Hi Fi Responds to Adam Lambert, Claims He Signed A Record Contract in 2008

I knew this is going to be a big mess. They should have just let them released the album. Now it’s getting deeper. Sad to say but the fans contributed too in making this smoke turn into a fire.

And the plot thickens. This is so much fun to watch, not being invested in anybody this season.

Tired of this subject, dead issue for me. Ready for the tour and new album from RCA and Adam.

They should have just let them released the album. Now ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s getting deeper.

No one has stopped them. They can’t force people to buy it! :tongue1_tb:

Wouldn’t AI look into whether contestants have recording contracts? And if he did sign a contract, why was the album never released (until now, of course, that Adam is famous)? I know nothing about the music biz, but can the contracts have time limits?

Well, this could have died as a story over the weekend but sorry MJ, now that it is the weekend you are going to stir up the blogasphere for the entire weekend. You are probably going to ban me for this but whatever. I’m sick of hearing this story and the bashing lately all around. I will just enjoy Adam from further afar and not read a damn thing on him for a while.

:ponder_tb:
Interesting. Very Interesting.
If its true, then not good Idol and Adam. :nono_tb:

And if Wilshire did have a contract with Adam, and stood to lose so much money (as Hi Fi claims), why didn’t they say anything at the start of AI?

And if Wilshire did have a contract with Adam, and stood to lose so much money (as Hi Fi claims), why didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t they say anything at the start of AI?

How did Wilshire stand to lose money? Adam was getting the best free advertising on prime time tv. Their investment in Adam Lambert is worth a lot more now than it was in January.

It’s late here & I can’t think or read straight so I’m so confused right now. Not even sure whether it has any relevance but I’m quoting one of the comments on the MTV article;

“For the love of god these songs have only been available on YouTube for over a year. The only song Lambert DENIED writing was that piece of crap Want. Everyone knows Lambert wrote these songs. And any idiot can just check ASCAP to find out. I love how media outlets like MTV are giving this Heckler idiot a platform. If he was so hot on Lambert’s talent, why didn’t he release his stuff before he became famous on American Idol? I’m not even a Lambert fan but come on. This Heckler guy is a blatant opportunist. Short story. Lambert was struggling. He sang some songs for Heckler as a session singer. He wrote some songs for himself. Somehow this massive douchebag Heckler got his hands on the lot of them and put some on an album to make a quick buck without telling Lamber or 19 which ones he was using. At the time of Lambert’s brief statement the only song he was aware of being on the album was Want, an item he had nothing to do with writing. No lies. No innuendo. No crap unless it’s coming from Heckler’s camp. It’s obvious to anyone following this developing nonsense that this guy is a publicity hound and Lambert and 19′s lack of commenting on the situation put a damper on his tactics. Thanks MTV for letting it run wild again. Let’s hope that Lambert learns a lesson from this. Don’t barter away your talent to scum.”

I’m hoping this is the end of it. Who knows what the truth is at this point and Hi Fi trying to turn this into some sort of David v Goliath thing is getting old.

LOL, I so posted yesterday this was the next thing they were going to claim in the counter statement.

GeminiDolly
Jun 25th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Hifi is probably working on their counter statement. What do you think it will be? R we going to find out Adam was under contract now?

Well let’s see this contract I say. If they’ve got it they surely can produce it.

In Adam’s defence, IF and I still believe it’s a big IF, he did sign some sort of contract, we have to ask why then did he need to try out for AI to get himself a recording contract? IF this is true, then why should Adam look like the bad guy here? Why not AI who possibly didn’t do their homework? There are still more questions than answers. I agree it should be dropped but HiFi sure doesn’t seem to be willing to do so. They seem to want Adam to look like a schmuck. How is that good marketing?

Why wouldn’t they mention a signed recording contract initially when they announced the release of “Want?”

It’s late here & I can’t think or read straight so I’m so confused right now. Not even sure whether it has any relevance but I’m quoting one of the comments on the MTV article:

For the love of god these songs have only been available on YouTube for over a year. The only song Lambert DENIED writing was that piece of crap Want. Everyone knows Lambert wrote these songs. And any idiot can just check ASCAP to find out. I love how media outlets like MTV are giving this Heckler idiot a platform. If he was so hot on Lambert’s talent, why didn’t he release his stuff before he became famous on American Idol? I’m not even a Lambert fan but come on. This Heckler guy is a blatant opportunist. Short story. Lambert was struggling. He sang some songs for Heckler as a session singer. He wrote some songs for himself. Somehow this massive douchebag Heckler got his hands on the lot of them and put some on an album to make a quick buck without telling Lamber or 19 which ones he was using. At the time of Lambert’s brief statement the only song he was aware of being on the album was Want, an item he had nothing to do with writing. No lies. No innuendo. No crap unless it’s coming from Heckler’s camp. It’s obvious to anyone following this developing nonsense that this guy is a publicity hound and Lambert and 19′s lack of commenting on the situation put a damper on his tactics. Thanks MTV for letting it run wild again. Let’s hope that Lambert learns a lesson from this. Don’t barter away your talent to scum.

Double post! Please delete : |

Looks like they may be posturing for a defamation suit.

Yawn!

I think HiFi is spinning lots of tall tales based on flimsy amounts of truth. But regardless, I couldn’t care less about their statements. I’m 100% for Adam and hope his RCA cd is hugely successful.

HiFi, go away. We don’t want you and Adam doesn’t want you.

Hi Fi and Wilshire can’t force fans to but this album but seem determined to cause as much trouble for Adam as possible. These are the same people who said they didn’t want to hurt Adam and were handling him and his brand with care. Riiiight.

I no longer care who wrote what or when they wrote it. I don’t care about an alleged contract and I don’t even care if Adam did violate a contract. He has an incredible talent and I’m glad he went on Idol. Hi Fi and Wilshire can go violate themselves.

I really feel for Adam. He just wants to sing and has to deal with one uproar after another and a bunch of people who want to ride his coattails.

If Adam had a contract w/ HiFi as they state….why did they have to purchase these songs from Wilshire in the first place. Everytime HiFi makes a statement they come up w/ a different angle that suits them. IMO not the way to make people want to buy a record by making the artist into a bad person, etc. At this point it seems they just are mad people are not buying, so they are going to take it out on Adam and try to ruin his chances at success. Does not make me like them more!

Well, this could have died as a story over the weekend but sorry MJ, now that it is the weekend you are going to stir up the blogasphere for the entire weekend. You are probably going to ban me for this but whatever. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sick of hearing this story and the bashing lately all around. I will just enjoy Adam from further afar and not read a damn thing on him for a while.

Bwah! What in the world does MJ have to do with this? She’s not the one sending out releases and denials and counter-releases. Is she supposed to NOT blog about stuff that people are obviously interested in (last thread on this topic had about 230 comments)? Or is she only supposed to blog about stuff like the cute Access Hollywood or TV Guide interviews but not on anything that may be half-way controversial (which this isn’t even THAT controversial frankly) about YOUR favorite Idol? Oh, Idol fandom. You are a constant source of the funny.

I hope Adam doesnt get too down about this. I also hope he doesnt release another statement on this issue and just let it go. Whats done is done-on with the real music.

I just want to say I don’t care about this anymore. :smile1_tb: I’m going to go back and watch the TV Guide Interview.

Who cares really? Let Hifi release the songs, sell them, let Adam get on with his real music and his life.

I really know very little about the industry (I’ve pretty much ignored popular music for the last 15 years until accidently seeing Adam on Idol) so maybe I just don’t get it, but the term “recording contract” sounds really vague to me. Does it always mean a full-fledged deal to make an album or is a contract with a session signer or a contract for some demos by a songwriter also refered to as a “recording contract”?

If it is a contract to do a single specific thing (ie sing 10 songs as a session singer) then it would have been over before Idol and would have nothing to do with it … but HiFi could still say they have a “signed recording contract”

If Adam had a prior contract with HiFi/Wilshire, I would bet it was expired prior to him going on AI. If it wasn’t, AI would have found out and he would have disqualified. More smoke and mirrors from HiFi. What snakes.

I will just enjoy Adam from further afar and not read a damn thing on him for a while.

Bye!

There are many different kinds of contracts. Wilshire is NOT a record label (hence its brand new partnership with the lovely Hi-Fi). A lot of the Wilshire artists on its MySpace page are labelled “unsigned.” Obviously, whatever Adam signed (perhaps a demo/songwriting deal), it didn’t preclude him from being on Idol. And whatever Adam started to do with Wilshire, he didn’t finish.

Speculating on all of this is useless. At the end of the day, you either believe Adam or you don’t. I choose to believe Adam. After all, he is the writer, singer, artist and signer of whatever he signed. He was actually there.

Overall, I’m sick of this company, and I’m sick of what they’re doing to Adam.

As weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve already outlined, releasing this music was always the plan. That plan was changed by 19 Recordings after Adam won America over with his extraordinary talent. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a shame that his management/record company choose to disavow their clientà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s work and discredit him as a songwriter.

This is ridiculous. They keep repeating it. Trying to make it sound like Adam is being locked in a dungeon. But since Adam is clearly a part of the songwriting process for his RCA debut I don’t know how anyone can claim 19 is trying to ‘discredit him as a songwriter.’

We apologize for what has become a tiresome tit for tat, particularly on a day that we mourn the loss of a truly original, game-changing entertainer, but unfortunately, each statement released in Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s name contains a different story

Umm. Pot meet Kettle. Adam’s original statement was wrong because he didn’t have all the information. Hi Fi’s story changes with each new press release. (And there’s been what, 4 or 5 now?) Give me a break. If Adam had a contract.. why just not say that in the first press release. It would have given their claims a lot more credence in the beginning.

Not to say that Adam didn’t sign something, because it certainly seems like he did. Which, big whoops on his part. But it’s not like RCA/19 is going to drop him at this point. Not a chance in hell. Not unless they legally had to. Which is a whole different can of worms.

But I don’t think Hi Fi is going to gain much support when each new press statement comes out more whinny and annoying than the last.

MJ wrote: Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s time, I think, for all parties to shut the hell up. In the end, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not a big deal. Fans can buy it, or not. But, without any significant promotion, the fans who are upset by this can console themselvesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’the music will likely die a quick death.

Well said! :wacko_tb:

I think HiFi is spinning lots of tall tales based on flimsy amounts of truth. But regardless, I couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t care less about their statements. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m 100% for Adam and hope his RCA cd is hugely successful.

Amen revcat!

I think it’s curious that in all the places I’ve read the new “statement from HiFi” the part about the “signed contract” is not actually “quoted” like the rest of the statement is. MJ, do you know anything more about that statement?

Also, I was reading the AI contract lingo on another site… and I can’t quote anything because it was hella confusing… but I did glean from the verbiage that the contestants could not have any current contracts that would not allow them to sign an exclusive arrangement with 19E. It does not say they can’t have any relationships at all with any other studios. Obviously there have been, and I’m sure there will continue to be, AI contestants who are involved in recording music with “other” people prior to their AI run. And no doubt those other entities, just as in this case with Adam, may have the rights to certain music sung by the contestant in question.

I have no doubt that Adam was up front about his relationships with AI and 19E. I believe there is obviously some legal arrangement that allows HiFi the rights to these songs, but they are still demos and were not intended for Album Release. HiFi making it sound like they were is sleazy, sleazy, sleazy!!

If Adam was under a current contract, then Hi Fi would have had grounds to sue 19 for signing Adam. Adam’s contract with 19 would be invalid. Its like marrying more than 1 person at the same time, you can only have one legal contract at a time. Plus, if there is a current recording contract, why didn’t Hi Fi bring that up in the very beginning? Why only now that its clear Adam wants nothing to do with this project. Plus, if Adam is under a current contract, he would have a say as to whether these tunes were released. Something is missing from this story.

Ok, I don’t really understand this whole thing – but really what is the worst thing that can happen? He signed a contract and 19 dump him? Would that be the end of the world? Tons of people didn’t want him to win because he would be locked into 19 forever. Wouldn’t there be a lineup of others waiting to sign him on?? It’s obvious that some very important industry types are thrilled to be working with him and the press obviously love him.

I agree with your assessment MJ now that I read the whole thing. lol

Thanks MTV for letting it run wild again.

It’s not MTV’s–or my job for that matter–to protect Adam. MTV makes decisions for the good of their organization. As does anyone in business, including Hi Fi/Wilshire.

1. Worst possible situation: If Adam indeed had a contract, 19 will still stand by him. Why would they release him when 10 major labels are waiting with pen and paper in hand outside his door? The word from the industry is Adam is one of the hottest new properties out there.

2. Next possible situation: HiFi is still blowing smoke. They know how hot Adam is, and they somehow think they can get this album released and make a killing. What they don’t know is Adam has loyal fans and will have his back. These aren’t just young tweeners, but powerful women in their 30′s up to 70′s and 80′s.

I think the Adam camp should just let it go, unless they think they have some sort of legal recourse (i.e., buy back the tracks). I feel for Adam — he can’t enjoy this ride w/o this hanging over his head.

How did Wilshire stand to lose money? Adam was getting the best free advertising on prime time tv. Their investment in Adam Lambert is worth a lot more now than it was in January.

Those are Hi-Fi’s words, not mine.

The thing that interest me is what Hecker said originally which was à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“We were presented with a business opportunity.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“We accepted because Wilshire Records had a long working relationship with Adam, (does not say contract) and it resulted in excellent music that they had the rights to. The music has an audience, and it deserves to be heard. I think ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s great music. At the end of the day, from my perspective, weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re really helping Adam.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  All this subsequent tit for tat is just there way to spin things in HiFi’s favor. Adam never had a relationship with HiFi and in no way made any deals with them. Hecker and HiFI are no way interested in Adam’s brand just their pockets just like Hecker originally said. They are trying to spin this as if they are the victims and people are falling for it. Maybe Adam is new to the politics of the music industry but 19 and HiFI are not. 19 would have at this point known if Adam had a legitimate contract with another record company and would have disqualified him a long time ago. HiFi knows how to take a so called agreement and between a session singer and Wilshire and turn it into a media frenzy. Legally HiFi and Hecker are probably in the clear. Morally ,ethically not a chance. From this, to me, Adam is not lying. Memo to Hecker: leave him alone let him make his new album the one he wants to make NOW. Release your legally owned songs after. Thanks

Not again . I hope Adam does not respond to this. the articule has been out since morning on the rolling stone site. no one cares. Adam signed a contract and they let him go on idol, a show contestants go on with the sole purpose of to getting a recording contract. this is just too silly and funny. they must think people are stupid.

So my understanding is that Adam has never had a relationship with Hi-Fi. He had some sort of relationship with Wilshire. He recorded demos for and with them. So he may have had some sort of contract with them in early 2008, but whatever contract it was did not involve Wilshire putting together an Adam cd. Maybe it was some sort of exploratory contract – Wilshire records demos to shop around, Adam gives them the ownership of the demo recordings. He probably thinks this is no big deal because in the real world no one buys demos, in the real world if a company likes the demos it signs the artist and records/produces the songs properly. So Adam makes it to AI and becomes famous. Wilshire realizes the demos are now potentially worth some money and sells them to Hi-Fi.

My guess is that Wilshire owned the demo recordings but no longer had a valid contract with Adam, thus had no right to force Adam to re-record and “finish” a cd. Wilshire sold the rights to the demos to Hi-Fi. Hi-Fi may have the legal right to market the demos, but no right to Adam the artist. Wilshire may have had some sort of contract with Adam at some point, but it must have expired long ago or not been a “real” recording contract – otherwise they could have blackmailed Adam into promoting their demos or forced him into re-recording them.

In the real world, do reputable recording companies with reputations worth upholding sell demos of artists they don’t have contracts with to the listening public? I don’ t think so. So whatever, Hi-Fi can do whatever they can get away with legally. Without Adam’s active promotion or the wholehearted support of his fans, they’re not going to sell much. I hope they lose their shirts. They’re already losing their reputation as far as I’m concerned. I hope all of Adam’s hard work with these producers and songwriters results in an inspired album and sells well enough to set him off on a successful future, and that this Hi-Fi silliness becomes merely a bit of Adam trivia that only hard-core fans have any memory of.

I just want to say I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t care about this anymore. :smile1_tb: Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m going to go back and watch the TV Guide Interview.

haha. i LOVE this interview, and I’m not even a big Kradam fan!! lol

I haven’t read everything about this story, but I understand 19/RCA hasn’t done anything to stop this and they’ve been quite which makes me think HI FI may be telling some truth and 19 just can’t stop them.

I’ve listened to the song that is available on itunes and I think it’s really awful, so no wonder Adam doesn’t want this stuff to see the light of the day in a official way. But the boy is no victim.

People are getting a little over the edge with this issue. As I see it, people will want to believe what they want to believe, no matter what.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is probably one of those.

Fans have raved about Adam’s Citizen Vein music before, and some have stated that those songs shows Adam’s niche in the music industry…And now that its going to be released, a change of heart? I understand that Adam might not have his say on how the songs would be packaged/released or that there is dearth of, or there is no creative input on his part as to the end result. But he is talented, undeniably. His brilliance shines through. There’s no need to be ashamed, unless those songs could damage his career…which I highly doubt. In the end, it is still his music, whether he sold rights to it or not, or whether he forged a contract with Hi-Fi or not. This will blow over.

Adam will come out victorious in the end…and I’m hoping that he does.

ITA with everyone who is calling bullshit on the signed “recording contract.” Adam had no relationship with Hi-Fi and they’ve never claimed he did. And Wilshire isn’t a record label. So I’m guessing whatever type of “contract” they had with Adam (if they even had one) it didn’t preclude his involvement with AI and it wasn’t a traditional recording contract.

But as others have said, I’m sick of this subject. I won’t be buying the album and I choose to believe Adam. End of story.

There is no indication from Hi-Fi that Adam violated his contract with Wilshire by signing with 19/RCA.

Indeed, Adam could not have signed with 19/RCA if he had a current management/record deal.

And Adam has not denied that he signed some sort of contract with Wilshire (likely a demo/songwriting deal given the nature of his work for them).

Hence, there do not seem to be any contractual issues, just ethical ones.

Hi guys. I’m new here. Can anyone tell me how I can see the threads posted previously…the one’s which are not included in the column titled latest posts…Thanks =)

i agree dhunken… funny how it started out as something that was brought to them by wilshire and NOW they (HiFi) have had a contract with adam all along?

and im also confused about how this is now making adam look bad if, as we have discussed many times, the idols could only be under a CURRENT contract. nothing in that “february 2008″ statement (if true) says that he was still under contract in the summer of 2008. and that is all that matters, right?

from what i can tell, HiFi has continued to alter their statements with each release whereas adam has only added to, not changed, his statement as he finds out new facts about this album.

Oh, dear.

*yawn*

(That’s not a slight on you, MJ — just the whole situation.)

This is getting old. If Adam is under contract with another label, sue him and RCA, Hi-Fi/Wilshire/whatevs. This is just getting boring. I don’t care if Adam is a liar (I don’t think he is, by the way) or if he is being held hostage by RCA/19 (which seem like they are supporting him). I just want to hear his new CD this fall.

Fans have raved about Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Citizen Vein music before, and some have stated that those songs shows Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s niche in the music industryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦And now that its going to be released, a change of heart?

Well, in response to this, this Adam fan didn’t care for his band. I preferred his solo stuff like I Got This, Pop Goes the Camera and Crawl Through Fire. I didn’t really think the band suited him much.

I am an Adam fan, I find this whole HIFI thing is getting more and more annoying. Actually, I think I will try to ignore it from now, I know other Adam fans do. Just wait patiently for the RCA album.

Apparently these folks have the right to release these albums. It is no big deal. David Cook had albums on sale for download at Walmart for most of last year from his old band Axium, they have since been taken down. The story on how they got there was a mystery but I think (I do not know for sure and have no inside knowledge) that David could not control the fact that they were up there. The album he did solo “Analog Heart” which he did have complete control over was pulled from Amazon and never rereleased. None of it affected his new album when it was released. So in my opinion this will not effect Adam’s album sales next fall. So Adam and RCA should back off and the story will go away all on it’s own. For me I think the more that comes out about this the worse Adam Looks. YMMV

I will just enjoy Adam from further afar and not read a damn thing on him for a while.

Bye!

Pithy! I love you, MJ :smile2_tb:!

Frankly, I think the “contract” they have is related to Adam signing away the rights to his songs to Wilshire Records (who then sold them off to Hi Fi). Meaning, they have the legal right to do whatever they want with his songs.

But of course they word it in a way that would cause more drama and talk in a desperate attempt to keep their name in the news. Because it’s the only way they have of promoting the album.

Unfortunately for them, they’re screwed because Michael Jackson’s death has overtaken the news cycle (including music news).

im also confused about how this is now making adam look bad

I could detail it for you, but the gist of it is that Hi-Fi/Wilshire somehow has people arguing over whether or not Adam is a liar and people (including MJ) insinuating that he was not legally allowed to be an American Idol contestant.

