attendance caused by economic and immigration concerns.

"The touring market is more lucrative in Mexico than in the United States," said one record executive, who, like most people interviewed for this article, did not want to be identified. "The production costs here (in the States) are much higher, and the venue capacities are smaller, so there's less money to go around for a band with lots of members."

But promoters agree that touring Mexico, by definition, is a riskier proposition simply because there is more crime.

BRUTAL MEASURES

"There is a lot of violence in Mexico. You need to have certain precautions," one promoter said. "But even if you do, when they're going to get you, they're going to get you, no matter how careful you are. I sometimes hear the groups saying, 'We don't know when it's going to be our turn."'

That was the rationale for duranguense group Patrulla 81 to cancel some December dates in Michoacan.

"We could have all the security in the world, and even then, people could attack us," Patrulla 81 leader Jose Angel Medina said at the time. "We canceled dates in regions we considered risky."

But there have been few other cancellations, in part because the generalized sentiment is that the brutality of the recent murders concerns personal grievances rather than an attack on music groups in general. Los Conde trumpet player Jose Luis Aquino was found beaten to death with a plastic bag over his head. Zayda y Los Culpables lead singer Zayda Pena was shot in a motel room but survived the murder attempt, only to be finished off by her killers as she was recovering in the hospital.

The most brazen murder was that of Gomez. As the lead singer of K-Paz de la Sierra, he was a widely recognized, marquee artist; indeed, his murder happened the same week K-Paz was nominated for a Grammy Award. Gomez was with Victor Hugo Sanchez and Javier Rivera — respectively, K-Paz's Mexico- and U.S.-based promoters — when they were intercepted by at least 10 vans and kidnapped as they left a performance at the Estadio Morelos in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia. The two promoters were freed after two hours in captivity. But Gomez's strangled, tortured and burned body was discovered on a highway near Morelia.

'YOU DON'T KNOW WHO'S WHO'

The viciousness of Gomez's and Pena's murders have all the makings of a mob killing, but neither of them had reported links to organized crime. Gomez, in particular, didn't even sing narcocorridos, the popular songs often based on mob lore.

But some in the industry speculate that both killings were the result of dangerous liaisons. "You're a big act, you play in these popular dances, and all these little girls are always after you," one promoter said. "The problem is, you don't know who's who. You might be messing with the wrong person."

Gomez reportedly was threatened before the December 2 show, and received threats before a scheduled show at the same venue in 2006, which he decided not to perform.

Since November 2006, when banda singer Valentin Elizalde was gunned down after a show, more than 10 other artists have been murdered in Mexico. Mexican authorities have yet to indict anyone for the string of killings.

The seeming impunity has only added credence to what many promoters say privately: That in certain regions, local strongmen charge a "tax" for performing. It's a fee that promoters pay quietly, chalking it up to the cost of doing business in Mexico.

And yet, some acts are reluctant to cut back on touring now that record sales are down, because they need the income more than ever.

"You do have to be careful — and be courteous," one promoter said, "with your audience and with everyone in general."

Reuters/Billboard

Marcus Errico Fri Jan 4, 11:39 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Natalie Imbruglia's marriage is, as her biggest hit goes, torn.

The Aussie popster has split from her rocker husband, Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns, after four years of couplehood.

They announced the demise of their marriage in a joint statement Friday, chalking up the breakup to "career demands."

"While we are very sad that our marriage has ended, we want to make it clear that our parting is amicable, and we remain friends," they said. "This mutual decision has not been taken lightly or quickly.

"However, our career demands and our lives in different parts of the world have brought us to the point where unfortunately this difficult decision was necessary for both of us.

"We have simply grown apart through not being able to spend enough time together."

Apparently, it didn't help matters that Imbruglia, 32, primarily resides in England, while Johns and his band are headquartered Down Under.

The couple married in their native Australia on New Year's Eve in 2003 in Queensland before an all-star audience of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Virgin boss Richard Branson.

Imbruglia, who has never been able to repeat the success of her 1997 Grammy-nominated international smash Left of the Middle and its inescapable single, "Torn," and Johns, whose band scored a major hit with its 1995 debut, Frogstomp, asked that the tabs lay off.

"We will not be making any further public statements whatsoever in regard to this very private matter [and] politely ask that people respect our sincere wishes in this regard."

By Gail Mitchell 30 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Raheem DeVaughn may be a newly minted Grammy Award nominee, but he still considers himself an underdog.

"I enjoy being slept on," he said during a recent soundcheck break in his native Washington, D.C. "It's like being on the verge of a cult movement. But making the underground-to-aboveground transition is cool. The best thing I can do is stay on the road and build a grassroots following. I'm constantly about building my brand."

