Now Thats What I Call Marketing: Pop Hits and More

Its one of the oldest formulas in the record business, but some things never go out of style: Take a dozen or two of the biggest radio hits and bundle them as a handy, snapshot-of-the-moment compilation.

One series of such albums, Now Thats What I Call Music!, has been a reliable blockbuster for 10 years by sticking to a simple, recognizable brand. With a festive, uniform design aimed at the young, especially tween girls, the Now CDs each contain 20 chart-topping hits Britney Spears has been featured 12 times and its 28 volumes have sold 61 million copies in the United States.

If you had an artist who could put out three records a year, none of which sold less than one million, youd have the best artist in the world, said Bob Mercer, the general manager of Now, a joint venture of EMI, Universal and Sony. And thats all we have.

New entries in the series come out like clockwork three times a year, and routinely open in the Top 5 of the Billboard album chart. But Now, which began in Britain 25 years ago and on Tuesday celebrated its first decade in the United States with the release of two albums Now Vol. 29, with Pink, Pussycat Dolls, Lil Wayne and 17 others, as well as a 10-year retrospective is not immune to the souring music market. Overall album purchases in September and October were off 20 percent from the same period last year, and lately first-week Now sales have been about half what they were a few years ago. The last two volumes have not cracked one million in sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

To offset this decline, the executives behind the albums are expanding the basic product line. They have introduced a series of supplemental CDs, like Now Thats What I Call Country, and are moving into an array of media. New CDs will allow access to a Web site featuring acts below the usual superstar radar, and a deal with Dada, a cellphone-services company, will offer extra promotion of songs and ringtones from Now artists. In addition, the Now team is in talks to create a network television show to highlight its acts, according to people close to the negotiations who were not authorized to speak.

Now executives declined to comment on plans for a television show, but acknowledged that the new projects are part of a broad effort to stem losses. Were trying to make up for lost volume in the marketplace, Mr. Mercer said.

Once a crowded and lucrative field, compilations of hits exemplified by K-tels original hits by the original artists albums advertised on television beginning in the late 1960s have lost much of their appeal in the age of the la carte download, when consumers can pick their favorites and avoid the cost of a full album. Despite this, Now has held on to unusual prominence, and artists and record label executives say it still packs significant promotional power.