I could argue this until I’m blue in the face, but you have to admit that’s a pretty remarkable feat for a company that claims to have Adam’s “best interests” at heart. lol.

Wow.

I was an MJSBIGBLOG virgin prior to this year. I didn’t even know this happy place existed until I was googling idol song spoilers for season 8. Now…I’m hooked. I visit this blog several times a day. I wonder if I will tire of hearing things about Adam Lambert…hmmmm…probably not.

I still find this stuff fascinating. Even though this story is getting kind of old…it still has twists and turns. I, for one, want HiFi to produce the contract or shut up.

Thanks for all the fabulous information MJ. I hope you get paid the mjsbigbucks.

ITA, lizardino and mj and others!!!! He said/she said…I want the Tour, I want Kradison’s music, I have no idea what’s really going on, and I don’t care at this point.

No worries, peeps: 1st and last post from me on this thread. Off to watch the Kradam video again. Cheers.

It becomes curiouser and curiouser… Obviously HiFi is trying to make a buck and seems to have a legal leg to stand on. I can’t really blame them. I dare say many others in their position would do they same. If they do have something signed what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to say…oh Adam you were on idol and you seem to be a great guy so we’ll tear up this little piece of paper and forego any possibility of us making money? They aren’t villians – they’re just trying to make a buck like everyone else. If Adam signed something with them, that’s his problem. In the end, it won’t matter. But if he was under contract with HiFi and the story does leak out to the mainstream press, it will be interesting to see how idol ptb spins it. I’m betting they’ll be thrilled because it’s just creating more buzz for Adam.

oh LisaE… i got how it COULD make him look bad (ive been reading all this nonsense each day with a shameful level of attention :blush_tb:, i guess i poorly worded my question, which was sort of rhetorical, because i was really saying it SHOULDN’T make him look bad given what we have been saying about the contract only needing to be CURRENT for it to be a problem.

and now that i read their statement again, i think you might be right snuffles. they probably mean they have a signed contract (via wilshire) in which adam gave away the rights to the recordings of these songs. but, if we believe the other statements, he still retains writing rights so he can profit….

i feel like im taking crazy pills!

In Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s defence, IF and I still believe ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a big IF, he did sign some sort of contract, we have to ask why then did he need to try out for AI to get himself a recording contract?

There’s a big difference between getting a contract from a major label, which he would receive if he had an impressive run on Idol, and having a contract with a tiny indie like Wilshire Records. Also there are different types of contracts.

Adam may have been under contract in the sense that he was contracted to record some songs for this label, but he may not have been the “property” of that label as an artist. If that was the arrangement and if it was still in effect when he auditioned for Idol, then it’s a gray area whether or not that kind of contract should have rendered him ineligible or not.

Adam might have more to worry about from the sharks at 19R/RCA. These guysà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re all the same.

This is gonna be interesting. After this hullaballoo, they could put him under indentured servitude as recompense for the legal rollercoaster that he most likely is/will be putting 19 through. LOL

“It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up…”

If nothing else, Adam Lambert is savvy enough to know that he could not have a current recording contract when he auditioned for Idol. To even imply that this was the case borders on libel. What Adam probably had was a contract to do “casual” work for Wilshire.

He will probably be asked to respond to this by 19 who undoubtedly have their attorneys all over this. It could get very ugly for Hi-Fi since 19 has a hot property to protect.

Ugliness!

Gah, I’m so tired of this issue. Just release the damn CD. LOL.

Honestly, I don’t see how Adam could have a contract with Hi Fi when he never dealt with them? I thought he recorded stuff with Wilshire and they sold it to HiFi? Confused!

Either way, I doubt he’s in violation of his Idol’s rules. They would have vetted him (or someone would have outed him) long ago. His “recording contract” could refer to whatever he signed when he did demo work or recorded his demos.

I’m with MJ. It’s no big deal. Wish they would all STFU.

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not MTVà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢sà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’or my job for that matterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’to protect Adam. MTV makes decisions for the good of their organization. As does anyone in business, including Hi Fi/Wilshire.

and that is a the point, do you really expect people at Hi-Fi to pass on the opportunity to make a buck?

Don’t buy it. Dull topic, moving on.

I like this blog a lot. It’s way fun to read stories here…In the real world, I’m not even aware that the idols are being talked about even after the show ended. Especially since I don’t live in the US, a neutral ground like MJ’s is a must. So, good or bad publicity for anyone, I’m up for it.

I was just reading about Kris and Adam on Rolling Stone: Rock n Roll Daily. They do mention this HiFi situation with a comment from Adam. Here’s the link to read the full story and the blurb regarding all of this:

Rolling Stone

“Indeed, thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s little rest for the Idol weary. Allen says it was two full post-finale weeks before he got his first decent night of sleep. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“I was at home and just conked out,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  he laughs. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t wake up until, like, two in the afternoon. It was incredible.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  Lambert, on the other hand, took a quick break soon after his whirlwind press tour in New York. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“I had four days off and spent it with a special somebody in Santa Barbara,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  he coos. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“It was a really relaxing mini-vacation and very helpful.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  But since then, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s been non-stop drama for the runner-up whoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s currently embroiled in a battle with Hi Fi Records that could turn legal when the label releases an album of his pre-Idol demos. Asked if he feels like heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s constantly putting out fires, Lambert tells Rock Daily, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“You could say that. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m like a firemanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦ and a firestarter at the same time.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

Either way, I doubt heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s in violation of his Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s rules. They would have vetted him (or someone would have outed him) long ago.

But this is the company that vetted Joanna Pacitti and thought her relations with current staffers wasn’t a big deal.

Also, I wanted to comment on the idea that the songs were on his myspace. I think for emerging artists, putting demos up on myspace is common practice. That doesn’t mean that’s its a finished product and ready to be on an album. Demos are called demos for a reason, and one way to shop them is to put them on myspace.

So, when Adam says they weren’t finished and therefore not ready to be on a CD, I have no reason to doubt him.

But this is the company that vetted Joanna Pacitti and thought her relations with current staffers wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t a big deal.

She wasn’t in violation of the rules in terms of a current contract. They dumped her because she was outed and it looked bad for them to promote nepotism more than they already do. So, like I said, he would have been vetted by AI or outed by any number of critics/spoilers/vftw types.

ETA: Sorry for two posts in a row. I was unable to edit and now I can.

But this is the company that vetted Joanna Pacitti and thought her relations with current staffers wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t a big deal.

Yeah, but they figured it out quick enough and gave her the boot. With all the attention Adam got during the season, do you really think no one would have leaked the information that he was already signed or that TPTB at AI wouldn’t have uncovered it? Highly unlikely, IMO.

Like most others here, I think this is much ado about nothing. After AI but prior to this “pre-Idol music” story, Adam gave an interview where he talked about how it was only in recent years that he started to think that musical theatre wasn’t enough for him. He said in that interview that he began to explore songwriting (wish I could remember what interview but it was something I saw on this site). Before artists hit it big, their careers usually involve jobs to pay the bills or jobs that explore their art. Artists model (some in the nude), become session singers or back up singers, do commercials, sing in bands etc. The point is there is a difference between signing a contract with the intent that the other party will make you a solo artist and signing a contract that releases your rights on some songs you helped someone write or songs you sang so someone else could use them to promote their own career. You can write songs or help to write songs that don’t reflect who you are musically. How else do you think male songwriters write for female singers. How else did Paul Anka write “My Way” at 16 for Frank Sinatra?

Artists are always being hit in the face with what they did before they became famous. It isn’t like Adam did something here for which he has to be ashamed. Idol only precludes contestants from being currently signed to a record deal or a management contract. That’s not the case here. How do we know it is not the case? Because if Adam was contracted with someone else, they’d be suing for millions not trying to release some half-ass songs at .99 cents a pop that probably won’t sell over 300,000 each.

Wow. That really could be a big time conflict of interest though. Let’s hope it all works out.

not a big deal work itself out ..now back to drinking tea and eating a donut ..chereo mates..

Someone mentioned KARMA on one of the posts about HiFi…I forget which one… “Want” was doing alright on the iTunes Pop chart. I think I saw it hit #44, but now with the untimely passing of Michael Jackson, all his music is flooding the charts and “Want” is probably almost forgotten…

and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Wantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  is probably almost forgottenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

…and that probably makes Adam very happy.

I’m sure he signed a standard release for the work he did. It’s very easy to twist that into some kind of contract (if you stretch the point) – but the onus is on HI-FI to prove such a contract exists. I mean think about it: If they indeed had a viable contract with Adam Lambert – everyone would have heard about it long before now. This is just another put up job – like the demos. A little electronic manipulation and bam! You turn demos into release tracks. Tinker a bit with a standard release form – and presto! A contract is born.

And suing won’t do any good. All it will do is sully Adam’s image. HI-FI knows this. They were counting on Adam’s not saying very much. I mean really! Don’t you think these people wouldn’t be taking AI to court if they truly had Adam under contract? Think of all the money they’d make! No. This is just a cash grab – pure and simple. That theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re dicking around with someoneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s career doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t matter one jot. Pity Adam canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t sue those idiots asses into next Tuesday.

Yeah, but they figured it out quick enough and gave her the boot. With all the attention Adam got during the season, do you really think no one would have leaked the information that he was already signed or that TPTB at AI wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have uncovered it? Highly unlikely, IMO.

They didn’t uncover this sticky mess, did they?

And if Wilshire did have a contract with Adam, and stood to lose so much money (as Hi Fi claims), why didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t they say anything at the start of AI?

Clear to me that they wouldn’t have any interest in saying anything that would have disqual Adam…. much better to let the guy gets a lot of attention because of his huge talent and then put out the record..

I doubt that Adam is guilty of any serious wrongdoing. Because they’ve had some bad surprises in the past, AI does an extensive background check on contestants, so any pre-existing contract would likely have been discovered. And, Adam would have known that an existing contract would have disqualified him from being on the show and left him open to a lawsuit if he did not disclose the existence of such a contract.

I’ve met a few people who have been in this situation. You’re a starving artist trying to get a break. In exchange for money and the potential for future consideration, you sign away rights to some of your work. That work is then deemed “uncommercial” and ignored until you gain fame and/or notoriety from some other source. Then suddenly that old work has value, and it gets released whether the artist wants it to or not. It’s all about exploiting a financial opportunity, which is what HiFi/Wilshire appear to be doing. Adam isn’t a victim, since he did get paid for the work according to the terms of the contract he signed. But it’s still too bad that the quality of the final released recordings may be less than he had hoped.

I think ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s curious that in all the places Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve read the new à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“statement from HiFià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  the part about the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“signed contractà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  is not actually à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“quotedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  like the rest of the statement is.

Yes, that jumped out at me too. Hi Fi very craftily made sure they put that tidbit out there without it being part of their official statement. Interesting. I’m wondering why they would have a contract with Adam directly if Wilshire sold them the rights to the songs.

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a shame that his management/record company choose to disavow their clientà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s work and discredit him as a songwriter. As an independent company whose role it is to help put this out, we at Hi Fi think this is an absolute slap in the face to Wilshire Records.

Many people had the theory that Hi Fi attempted to sell the rights of the songs back to RCA, and RCA refused. Judging by the impressive list of Adam’s collaborators, RCA obviously had bigger plans and for good reason. This statement seems to make that theory very plausible.

Now, in this latest tit-for-tat statement, because HiFi’s name has been muddied, they are attempting to make Wilshire look like the victim. Unless Wilshire makes a statement, we will never know that story except through the lens of Hi Fi. Now they’ve added Monte Pittman’s name directly in their statement. Again, unless we hear directly from him, we only have Hi Fi’s interpretation. And, for good measure, throw Michael Jackson in the mix for added sympathy. That’s very pathetic.

I also agree their ONLY motive is to make money in this whole thing, and they seem delighted to make Goliath squirm a bit in the process, but really they’re making themselves look ridiculous in the process.

I’m an Adam fan so I fully believe his side of the story. But I also more broadly believe the singers, musicians and songwriters are almost always the victims in these instances.

hypertwink
Jun 26th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not the crime, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the cover-upà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

I’m getting weary but would you please explain what you actually mean? :help_tb:

This is all new to me- first yr becoming a die-hard fan, blogging etc. This is exhausting to me. i am trying to remain dedicated—- i can’t even imagine how exhausting this is to adam.

If Adam wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t dissing his own music, HiFi would not be disclosing these juicy tidbits

.

Correction: If Adam weren’t hot right how, HiFi would not be using his name to promote themselves. Rollingstone.com and MTV aren’t interested in HiFi and Hecker. They’re interested in getting hits. Adam = hits. Hecker knows there’s a sucker born every minute.

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m getting weary but would you please explain what you actually mean?

The whole line is really “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up, stupid.” I first saw this on political blogs and always in conjunction to a faux pas or a scandal, like the recent Mark Sanford cheating scandal or the Monica Lewisnky affair. The initial “crime” is oftentimes bad (although sometimes, it’s just embarrassing for some pols) but it becomes even worse with the cover-up and the lies/half-truths. And that’s what seems to be happening now.

I just don’t understand why they keep releasing statements. They look like a small kid fighting for a toy ($$$), it just looks to me like they are desperate. Want is obviously not selling as well as they expected, and they just keep trying to get attention from the media. They don’t have quality to offer, so they try to offer headlines.

I mean, seriously, are we going to believe that the record would be the product of an official recording contract? I don’t think so, just because, for the track listing we know, that doesn’t even look like an effort to make a record. At all. Hard metal rock? (Citizen Vein), Cheesy pop ballads? (Want), Glam? (Crawl), Electro-Pop? (everything else). Zero coherence.

This is just an Adam compilation, almost the same one that every Adam fan have on their iPods. The only difference is that it’s very likely that they own the songs, and obviously, they want to make some money from them.

This will fade away guys.

hypertwink— so what is the cover-up???

Ellie2
Jun 26th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

Wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t AI look into whether contestants have recording contracts? And if he did sign a contract, why was the album never released (until now, of course, that Adam is famous)? I know nothing about the music biz, but can the contracts have time limits?

Good question Ellie2. Especially, would they check for the Top 13?

A bit OT from Adam, but aren’t all the finalists obligated to 19 for a certain time period?

I’m just a novice here when it comes to the ins and outs of the record business, but if you go to Monte Pittman’s Myspace page, he has “unsigned” next to “Record Label.” If Monte’s songs are also being used in this upcoming album, shouldn’t he be also signed if Adam is supposedly signed by this Indie label? Last log in for Monte was 06/26/2009

http://www.myspace.com/montsterpittman

I’m just going to go on commen sense (which doesn’t mean I’m right) but I suspect that Adam wasn’t signed to any Indie label, but rather signed a contract to record some songs. Monte may be in the same boat.

anna in vegas Jun 27th, 2009 at 12:09 am

hypertwink
Jun 26th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not the crime, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the cover-upà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m getting weary but would you please explain what you actually mean? :help_tb:

It means that somebody had better start looking in closets for soiled blue dresses and soggy cigars, I suspect.

This really is just much ado over not a hell of a lot. So Adam was a struggling artist and wrote/recorded some demos that laid there and died until the recording company decides to cash in on his fame. It’s not like it’s some porn flick (though many of us may wish it were, lol). It’s a very typical Hollywood story and does nothing to hurt Adam’s career or talent in any way. No doubt those statements from Adam were completely written by the handlers at RCA/19 who may have given Adam a very cursory look at them at best before releasing them to the public. Plus, I just love how the HiFi folks bring Michael Jackson’s death into all this…so now they’re cashing in on that as well. If I want to hear any of these songs I sure as hell won’t be buying them…but I’m happy to wait for the REAL music!

My 2 cents worth! Adam needed money and sang some songs in a professional recording studio. Duh, who wouldn’t in his position at the time. I highly doubt that a recording contract was signed by Adam, if anything were signed it was to the benefit of HiFi and not Adam!

IF and I repeat IF, HiFi had ANY intentions of releasing an album for the public why didn’t THEY release one months or years ago. Come on people this was in 2005 and they are JUST NOW RELEASING an album after Adam becomes famous.

This company that supposedly nurtures and gives rising artists a start, yeah, sure. HiFi you are not dealing with an ignorant fanbase here.

YOU are the ones who look like liars, act like liars and are riding Adam’s coat tails just like other wannabees or has beens.

You won’t be making much money. Adam’s true fans won’t touch your albums. We are waiting for the real deal 19/RCA.

Start delivering before fame, then maybe you will be believed. Until then TALK TO THE HAND!

ADAM ROCKS MY WORLD (ROCK & SEX GOD)!!!

ADAM IS PURE PERFECTION!!!

From what I have read Adam has never dissed his own music. All he has said is that the recordings were incomplete projects and not a representation of his best efforts and where he see’s himself now musically. I think that is a fair and honest statement from him. No dissing at all.

I’m going to rewatch kradom video —– night

dhunken “I think that is a fair and honest statement from him. No dissing at all.”

He wasn’t proud of it and would rather that it didn’t see the light of day or iTunes. Maybe dissing is not the right word but, imo, it shows some disrespect for the product for whatever reason.

hypertwink
Jun 26th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not the crime, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the cover-upà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

hypertwink
Jun 27th, 2009 at 12:22 am

“Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m getting weary but would you please explain what you actually mean?”

The whole line is really à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not the crime, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the cover-up, stupid.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  I first saw this on political blogs and always in conjunction to a faux pas or a scandal, like the recent Mark Sanford cheating scandal or the Monica Lewisnky affair. The initial à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“crimeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  is oftentimes bad (although sometimes, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s just embarrassing for some pols) but it becomes even worse with the cover-up and the lies/half-truths. And thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s what seems to be happening now.

dsp
Jun 27th, 2009 at 12:28 am
hypertwinkà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  so what is the cover-up???

So what’s “the” cover-up :question_ee:

I believe this is what they call a Hail Mary Pass.

Heads will roll.

Bring on the Tour!

Adam has said in the past that he didn’t think some of his previous songwriting attempts were very good, he tried to put too much into the lyrics, and he had since learned that less is more. So while he may not be “dissing” his previous work, he didn’t think some of it was great either.

But he probably wouldn’t have had as much of a problem if HiFi had been honest in saying they were releasing some of Adam’s earlier work and some demo work. What everyone is upset about is that they tried to pass it off as “Adam’s New First Single” and “Adam’s First Album.” Fans would have flocked to buy his early work … HiFi messed up big time by being dishonest in their original attempt at marketing.

Anya Jun 27th, 2009 at 12:54 am

dhunken à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“I think that is a fair and honest statement from him. No dissing at all.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

He wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t proud of it and would rather that it didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t see the light of day or iTunes. Maybe dissing is not the right word but, imo, it shows some disrespect for the product for whatever reason.

I see no disrespect AT ALL. He’s made it VERY clear that the songs were UNFINISHED works-in-progress. Works he considered not ready for mass public consumption. Not the work he wants out in the world representing him as he is trying to launch his career as a new musical artist.

If anyone is showing disrespect, it’s Hi Fi. They may have the legal rights to the songs but if the people at Hi Fi had ANY respect towards Adam as an ARTIST (which they’ve been claiming), they wouldn’t be releasing unfinished demos and session work.

Bottom line, they’re in it for the quick buck. But that’s not what’s ticking Adam fans off, it’s them CLAIMING that they care about Adam’s career and musical brand. On top of claiming that it was his “official” debut. They’ve been painting a false picture from day one. Anyone could smell that load of crap from a mile away and it’s turned of the majority of the potential buyers.

A week ago, I considered buying “Want” even after Adam’s first statement. I thought that he wasn’t really saying he didn’t want us to buy it, that it just is not the type music he wants to do NOW. I decided to wait, something told me not to buy it. I watched it go from #563 on iTunes to #44. Then I thought, why not buy it, at least it will be getting his name up there into the Top 40 and possibly much higher.

One week later, I am very glad I did NOT buy “Want” and will not buy OWTS………will definitely wait for “therealGlambert”s REAL debut CD! :jittery_tb:

We don’t know what really happened here. Perhaps the issues will be litigated. Until then, I’m going to hold out the possibility that he signed a contract. It’s quite conceivable that a young artist would do such a thing, is it not?

Anyway, I think HI-FI is trying to turn a quick buck, and I have no problem with that as long as they have the legal standing to do so. It’s business. It’s not personal. And it’s the American way. Besides, usually one makes music with the hope of making some money from its release.

I hope this passes soon :doh_tb: I know for myself that I’m not buying from them,I will wait for Adam’s fall album to come out.

I think something is “rotten in Denmark” and I tend to think it’s Hi Fi, or more likely Wilshire Records. Both are trying to make a buck, guess that’s the American way. But come on Hecker, one minute you’re supporting Adam and want to get his music out there, the next you’re almost accusing him of being dishonest – very fishy.

