Not quite as many big names on this week’s list of releases, but still several that are definitely worth giving a listen. Bjork has a huge box-set edition of her new album Voltaic dropping today that includes an impressive 3 LPs, 2 CDs and 2 DVDs. Wilco fans who have already exhausted last weeks Wilco (The Album) might also want to check out Sun Volt’s new American Central Dust. Also dropping today are Those Darlins’ self titled debut album, as well as new material from Bowerbirds and Tiny Viper.

Drive-By Truckers have a new live album featuring audio and video from their performance at Austin City Limits.

Check out the (semi) complete listing of this week’s new album releases below. I’ve provided links to download each album either on iTunes, Amazon or both.

7 July

All Time Low - Nothing Personal
Barzin – Notes to an Absent Lover Amazon
Berlin - All the Way In
Big D and the Kids table – Fluent in Stroll
Bjork - Voltaic (3-LP, 2-CD, 2-DVD box set) Or find the full box set on Amazon
Bombadil – Tarpits/Canyonlands
Bowerbirds – Upper Air Amazon
Ceu -Vagarosa
Chris Garneau – El Radio
Clutch - Strange Cousins From the West Amazon
Drive-By Truckers - Live from Austin Texas (CD & DVD) Amazon
Duckworth Lewis Method – Duckworth Music Method
The Fools – Sold out / Heavy Mental
Fritz Holder & The Phantoms - Greatest Hits
Genesis – Live in Poland Amazon
Gentlemen – Candid History of Faith Hope Love
Hatcham Social – You Dig the Tunnel, I’ll Hide the Soil
Holly Throsby – A Loud Call
The Jayhawks – Music From the North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology (3-Disc deluxe edition: Disc 1  Disc 2  Disc 3  or find the complete Deluxe Edition on Amazon)
Jorge Ben – Tudo Ben
Kiss Kiss - The Meek Shall Inherit What’s Left Amazon
La Roux – La Roux Amazon
LMFAO - Party Rock
The Lovell Sisters – Time to Grow
Marcy Playground – Leaving Wonderland…In a Fit of Rage
Maxwell - BLACKsummer’snight
The Minus 5 – Killingsworth
Motel Motel – New Denver
Nurse with Wound – Surveillance Lounge Amazon
Owen – The Seaside EP Amazon
Paul Oakenfold – Perfecto: Vegas Amazon
The Pine Hill Haints – To Win or To Lose
The Rumble Strips - Not the Only Person Amazon
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
Sleepy Sun – Embrace
Sun Volt – American Central Dust
Stellastarr* - Civilized
Those Darlins – Those Darlins
Tiny Vipers – Life on Earth
UUVVWWZ – UUVVWWZ
We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
Young Fresh Fellows – I Think This Is

30 June

There were a few notable releases last week that I wanted to mention as well, including Moby’s Wait for Me and Wilco’s self-titled Wilco (The Album).

Ace Hood & Ludacris – Ruthless
Brad Paisley – American Saturday Night
Jerimih – Jerimih
Killswitch Engage – Killswitch Engage
Levon Helm – Electric Dirt
Meestro – B Sides from B Street
Rob Thomas – Cradlesong
Moby – Wait For Me
OrganicArma – Awarned EP
Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
Wu Tang - Chamber Music

It’s time again for our recap of what went on in the music industry this week. Make sure to check out anything you might have missed and leave your comments. Know something we don’t? Submit a story.

Most Popular:

How to create a release strategy for the new music marketplace - Capitalize on the new ways fans are consuming music.

Why the music industry still needs taste makers - Sometimes recommendation engines just don’t cut it.

This Week:

Listener value vs. commercial value - What makes music valuable, and who is it valuable to?

Moby’s best selling track? The one he gave away for free - For all those in the music industry who are still not convinced that ‘free’ can play a defining role in an artist’s business model, here is yet another success story.

Animated Moby interviews himself -An animated Moby is asked questions about his new album Wait for Me by Dog, another animated character who is also voiced by the musician.

Number one way to make sure your band fails - There’s no secret formula to insure that your band will be successful, but I can tell you one fool-proof way to guarantee its failure: stop gigging.

Music Video Picks:

No new music videos last week, but check out out the archives.

This Week in Music History:

2002 It was reported that Dr Dre had become the richest music star after earning £62m in the last year (approximately one hundred million in US dollars), £37m from his own earnings plus £25m from his record label Aftermath. (This Day in Music)

As a sort of follow-up to my earlier post about Moby’s new album Wait for Me, I thought I would post this interview (which you can also find on Moby’s website.) In it, an animated Moby is asked questions about Wait for Me by Dog, another animated character who is also voiced by the musician.

I wanted to share it with you mainly because I enjoyed it, but it’s also a great example of how a little bit of creativity can help you to stand out. How many new artist interviews pop up on the web each day? If this was just more of the same no one would be bothering to talk about it, and I wouldn’t have bothered to post it. Instead Moby has produced something that’s clever and fun, and that gives him an opportunity to tell more people about his new album.

For all those in the music industry who are still not convinced that ‘free’ can play a defining role in an artist’s business model, here is yet another success story.

Bob Lefsetz posted an email yesterday that he received from Moby regarding his new album Wait for Me. I took the liberty of re-posting it below:

How’s it going?
The album just came out and it would be #1 euro charts if not for michael jackson re-releases.
So that’s good.
But here’s something funny: the best selling itunes track is ’shot in the back of the head’.
Why is that funny?
Because its the track we’ve been giving away for free for the last 2 months and that we’re still giving away for free.
Odd.
How are you?
Moby

So, not only did Moby give ‘Shot in the Back of the Head’ away in the months leading up to it’s official release, he has continued giving it away now that it is available for purchase. Offering the same product for free and for purchase at the same time may still seem counter-intuitive to many. Yet, Moby has clearly found that the promotional value of the free downloads has far outweighed whatever sales those downloads may or may not have cost him.

The reason for this phenomenon is simple. There’s a lot of music out there – certainly too much for anyone to purchase all of it. This has led consumers to become more selective. Yet, if a listener is able to hear a song for free – not thirty seconds of the song, the whole thing - that’s the song they’ll recognize when the album officially drops. ‘Shot in the Back of the Head’ is what people are downloading because they’ve already heard it, sometimes many times. It’s similar to what radio can do for for a major act, except it’s all the more powerful because the listener is given the track to enjoy whenever and however they want. There’s no risk that they won’t like it once they’ve paid for it, so they’re more willing to pull out their wallets. Add to this the fact that people have been telling each other how much they like the song for the past two months, and you can see what has caused it to rise to the top.

Free music does not spell the end of the music industry. It’s a tool that artists are using to elevate their work above the noise of a saturated market. Moby’s new single is only the latest example of how effective this tool can be.