That perseverance underscores DeVaughn's Grammy nod for best male R&B vocal performance for "Woman." It's the lead single from his second Jive album, "Love Behind the Melody" (January 15). Peaking at No. 34 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, this laid-back yet potent anthem of respect also signals growing career momentum.

"Woman" is DeVaughn's highest Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs showing, besting "Guess Who Loves You More" (No. 38) and "You" (No. 53). Both songs are from his 2005 Jive debut, "The Love Experience." Netting sales of 224,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the album reached No. 9 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 46 on the Billboard 200.

Substantive messages and strong melodies remain DeVaughn's forte, and tracks like the ballad "Mo Better" and the atmospheric "Marathon" featuring Floetry call to mind another soulful D.C. native, Marvin Gaye. As with Gaye, love ballads aren't the only thing on DeVaughn's mind. He shifts into midtempo on "Energy" featuring OutKast's Big Boi.

"This album definitely shows more of my R&B side," said DeVaughn, who calls himself an "R&B hippie" for fusing a rock, guitar-driven vibe with his old-school leanings.

"I don't just make music for one audience," he said. "I'm constantly trying to create timeless music that many people can gravitate to."

DeVaughn will face some of his biggest audiences when he opens for Jill Scott on her U.S. winter tour.

With second single "Customer" in the wings, DeVaughn remains a veritable music machine. He's 14 songs deep into another album, a socially conscious-themed effort he calls "The Love & War Masterpeace." He hopes to release that around election time, followed by a Christmas album for which he's already recorded one song.

"Where music is at right now, you have to work a lot harder," he said. "It is what you make it."

Reuters/Billboard

By Antony Bruno 14 minutes ago

DENVER (Billboard) - As physical CD sales continue their free fall, digital downloads again reached record sales figures for the year.

U.S. digital download sales reached an all-time high for the fourth year in a row, culminating with the biggest post-holiday sales week. For Christmas week (December 24-30), shoppers downloaded almost 43 million tracks from various digital music services, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. That's a 42.5 percent jump over the 30.1 million downloaded in the same week the previous year.

For the year, 844.1 million tracks were downloaded digitally, a 45 percent rise over the 581.9 million tally for 2006. Digital albums are up 53.5 percent as well, at 50 million sold, compared with 32.5 million in 2006. Fourth-quarter sales also reached all-time highs, with 231.9 million tracks and 14.2 million albums sold digitally during the period, compared with 163.3 million tracks and 9.8 million albums the year before.

Individual songs are performing better, too. "Low" by Flo Rida sold 467,000 downloads for the week, topping the 294,000 digital units of Fergie's "Fergalicious" for the same week in 2006. In addition, 27 songs sold more than 100,000 units during the post-Christmas rush, with 10 exceeding 200,000. In 2006, only 15 songs sold more than 100,000 and four sold more than 200,000.

These figures highlight a banner year for individual songs as well. Setting the record for the most downloaded digital track in a year is Soulja Boy with "Crank That (Soulja Boy)," which moved 2.7 million copies. Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" was the top download of 2006 with 1.9 million, while Weezer's "Beverly Hills" was the digital king in 2005 with 961,000.

Not one track sold more than 500,000 digital units in 2004, but 114 did in 2007, almost double the 61 tracks that crossed that threshold in 2006. Meanwhile, 36 tracks passed the 1 million sales mark, more than double the 17 in 2006.

All these records set in 2007 bode well for 2008 digital sales. The post-holiday spike witnessed during the past four years generally sets the tone for digital track sales in the year that follows once the volume settles down. The 6.6 million tracks sold after Christmas in 2004 carried over into the new year, with weekly sales totals averaging about 5.2 million tracks per week in January, to 9.5 million the week before Christmas 2005.

Tracks then jumped to 19.9 million after Christmas that year, and settled down to an average of 11.3 million in January 2006. Again, digital sales increased to 14.5 million the week before Christmas 2006, rising to 30.1 million the week after. The first few weeks of 2007 then saw average track sales of 19 million. This year's week after Christmas (which actually only tracked five days after Christmas) produced a robust 42.9 million tracks sold.

While SoundScan's data measures sales from such digital retailers as iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody, it does not track sales from artists' own Web sites (such as Radiohead's direct-to-fan release of "In Rainbows") or from widgets placed on artists' social networking pages (such as James Blunt's Lala widget on MySpace, which sells his 2007 album "All the Lost Souls").

Reuters/Billboard