Also fishy, Wilshire had the song “Want” up on their website sung by Dublyn Jones (?) – I heard it – then they pulled it down as soon as this all came out. Looks to me like they were trying to promote it sung by someone else, not Adam. My belief is that someone there really dropped the ball, not recognizing Adam’s talents and promoting him in the first place. But of course, there’s much I don’t know – and none of us do.

MJ – I believe the wording that Hi Fi used was a “signed contract” not a “signed recording contract” – there could be quite a difference in the type of contract involved here.

If this “contract” was signed back in Feb 08 – they had time to promote this music before Idol, but they didn’t. Now they want to, using the AI fan base (us) to promote it.

I’m a diehard Adam fan – I’m going to wait “to hear what his music REALLY sounds like”

The contract part was not even quoted as the rest of hi fi’s statement so I’m not going to waste my time commenting on that.

I don’t think 19R/RCA will drop Adam before his first album is tested. My only concern is Adam being distracted from creating his music (c’mon there is already a distraction on the tour bus). He is clearly pissed off. As a fan I’ll tweet him and let him know that he has my back and he can focus on the prize and ignore the craps.

Looking forward to the tour.

The contract issue was not in the quoted remarks by HIFI but was a statement as being reported by HIFI to my recollection

So whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“theà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  cover-up?

Oh I don’t know but maybe, it turns out that he’s not just a session singer as he first said he was. Things like that tend to make a case for him not being up-front about the whole mess.

Oh no, I am really tired of this lo-fi issue. I don ´t really care anymore what they say. They get more entangled everytime they say a new word. Won ´t repeat what others have said. I will just keep enjoying fun Adam interviews, videos, AI songs, and wait for idol tour news (since I cannot go to the concerts) to be released, and of course save money to buy as many Adam ´s RCA albums as Xmas gifts I have to give in December.

1st they say wilshire brought them Adams songs now they say hifi already had him under contract that makes no sense why wouldn’t they have said that to begin with. & if they legally had him under contract this whole time why wouldn’t they have come out right after the idol finale & claimed him as their own before 19 signed him. They woulda been screamin to 19 “you can’t have him he’s ours”

So … they’re releasing just a little bit more each time they make a statement? I’d like to offer them the one thing they truly need: a bigger shovel. This is no more than white noise to me now; I’m waiting for the good stuff.

Couldn’t care less what HiFi says at this point, the have changed their story too many times to have any credibility for me.

Good luck selling those releases after calling Adam a liar and insulting the intelligence of his fans who you assume can’t read the ever shifting story presented over the last 7 days.

High comedy really, presenting themselves as representing Adam’s “signature sound” less than a week ago and now we are at “Monte Pittman and Wilshire could have ‘huge’ potential losses”, if you believe that self serving bullshit you are entitled to your opinion, don’t expect anyone who can read to agree with you.

So far, the only product out there is Want, and NOTHING about their claim applies to it.

Neither Adam nor Monte will make any money out of it. Adam had no creative input in it, and it doesn’t reflect who he is as a singer in any way. It is not well produced, and has not been carefully crafted to promote a young singer.

They keep mentioning other unreleased tracks to fudge the issue about Want, but even if, as a fan, I could see arguments for buying some other tracks (not saying that I would buy), there is no way Want qualifies.

They have never commented/denied anything about Want. They just keep mentioning other tracks.

So, for their only product, they are clearly misleading the public..

I’m just waiting for TMZ to magically procure this “contract”… Although I’m guessing I’ll have a long wait … Not till the MJ news blows over and that’s not going to happen in the forseeable future.

Speaking of OT : man, the MJ domination on the charts! I hope that the kids are getting something from this though …

By mentioning a contract, they are looking for a controversy that may create some buzz amidst the MJ tidal wave.

It is interesting that this is not part of the quoted statement.

Adam is not the first, nor will he be the last singer or actor to see his early works released against his wishes. It happens to actors who do piddly little films, become movie stars and suddenly those embarrassing early flicks get released to DVD for all to see. How many singers and bands do we know who hit it big and then their indie label or an old producer releases a cd of their unreleased demos or something? It’s business, not personal. Whether fans decide to buy the cd or not, Adam will survive unscathed. It certainly doesn’t warrant any hand wringing or anger. It is what it is and I suspect Adam and RCA get that much better than the fans do.

I think that Adam wouldn’t mind so much his early work released if it was presented to the public as such. The problem is that HiFI has tried to intruduced it as a debut album and single.

Adam, as an artist, won’t happy to be misrepresented and doesn’t want the general public to get the wrong idea about who he is a singer, and it could potentially have happened if Want had hit the radio.

But I don’t think that its’ going to happen now as it has already peaked. It’s hard to assess the itunes charts because of the MJ stuff, but as a comparison, Want was ahead of all AI releases a few days ago, and has now slipped behind Kris No Boundaries (Want #147 on the iTunes pop chart, NB #146).

And, just speculation, if HiFi is trying to make a too big fuss, the 19/RCA PR machine is going to retaliate on a different front.. The story may be a lock on a legal point of view, but in terms of PR, they have already made the big mistake of alienating the fans. They won’t be savvy enough for a big label, and in my opinion, if they don’t stop ASAP, they are going to loose big time..

Yawn. Are we still running the same circles talking about this?

Adam answered the question on Ryan’s show yesterday, Don’t buy the ALBUM.
Michael is dead, this story is also dead. Let’s go on with the show.. The tour I mean.

Bring on the Bowie Medley!

GeminiDolly
Jun 26th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Time to focus on the tour. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTTq16hOgIo

Thanks for the link GeminiDolly

Is there a link to the full statement from Hi Fi? I looked on Hi Fi’s website but didn’t see the statement. I’m curious to read how they worded the part about the alleged recording contract.

Good lord.

{snip}thrives on finding, nurturing and championing new talent, and now they find themselves at a tremendous potential loss. Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s songwriting partner, Monte Pittman now finds himself at a tremendous potential loss.{snip}

Very convenient that they are now realizing what a ‘talent’ Adam is, when they’ve had those tracks sitting on a shelf collecting dust for years.

{snip}à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“We apologize for what has become a tiresome tit for tat, particularly on a day that we mourn the loss of a truly original, game-changing entertainer, but unfortunately, each statement released in Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s name contains a different story. We remain steadfast in our assertion that we seek only to share the music Adam wrote, according to plan, so his fans know the depth of his talent {snip}

So they’re saying that “each statement released” in their name *doesn’t* contain a different story?? and they “remain steadfast in their assertion” that this is all according to plan. So they were already planning to release Adam’s pre-Idol music before he became a household name on a reality show?? Verrrrry convenient and coincidental if true. Excuse me while I have an aneurism.

My (not quite objective) view is, regardless of what was happening & going on before Adam audiitioned for Idol, HiFi is now trying to cash in, in the most disgusting way. UGH. My most recent favourite word fits them to a tee: ASSHATS. I’m going to bed, before I read any more and get any more aggravated.

There’s no possibility that Adam was under contract to Wilshire. If that was the case, Wilshire would be demanding millions from 19 right now to sell that contract off. The “contract” they mention is just a release form — a release of rights from Adam to the production company — probably giving them a vague and inclusive list of rights to use the songwriter demos.

Many records have been released under non-roylaity conditions where the vocalist has performed as a work-for-hire, paid for the session and they sign a release form — again, not an agreement to “release” a record, but the “release” of rights by the hired vocalist, to the producer.

I usually read all comments before I reply to a topic but frankly I am so sick to death of this particular one that I’ve decided life’s too short. So, apologies if I’m repeating what others have said, but here goes.

I do not care who signed what, when or why. I also do not care whether Hi-Fi’s position would stand up in a court of law anywhere in the universe.

I simply do not think it is fair that they try to pre-empt Adam’s major label debut as a musical artist with some crappy old demos and unfinished work.

He is emphatically NOT in the same position as singers and actors who’ve had their early works released against their will after they’ve become successful because he is not yet a musical star. He’s a karaoke tv star (let’s be honest about this – that’s all ANYONE is coming off Idol) and in the eyes of the general public/music buyers has no musical identity yet.

Therefore I can completely understand why he wouldn’t want the general public’s first impression of him as a musical artist to be based on old crappy demos and unfinished songs because you do not get a second chance to make a first impression.

Frankly, I would have had ZERO issue with Hi-Fi doing this if they had waited until after his RCA release – if they have the rights to all this stuff then sure, put it out there in December sometime and see if the fans want it. (It would be a better time anyway IMO since RCA will have a wave of promo going for Adam and people will be actively seeking his music on itunes – why would they be doing that currently when he has no presence on radio??) It’s the fact that they are potentially tainting his future brand that pisses me off – plus portraying him as duplicitous just to keep the free publicity rolling ( yeah, that’ll really get the fans onside :rolleyes_wp:)

They’ve played their hand ridiculously badly in my opinion, and continue to do so for as long as they drag this out. I wish they’d cut their losses and STFU.

[/end rant]

LakesideUK, Great rant , and I agree… life is too short.

Does anyone honestly think that if Adam had a valid and actionable recording contract with HiFi or Wilshire, that they’d let him go merrily on to RCA post show after he became the breakout star? Hell no, they’d whip that thing out 10 seconds after the finale and demand that he record tracks with them.

That they haven’t says it all right there.

I just donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t understand why they keep releasing statements.

Yes- this is the question.

So they have the legal right to these songs.
Fine.
So release the album.
The end.

The reason they keep releasing statements is to try and convince the fanbase to buy whatever they release.
What they fail to realize is that the fanbase ship has sailed already, and anything more they say just turns us off even more.

Release the tracks and be done with it.
But for the love of God stop releasing contradictory statements- it only sounds desperate.

so does TMZ have the document yet? cos we know something is going to be released today or by monday. I feel like hifi has people reading all the blogs /comments and each additional statement from them kind includes things people have discussed or questions people have asked. The truth is if indeed there is a recording contract there’s no way b/w adam , wilshire and even hifi , adam wld have been on idol trying to get anor recording contract and no one stopped him. and he wld so boldly break the one known idol rule of no current contract. u can’t hide this kind of a thing.

OT: Tweet from Ferras, I like his name for Adam, very cute.

OhFerras – Had a fab eve with taylor. Then arrived to a surprise with Adam Lamby and multiple fab friends for my bday. My cupcakes had “f’s” on them!

Wilshire and Hi-Fi are really just acting from the mostly-unnoticed fact that the anticipation of a record coming out is the best part of it, 98% of the time. From first hand and repeated experience, I can tell you, that’s the truth.

Sending out press releases and trying to get a rise out of Adam is the best part because when they are trying to ship plastic or get iTunes clicks, oh, boy is it going to be quiet out there.

They will have their next opportunity to cash in next winter in Cannes at the international music conference MIDEM. If Adam is the worldwide star Simon says, they can make deals for every territory. And remix the songs repeatedly. There’s an old Donna Summer “album” that must be in every drugstore and gas station in the world, predating “Love to Love You Baby” and it’s just old pre-stardom tapes.

From what I understand, Hi-Fi’s latest statement was first released in a news story and the part about the contract was not a part of the direct quote statement from Hi-Fi. I’ll see if I can find the link.

It came from Kristen at E!Online: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b131309_adam_lambert_fires_back_hi_fi_recordings.html

The claim about the recording contract was not part of Hi-Fi’s statement. If there really is a contract, and it’s a valid recording contract, you’d think they’d include that in their statement.

There is no doubt that Adam has signed a contract that gives Wilshire/ HiFi the rights to publish the recordings. This of course could be called a ‘recording contract’, but it’s not the same as a record deal with a label.

And I agree that if it was a real record deal, they would have included it in their statement.

Adam and 19 should not respond anymore and I hope no other interviewer ask him about it. I checked his itunes page and ‘Want’ is high on his popularity bar, so all this talk is free publicity for Hi-Fi.

Well, if they had a record contract with Adam (as in a record deal) wouldn’t they be dragging Adam to court?

Well, if they had a record contract with Adam (as in a record deal) wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t they be dragging Adam to court?

Exactly.

LakesideUK, you read my mind (and wrote it down so I don’t have to).

Thanks for the link, Ellie2.

I agree with those saying that if a recording contract ever existed, it would have been dug up a long time ago by VFTW-types. I think most likely the alleged “recording contract” is some other sort of paperwork, such as a publishing rights release form, as conjectured by some posters here.

*****Well, if they had a record contract with Adam (as in a record deal) wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t they be dragging Adam to court?

Adam said that before he tried out for idol he got rid of all his current contracts. Maybe the stipulation to get out of his contracts with Wilshire was that he had to sign over all his rights to the demo tapes and music he recorded with them. Wilshire turned around and sold that material to Hi-Fi. Adam has no real connection with Hi-Fi and at this moment they are looking liking a company on the ledge. Are they about to go bankrupt or something, is that why they are investing all their energy into Adam and ignoring their in house artists? I mean things can’t be all good in house for them to be so far up Adam’s butt they can see his tonsils.

IF they say they have a dated contract, I believe them. Notice how quiet 19 is being. They really don’t want any more publicity because it is POSSIBLE that Adam violated their rules. HiFi (a little label) probably doesn’t want any more problems with 19 than it has already.

Seriously, 19 has lawyers who will threaten anyone – bloggers, contestants with no $ but they won’t sue HiFi? It’s obvious they want no more attention to a very sticky problem for them. HiFi blew it of course with their OTT promo but I bet not one more word comes out of Adam at this point.

Why blow the whole deal? And since lots of accusations are being thrown at HiFi why should they be quiet. It’s just upsetting because so far their statements have made Adam look Clintonesque shall we say.

The HiFi story so far is a blip but the contract story has more potential for harm so bet the house that neither Adam or 19 says WORD one.

Here’s an extract of one of Wilshire previous statement:

“We were presented with a business opportunity,” said Hecker. “We accepted because Wilshire Records had a long working relationship with Adam, and it resulted in excellent music that they had the rights to. The music has an audience, and it deserves to be heard.”

http://mjsbigblog.com/adam-lambert-releases-a-statement-on-the-release-of-his-pre-idol-recordings.htm
http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?fromspage=all/home.htm&categoryid=&bfromind=7403&eeid=6644249&_sitecat=1479&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=ne&s=en&rg=blsadstrgt&l=hm

This statement makes it clear what the deal is about, methink. It’s not at all a record deal with a label as they are trying to insinuate now.

Well, give VFTW some time. They might find the contract. HiFi could reveal it as well but that would open up a huge can of worms since it would mean that Adam wasn’t eligible to be on Idol. I don’t think they have the guts to do that officially. Maybe 19 will pay them off with a little $. That would actually be smart. Especially because the early music of Idols isn’t of much interest to the public. Usually only the real diehards buy it.

MJ, I think you’ve summed the situation up very well. OT but there was a little interview with Archie where he talked about the finances of his album. If you read between the line, you wonder how much Idols actually make from their albums.

Once 19 deducts the costly producers and the promo and other costs from the profits, it’s possible Adam could have made more $ from HiFi than his 19 album.

Ironic, no.

Somewhat off-topic from the on-going Contractgate, but out of curiosity I checked the Mediabase Quickcut and it appears ‘Want’ has gotten 16 total spins over the past 7 days (HAC=9, POP=6, ACT=1). Total audience is .119 million. So for those Glamberts who are concerned that Adam’s career will be ruined by the proliferation of this “unrepresentative” song across the airwaves, fret no more. This is looking like nothing more than a novelty.

Usually only the real diehards buy it.

The diehards already have it.

Still not buyin’.

Adam fan

Well, give VFTW some time. They might find the contract. HiFi could reveal it as well but that would open up a huge can of worms since it would mean that Adam wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t eligible to be on Idol.

The contract would have been with Wilshire not HiFi as mentioned above.
Wilshire are NOT a label, that’s why they involved HiFI, and so Adam’s contract could not have been a record deal with a label.

I know the type contract I would like to take out on Hecker, Welsford and the rest of them. How dare they bring Michael Jackson into it. Also note that the way they have chosen to phrase the reference to the late great artist whose soles they are not worthy of licking is a swipe at Adam.

What a bitter, hateful, spiteful, despicable bunch.

I wish they would stop embarrassing themselves. Do they think many artists with any hope of a career elsewhere are going to want to go anywhere near them after this? Clearly they are not just all of the above but it would appear that they are not the shiniest pennies.

1) Adam never had any contact with Hi Fi Recordings, he was dealing with Wilshire Records instead. Wilshire then sold the demos he had recorded to Hi Fi Recordings.

2) Wilshire Records isn’t a record label. They produce music that they try to sell to the labels (such as Hi Fi Recordings), they don’t publish any music themselves. Therefore any contract Adam had with them could not have been a recording deal.

3) If Adam had a (current) recording contract, he couldn’t have signed with RCA. No one has challenged his deal with RCA, so he obviously doesn’t have a contract with anyone else. There’s no reason to believe that the situation wasn’t the same when he auditioned.

I thought Willshire brought Hi Fi Adam’s music?

I don’t think Adam is a victim, I do think he signed something at some point that allowed them to release this music, but these guys at Hi Fi have said so many things that I can’t begin to keep track of them.

Adam was a session singer and a singer/songwriter. I’m confused as to why someone can’t be both…anyway, I bet he liked being the broadway guy a lot more. : )

On to the next topic.

Does anyone honestly think that if Adam had a valid and actionable recording contract with HiFi or Wilshire, that theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d let him go merrily on to RCA post show after he became the breakout star? Hell no, theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d whip that thing out 10 seconds after the finale and demand that he record tracks with them.

After watching the “Watchman” fiasco, I can totally see them doing this. Why not let RCA spend mega-moolah making an awesome CD and then swoop in with your existing contract and a cease and desist order? RCA would either then be faced with having to shelve the project or cutting HiFi/Wilshire in on the pie just as Warner Bros eventually had to do for Fox. HiFi is doing their “due diligence” by letting 19E/RCA know that they have a contract with Adam so RCA can’t claim they don’t know. Problem is, 19E/RCA already spent a boatload of money promoting Adam before they ever gave him a recording contract so they are already heavily invested and unlikely to walk away.

Either way, I doubt heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s in violation of his Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s rules. They would have vetted him (or someone would have outed him) long ago.

I’m no expert on this, but I would be surprised if there was a central depository of all recording contracts. I do know that I could decide tomorrow that I was a record producer. I could sign the kid that lives across the street to a recording contract and spend money on studio time, etc. I could then try to distribute my CD. I’d likely fail, but I could do all this and 19E would have no idea I even existed. So, if the kid that lives across the street one day tries out for Idol and says that she has no existing contract, how would 19E know she was lying? They threaten contestants with disqualification and $5 million breach of contract suits to try to get them to tell the truth, but contestants can still lie (or perhaps be innocently clueless).

With all the attention Adam got during the season, do you really think no one would have leaked the information that he was already signed or that TPTB at AI wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have uncovered it? Highly unlikely, IMO.

Why is this unlikely? Wilshire is tiny company. The CEO probably does most of the work himself. If he signed a deal with Adam, how many people would know about it? And, if I’m the CEO of some tiny company and one guy I signed to some contract suddenly shows up on AI, why would I try to get him disqualified? It’s free press. Let him go as far as he can go. I know that I’ve already got my hooks into him. Think about it. If Wilshire had seen Adam’s audition and then phoned up 19E and said “he’s signed to us”, then Adam would have been quietly tossed from the competition and a few people would scratch their heads going “I wonder what happened to that guy with the black hair from the SF auditions? Why didn’t AI show more of him?”. Instead, by keeping quiet, Adam built up a massive fan base which is what Wilshire would have had trouble doing all on their own.

I’m not saying that Adam had a current contract when he went on AI. I’m just saying that I could see how Wilshire/HiFi might not have leaked that piece of information until after the show was over and Adam’s name was everywhere. Until RCA/19E announced the recording contract, they could probably even claim that they didn’t know he was going to be signed until then. Only winners are guaranteed a contract. Danny didn’t get one.

In any event, it seems that there are a pattern to these HiFi statements. HiFi says something, it causes controversy, HiFi is branded as a liar by some and then HiFi produces the evidence to back up their claim. I’m thinking we’ll see a contract on Monday. What it is a contract for, I do not know. I would bet that it’s not current, though. HiFi never claimed it was and I just don’t see Adam being that dense.

In any event, it seems that there are a pattern to these HiFi statements. HiFi says something, it causes controversy, HiFi is branded as a liar by some and then HiFi produces the evidence to back up their claim. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m thinking weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll see a contract on Monday. What it is a contract for, I do not know.

Sorry, but in what way have Hifi produced any evidence that they don’t lie? In my opinion, they keep producing evidence that they lie.

Adam never had a contract with Hi Fi Recordings, he had one with Wilshire Records. Wilshire Records isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t a record label.
He may have had a ‘recording’ contract with them (a contract about recording rights),not a ‘record’ deal (about making a record) because they do not produce records.

