These figures are staggering and, given they’re pretty universal, are a clear indication of the crisis that’s engulfed the music industry, rather than a sign of decreasing popularity of Linkin Park. 1 spots in the US, Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK and elsewhere. 1 virtually everywhere and the fourth album, A Thousand Suns (2010), sold ‘only’ 1.7 million, while enjoying No. Linkin Park is typical: according to Wikipedia the band’s debut album Hybrid Theory (2000) sold 24 million worldwide the follow-up Meteora (2003) sold 16 million (even though it reached higher up the charts than its predecessor) next up was Minutes to Midnight (2007) with 8 million sales, again despite it reaching No. A quick check of the album sales of virtually every major act that’s been around for a while shows a steady and sometimes dramatic decline. The overriding concern is, of course, the continuing downward sales spiral. The tale behind Living Things reflects many of the issues that affect the music industry in 2012. They’re really cool guys that know what they want, and they gave me space to do my own thing as well, which was really refreshing.” THE TALE OF TWO MIXES Luckily I got the call to do the album, which turned out to be a great experience. I’m sure that what the other guys did was great, but they may have been more focused on one genre, whereas I felt I was able to work with and combine all the different influences. “The two songs we all mixed during the shoot-out were Burn It Down and Lost In The Echo, which became the first two singles.

And the music on Living Things is very diverse, incorporating anything from indie punk, alternative rock, hip-hop, and electronica, to country,” said Marroquin.

“In recent years I’ve actually mixed music from more and more genres - from rock, to folk, and even country. Marroquin’s credits include Alicia Keys, Bruno Mars, Lana Del Rey, Usher, Cee Lo, Pitbull, Rihanna, Flo Rida, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Christina Aguilera, and many others. He’s more known for pop and hip-hop/R&B mixes than for working with heavy walls of electric guitars. Marroquin was the eventual winner, which is arguably an unexpected result.

Nonetheless, 10 mixers took on the challenge. It may sound like a straightforward case of ‘may the best mixer win,’ but the fact of the matter was that all the approached mixers were the best in their field, had nothing to prove, and not a day to lose in their already jam-packed schedules. The winner would take home the job of mixing the rest of the album, and those that lost would get, well, nothing. Would he be prepared to mix two tracks for a forthcoming Linkin Park album in a mix-off against other top mixers? The band, producer Rick Rubin, and Warner Brothers chairman Rob Cavallo were to listen to these mixes blind on CDs simply marked A, B, C, etc. At the start of this year Manny Marroquin received an unusual request.

Usher burn vocal midi