With a long hot Summer coming to an end we now get ready for one of our season’s best in Fall. For many, this past Summer marked wildfires on the West Coast and throughout parts of the USA, some of the most terrifying tornado’s and flooding of all time. The television networks are already pushing the new Fall line-up and the campaign’s for winning the hearts and minds of viewers is in full swing. For many of us we look forward to football season. Whether it’s on the weekend from pro to college or just that simple Sunday into Monday Night Football we’re just happy to have those simple things back in our lives.

Music will no doubt be plentiful during the new fall season. Just this week they were singing the praises of Carrie Underwood replacing Faith Hill for the latest football opening over at NBC. The prime time line-up is most certainly making use of hits on the radio as a backdrop for pushing their wares. Between film and television one has to wonder just how many uses of the Robin Thick “Blurred Lines” will be in play but our guess is that it will be too many to even keep tabs on. It should be an inspiration to many of us in the music publishing field to see just how much money is possible if the cards are in your favor.

Here at New Music Weekly we are looking forward to New Music that is set to hit as soon as our Labor Day Weekend is over. We’re already seeing and hearing plenty of good new releases and that puts a smile on our faces. For many of our music and program directors it’s that time of year to “clean house”. Many are pulling the Summer music out and bringing new material in to help freshen their playlists. We are already seeing signs of the changes and you can already get a quick visual by taking a closer look at the charts that are available right here in this issue.

With the new season in full swing, many of music’s “heavy hitters” are coming out with a bang. Lady Gaga for instance is back with a punch. Her latest single “Applause” (Streamline/Interscope) is causing all kinds of controversy from the video that is out there to the stunts that the artist is pulling off just about everywhere she goes. Right behind all of her antics is Katy Perry who’s new “Roar” (Capitol) single is also in question. Rumors abound about her “ripping off” the Sarah Bareilles single “Brave” (Epic/Sony) and if you listen to both of the versus you will understand what the fuss is all about – they are that close. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

This is also the time for many of us to take a good hard look at artists and bands as we move ever closer to the music award season. It won’t be long before we will be setting the map for our New Music Awards nomination process and so are many other award outlets. You can’t just look at how artists are doing at the very end of the year, we need to keep an eye on how artists are faring at the end of the Summer leading right onto Fall.

Through this Fall season, New Music Weekly will continue to offer artists, bands and record labels all the “tools of the trades” needed to help break them in the charts. Our STS tracking system continues to be one of the best pout there when it comes to keeping an eye out for what’s really going on at radio. We will be announcing a new Future Hits compilation that will take us into the holiday season very soon. Our New Music Awards continues to honor the very best in the both the major and independent arena and to honor radio and industry professionals. As soon as we put our own professional football team together we will let you know first right here on the pages of New Music Weekly.