HiFi is playing a game for sure but so far no out and out lies. And no contestant as smart as Adam would have a current contract. So I guess RCA is in the clear. I don’t see white hats/black hats either. Lots of gray though.

Also fishy, Wilshire had the song à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Wantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  up on their website sung by Dublyn Jones (?) – I heard it – then they pulled it down as soon as this all came out. Looks to me like they were trying to promote it sung by someone else, not Adam. My belief is that someone there really dropped the ball, not recognizing Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s talents and promoting him in the first place. But of course, thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s much I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t know – and none of us do.

Dublyn Jones’s version was also available on itunes and they removed this and replaced it with Adam’s version.

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m no expert on this, but I would be surprised if there was a central depository of all recording contracts. I do know that I could decide tomorrow that I was a record producer. I could sign the kid that lives across the street to a recording contract and spend money on studio time, etc. I could then try to distribute my CD. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d likely fail, but I could do all this and 19E would have no idea I even existed. So, if the kid that lives across the street one day tries out for Idol and says that she has no existing contract, how would 19E know she was lying? They threaten contestants with disqualification and $5 million breach of contract suits to try to get them to tell the truth, but contestants can still lie (or perhaps be innocently clueless).

They take contestants at their word. They neither have the time or the inclination to check that what each and every auditionee declares is true and accurate and to the best of their knowledge but when a contestant gets to a certain point in the competition and particularly if a contestant has a realistic chance of winning or getting far enough where 19 and SonyBMG would consider a contract, then they get the big guns out and every legal i and t is dotted and crossed. They would have checked Adam, Danny, Kris and Allison (and probably couple of others) and gone through everything with a fine tooth comb.

Why is this unlikely? Wilshire is tiny company. The CEO probably does most of the work himself. If he signed a deal with Adam, how many people would know about it? And, if Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m the CEO of some tiny company and one guy I signed to some contract suddenly shows up on AI, why would I try to get him disqualified? Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s free press. Let him go as far as he can go. I know that Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve already got my hooks into him. Think about it.

Indeed, think about it. Disgruntled employees, former employees, former partners, former friends, friends of friends, drinking buddies ……………… the world is full of people who will talk for money.

The amount of straws that these ridiculous lot at Hi Fi and Wilshire are using to cling to (ridiculous is my mum’s description of them as a record, production and publishing company, in her capacity as a music industry lawyer and, as she said, she chose that word to put it nicely) I am surprised that there are any haystacks left.

I too find it offensive that they have brought Michael Jackson into their argument.

Oh and MJ……………….. never mind 19/RCA, if Adam signed his soul away to the devil, he would be better off than with Hi Fi and Wilshire. At least the devil may be competent at his job.

Sorry, but in what way have Hifi produced any evidence that they donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t lie? In my opinion, they keep producing evidence that they lie.

HiFi said that Adam wrote some of the songs on the album they are planning to release. I saw many people call them liars. I saw people do searches of the ASCAP database and state that Adam only wrote with Monte, so HiFi must be lying. I saw people claiming that HiFi must be trying to force writing credits onto Adam when all he did was suggest a tiny lyric/note change while recording demos.

Then, “somehow” (I’m sure it was an intentional leak), TMZ gets a list of who wrote what on this future CD and it turns out to be a bunch of songs that Adam did write and we’ve known for months he wrote.

So, that is an example of the pattern I’m talking about. That’s all.

Wilshire Records isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t a record label. He may have had a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹recordingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ contract with them (a contract about recording rights),not a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹recordà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ deal (about making a record) because they do not produce records.

I’m sorry, how do we know that? I could decide right now that I’m a record label and start signing people. There is no test. Lots of people start their own labels. Distribution is a problem, but that hasn’t stopped lots of people with a dream. If Taylor Hicks and random Idols can start their own record labels, I don’t see why Wilshire cannot.

I’m not saying that Adam was signed to a recording contract with Wilshire or that they had a contract of any sort. I’m just don’t think we have facts in evidence that allow us to state categorically that it cannot be true.

I swore I wouldn’t keep commenting on this but these threads are so much fun. It’s like being on a teeter-totter, up and down & up and down, ad nauseum.

The “facts” are that Adam was a session singer for Wilshire and that he had a “contract” with them, implied (cash the check and this is how it is) or written that paid him for the sessions where he recorded other peoples material for presentation to recording companies and other artists. Wilshire owned these recordings and could do with them whatever they pleased.

The “facts” are that Adam and whomever also presented Wilshire with demo tapes of material they had written and recorded. Just like the “writers” that Adam had done session work for before these “tapes” were for Wilshire to shop around to recording studios. Again, Adam released his “voice”. And yes, if HiFi (the end purchaser) decides to use the demos Adam would get royalties based off of his “songwriting” credits, not his “voice”.

That is everything!! Now if anyone can PROVE anything more than this please present the evidence!

Why is this unlikely? Wilshire is tiny company. The CEO probably does most of the work himself.

I still think it’s unlikely. Even if Wilshire is a small company, there would still be more people involved than just Adam and the CEO. Even if Wilshire didn’t want to cause trouble during Adam’s AI run, people talk. I just don’t believe there wouldn’t have been rumblings during the competition about Adam already being signed if that was actually the case.

And if he was signed, they would have filed a lawsuit by now.

Kirsten, all I can say is, I concur.

Until 19 E gets involve this is really a non issue. Adam’s contract with them is fine and Hi-Fi is going to release the album regardless.

So right now Adam is starting the tour, writing , recording and hopefully ignoring anything else Hi-Fi has to say. It’s been a week and we heard nothing from 19E so they much really find this pointless.

The amount of straws that these ridiculous lot at Hi Fi and Wilshire are using to cling to (ridiculous is my mumà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s description of them as a record, production and publishing company, in her capacity as a music industry lawyer and, as she said, she chose that word to put it nicely) I am surprised that there are any haystacks left.

PhoebeS, does your mom have any insights into the “recording contract” issue? I’m a lawyer, but don’t deal with contracts (music or otherwise) and I’m curious to hear her opinion.

HiFi may be a “ridiculous” company but Dionne Warwick, and Donnie and Marie are on their label. They may not sell many CDs these days but they’re legit artists who still tour and command respect. And in the end, HiFii will put out the album and people can buy it or not.

As I said early music by Idols is usually a huge yawn.

Kirsten, all I can say is, I concur.

Me too.

Kirsten
Jun 27th, 2009 at 9:15 am

Only winners are guaranteed a contract. Danny didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t get one.

Kirsten: The following is from Danny’s twitter (note date):

botton line though…..I will do a record!!! and very soon…its all legal at this point, but I will be writing songs for it now
12:37 PM May 15th from web

‘Scuse me if this has already been mentioned, or that it is irrelevant, but doesn’t Hi-fi statement actually admit (“its a shame that his management/record company choose to disavow…..”) that Hi-fi are NOT that company?

I lied…I’m commenting again…slow morning.

If anyone had a “current” signed Contract for a “recording” contract with Adam you bet your sweet bippy that the nano-second he signed with RCA all hell would have broken loose. It wouldn’t have been pretty. HiFi (Wilshire) would have had a restraining order in place on Adam and RCA so quick and the media would have been inundated.

Once everyone involved (who held the original, current, binding, recording contract) saw how “popular” that Adam had become during his Idol run they would have been chomping at the bit to force him to “honor” his contract or to “buy” the contract holder out. And they wouldn’t have kept quiet because they would have ALL THE LEVERAGE and Adam, 19, and RCA would have had to pay-up or Adam would be history.

My inate common sense tells me that this is so. I have witnessed enough to know that this is how “economics” works. HiFi does have legitimate claim on Adam’s prior song demos and song-writing demos, this is not in dispute, but they have NO CLAIM on Adam. If they did they would have played that card first thing. Adam is a worthwhile commodity to have a piece of. His early work, not so much.

This whole contract thing is a big non-issue. Happens every year. Some two-bit wannabee record producer trots out old demos or vanity recordings of an Idol and puts them up on iTunes or threatens to otherwise “release” them. Make as much noise as possible and hope it’s worth $100,000 to 19E to just make them go away. It happened with Taylor’s Nashville demos. I assume it will happen for every Idol who has been around the block trying to do some recording.

It’s a tempest in a teapot. Who really cares? For all I know, 19M is promising these yo-yo’s a nice settlement check to keep Adam in the news day after day.

Personally, I hope they do release the stuff. I was never able to snag a copy of the orgiinal Kiss ‘n Tell.

BTW, this is one reason Idol doesn’t allow contestants to perform original material on the show or the tour. They can never really be sure they are getting clear “title” to the songwriting rights because most of these Idol wannabees never had a nice cut ‘n dried songwriting contract with an ASCAP or BMI affiliated publisher.

As far as Monte Pittman goes, I think there is a pretty decent chance that he is going to show up in Adam’s touring band. He is very good at what he does (although I’m not sure how broad his repetoire is or whether it is a perfect match for Adam).

I believe Adam will have his pick of any professional touring musicians in the book. That biz is all about trying to hitch your wagon to a big thing. No guarantees, of course, but Adam has all the signs of potentially being a big thing. I’d sign on for a tour.

This is one fan that is going to let this fire go out—enough already!!!

This whole contract thing is a big non-issue. Happens every year.

Really? I’ve never seen one go to this extent but I’ve only been following the show since AI5 so maybe you’re right. I was thinking Taylor’s situation was totally different. I don’t recall anyone coming out saying they had a signed contract with him. And as far as it being a two-bit record producer, isn’t this the same company that just released Melinda’s cd?

I do agree that it’s a non-issue for Adam. Only the AI blogasphere knows or cares about it. And even many that do know dont care. Once RCA releases Adam’s new music, that’s what will matter. Then he’ll either sink or swim.

edit: knock it off

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sorry, how do we know that? I could decide right now that Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a record label and start signing people. There is no test. Lots of people start their own labels. Distribution is a problem, but that hasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t stopped lots of people with a dream. If Taylor Hicks and random Idols can start their own record labels, I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t see why Wilshire cannot.

Ok. I really don’t want to talk about this but I do want to address this one point of Kirsten’s here.

Kirsten, if you go to the Wilshire’s website and check the artist’s listed under their name, and then pick an artist, or two, and go to their myspace page you will inevitably find those artist listed as unsigned to a record label. One example is Angie Donkin (Under Rock at the Wilshire website) of the band Vibrasol (also unsigned). Angie even has a resume online.
I would surmise from that little bit of sleuthing that Wilshire is indeed not a record label.

In fact their own myspace Bio says:

Wilshire Records (Los Angeles) consists of world class songwriters, producers, musicians and industry professionals. Wilshire Publishing promotes, licenses, and sells music worldwide to clients such as radio stations, film and television, record companies and publishers respectively.

It does not publish music, it sells it to punlishers ie: record companies. In fact the music player on their site has a button that says (License This Music) It’s cadre of artists if you look at the small print in their artist page include Session singers, freelancers and Participating artists.

Compare this language to any other record label Indie or Corporate and you will note the difference. I’m not a lawyer but it seems obvious to me that Wilshire is not a record Label in the legal sense.

deleted – not on topic

My inate common sense tells me that this is so.

That’s what my inate common sense told me until I watched the “Watchman” saga unfold. I was stunned that a major film studio that has been around since the beginning would spend $100 million dollars making a film when they knew they didn’t have the licensing issue cleared up. So, while I think such behaviour is rare and stupid, I’m not prepared to say that it cannot happen.

Again, I will re-iterate, that I don’t think Adam had a current contract in place. But, I just can’t say it’s an impossibility. I think the contract that HiFi mentions had been terminated by the time Adam went on Idol or isn’t revelant to a recording career.

This whole contract thing is a big non-issue. Happens every year. Some two-bit wannabee record producer trots out old demos or vanity recordings of an Idol and puts them up on iTunes or threatens to otherwise à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“releaseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  them.

Really, every year? I don’t remember this happening to Cookie or Archie or Blake or Jordin or Kat or Daughtry or Kellie. Sure, there were some early works that were released, but I don’t remember any controversey except for with Taylor.

I don’t recall Taylor making any comments on the matter. He just took the guy to court and made him stop. And that guy didn’t have clients like the Osmonds and Dionne Warwick. If HiFi is two-bits, then that guy was a penny.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t recall anyone coming out saying they had a signed contract with him.

There was a second guy. Some guy who claimed to be his manager. The contracts came out and they had long since expired and Taylor had sent him a second letter during the Idol audition process to further confirm that he had terminated his contract with him. I think there were more court papers with that.

Point is, Taylor had his ducks in a row, so he let the lawyers do the work. But, since Adam seems powerless, this seems to indicate that HiFi/Wilshire are the ones with their ducks in a row. Again “indicates”, I don’t think we can say anything for certain.

I will say that Adam keeps things interesting in the off season. He’s like Taylor and Kat McPhee all rolled into one.

deleted by dsp

Well, give VFTW some time. They might find the contract. HiFi could reveal it as well but that would open up a huge can of worms since it would mean that Adam wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t eligible to be on Idol.

Except for one thing. Wilshire is a production studio, basically. They are not a record label. You can’t have the kind of recording contract 19′s rules talk about and ban — i.e., a contract for a record label to release a recording by you as one of their artists — with a production studio. A production studio doesn’t release music. It just puts it on tape.

Ergo, this had to be some kind of contract saying something more like — “You get x many hours and our production help in our studios to create y many demos, and then we’ll take z amount of the rights to those demos and you’ll have q amount and (maybe) we’ll help shop those demos around to labels…in search of an actual recording contract.” That’s not prohibited by 19 because it’s nothing but a business arrangement you enter into to get the goods with which to search for an actual recording contract. You couldn’t get professionally done demos without hooking up with a production studio in some way. But there’s no way you can have a record contract with a prodction studio.

HiFi is the record label. But Adam was never involved with HiFi. Wilshire got them involved with Adam’s demos after Adam was gone. HiFi — the actual record label — never signed Adam in any capacity. They just bought rights (some rights, at least) to a particular group of demo tapes from Wilshire, who had got rights (some rights, at least) to them from Adam in that old contract that was NOT a recording contract but just a contract to pay them for studio time and maybe for some of their work shopping the stuff to labels.

If he had actually signed a recording contract with HiFi to be one of their artists, they wouldn’t need to be messing with press releases about making a few cheap sales of 25 demo tapes dressed up as albums. They would have the power to break up his deal with 19/RCA and/or get a big settlement. They could file lawsuits. Etc.

But they’re not doing any of that. They’re trying to sell one crappy single on Itunes(so far — and that single apparently comes from some much much smaller business arrangement Wilshire (not HiFi) had with Adam way back in 2005 when they signed him as a throwaway session singer). That in itself shows me that they don’t actually have the power to do anything else. Because if they held all the cards they’re pretending to hold, why the heck wouldn’t they be playing them?

take care
fonzerelli

Wow, Fonzie is a nice guy… heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey.

“publishers ie: record companies”

I’m pretty sure this isn’t true as there was a recent article about Cook being signed to a publishing company.
And he’s an RCA artist so publishng companies/labels aren’t the same.

On Monte Pittman’s Myspace, he indicates he has no record label. You would think if Adam, as a co-writer w/Pittman of all the CV songs had a record contract, so would Pittman. Also, on CV Myspace, they indicate no record label.

HiFi said that Adam wrote some of the songs on the album they are planning to release. I saw many people call them liars. I saw people do searches of the ASCAP database and state that Adam only wrote with Monte, so HiFi must be lying. I saw people claiming that HiFi must be trying to force writing credits onto Adam when all he did was suggest a tiny lyric/note change while recording demos.

As many have said before, people were responding to the information in the original press release. “Want” and “On With the Show,” two songs he had no hand in writing, were the only ones anyone knew of. It wasn’t a huge leap to think that the rest of the tunes were other people’s songs Adam sang for Wilshire for demos.

The pattern I see is this; HI-FI releases partial information, which 19 responds to, and then HI-FI turns around and does a “gotcha” by issuing a press release with the rest of the details. Perhaps Hi-FI has been truthful so far in their PR game, which to me, seems to be aimed at getting buzz and at setting Adam/19 up to look like liars. It’s been a smart move because now, some, and especially the Adam detractors, will assume that HI-FI is always the honest party and 19 and Adam are always lying.

I also agree that AI would have vetted the top 13. There is just way too much money involved to leave everything up to “scout’s honor” from contestants in regards to their past. It doesn’t mean, however, that they couldn’t have missed something. It just seems highly unlikely that they would miss something this big. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the contestants were required to turn over all previous contracts to AI’ s legal team for review once they made it into the top 36.

I also agree that AI would have vetted the top 13. There is just way too much money involved to leave everything up to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“scoutà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s honorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  from contestants in regards to their past.

Well, they certainly seem to have gotten better at it than they were in the past (when in Season 3, one of the finalists actually had a court date for a domestic dispute scheduled for the same day as a performance show), but it’s impossible to vet somebody completely if they choose to lie and hide things.

Disclaimer: I’m not saying that Adam is lying. I’m not saying he had a current recording contract. I’m just saying that it’s not impossible. I think it is EXTREMELY unlikely that he had a current contract.

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m not saying that Adam was signed to a recording contract with Wilshire or that they had a contract of any sort. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m just donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think we have facts in evidence that allow us to state categorically that it cannot be true.

Kirsten, I agree that we cannot PROVE that Wilshire isn’t a label, although if they were, why would they use HiFi? As far as we know, the evidence from their site is that they are not. It’s not foolproof evidence, but it’s no more flimsy as evidence than a leaked song list.

I was answering to your statement

HiFi says something, it causes controversy, HiFi is branded as a liar by some and then HiFi produces the evidence to back up their claim

, and although they have given some evidence about the co-writing there is a lot of evidence that they lied or at least twisted the facts on other occasions.

Lambertà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s first single, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Want,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  is streaming now on the Hi Fi Recordings official website, and according to the companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s CEO John Hecker, the rest of the tracks will sound similar. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The musicà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s amazing,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  says Hecker. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“There are some uptempo [songs], thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s some that rock a little more, and there are some songs on the same tip as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Want.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a real album thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s coming out, not just a conglomerate of a bunch of songs. This is all original material à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  as a matter of fact, Adam wrote a lot of it.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

Now that we have the song list, in what way isn’t the so-called album a conglomerate of songs?
And is Want original material? Wasn’t it was previously released as December?

And there is this

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“We were presented with a business opportunity,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  said Hecker. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“We accepted because Wilshire Records had a long working relationship with Adam, and it resulted in excellent music that they had the rights to. The music has an audience, and it deserves to be heard

becoming

Hi Fi claims that it has a signed recording contract with Adam dated Feb. 12, 2008.

.
The first statement clearly states that it was Wilshire who had the contract, whereas the second one implies (only of course), that THEY have an agreement.
Oh, it’s not a lie, because first it’s not part of the quoted statement, and because the comments don’t actually state that they have signed the contract, only that they have one, meaning that they probably have the copy of the contract between Adam and Wilshire.

They tell OK! magazine in a statement, “Adam is now enjoying the success that he and Wilshire Records hoped for. However, he is now represented by high-profile companies who released a statement in Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s name saying the songs on On With the Show were recorded four years ago and Adam only contributed vocals. This is simply not true.

Since when a statement about ‘a new (old) track’ means that it is about a whole album? Another way of twisting the facts.

In addition, as I mentioned earlier, the only track that is released so far and people can spend their money on is Want, and for this track none of their claims apply. They keep answering to criticism by mentioning other tracks..

Even if there are not legally lying, they are twisting the facts as much as possible in order to mislead potential buyers. I can’t see how they are providing evidence to backup their claims!

I am sure that they are going to provide the evidence of a contract. But is won’t be a record deal. They are however, going to attempt to spin it in their favor..

The à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“factsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  are that Adam was a session singer for Wilshire and that he had a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“contractà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  with them, implied (cash the check and this is how it is) or written that paid him for the sessions

Tess, thanks for injecting some business sense to the discussion. Many times I have to walk away from this thread because people are talking about the contract and do not even have an idea what a basic contract is.

The same for Adam’s press releases. People sat around waiting for Adam to tell everyone not to buy the HiFi recordings. Well, that’s not going to happen due to legal liability. A few posts brought up that point and yet it was ignored. Some don’t understand that what is not said in the business world speaks as loudly as what is said. And what is said is controlled by the attorneys, not Adam.

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“publishers ie: record companiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m pretty sure this isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t true as there was a recent article about Cook being signed to a publishing company.
And heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s an RCA artist so publishng companies/labels arenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t the same.

Right. A lot of labels have publishers attached to them, as one sort of wing. But the publishers aren’t the labels. And it’s perfectly possible to have a publishing deal without being signed to a recording contract to the label that that publishing company is affiliated with.

And than there are also outfits that are basically production studios, of which Wilshire seems to be one. They aren’t labels either.

The only kind of contract that 19′s contract is interested in is with a label — because they’re the people who put out actual records for sale and who have signed a bunch of artists that they promote.

The publishing groups just shop music you’ve written around to labels that might buy it for other people to sing. The production studios just help you put together recordings. They might produce finished-product-type songs under contract to a label, but other times they just charge unsigned artists )or songwriters) to provide production facilities and assistance in putting together demos (as in the case of the Adam demo).

I will say that Adam keeps things interesting in the off season. Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s like Taylor and Kat McPhee all rolled into one.

:lol_tb: I hope you didn’t just jinx Adam.

The same for Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s press releases. People sat around waiting for Adam to tell everyone not to buy the HiFi recordings. Well, thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not going to happen due to legal liability. A few posts brought up that point and yet it was ignored. Some donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t understand that what is not said in the business world speaks as loudly as what is said. And what is said is controlled by the attorneys, not Adam.

Similarly, what’s not being *done* speaks volumes. If HiFi (or Wilshire — though I don’t see anything that shows they’ve ever acted as a record label) truly possessed papers showing that Adam had signed on as one of the recording artists with their label, they would have the power to do far far more than release “Want” to Itunes…. And yet that seems to be all they’re doing (well, that, and sending out press releases …) I can’t think of any reason why they’d go after the pennies if they had the power to get dollars.

Well, they certainly seem to have gotten better at it than they were in the past (when in Season 3, one of the finalists actually had a court date for a domestic dispute scheduled for the same day as a performance show), but ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s impossible to vet somebody completely if they choose to lie and hide things.

I didn’t follow AI at that time. Who was that and how did the case end? Was this a civil or criminal matter? Was it domestic violence or a domestic dispute. Had the contestant been arrested and therefore was out on bail during the show?

It sounds as if it was a civil case? If the court happened to assign a date which fell on the same date of the finale, I don’t think that is a big deal. I am assuming the finalist had their attorney ask for a continuance.

Are you sure AI didn’t know about it? Talented people are not always perfect (as the rest of us), and I am sure AI has a threshold of what they are willing to put up with.

Adam was with Citizen Vein at the time in 2007/2008, so if the contract was with Citizen Vein, even if Adam and Monty probably co-owned the rights to the band, the band was under contract, not Adam and AI says not current contract as a singer and probably does not cover as part or co-owner of a group! Lots of loop holes in most contract!

Disclaimer: Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m not saying that Adam is lying. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m not saying he had a current recording contract. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m just saying that ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not impossible.

And who would be the parties to this contract? Again, a basic understanding of what a contract is would help.

Hecker does not represent Wilshire records in any way, shape, or form. Using Wilshire in his statements is misleading. It is Hi Fi Recordings that is releasing Adam’s music, not Wilsire. The demos were produced by Wilshire which is why their name is being linked in the release. Hecker would have no idea about the nature of any contract Adam had with Wilshire as he is not employed by or involved with Wilshire. They are not a joint venture.

Wilshire owned demos and had every right to sell them to whomever wanted to purchase them. It looks like Hecker was on the ball enough to get his hands on them and market them under his own label. He now has the right to release them. People have the right to buy them. Adam has the right to say, “This sucks.”

Hecker is an opportunist. It’s not a crime. Just sleazy.

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“publishers ie: record companiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m pretty sure this isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t true as there was a recent article about Cook being signed to a publishing company.
And heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s an RCA artist so publishng companies/labels arenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t the same.

Whether publishers are labels or not is besides the point really. What is obvious is that Wilshire, from their myspace statement and the artists listed under them.. ie being listed as unsigned on their own pages, is that they are neither.

Just found this online. I don’t know where to put it. Enjoy, Adam fans.
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/entertainment/music/dpgo_Video_American_Idol_Tour_fc_20090626_2614357

29??? Someone need to check their fact – lol

Wandered (reluctantly) over to this thread.

The pattern I see is this; HI-FI releases partial information, which 19 responds to, and then HI-FI turns around and does a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“gotchaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  by issuing a press release with the rest of the details. Perhaps Hi-FI has been truthful so far in their PR game, which to me, seems to be aimed at getting buzz

Yeah, this seems about right to me. It’s hard to issue complete counter statements if you’re only getting partial information to begin with. Adam’s been busting his butt trying to make it in this business for awhile (good for him, it shows how serious and committed he was and is), so he has more of a history than most. It’s complicated things. So what.

Adam will be fine. These guys are opportunists trying to make a quick buck. When you step back a bit, you realize what a huge compliment it is that people actually think they can make money off of some lousy demos and unfinished work he did years ago. And he’s not even an established star. Yet. So many people trying to get record deals and Adam’s got more deals than he wants. Crazy (tm Allison).

I think it’s a testament to how big a lot of industry insiders think Adam has the potential to be. The guy is charismatic and handsome, with a gorgeous voice and a style that might just be the next big thing, fusing an old style rock sound with more contemporary elements. He’s an interviewer’s dream, always interesting and occasionally saying something cheeky that generates a great sound bite. He’s also smart and has a certain business savvy and industry connections that have helped him hit the ground running in terms of his RCA album. Plus he’s got a great work ethic (you can’t make it in musical theater unless you do). And he’s a superb performer. To me, that is Adam’s ace in the hole. I think Adam has the potential to be a huge tour draw, with that powerful voice reverberating off the walls and ceiling of concert venues. He loves costumes and special effects and everything else that makes an event like that special and memorable. There are certainly no guarantees for any of these Idol finalists (especially judging by past history) but, with the name recognition, built-in fanbase and mega talent, if I’m an industry person, I’m really liking Adam Lambert’s chances for success.

Eye on the prize!

Hi Fi claims that it has a signed recording contract with Adam dated Feb. 12, 2008. The label has already made one of the CDà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s tracks, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Want,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  available on iTunes.

If (Ifà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t kill me) Adam signed a recording contract with Wilshire, he violated the terms of his Idol contract which stipulates a contestant canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have current management or label contract. Not that 19 would do anything about it now, with so much moneyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’and their reputationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’at stake.

All Hi Fi has to do is produce the signed “recording” contract. Yes, if Adam knew about it, he did violate the terms of his Idol contract. Surely, with that contract dated Feb/08 he could not have forgetten about it, or did he not realize it was a “recording” contract and/or a management deal (didn’t read the darn thing & the fine print). Not having much money, he was probably eager just to make some money, signed the bottom line of probably a very long boring, page after page legal document and quickly forgot about it. If it is indeed a valid & current recording/management contract, now what?

If I recall, though can’t name them, some previous Idol contestants were disqualified early on due to discovering that they had a current recording contract. Add to that, some of these wannabee artists might not have a recording contract, but they might have signed a management deal in the hopes of getting gigs and/or an eventual record deal if it works out. They would also be disqualified. They were probably in the same boat (no money, no contacts, etc.) and they were probably good enough to proceed & maybe make top 10 but never got the chance however, Adam make it to top 2. Surely RCA will have to clean up this mess & settle but was that fair to those budding artists that were disqualified due to a “recording/management” contract they had that probably never yeilded them anything significant?

Then again, how about young budding and talented artists who knew they had a recording/management contract & therefore couldn’t get the incredible national face time & publicity on American Idol, how do you think they feel about all this? Oops, don’t mention it, go on A.I. and let TPTB deal with it after the fact.

Since Adam was really a professional performing on stage, I also find it strange he didn’t have some kind of manager trying to book him or peddle him to get auditions for shows. He surely wasn’t contacting folks in the music and entertaining business on his own. Now RCA & A.I. have to clean this up and Adam hasn’t made them any profit yet. They are between a rock and a hard place. Sorry for the rambling.

Adam might have more to worry about from the sharks at 19R/RCA. These guysà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re all the same.

Another shiny pearl of wisdom from MJ.

This is like a game of PR Tennis. Right now HiFi/Wilshire is up about 40-Love. They are not sleazy, imo, or at least no more sleazy than any other record label. They see an opportunity to make a buck. I wonder who will say what next?

Speculations are really going nowhere. Unless 19E/RCA drops Adam, which I doubt there is really no story here just Hi-Fi trying to drum up publicity.

IF Adam had signed some of record contract with Wilshire/Hi Fi, why would he try out for Idol?

Exposure – not thinking he would win or score a 19 contract? And who you want a recording contract with, a hole in the wall studio or any one of the labels in the Sony family? And/or he misunderstood what he had signed up for vis a vis Wilshire or thought if the impossible happen, he could find a way out of it? Have to say it may turn out to be better for the AI machine, that he didn’t win Idol, because this would be a bigger kettle of fish in that case. Easier to sweep away any impropriety of the runner up under the carpet than the actual winner.

The best thing that 19/Adam can do now is ignore this and dont respond to them. The single has already faded away and its not going to leap back up. This has backfired on Hi-Fi at the end of the day. If they had just said from the start that they were releasing an old album of Adams made of demos none of this drama would have happened and they would have sold more copies.

From madonna——-adam —keep ur eye on the prize and ignore the other crap

LaurelG, great, great post. I agree with everything you wrote. I’ve been following an industry exec, and he has been blogging about Adam since the top 13. He does attest to Adam being a future international superstar. Industry people all over the world are really excited about him. It seems Paula had Adam pegged from the beginning. She said early on that he had the complete package. What she probably didn’t know back then, was he was also extremely intelligent, industry savvy, and ever so charismatic. Adam didn’t win AI (that is yesterday’s talk), but is viewed by industry people as a winner.

With that said, of course whoever has access to any of Adam’s music is now taking notice. Not everyone is going to be like Fonzerelli/Brazen (or whatever the name) and offering Adam’s music for free.

Once again it doesn’t matter if Adam didn’t have a direct contract with Hi Fi. To me it is a non sequitur. If Adam signed a valid contract with Wilshire and Wilshire sold it/assigned it to Hi Fi or Hi Fi is in partnership with Wilshire it is still a valid contract. Wilshire didn’t have the resources to exploit Adam’s music so they sold it to someone who could. If you think this is sleazy, Wilshire is not less culpable than HiFi and if Adam signed a contract he is still liable under its terms.

Let me explain in simple terms. You have a mortgage on your house with Bank A. Bank A sells or assigns your mortgage to Bank B. Bank B sells or assigns your mortgage to Bank C and so on and so on.. You default on your mortgage you get a default notice from Bank Z and you go WTF? Welcome to the mortgage crisis in America. But you still have to make good on your mortgage payments or lose your house.

Now it is curious that we are hearing about this so-called record contract for the first time only now. Still smells like HiFi trying to get a payout from RCA, especially since things are not working out as planned.

If HiFi has a breach of contract action that is very strong they still may not want to totally piss off RCA yet by coming right out and making that allegation because even if they have a strong case this is David taking on Goliath. They might still prefer a cash settlement now and they’ll go away quietly. If they are just bluffing, they are still trying to get money out of this. My guess is RCA is laughing their heads off. I don’t think it is as funny for Adam though, poor guy.

In a way paying off these guys would be great so Adam can concentrate without distraction and maybe RCA can make money itself off the stuff later. But then that would also set a precedent that RCA won’t want to set.

Eh, the merry-go-round continues.

I will just say that by basically calling Adam a liar and that he’s screwing over his his fellow artist Monte Pittman? Really SUPER smart way to get the only people who would have actually spent money on this dreck, Adam fans, to want to do so. So regardless of anything else, these people are morons. Again, they could have made money if they had just been honest about what they were selling. Release “Want,” as the session work it was, and the rest as unfinished tracks Adam had worked on. Adam fans could have bought it like they did “Can Anybody Hear Me?” and all would have been fine with Adam, the fans, HiFi.

So I think it fitting that Hecker screwed himself over with the way he handled this. By his own admission, not telling Adam and 19E/Sony about this first ‘they know now!’ His constantly changing story. The very blatant, though perfectly legal, opportunism in trying to use Adam now that he’s famous, after not doing a damn thing for his career before Adam made his own self famous. By not caring if they screwed Adam while doing so, all while whining about how they were doing it FOR Adam. Which is perfectly understandable to not care about Adam’s career, but don’t lie about it and say that your obvious trying to cash in on him is for HIS benefit. Oh well losers, you lose.

I was curious about what exactly are the requirements for AI contestants. I found this on the official AI site Audition FAQ:

If I have a manager for anything entertainment-related or a contract for my performing services, can I still audition?

If you advance to the semi-final round(s) of the competition (currently scheduled for January 2010), you MUST be able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Producer at that time that you do not have any of the following agreements in effect (written or oral):
 · a contract for talent representation (for example, a talent agent or manager);
 · a music recording contract;
 · an agreement relating to the use of your name, voice and/or likeness;
 · an exclusive acting contract; and/or
 · any other contractual arrangement that, in Producerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s sole discretion, would prohibit you from fully participating in the show and/or entering into any contracts required by Producer, including an exclusive management contract, recording contract and merchandising contract.

This is for American Idol 2010, I assume 2009 was the same. It seems like you actually can have a contract when you audition, you just have to be free to sign the contract with 19E when you make the semi-finals. They don’t want people already signed or managed elsewhere because those people can’t give 19E the rights they want. It’s that simple.

Adam signed the deal just like everyone else and no one has challenged 19E (or later RCA) for it. At least the first three bulletins are included in his contracts with 19E and RCA. There would a court battle already if he’d had previous agreements (that were still in effect) covering the same things with anyone else.

No matter how much information is confirmed there will always be those that think that he is absolutely the villian in all of this.

He surely wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t contacting folks in the music and entertaining business on his own. Now RCA & A.I. have to clean this up and Adam hasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t made them any profit yet.

Adam, very possibly, could have had an agent. I doubt it, but that is just my gut feeling. Based on his history it looks like he answered “open auditions” for most of his work, whether it be his stage work or his session work. And, by the way, having an agent doesn’t have a blasted thing to do with anything other than if they found Adam a job they would get their 10%.

And I can’t find any mess that RCA or AI have to cleanup. HiFi owns the session work and it seems like they own the demos. Again, end of story. They DO NOT OWN ADAM.

By the way…considering Adam’s somewhat “high” profile in the business (he had worked professionally) wouldn’t he, among all of the contestants, be the easiest for 19 to find out about. I am sure before the lawyers dotted the i(s) and crossed the (t)s they made damn sure that Adam had no binding contracts. They knew all about the demo-work, Adam talked about it enough, and they had the you tube videos of pretty much everything Adam had done.

I just went to Hi-Fi official site for the first time and they have Adam on their home page. I swear I would find a way out of my contract if I was one of their actually signed artists.

http://www.hifirecordings.com/hifirecordings.html

Oh now I see, they really don’t have any artists, no wonder they are stalking Adam.

http://www.hifirecordings.com/hifirecordings.html

I would like to again remind everyone of what Hecker said in his original statement. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“We were presented with a business opportunity.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  (Exactly. That is all this is about) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“We accepted because Wilshire Records had a long working relationship with Adam, (does not say contract) and it resulted in excellent music that they had the rights to. ( again music they had the rights to not Adam)The music has an audience, and it deserves to be heard.(because he wants to make money off of Adam’s Idol exposure) I think ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s great music. (not that Adam thinks its great or even good music) At the end of the day, from my perspective, weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re really helping Adam.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ( yeah right) After the initial statement I am sure Hecker got his lawyers involved to see how much he could spin this to his advantage. Adam never had a relationship with HiFi and in no way made any deals with them.(Which now Hecker is misleading us to believe by saying he has a signed contract. He does not say with HiFi or for how long the contract was good. It might have been for 6 months or for session singing. Which could be spun into saying it is a recording contract. Hecker and HiFI are no way interested in Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s brand just their pockets just like Hecker originally said. They are trying to spin this as if they are the victims and people are falling for it. Maybe Adam is new to the politics of the music industry but 19 and HiFI are not. 19 would have at this point known if Adam had a legitimate contract with another record company and would have disqualified him a long time ago. HiFi knows how to take a so called agreement and between a session singer (Adam) and Wilshire and turn it into a media frenzy. Legally HiFi and Hecker are probably in the clear. Morally ,ethically not a chance. Adam is not lying. But I believe he is protecting his best interest just like Hecker only not as sleazy. Think people if you were an artist and say you worked as a waiter for a while and you manger in the restaurant asked you to paint some paintings for the restaurant and he paid you for them. Then you enter a contest and finish is the top two out of a hundred thousand people and a benefactor pays for a studio with top of the line equipment and supplies. You are going to have a showing at a gallery. Then your old boss from the restaurant puts and add in the paper saying there is going to be a showing of your work before the one you are planning and it is and represents you. Wouldn’t you be angry and wouldn’t you discredit it. Yes it is your work Yes it was paid for and your old boss owns it. But it is now what you want people to view upon your first presentation to the art world. (oh yes I know many people saw your work at the restaurant). Well this is the same thing here. Maybe this example is simplifying the situation but I think you all get my point. Thanks for reading. Rock on Adam Memo to Hecker: leave him alone let him make his new album the one he wants to make NOW. Release your legally owned songs after.

MJ Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s time, I think, for all parties to shut the hell up. In the end, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not a big deal.

So true.

Forget the whodunnit soap opera. Sure it’s as entertaining as any mystery. And many of you are impressive sleuths.

But this is business. Global, big bucks business. No mystery. Just neon arrows flashing: Money! Money! This post is about to empower you to understand exactly how much business, how much you’re part of it, and why.

Notice the outsized comment numbers here, and at any forum, and any site on the internet, when the topic is Adam Lambert? Notice that the current issue of one of the most venerated magazines in music has a cover and many spreads on some guy who has only won a formerly massively-mocked TV show?

That’s star power. It can’t be taught, it can’t be bottled, it can’t be invented. It’s finding the 100-mile-an-hour fast ball pitcher who sends jaded baseball scouts and owners of bottom-ranking franchises into wild frenzy

Adam Lambert is that kind of once-in-a generation discovery. He turns tastemakers who considered American Idol a joke into rabid watchers (or mentors, eh, Slash?). He snake charms grown women with 6-figure jobs into blithering, electrified school girls. He’s a game-changing, earth-shifting talent who causes involuntary, chemical reaction in all ages, all demographics. While you may or may not be enjoying this personally, business people everywhere are seeing a whole lot of ka-ching.

Understand the music business isn’t just sinking. It’s a ship-wrecked carcass that’s already washed up on the shore of an abandoned deserted island formerly used for target practice. Beyond dead, rotting. Over a mere decade, physical CD sales are down 52%.

Last year alone, CD sales took a 14% plummet. The shift to downloading isn’t up any where near 52%. There is a giant gap because people ain’t buying the me-too, falderal gook that passes for records these days. And kids are both making their own tracks, thank you Garage Band, and stealing others. Remember this business reality from now on

Adam defies this trend. He changed American Idol. He changed the demographics of watchers, he changed the publicity coverage, he changed the image. Lots of bandwagon hoppers are hoping he’ll change music. How?

Thanks to the Information Age, he has a monster built-in fanbase. Which includes no small portion of free media reporters, editors, and producers who just want to stand next to him, apparently. The Word-of-Mouth (WOM) potential is incomprehensibly dazzling.

And WOM is everything — repeat everything, and then some — to modern business.

There are shelves of business books and legions of over-priced seminars on how business today depends on Word-of-Mouth. No WOM, no profit. Every ad agency on the planet has a proprietary name for this core group of brand-loyal proselytizers who spread the news about a product’s greatness. (“The Influencers”, “The Persuaders”). Agency new business pitches spend a lot of time flashing assurances of how they can capture and retain this essential group. Including using their prowess in the much bally-hooed “social media.”

You’re already captured. You’re already emeshed in social media. Adam Lambert has 62,700 followers on Twitter alone. Double or triple that with lurkers and friends of followers, who would have happily parted with 99 cents for new Lambert product. And, presto, 100,000 to 200,000 copies of “Want” that should have sold. (Large, round numbers. Some core fans bought. The Friends-of-Followers unmeasureable). That’s not counting what the publicity from that would have extended.

But it didn’t happen. Why? You.

Because via “social media”, like internet forums, all these brand loyal potential Influencers, banded together, and instead of promoting the product, did something never imagined. They screamed: DON’T BUY THIS DREK.

Completely unprecedented brand loyal reaction. I keep mentioning this, and probably will continue to do so when discussing the business side of this for months to come.

But it stopped HiFi cold. If you had bought, this would have been another story.

HiFi counted on seizing the moment of huge hungry market with no new product available. And indeed, one press release and one Perez post did generate the monster reaction. It just wasn’t the kind expected.

This isn’t invented delusions of fan power that some have mentioned as being part of AI seasons past. I, like many entwined with this Adam-centric season, have no knowledge of that. This is business. This is Flip video cameras changing Twitter. This is the onward march of global broadband penetration. This is all new.

You are a very savvy group. Those with business backgrounds, or good mystery solving skills, have well sleuthed and speculated the details. If HiFi had been able to make “Kiss and Tell” the first single, they would have. And clubs from Mykonos to Buenos Airies would be blasting it out to dancers right now. Something changed, that’s why Adam was so “shocked” and “very dissapointed” and issued statement 2.

Adam had no brand exclusive record company contract. Wilshire may not even have had enough money to “sign” an artist in that iron-clad way that makes one ineligible for AI. If Adam had that kind of contract, he wouldn’t have wandered into the Burning Man desert looking for direction. He would have been working on that album, selling copies out of his car if necessary. And, yes, both he and Monte Pittman would have changed their status to SIGNED on MySpace long ago, (And hattip for that sleuthing) right after their champagne party. The legal barters, entanglements and betrayals that moved rough Citizen Vein demos into HiFi Press releases from Friday to yesterday we may never know.

“and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Wantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  is probably almost forgottenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦and that probably makes Adam very happy.”

Also, true.

edit: NO street teaming here. Save the lectures for your fan forums please

You do make a good point Squirrely, HiFi may be damaging what reputation they did have and lose some clients who have contracts expiring soon or scare away any other artists who were contemplating signing. Hope it wasn’t the next Usher or something.

FifthHouseSun: Very well stated.

edited post you were quoting

Here’s an article about Demo Deals and Development Deals.

Such a deal will usually entail having the record company pay for you to make a demo and, if they like it, have the first right to sign you. If they decide not to sign you, you get to walk with the demo

Obviously, Adam/CV didn’t walk with the demo, otherwise this drama wouldn’t exist.
But not all contracts are the same:

As a general proposition you should never sign anything without having your lawyer review it first. Do not rely on anyone else (or even their lawyer) to tell you what your contract says. Your lawyer will “translate” the deal for you and explain to you exactly what you are getting into. Do not let anyone rush you or pressure you into signing any agreement. There is really no such thing as a standard “form” contract. Any such contract was drafted by that party’s attorney to protect that party’s interests; your lawyer can help negotiate more favorable terms for you.

I am not speculating that Adam had a contract of this type, but rather trying to understand better the ins and outs of the industry.

Rorschach, is that you?

Holy hyperbole, Batman! Boy, is November gonna be fun ’round these parts.

Well Zombini that is standard good advice is signing any contract but in particular any contract in Hollywood.

I watched bits and pieces of Making the Band, with O Town and the Day 26. The guys from Day 26 were holding out for more money this season which was causing lots of drama because after having a platinum debut album, these boys had NO money. I think Diddy coughed up some more, not sure how much though.

With O Town the guys were looking at the contracts and the one guy who bothered to read it said all we get is $40,000 – that’s our cut whether the album sells 1 million or 100,000 copies. His father was saying don’t sign it and I can’t remember if he signed it or balked.

If you record the album, do the promo and the tour, that could be 18 months of slaving long hard days and you end up making less than working at McDonalds, even if the record is a smash hit. Yes the record company is investing in the band and have to recoup but shoot make it like hockey players at least and give these people performance bonuses.

Holy hyperbole, Batman!

No kidding. Super high expectations usually lead to disappointment. I hope Adam’s album is good because I’m a fan. For his sake, I hope it sells well. That will depend on the marketability of the material more than anything else. What is good does not always equal marketable, and vice versa. I heard a Daughtry song on the radio the other day (sorry Daughtry fans), and thought it was drek. That is a matter of personal taste, so mileage and all that.

As a fan, I hope for something that appeals to my personal tastes AND is marketable. In reality, what appeals to me isn’t always what appeals to everyone else. I guess I’ll just wait and see.

FilthHouseSun I think most people only buy what they like which is one of the reason the industry is in trouble. The other big reason is too many people steal what they like and don’t see it as stealing so any of us who have burned CDs for friends or gotten burned CDS from friends or downloaded from file sharing sites or find other ways to rip the music are all guilty. I’ve downloaded from file sharing sites but only songs that were out of print, not available anywhere and all us fans from Rockstar INXS burned the songs and the show because Burnett wasn’t going to sell it. That is the extent of my wickedness. I tend to legally download and then buy the hard copy of the CDs I really love.

However suing a suburban housewife for downloading a few tunes is not the answer either. Tim Farriss of INXS said the record industry could have and should have introduced iTunes type downloads 10 – 15 years before they did and then they wouldn’t have lost a whole generation who are used to not paying for their music. Instead they went around trying to shut down the file sharing sites – new ones just popped up or new methods arose, and suing illegal downloaders was like the needle in the haystack approach if there ever was.

I think this is not just an Adam phenomenon – I think if anyone had tried to take advantage of David Cook in this manner, there would have been the same reaction. As it was, David Cook gave his permission and blessing to burn his earlier music because he wasn’t getting paid so his fans should not have to pay either, especially since people were gouging fans. Since that was indeed copyrighted material not sure how kosher that was however.

And so they did to the point where most die hard fans know his pre Idol work almost as well as his post Idol work. But then David is proud of his pre-Idol work because it was finished product that represented his musical aspirations and I guess that’s the difference as well. In fact some people feel his pre Idol stuff was better, but I digress.

PJ, I share the feeling about what is good and what is marketable, or more precisely, what I like and what is marketable. And I also wish that the media buzz dies for a while, and the expectations reset to a lower level.

edited post you were quoting

just checking in to see if the contract document has been leaked yet. no? ok see ya.

should we check the Smoking Gun site? They still have that site? Maybe Perez is on the case. Bwah.

This really appears to be a lot of fuss over nothing. What do we actually know:

1. Adam recorded some songs as a studio artist in 2005, and with Citizen Vein in 2007 and 2008.

2. Adam had a relationship with Wilshire Records and recorded in their studios.

3. Hi-Fi Recordings acquired the rights to some of Adam’s recordings, has already released a single, “Want”, and plans to release an album this summer.

4. TMZ has a copy of an internal memo (Music Publishers Company of America letterhead) from Heckler that lists that album tracks and includes several songs Citizen Vein/Adam recorded in 2007 and 2008. Several of these recordings have been online for months.

5. Adam said he cannot comment on this music or weither his fans should buy it.

IMO it is highly unlikely that either Wilshire Records or Hi Fi Records has an active recording contract with Adam. If they had one, they would have already filed suit against 19/RCA and Adam.

So, is Hi Fi in posession of “a signed recording contract with Adam dated Feb. 12, 2008″? Maybe, but it must either be for specific music rights (limited licensing agreement) or expired.

The only reason I’ve been monitoring this thread today is to see if FifthHouseSun would weigh in. Insightful as always. Full of win.

“Adam Lambert is that kind of once-in-a generation discovery”

I wish Adam well but this jumped out at me in the middle of that long post. The higher the expectation the bigger the disappointment.

I understand his fans feeling that way though but believe it not, fans of the show from Seasons past have felt that way about Clay, Taylor, Cook among others. So when I see Adam mentioned as an artist comparable to Michael Jackson I just think “What are they on?”

And Adam’s buzz now that the gay thing seems to have worked its way through the media is actually not bigger post season than the other three names I mentioned. Although I’m sure fans new to Idol won’t believe than.

FifthHouseSun: I love your reflections

edited post you were quoting

I am not speculating that Adam had a contract of this type, but rather trying to understand better the ins and outs of the industry.

The thing is, you can have a contract to make a demo without having a development deal.

And a development deal is usually something you sign with a label that really has the wherewithal to develop you. Wilshire probably isn’t a label at all (in my opinion) and, if it is a label as some others think, it’s not a label with many resources (since it had to sign up with HiFi to get even this album released).

And it seems pretty likely to me that a label without any resources probably isn’t going to be wasting the money that it does have on developing people (which is what you do with people who are very young or with people who haven’t done enough work on their own for you to be sure of them — Madonna’s guitarist probably doesn’t fall into that category.)– in other words, taking people on spec and then helping them find songwriters and find a direction and all that. That’s an investment that won’t pay off for years, so a very very small label like Wilshire (if they even are a label) isn’t in much of a position to do it. They’re a lot more likely to leave that to the labels who have more resources to assist with the development.

And about what people are smoking who declare that Adam is the new Michael Jackson (… and a few weeks ago it was the new Elvis!): I think you might call it the “love drug.” Romantic delusions are the biggest ones of all.

Hanging around Idol fan sites does give great insight into why there have been so many wars of religion, though.

Adam Lambert is that kind of once-in-a generation discovery. He turns tastemakers who considered American Idol a joke into rabid watchers (or mentors, eh, Slash?). He snake charms grown women with 6-figure jobs into blithering, electrified school girls. Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a game-changing, earth-shifting talent who causes involuntary, chemical reaction in all ages, all demographics. While you may or may not be enjoying this personally, business people everywhere are seeing a whole lot of ka-ching.

I love Adam, but there’s some serious Kool Aid chugging going on here. How old were the Beatles, Elvis and Michael Jackson when they were discovered?

When I see once in a generation I think Elvis, Beatles, Michael Jackson. Am I leaving anyone out? I think a generation is 20 years so that would put Mr. Lambert is that category. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t read the entire long post that sentence was in. So I’m not sure Michael himself was mentioned but the implication was we have a similiar phenom here. Am I wrong?

To compare anyone from Idol to those artists is ludicrous to me. And yet every season, fans make the same comparisons. By 27, the Beatles were well into their career (possibly towards the end of the band’s career), ditto Elvis and of course MJ had been a star for almost 15-20 years by then.

*blinded by the bright, bright light*

I agree with Stormy
“only reason Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve been monitoring this thread today is to see if
FifthHouseSun would weigh in. Insightful as always. Full of win..”

Amen Amen to FifthHouseSun

Adam’s talent level is by far the highest I’ve seen on Idol (YMMV) and he does have some sort of magnetism. He manages to get people’s attention and hold it, both on and off the stage. Based on this I think he has the potential to be great. He’s kind of a unique character.

Had to check, the Beatles were ages 20-22 when they broke in the States. Elvis was 21 when he became a phenom. By ages 27/28, the Beatles were already finished as a band. That’s just for info because like I said comparing them to any current artists is just :wacko_tb:

Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a game-changing, earth-shifting talent who causes involuntary, chemical reaction in all ages, all demographics.

All demographics? He’s going to have the exact same primary demo for his base that every other male artist who started on Idol has– in other words, an army of fangirls and fanwomen. Oh, and he’ll presumably have more gay male fans than most other former Idols. But, some kind of mass appeal to all demos? Um, no.

charms grown women with 6-figure jobs into blithering, electrified school girls.

That happens every year between February and May. It’s called “American Idol”.

they better shut up soon! or else…
anyway, i think they are lying b/c Idol does massive background searches (since Joanna Pacitti was eliminated for Felicia Barton for having ties) i think they would have found out about this at the same time…

Notice that the current issue of one of the most venerated magazines in music has a cover and many spreads on some guy who has only won a formerly massively-mocked TV show?

And here I thought Kris Allen won AI8.

sorry but Rolling Stone is not one of the “most venerated magazines” anymore, especially when they put Jonas Brothers on the cover. I like Adam but the only reason he got the cover is because he’s gay. To make it seem like he is this “once in a lifetime” type of thing is a bit presumptuous since he has not even released any music of his own yet. The reason that people took AI seriously was because of Kelly Clarkson because if she did not start winning Grammys and sell millions of albums, people would not really think AI can really lead anywhere. I’m sure some would disagree but if Justin Guarini won, this would be a totally different show. Also, Slash worked with AI alum Daughtry.

As I said, I like Adam but I think some of the hype is a little bit ridiculous.

Lavender1960, I don’t know how to quote, but you indicated there might be some copyright issues with downloads of Cook’s work he OK’d. I don’t think this is true. To my knowledge, he only ever suggested people illegally download Analog Heart, to which he owns all legal rights. He wrote every song, produced the album himself, and presumably paid everyone who performed with him out of his own pocket. There was no one else entitled to any of the money from that music. In my mind, if the person with sole right to something gives permission to do the download, it is no longer illegal.

I never heard him OK an illegal download of Axium music, to which he may not have had all the rights. He did caution fans about buying it at obscene prices, as he did not authorize the people selling it like that to do so. He wanted the fans to know he had nothing to do with the price gouging on Ebay (AH was selling for $600 there). The two best-known Axium albums were available for a long time on WalMart mp3. He was never expected to block sale of those, as he had no control over them and they involved others (like Adam’s cast albums).

Yeah jpfan Berry Gordy might beg to differ….

I stand corrected IndyMuse, it was only Analog Heart. I didn’t realize he owned ALL the rights. Cookie was indie all the way on that one.

Gosh I’m dizzy. I think I’ll get off this Merry-go-round.

Before I go, great post FifthHouseSun.

I like Adam but the only reason he got the cover is because heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s gay.

I disagree with that actually. Adam had so much buzz over the course of the season that I think they might have put him on the cover anyway. The press all along said he was the most exciting contestant to come along in years and for anyone who has seen him perform, the basis for that is not just because he’s gay. He’s an exciting performer apart from any talk about sexuality. The entire season would have been a crashing bore without him.

And here I thought Kris Allen won AI8.

That just proves the point.

Not that I agree that it is OK, or acceptable, or any of those things- but it isn’t the first time someone has made the slip and that surely says something.

At this point- before any albums have been released- Adam is far and away the story of the season. I mean no disrespect or denegration of Kris, but it’s true.

And is the MJ heir thing ridiculous hyperbole?
Sure.
But a lot of us have very high hopes here and it’s not just fraus and fantards that have them.

In answer to all the peeps who are saying that “maybe” Adam had a recording contract with Wilshire. Firstly, if Adam had a recording contract with Wilshire, why would he try out for American Idol? Secondly, Let HiFi produce this recording contract. Third, if Adam had a recording contract with Wilshire, then absolutely he would not have been able to try out for AI, there is no way that AI would have let him try out if that was so. 4). And if Adam has/had a current, valid contract to record an album with Wilshire/HiFi, then all of this drama would not be going on now.

Incredible. Is this Hi-Fi bound and determined to ruin Adam just so they can make a quick buck? Adam has said – DO NOT RELEASE THIS MUSIC! and yet they still are and want us to be understanding?

I don’t care what the starving artist signed at the time, if it is not their wish for you to release the music, then DON’T!

Wow, I just read the post by ‘FifthHouseSun’ and totally agree with everything that was said. FHS is right by saying Adam “snake charms grown women with 6-figure jobs into blithering, electrified school girls.” I am one of those women whose life has been interupted by Adam. I google him through out the day…I play his music while I’m in my car. I can’t get the guy out of my mind. Does any one else out there have it this bad? I think Adam will become huge, he just has the ‘it’ factor. I’m going to do what FHS said to do and ‘comment about Adam on mainstream sites’, this will increase his hype. Thanks for the great insight FifthHouseSun!

After reading most of these posts, I think I’ve had it hearing about Hi Fi and Wilshire – don’t believe ‘em, don’t trust ‘em and dislike how they brought up Michael Jackson in their recent round. I think (and I hope) that Adam keeps his “eyes on the prize” and meets and surpasses hopes and expections.

Encouraging article I read on a “new age” site regarding Michael Jackson:

It really doesn’t matter how he passed. We will learn it was a combination of things, medication, exhaustion, stress and a life at the forefront. He spent essentially his whole life in an exalted fashion and that takes its toll.

It will be shown over time how he lived. He embraced humanity. He really was a loving father, a show business legend that will last for hundreds of years and a decent human being.

He was also a female energied man. Many parts of society distrusted that, especially the less “illuminated” parts. The planet is changing.

Female energied men will start to be embraced finally. Men will be respected for their nuturing, loving side rather than their dominance and abilty to win at all costs.

Perhaps the lesson is people come in all shapes and sizes and that we just accept people for who they actually are instead of what we want them to be.

That is a tough one but perhaps it is about time we start”

If true, this could explain how this is the right time for someone like Adam Lambert, and that excites me.

I am one of those women whose life has been interupted by Adam. I google him through out the dayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦I play his music while Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m in my car. I canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t get the guy out of my mind. Does any one else out there have it this bad?

Haha.
What I did today re Adam.

Topic?
I wish I could stop following this damn story and even more, quit posting about it.
It’s interesting, what can I say?

Haha.
What I did today re Adam.

See you and raise you one…..
http://www.hol.com/~hawmtn/horus.htm

See you and raise you oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦..
http://www.hol.com/~hawmtn/horus.htm

Eeek!
Math!!
Fractional quantification systems!!

And all I wanted was a lovely new tattoo giving me power and protection!

Being a media darling with tons of buzz and magazine covers isn’t the answer to going on to becoming a massive multi-platinum star. I’m sure the attention will obviously help promo but yet people like Carrie and Daughtry weren’t all over magazine covers immediately after their season of AI ended, Kelly who IMO deserves a RS cover more than any Idol there was never on the cover and the 3 of them still managed to become massive sellers and stars even without all that.

Based on this I think he has the potential to be great. Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s kind of a unique character.

There’s a huge difference between believing someone has the potential to be great, and believing that person is going to become some legend or go on to be the second coming of Michael Jackson.

I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t follow AI at that time. Who was that and how did the case end? Was this a civil or criminal matter? Was it domestic violence or a domestic dispute. Had the contestant been arrested and therefore was out on bail during the show?

It sounds as if it was a civil case? If the court happened to assign a date which fell on the same date of the finale, I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think that is a big deal. I am assuming the finalist had their attorney ask for a continuance.

Are you sure AI didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t know about it? Talented people are not always perfect (as the rest of us), and I am sure AI has a threshold of what they are willing to put up with.

Sorry, I was away for a while. I’m only going to get into this because it’s a prime example of how badly the vetting process can be done if the contestant is not forthcoming.

In October of 2002, between the auditions and Hollywood rounds, Corey Clark was arrested for misdemeanor battery against his 15 year old sister and the four arresting officers. In December, after making the final 24 (in the days before they started having the chairs episode later in order to foil spoilers), he was formally charged with resisting arrest, battery upon his sister, and criminal restraint.

The AI producers claimed that he never disclosed this arrest to them although he claims that he did. Corey was disqualified from the competition during Final 9 week and the producers elected not to boot anybody that week (or they would have ended the season a week early). They carried over the votes to the next week. Corey eventually reached a plea bargain and was sentenced to 6 months probation.

A couple of years later, Corey made another stir when he claimed that he had had a relationship with Paula while he was on the show. After that, the judges pretty much stopped interacting with the contestants during the competition.

So, to answer your questions: It was a criminal (not civil) case. Corey was disqualified before he had to make the court date, so there was no need to ask for a continuance (and maybe the plea bargain kicked in first). Nigel is emphatic that the producers did not know about it until the “Smoking Gun” leaked the news.

Being a media darling with tons of buzz and magazine covers isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t the answer to going on to becoming a massive multi-platinum star

But a lot of the time the press covers what the public is interested in. They cover things based on public demand or what they think will sell well. They don’t cover things out of the goodness of their own hearts. So I think the media interest reflects public interest to some degree.

Adam’s buzz is to the point where I think the media and blogs are looking to generate stories about him. That tells me there’s a demand out there somewhere.

In regards to the RS cover, Adam was given the cover long before he decided to give them the story to squelch the rumors regarding his sexuality. E Weekly approached him for the cover as well.

I dont feel like reading all the comments, but did anything new pop up from Hifi? Did they claim to have Adam sex tapes now or something??

Fifth House Sun you are phenomenal. You and Tess always put everything in perspective. I always look for your posts.

I think with the record industry, the artists don’t really make that much money, unless you are Madonna and put a whole package together. Today, I believe it’s concerts – that’s where these guys make their money. Since Adam performs with his entire being, he will become successful. He has fanclubs all over the world now and he will be big – trust me.

Firstly, if Adam had a recording contract with Wilshire, why would he try out for American Idol?

To paraphrase his own words in Rolling Stone: He got high on mushrooms at a music festival in the desert and had an ephiphany. Plus, he’s ambitious. And, he’s pushing 30. If you’re looking for a break, why not try anything you can to find it?

By ages 27/28, the Beatles were already finished as a band.

The Beatles may have been finished as a band but individually, the members all continued to have influential and successful careers. John Lennon’s life was cut short. George Harrison died. Ringo Starr has been successful in business. Paul McCartney still has a career in music. People are still talking about the Beatles four decades later and still listening to their songs. I don’t think there’s any comparison to be made.

I would love for Adam to put out an album I enjoy but I don’t believe he’s going to be the musical spokesperson for our times.

Daughtry had a very good album based on the flavor of the day (Nickleback) and he got a lot of “sales” just because he “lost” on AI. 4 million albums in 3 years is absolutely marvelous. Something to be really proud of. Now lets see how album 2 does and we can really explore how Daughtry is doing.

Carrie went country. With her Barbie Doll Image (absolutely everything that seems to work for a female country star she has -except for a personality), in a genre that seems to appeal to the idol viewers, at a time when the last big female country stars were not producing as much she “hit it” at the perfect time. And yes she is doing well and has had great success in a genre where good female singers continue to enjoy the fruits of their labors without a lot of competition. First album: 7 mil, 2nd album 3 mil.

Kelly was the first. A unique new concept that got everybody all a buzz. AI packaged her, gave her a pop sound, and marketed the hell out of her. 1st album: 3 mil, 2nd album: 6 mil and then she tried to create her own sound and her own identity and sold 1 mil, and now in this tough market she has sold 600,000 going back to her old, packaged sound.

Yes, all 3 are very successful. With a lot of hard work and continued tenacity they will all do well. But, for me and only me, none of the 3 are “STARS”. They are damn good singers but they don’t sell magazines, or sell out concerts in a few hours, they aren’t “international celebs” (Kelly does sell internationally), they aren’t media darlings, they probably are unrecognized by a lot of people.

Only time will tell if any idol will ever be recognized as a “Superstar”. I have no magic view into the future. My point is that we may see idols of the past as having attained “glorious” success but “none” have really broken through into absolute “main stream” consciousness. They have their niche and are doing well.

Will Adam be able to “break out”, will he be able to “headline”, will he become an international “sensation”….you tell me, I’m no fortune teller.

More Adam – extended Radar clip with the jacket swapping and 20/20 special on Michael with Kris and Adam. not sure if already posted

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/06/exclusive-interview-lambert-attributes-appeal-eyeliner-0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tavtALVloR8

Adam Lambert is that kind of once-in-a generation discovery. He turns tastemakers who considered American Idol a joke into rabid watchers (or mentors, eh, Slash?). He snake charms grown women with 6-figure jobs into blithering, electrified school girls. Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a game-changing, earth-shifting talent who causes involuntary, chemical reaction in all ages, all demographics. While you may or may not be enjoying this personally, business people everywhere are seeing a whole lot of ka-ching.

The above quote is kind of funny really. Because if this was the truth don’t you think he might have won the contest, and guess what he lost. So I guess all the American Idols voters who did not vote for him missed the fact that he was a once in a generation discovery. I have no idea where Adam’s career will go, I just do not know and neither does anybody else. YMMV

****The above quote is kind of funny really. Because if this was the truth donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t you think he might have won the contest, and guess what he lost.

20/20 is giving the impression he is a superstar…

The above quote is kind of funny really. Because if this was the truth donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t you think he might have won the contest, and guess what he lost. So I guess all the American Idols voters who did not vote for him missed the fact that he was a once in a generation discovery. I have no idea where Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s career will go, I just do not know and neither does anybody else. YMMV

Oh, that is going to bring up all the reasons debated on why Adam lost The most heated of course were Arkansas AT&T-textgate and the backlash against Adam because of his sexuality. If you weren’t here for those threads, it was quite the lively topic. NY Times even picked up on the controversy about AT&T employees providing free phones at voting parties in Arkansas. There were also quotes in the local Arkansas paper from people who said they individually power texted 250,000 votes for Kris.

I think most people seem happy now with the end results because it is working out for both Adam and Kris. Best top two ever in my opinion.

The above quote is kind of funny really. Because if this was the truth donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t you think he might have won the contest, and guess what he lost.

Well the American Idol voting audience doesn’t get it exactly right every single time. I discovered that when Daughtry lost.

Would the big stars in music today have won on Idol? Who can tell?

In October of 2002, between the auditions and Hollywood rounds, Corey Clark was arrested for misdemeanor battery against his 15 year old sister and the four arresting officers. In December, after making the final 24 (in the days before they started having the chairs episode later in order to foil spoilers), he was formally charged with resisting arrest, battery upon his sister, and criminal restraint.

Thanks Kristen, I did not know that about Corey. I wonder if they have to fill out their applications during the auditions so at the time he was being truthful. Lesson learned for AI I guess. I suspect they might do background checks on the top 36 now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they give drug tests now as well. Does anyone know what the process is? Sorry if this has been discussed to death in previous seasons. I’m a rookie here.

I was really interested in Tess’s assessment of previous idols and trying to determine Adam’s success. No crystal ball here, but I would like to put my two cents in. Monday I drove to NY from SC, a 15 hour drive. I subjected my two kids to Adam for almost 10 hours. By the time we were done, they knew all the words to the songs and my 13 year old son’s favorite was Feeling Good, my 19 year old daughter liked Ring of Fire best. The interesting part was for 4 hours we tried radio. We listen to Daughtry, Cook, Archie, Jason Mraz, One Republic and they threw in Lady GaGa. We were all bored with everyone except One Republic and loved Lady Gaga. She sings well and her Poker Face is very catchy. My daughter said that most of her friends and kids at college don’t like much of the music today because it all sounds the same – they have resorted to turning back the clock and listening to 70′s and 80′s music – particularly the rock sound. My daughter has even delved into the 60′s. They loved Lady Gaga and had her song down quickly because it catches you. I think Adam will catch us and we along with millions of others will be listening because it will be different. I hate saying this, if I didn’t know Daughtry’s, Cook’s and Archuleta’s voices, I would have said it’s the same droll singing. They all sound the same – just a different story. I want to be entertained, I want something I can hum – I’m sorry but they don’t do it for me and according to my daughter not much for her generation either. Kris, may not fall into this group depending on his interpretation of the songs. Yes this is all personal preference, but a perspective on what will make Adam successful – a different sound (pop-rock that is catchy). Go to Europe and you will hear that Adam’s type of music is what is successful. Music just permeates their life, so much more so than in the US. Country and Contemporary Christain just doesn’t make it worldwide.

My point was that if he was the once in a generation discovery that was mentioned in the post that he would have charmed the Idol voters and he did not. And the vote by all accounts was not close so the supposed scandal, non-scandal really, of the Arkansas voters probably did not play a part.

The American public will vote with it’s pocket book come November and not one person on this board can predict what will happen with Kris or Adam’s albums. We can look at how they have done so far after Idol and say they have done okay and that is all not fantastic or earth shattering or record breaking. Just Okay. That is all we have to go on for now. It is a crap shoot and nobody has a crystal ball. You have to wait for the numbers to tell the story.

Will Adam be able to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“break outà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ , will he be able to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“headlineà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ , will he become an international à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“sensationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.you tell me, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m no fortune teller.

Neither am I, but I still think Adam has a lot of potential. Not a guarantee, but potential.

I just sort of wandered into the tail end of this, but I just think you really cannot predict what’s big next based on past models of success: it’s all about what is happening at the time, not what happened before. So comparing Adam to Michael Jackson, The Beatles or even Daughtry won’t tell you anything about what could happen to him since it happened in the past during different circumstances. What really breaks a musical product is that it’s of the current cultural climate, reaction to the music climate, a lot of effort and a whole lot of luck.

As for the hyperbole, some of it is really ridiculous and setting the bar quite high, but some of the craziest stuff I have seen is not from his fans on a message board, but from news outlets (like 20/20 calling him a musical superstar). That’s something to ponder, whether or not Adam succeeds in the future.

ETA:

My point was that if he was the once in a generation discovery that was mentioned in the post that he would have charmed the Idol voters and he did not. And the vote by all accounts was not close so the supposed scandal, non-scandal really, of the Arkansas voters probably did not play a part.

Not to really take part in a discussion on the AI voting system since it’s all in the past and I am someone who believes Kris won fairly, but the system of voting, for me (for you?), is rather convaluted and really hard to evaluate. Plus, as much as I have been a fan of the show for a very long time, AI really doesn’t have much of a pulse musically. It’s first and foremost a TV show, so AI in itself is a not a great indicator of predicting trends in music. AI itself has its own core demographics that the music industry is well aware of and Fuller & Co have access to statistical breakdowns across the board (and what that means) that we don’t.

By the Beatles being done I just mean the Lennon/McCartney years were done. Not their careers as artists.

Adam is a polarizing artist. They don’t always do well attaining a mass audience. But he does have the potential to plug into the Gaga audience so that should help.

Big stars make it on their own. They didn’t need Idol. A huge star for example would be bigger than the show itself. At one point Kelly Clarkson was although that’s probably not true anymore.

I think the media hype for Adam is overkill and could hurt. If his sales aren’t that great for example, I could see them turning on him. I think Disney still owns ABC and has an ongoing partnership with Idol. So the 20/20 piece is a good deal for both of them. In Idolworld, the “true winner” is always the Idol that sells the most from that season. So eventually the true winner of S8 will be known as well.

I thought this thread was about whether Adam has/had a contract with Hi-Fi? If MJ opens it up to OT discussions, I’ll be happy to put in my 2 cents.

Big stars make it on their own. They didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t need Idol.

I think we give “big stars” way to much credit. They may have not had Idol but they, too, have to “build” a fan base. And for a lot of them they had to do it one fan at a time. Elvis didn’t just appear….he started by “winning” a talent show (go figure). The Beatles played hole in the wall clubs in England and Germany. Michael Jackson started as a member of a boy band singing in “gentlemen’s clubs”. Word of mouth got them noticed…but really all 3 pretty much got their big breaks on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ which for all intents and purposes was the ‘Idol’ of its day. No it wasn’t a contest, but it was the most popular TV show and everybody I knew watched it every Sunday night. If you got invited back for a second performance you were making it big time in the industry.

Just a piece of history for you all to enjoy…………

Adam Lambert is that kind of once-in-a generation discovery.

It’s over the top hyperbole like this that put Adam at risk. If he puts up less than Taylor Swift/Little Wayne debut numbers, the haters will be out in force.
No Boundaries already proved that people won’t buy just any old thing because he’s singing it.

This is just my opinion and as I’ve said before I am totally out of touch with popular music. I just quit listening to it in the early to mid 90′s – it seemed to be all rap/hiphop stuff or sound alike boy bands. I haven’t bought a pop album in all that time (the only music I’ve purchased – and no I don’t download illegally either) is a couple local artists and some classical.

I actually think the fact that Adam is so polarizing is actually a plus toward becoming a “star”. I can’t think of many great musical stars that haven’t been polarizing AT THEIR TIME. Sinatra was adored by many and hated by many. Elvis was the epitome of this – he fans adored him and many people hated him and thought he would destroy America! The Beatles – same thing (I can remember my grandfather banning my playing their albums in his house in the late 70′s when I was in my teens!) Madonna – STILL very polarizing, some consider her an amazing star and others gripe that she can’t sing, etc.

I have no idea what the future will bring – but I also feel that Adam has the potential to be a huge international musical star. My accidently running into him singing on Idol (I had NEVER watched before and just turned it on for something “mindless” to watch one evening when I was really tired) has brought me back to popular music. I am learning about the artists he is talking about and looking forward to his new music. What is strange is that I have run into a couple other people with similar stories – haven’t bothered with popular music in years, happened to see Adam and are now rediscovering music (other than our personal collections of older music).

My point was that if he was the once in a generation discovery that was mentioned in the post that he would have charmed the Idol voters and he did not. And the vote by all accounts was not close so the supposed scandal, non-scandal really, of the Arkansas voters probably did not play a part.

Calliope said it best. AI is a tv show and its audience doesn’t really reflect the average music consumer. The voting system has been discussed many times before and I think there is a consensus that it needs to be revamped, so no need to dwell on it here.

By the Beatles being done I just mean the Lennon/McCartney years were done. Not their careers as artists.

Adam is a polarizing artist. They donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t always do well attaining a mass audience. But he does have the potential to plug into the Gaga audience so that should help.

The problem with Idol is that they always cover great songs.So when the generic/mediocre rushed albums come out, theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re always a let down.

Big stars make it on their own. They didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t need Idol. A huge star for example would be bigger than the show itself. At one point Kelly Clarkson was although thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s probably not true anymore.

I think the media hype for Adam is overkill and could hurt. If his sales arenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t that great for example, I could see them turning on him.

jpfan, the Beatles were done by that age because they pretty much imploded, not because they of their age, so stick a fork in them. They didn’t want to be The Beatles anymore and that had been happening for quite some time.

I do think polarizing artists can do very well when reaching the masses since they tend to get more attention than non-polarizing; it’s just you have to make sure more people love you than hate you. It’s about finding the balance and hoping to get the correct reactions.

I do agree that rush job albums and mediocre material can really drag someone down, but a rush job doesn’t have to be mediocre in itself. RedOne did a rush job with Lady GaGa and, to keep with examples of artists mentioned, the Beatles used to get out two albums a year in their career, while doing worldwide tours. Sometimes I don’t think it is just the timeframe that really confines AI albums, but the all around emphasis on what is wanted from this album, who they get to work on it, etc.

As for a big star not necessarily needing Idol? Well, possibly not, but we are now living in a post-Idol world, so it’s part of the culture, even if it has failed to really do such a thing.

(By the way, since the hyperbole quotient about Adam has hit a high here, I am not saying that none of the pitfalls will not happen to Adam, but I just think it’s not as cut and dry as previous patterns appear.)

And yes, media hype can hurt Adam, but I actually don’t really think it has reached overkill unless you are really following it. People who read Rolling Stone aren’t necessarily the same people who watch tabloid shows or watch 20/20. I do agree that the media is quick to turn on people when they hit the point where the feel like they should.

Anyway, in regards to HiFi, I just get the feeling they really want a payout from RCA, but then that is just me speculating. I think that is why they are releasing so much information about how Adam is recording now, with whom, etc. Not just for hype purposes, but to sort of clear up any confusion that might be there.

Nobody from Idol can be compared to the Beatles, Elvis or Micheal Jackson. Even big pop/country stars like Kelly or Carrie aren’t in their league. And watching someone do glorified kareoke for a few months really is not a good predictor for even knowling who’ll sell a million albums lets alone dominate the culture for decades.

And of course big stars started somewhere. But Elvis and the Beatles were sensations who earned their way onto the Ed Sullivan show. Millions turned on the TV to see them. Idol the show is the superstar, not the contestants it turns into “stars.”

I guess the only superstar Idol has produced is Simon Cowell when you really analyze it. (Although I still think its Kelly Clarkson. Her star has just dimmed lately)

But, for me and only me, none of the 3 are à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“STARSà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ . They are damn good singers but they donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t sell magazines, or sell out concerts in a few hours, they arenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“international celebsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  (Kelly does sell internationally), they arenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t media darlings, they probably are unrecognized by a lot of people.

Of course, they don’t “sell magazines” now. They’re old-hat music celebrities. Guess what– a couple years from now Adam won’t “sell magazines” either. He just sells them now because he’s the all shiny and new kid.

Also, Kelly isn’t an “international celeb”? That’s news to her fans around the world. In Australia recently they went crazy for her.

Media darlings? Carrie Underwood? Check. And while I’m at it: David Cook and David Archuleta? Check.

Oh and as for being able “to sell out concerts in a few hours”, the Davids each sold out several of their shows in a matter of minutes. Granted, these were venues of only one, two, or three thousand seats– not stadium arenas– but, you didn’t specify what size concerts you meant.
——————————————————————————————————————

But, the overall point is that every season of Idol some new fanbase(s) thinks they have discovered the messiah of music. And then their Idol releases music and either establishes themselves within the industry or they fail. And occasionally, they establish themselves as super-successes (since you won’t call them “stars”). But, none of them revolutionize the music industry, pop culture, or anything else.

Could Adam be the first to do that? Technically, anything’s possible. But, more than likely, he’ll just come out with a decent freshman outing and set himself up to have a pretty good little career. His fans, meanwhile, will learn to adjust to these reduced expectations, and next year they’ll find themselves laughing knowingly at the new crops of vocal fantards for the contestants in Season Nine.

But Elvis and the Beatles were sensations who earned their way onto the Ed Sullivan show.

“Elvis Presley had already appeared on other national television shows (such as on Stage Show, The Milton Berle Show, and on the popular The Steve Allen Show) when Ed Sullivan booked Elvis for three shows.” This was in late 1956 early 1957….when Elvis had 2 albums out: Elvis & Elvis Presley. He was popular within a certain genre but did not become mainstream until after the show. “Elvis’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was a major success. Over 60 million people, both young and old, watched the show and many people believe it helped bridge the generation gap for Elvis’ acceptance into the mainstream.”

The Beatles were well known in England and their songs were just beginning to appear in America. The performed on Ed Sullivan 8 or 9 times between 1964 and 1970, with most of the appearances early on. 73 million people watched The Beatles on their first telecast.

Both Elvis and the Beatles had some commercial success prior to the Ed Sullivan show…but they became household names after their performances. And if you go back and listen to the songs they performed you will think that the Idols first albums are a thousand times better. Now, in today’s society we have absolutely nothing like this for young stars to get introduced to the public.

My point is that Idol isn’t a bad thing for new singers. Of course they need to show what they can do after Idol but it is a great way for them to get some kind of recognition. If singer’s only depend on radio play to get them noticed, I’m really surprised they get noticed at all.

adam should have his own mini concert t.v show in promotion to his album

Adam will be global. He already has fans around the world. His album will be promoted globally – lest we forget Simon Cowell’s prediction that they are looking for a global superstar and Adam is it. Why do you think MJ was doing his comeback concert in UK? Why did Britney Spears do her comeback in the UK ( she screwed herself by lip synching though)? UK and other European countries are more into music than the US. So is Asia and Australia. They support their faves and when all is said and done, these countries market music so differently. Europeans live differently – they’re out and about, clubs are set up by the rivers and they dance til dawn. Asian countries want anything American – it’s cool. Radio plays don’t do it – shows and concerts do. Look at Lady GaGa – always touring, promoting herself. The music business and success is not just what is here in the US – its what takes place internationally. Cookie and Archie did well in the Phillipines – that not international – it’s one country. Kelley did well in Australia – one country. Elliot did well in Japan – one country. Adam’s official fansite has members from all over the world. His No Boundaries No. 1 in Israel and Bahrain. Come on guys, don’t be so provincial – Adam is going to be a mega star internationally.

I’m glad to see that albumgate is starting to wind down. The ins and outs of what Hecker and Adam did or said and when are not the most interesting part of this. I enjoyed reading FHS’s deconstruction – it certainly rings true. However:

Because via à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“social mediaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ , like internet forums, all these brand loyal potential Influencers, banded together, and instead of promoting the product, did something never imagined. They screamed: DONà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢T BUY THIS DREK.

While that may have raised the alarm in Wilshire’s eyes, and may, in fact, be what happened. I’m hoping something more scattered was true: thousands of discrete and untutored decisions to not buy that dreck.

I know there are fans who will want anything in Adam’s voice, but, obviously, there’s no point to any of this if it isn’t about making good music. The first reactions to “Want” that I saw were on this blog, and what I saw was people having the same reaction as me – wtf? that’s not good music, that’s not Adam’s music. Before hearing from him, before banding together, before any talk of promoting or not. Just individual fans of Adam saying they won’t accept inferior product. Like someone else said, his “No Boundaries” isn’t burning up the charts.

This is a good thing. Too often in celebrity world, including all around Idol, it’s more about the person than the music. I’m sure that’s true with Adam, too. But the “we don’t want Want” cry was strong enough to tell me that he’s got some core fans that aren’t going to accept inferior product. This is a really good thing.

Some people worry that too much hype is going to hurt him, and I agree that it’s ridiculous to predict chart topping success and universal acclaim. But he’s definitely got talent and he definitely is interesting, and I think it’s just fine that lot’s of people are watching and saying: Adam, this better be good – pull out all the stops. If he doesn’t live up to it, oh, well. But, if it pushes him to do something really interesting, we all win. Here’s his chance to have (his current, musical equivalent of) his flaming headdress and prove it works.

And one comment just reminded me of a funny moment during the season:

Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a game-changing, earth-shifting talent who causes involuntary, chemical reaction in all ages, all demographics.

Talking among a group of friends after the Ring of Fire performance, we discovered in our small circle that most found that performance incredibly erotic. One straight guy said he was turned on by it, so a small poll ensued: not surprising that the straight women and gay men in the group were saying “I’d do him” – more interesting was the same response from a couple of straight men and one lesbian. Not literally of course, but the sensual reaction was real. Sound energy into chemical energy across some pretty basic boundaries. So sad that he’s not doing RoF on tour. I’m not seeing the tour, but I’d love to have had more data than my small circle of friends.

My predictions about whether his stuff will be good? I have no prediction, but November is not all that far away. And I promise that I won’t buy it unless it is good – it’s the least I can do in return for all the entertainment Adam’s given me these last few months.

I was away for most of the day, so I’m just getting around to reading this thread.

Please people, I allow some fangirling in these threads, but the extreme fanwanking ie. Fifth House Sun’s massive post? PLEASE leave that to your fansites.

I would have deleted it if I had gotten here earlier. I did edit out the “instructions” at the end, telling fans how to behave. MY BLOG IS NOT THE PLACE FOR STREET TEAMING. Keep your call-to-arms OFF my blog. These threads are meant for discussion of the TOPICS only.

Fifth House Sun’s post ALSO took this thread off track. Keep the discussion focused on the topic of the thread which is Adam and Hi Fi.

Links to Adam interviews etc BELONG IN THE HEADLINES THREAD. I don’t understand when people say things like “I didn’t know where to put this.” THAT’S WHY I CREATE A HEADLINES THREAD EVERY DAY. For miscellaneous material like articles and videos that fans may find around the internet.

And one last thing–discussion about YOUR adam lambert obsession is ALWAYS OFF TOPIC. ALWAYS. Again, that sort of self-referential fanwanking belongs on your fan forums.

The contract was for Wilshire.Was for old material. Hi Fi bought the old material.They do not have a contract for Adam that was for current material-the contract expired before Idol-looking for drama makes it interesting though. Adam Lambert’s talent is monumental, hence all the industry jumping on the gravy train.

If…as you said, mj, it’s a big if….the contract is real, I actually think there could be repercussions. Big ones.

If Adam had the contract 19E will have to do something to salvage their reputation. It will look really bad if they just allow it. They could drop his 19M representation, cut the amount spent on his album, or even sue.

Also, everything Kirsten said on pages 3 and 4.

This really opens them (19E and Fox) up to lawsuits from any contestant or conspiracy theorist who thinks this thing is rigged…and there are plenty.

Yeah, Kris won, but second place has been pretty much guaranteed a contract since season 1. He got as far as he needed to get.

LOL at the “Adam is the savior of all music” stuff. Like this is the first time someone has said that about an Idol contestant. I wish the people who said that sort of thing would go out and listen to those many people think are the “changing the face of music” before they make comments like that. (Hint: those artists aren’t on top 40 radio) Maybe some perspective would help them understand why it sounds so out of touch with what’s really going on in the music industry.

It’s no loss if Adam doesn’t get to release his album on RCA. They might lose a few bucks on the album, but save themselves a lawsuit. They could also end up saving themselves from a failed album. We can’t predict the future.

Also, what pj said on page 5. I also hope for a successful album that I can enjoy. I’d take the latter over the former any day though.

Kirsten said:
I will say that Adam keeps things interesting in the off season. Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s like Taylor and Kat McPhee all rolled into one.

THIS!

I would love for Adam to put out an album I enjoy but I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t believe heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s going to be the musical spokesperson for our times.

Wonderwhy: Sure hope you are wrong. I’m probably older than you (I’m a grandma) but Adam is the best I have heard for many years. To me he is more than just a” karaoke tv show runner-up” as some have stated. JMO but he is an awesome performer as well as having a talent that vocal experts are raving about.

I hope he DOES become that mega-superstar his fans are predicting and hoping for. I pray that he realizes his dreams. If he doesn’t, well I don’t think it will be because he hasn’t worked his butt off for the last 7-10 years trying. I believe he will have a ridiculously successful career regardless. I do believe Adam has that “it” or that “something” the music world is looking for. He has certainly gotten our attention, lol. I don’t see people ranting and raving about the other idols as they are about Adam. I don’t even care about his strange experimentation with a drug that he most likely only did once or twice with which some people seem to have such an issue. (BTW: He is not alone.) He was just honest enough to admit it. No, he will probably never be another Elvis or MJ but aren’t the times a bit different now than when they became worldwide superstars?

Just another thought: If he DOES become that worldwide superstar or even just a famous pop/rock singer, I pray that some people will be a little nicer regarding him than they have been since last January. If not, perhaps his fans can understand and accept it. Just a nice, prayerful thought of mine. But remember, not everyone loved Elvis or MJ either!

“Good luck Adam. May you achieve your dreams and what your fans think you deserve. We believe in you.”

***This is anna in vegas. I don’t know why, I should ask MJ, but sometimes I get logged in as my old user name.

“Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a game-changing, earth-shifting talent who causes involuntary, chemical reaction in all ages, all demographics.”

No, not my age and demo, 20-25, especially peeps who are musicians of some sort. We did appreciate his voice in some Idol performances and we like him as a person most of the time but we did not experience any chemical reaction nor did the earth moved when he sang, sorry. We didn’t know Elvis, John Lennon and only witnessed some of Michael Jackson’s phenomenon so it’s mostly history for us. As far as game changers, the closest was Kurt Cobain. Some of the Idol contestants we liked were the low key folks like Melinda, Jason, Cook and his pre-Idol stuff and Kris this year. I realize that my sample may be small but just wanted to comment on the all ages and all demographics sweeping generalization.

No, not my age and demo, 20-25, especially peeps who are musicians of some sort. We did appreciate his voice in some Idol performances

What “we”? IMO there is entirely too much generalizing about demographics going on on all sides here. I’m 20, so I’m in that demographic, I never watched AI before Adam, and I love him. I’m assuming that earth-shifting is meant to be metaphorical in this instance, but I definitely find him to be something special and unusual among contemporary artists. I like Kris quite a bit. Most of my friends who watch AI–most of whom are singers or musicians or actors–loved Adam primarily as well. Some preferred Kris or Allison, but those three were liked and admired by pretty much everyone. We like both lower-key and more “theatrical” artists, both Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson, so to speak.

Some people in my demographic like Adam, some like Kris. Among the people I know my age, most liked Adam better, but that’s just my circle, and clearly other people have had different experiences. It just seems like there’s a bit too much generalizing going on in some cases.

Adam and Kris seem to have fans in all demographics. That’s a good thing for both of them.

Squirrely
Jun 27th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Oh now I see, they really donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have any artists, no wonder they are stalking Adam.

Wow Squirrely, I didn’t realize they only had SIX artists under contract…….unless you count Adam as #7, lol. No wonder they seem desperate.

“As far as game changers, the closest was Kurt Cobain. ”

Sorry, but who is this?

I have not been interested in any singer since the times of Janis Joplin, Queen, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi among a few others. I liked MJÂ ´s music but not him as a person.

I now heard about Melinda, Jason, Cook and other idols while reading this blog. I had never followed AI before. So, I guess that they were not a big deal internationally (I am not in the US).

I think Adam has an outstanding talent and charisma and I think he will overcome these obstacles and succeed in his career. The fact that he is being chased by hi-fi is a sign that he has tons of potential.

I really believe that Adam does not have a contract with hi-fi because they said in the first statement that they had bought his music from Wilshire (or whatever they are called) whith whom Adam had had business relationship (did not say a contract). If Adam had had any contract with anybody, he would be by now out of RCA and what I can see is that he is getting ready for the tour and is actively involved in writing with great authors for his upcoming album.

I know Adam has a huge international fanbase who could not vote for him and who could not buy his iTunes releases. However, his RCA album will be available worldwide. I have already booked mine with Amazon.com.

I know many of 18-25 year olds who love Adam (I am a university teacher and have contact with people this age).

It’s too soon to call Adam a game-changer in the music industry. Let’s see what his first RCA produced album is like before making such sweeping statements. While not his biggest fan during AI, I am honestly interested in hearing what he ends up doing on his album.

And in terms of his international appeal, yes he definitely had it but I’m sure there were other idols this season and in seasons passed that had huge international appeal – again, let’s first see what his album is like before we go calling him an international star – the potential might be there but until he does something with it I don’t think it makes sense to predict his career path in any direction.

Regarding age demographics of fans, as part of the 25-35 demographic – I think that most people I know who were into this show were fans of Kris, Adam and/or Allison.

This thing doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t seem to want to let me edit, sorry.

listen to those many people think are the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“changing the face of musicà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  before they make comments like that. (Hint: those artists arenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t on top 40 radio)

I definitely not anticipating that Adam is going to change the face of music (I think heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s amazingly talented and he could, who knows, but Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m not predicting that or anything), but it is in fact possible to do so and be on top 40 radio. Elvis, the Beatles, MJà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ all the people weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve been discussing as iconic artists who did alter music forever had tons of number 1 hits. Werenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t something like 7 out of 9 singles on Thriller number 1 hits for MJ?

It is possible to be an innovator and to be huge star with top 40 radio hits. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not common, but it can happen. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s just unfortunate that most people who have mega-success seem to suck, frankly. For example, look at Daughtryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ he sold a ton here, and his music (IMO) is just bland, pseudo-rock, mediocre, catchy crud (Nickelback and their ilk are an awful trend). But it sells. And yet, some people do manage to be artistically interesting while being hugely successful. In an ideal world, that would be true of Adam, Kris, and Allison. Weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll have to see if it is.

Oops, double post.

Looking over some of the posts, some way too long-winded and OTT to read, a couple of questions came to mind. I’ll admit I’m not well-versed in Adam’s career path. I believe he was the understudy in Wicked, but perhaps I’m incorrect here. He was in the Val Kilmer thing, and I read in an interview, I believe, Adam mentioned they had requested he not be so gay. (Adam said this not I. No offense meant here.) Not exactly the right way to treat a superstar in the making. He performed at the Upright Cabaret alot and then there was the Zodiac Show and the band, Citizen Vein?? Oh, yeah and Hair, is that right? Along the way, Adam went to Wilshire and recorded music. This all took place in an eight year timeframe, more or less.

My question is how did this global superstar not get recognized until American Idol? I’m serious here. Every show he auditioned for, every song he sang should have been pure gold. All those producers should have recognized his off-the-chart talent. Agents, record producers or whomever would be on the look-out for such unprecedented talent, salivating at the mouth. Why didn’t Adam get more recognition, more leading roles? Why didn’t Wilshire see his talent and run with it? They had the goods. They had Adam Lambert right there. How come they didn’t recognize him for the international superstar Simon Cowell envisioned? The superstar that Simon Cowell, himself, nearly rejected during Hollywood Week and before that, Adam’s audition.

While listening to Ryan Seacrest’s show, Adam received two phone calls, lovely women, very kind to Kris, but were head-over-heels for Adam. Their ages were 42 and 59. I think for Adam, as with David Cook, trying to become a credible rocker or pop/electronic/funk rocker?? and having this age demographic following him around from show to show is going to hurt him in the long run. It’s painful for me to say and painful to admit as I’m 51, myself. (David Cook was smart going with a college tour.) Oh, and I’m thinking going on Rolling Stone and proclaiming Adam to be the second-coming isn’t going to help him either.

American Idol got Adam Lambert noticed, got him a fanbase (for better or worse), Wilshire hooked up with Hi-Fi to make money on the product they owned. Was Adam going on American Idol part of the “promo”, an idea, I believe was broached on this thread? What better way to be seen with no money invested, just sweat equity so to speak.

My love for Adam waxes and wans mostly due to his fanbase and that’s a shame because Adam doesn’t deserve that. How many other potential fans are being turned-off? Just keepin’ it real. YMMV and I’m sure with Adam Fans it most certainly does.

Cookie and Archie did well in the Phillipines – that not international – ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s one country. Kelley did well in Australia – one country. Elliot did well in Japan – one country. Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s official fansite has members from all over the world. His No Boundaries No. 1 in Israel and Bahrain. Come on guys, donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t be so provincial – Adam is going to be a mega star internationally.

Both David Cook and David Archuleta are popular in other countries besides the Philippines– Singapore, Malaysia, and Brazil, for example. And speaking of Israel, David Cook’s recording of Billie Jean was used in an Israeli television commercial.

As for Kelly, she’s sold 20 million albums worldwide, and less than half of those were in the US, so it’s safe to say that Australia is not the only foreign land that she’s big in.

Seriously, you think that the current level of Adam-mania among superfans and the world of entertainment media is a new phenomena for an Idol star, but it’s really not. But, like I said that’s ok, because next spring as you cheer the decent success of Adam’s debut album, you’ll also have a good time laughing at the new batch of fangirls and all their over-the-top predictions about how their Idols are going to take over the music world.

Seriously, you think that the current level of Adam-mania among superfans and the world of entertainment media is a new phenomena for an Idol star, but ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s really not. But, like I said thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s ok, because next spring as you cheer the decent success of Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s debut album, youà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll also have a good time laughing at the new batch of fangirls and all their over-the-top predictions about how their Idols are going to take over the music world.

Idols always have their high level of hyperbole, their fans who weren’t interested in music for awhile till they encountered this Idol, and those who proclaim that their current Idol will change music. It usually doesn’t happen and it’s still not likely to happen.

What I feel that tends to get ignored in all of this fandom hype (on both sides) is looking the way the individual Idol fits into what’s going on at the time (which, for me, has always been the most interesting aspect of American Idol) musically and culturally. Instead it gets compared to past contestants and/or artists, or kept in the AI bubble (which, honestly, I understand to an extent since the number of Idol contestants to get out of that has been slight). If Adam doesn’t succeed it’s not because he was older than the Beatles when they were at the peak of their career, was too polarizing, made his album too quickly or came from Idol–it’s because he didn’t resonate with music buyers. That’s how it usually is, it’s just that trends and what is going on musically changes all the time and quite quickly.

Also, one doesn’t have to change the face of music to become a pop star, in my opinion. One just has to be a good pop star. I think Britney Spears was a good pop star (but I also think she was relevant to music trends and reacting to the music scene in general), but most people would not call her a legend or say she herself changed the face of music.

By the way, I actually think Kelly Clarkson is a “legitimate” pop star as well. She may not have changed the face of music either, but she did resonate with music buyers.

Amen to noctem above, amen.

Self-edited: It was really off-topic.

Adam Lambert is talented, no doubt about it. But I don’t live inside a tiny box.

I just think that the Hi-Fi album should be a lawsuit waiting to happen. But I’m still waiting for it to happen. If the album is going to damage Adam’s career, I think 19/RCA should haul their battery of lawyers for a restraining order, or at least, negotiate a deal with Hi-Fi, perhaps, buy out the rights to the album from Hi-Fi.

I think it goes like this: Why did it take long for Hi-Fi to surface? Perhaps they were waiting to see if Adam would make it big. Hi-Fi would use its ace wisely. Why release it now? Because Adam is a hot commodity right now. Why not wait until his RCA album gets out. Well, Adam may be famous for now, but would the reception be the same post-RCA first album? It’s too early to say. Strike while the iron is hot.

Also, if Hi-Fi is as crappy as people want to believe it to be, then I don’t think it’s in Hi-Fi’s best interest to get entangled in multiple lawsuits, unless, they are quite sure they have an ace up in their sleeves.

IMO, while Hi-Fi might be a shrewd capitalist, they released Melinda’s album.

,

My question is how did this global superstar not get recognized until American Idol? Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m serious here. Every show he auditioned for, every song he sang should have been pure gold. All those producers should have recognized his off-the-chart talent. Agents, record producers or whomever would be on the look-out for such unprecedented talent, salivating at the mouth. Why didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t Adam get more recognition, more leading roles?

Maybe it was the gay thing.

I’m serious here too.

Stop and think about it. In Adam’s initial audition, what did Simon say? You’re too theatrical. And Randy said something along the lines of, “maybe it’s time for someone like you.” To me, “theatrical” sounded awfully code for “gay.” And even though Adam went into that audition stripped down, with no make-up or feathers, he didn’t fool anyone, did he? (And I don’t think he was really trying to, anyway.)

One of the reasons Adam has been the big story this year is because people have known all along about his sexuality. And the question every week was: how will the Idol viewers react? Will they accept him? Will they embrace him? Will they vote him through to the next round? And every week Adam surprised us, showing us different sides of his musical talent and wowing us with his creativity and showmanship. Along the way he collected a diverse group of fans, some who loved his ROF persona, some who thrilled to the rock voice and others who fell for ballad Adam. And he charmed us too, collectively, with his sweet and respectful personality.

Ultimately the gay thing did deny him the top prize. (In my opinion, a straight Adam would have won the Idol crown hands down.) But no matter. His tenure on AI garnered him a large and loyal fanbase. And he proved that his gayness is not an issue for a large group of people who love him and will support him because of his music and who could care less about the other personal stuff.

So in answer to your questions above, evanjane, those agents and record producers might have noticed Adam’s unprecedented, off-the-chart talent, but because of the enormous dollars involved in taking an unknown face and building him or her into a successful recording artist, they might have been reluctant to take a chance on Adam because he was gay.

When you think about it, while Proposition 8 resulted in us taking two giant steps backward, AI actually took us a half step forward.

We won’t see a leaked contract between Hifi and Adam because there isn’t one. Mark my words.

Ifà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦as you said, mj, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a big ifà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.the contract is real, I actually think there could be repercussions. Big ones.

If Adam had the contract 19E will have to do something to salvage their reputation. It will look really bad if they just allow it. They could drop his 19M representation, cut the amount spent on his album, or even sue.

This really opens them (19E and Fox) up to lawsuits from any contestant or conspiracy theorist who thinks this thing is riggedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦and there are plenty.

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s no loss if Adam doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t get to release his album on RCA. They might lose a few bucks on the album, but save themselves a lawsuit. They could also end up saving themselves from a failed album. We canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t predict the future.

If Adam hadn’t been eligible for AI we’d know it by now. The criteria for eligibility is, in practice, being able to sign the contract with 19E that all the semi-finalists sign. 19E just want to have all the rights to the contestants specified in that contract, they don’t care for anything else. If anyone else had a prior claim to Adam that would make that contract invalid, they’d be in court by now. No one has taken Adam/19E to court, so I don’t see any problems.

More specifically, if Hi Fi or Wilshire had any claims to Adam they wouldn’t be just releasing these press releases and a silly demo in iTunes. They’d have lawyers demanding millions in compensation from Adam/19E/RCA for breaking the contract and/or they’d require Adam to honor the contract to make a record for them. Since none of that is happening I find it hard to believe they have any current claim on him or that there’s been any broken contracts. They can’t have a contract with Adam that would make him ineligible for AI if they can’t sue Adam/19E/RCA for breaking that contract.

The above quote is kind of funny really. Because if this was the truth donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t you think he might have won the contest, and guess what he lost. So I guess all the American Idols voters who did not vote for him missed the fact that he was a once in a generation discovery

The industry and the press obviously think differently than the American Idol voters….I think they had their own vote and guess who won. It’s kind of wierd.

The above quote is kind of funny really. Because if this was the truth donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t you think he might have won the contest, and guess what he lost. So I guess all the American Idols voters who did not vote for him missed the fact that he was a once in a generation discovery

Guess what Elvis lost a singing contest in Memphis before he was discovered and became a once in a generation discovery.

The above quote is kind of funny really. Because if this was the truth donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t you think he might have won the contest, and guess what he lost. So I guess all the American Idols voters who did not vote for him missed the fact that he was a once in a generation discovery

Guess what Elvis lost a singing contest in Memphis before he was discovered and became a once in a generation discovery.

True. I mean, “once-in-a-generation talent” is a pretty extreme label to put on anybody, and there are a lot of great singers and artists who probably don’t qualify for it, and while I do think Adam’s voice alone puts him a pretty elite class (that doesn’t mean you have to love his voice–I love Bob Dylan’s voice, and he isn’t winning any singing awards), I certainly wouldn’t be giving that label to someone before they put out an album. But winning or losing AI definitely doesn’t determine whether or not a person qualifies for that label.

That said, it does seem like this year–perhaps unlike in years past, thought I don’t know for sure–the most talented people on the show have been recognized and rewarded. Adam, Kris, and Allison were definitely a cut above the rest all season, and now they are going to make albums.

Hey all, have been lurking in here for a while, nice blog mj. I am from Denmark so keep in mind this is my second language and I am not that good at it. There have been some of you that have said that Kelly and Daugthry has become international, but that just simply ain’t true. I do belief that Denmark is one of the more difficult country to reach specially if you from american idols a contest we absolutely can’t take serious at all, sorry but that is how most of europe feel.

I have never heard about any american idols before and now I know why, most of them are so ordinarily, and their music so borring. It just not that kind of music that is in over here.

As I said Denmark is difficult to reach but Adam did it, he has a lot of fans here already. I think it is because hes not a typical american. We can identify with him and we just love when someone come along that can make some stir in the conservative US and all those intolerant people that live there. I actually belief he has a bigger future in europe then in the US if he make some good music of course. He just is exciting^^

But a lot of the time the press covers what the public is interested in. They cover things based on public demand or what they think will sell well. They donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t cover things out of the goodness of their own hearts. So I think the media interest reflects public interest to some degree.

Paris Hilton gets lots of attention – does she have talent?

Octomom gets lots of attention – does she have talent?

There are many whose star shone brightly only to be forgotten just as quickly. Amy Winehouse won the Best New Artist Grammy in 2008. She’s getting lots of attention but not for her talent. Mind you, yes in Amy’s case she is the author of her own falling and she can rise back up if she doesn’t kill herself first and gets some help.

I think that overhyping Adam doesn’t serve HIM well when you get down to it – just let the boy do his thing, be supportive and then if he is the biggest thing since sliced bread go to town.

In the old days of both music and sports, rookies were allowed to make mistakes and get their feet wet – in terms of making an album for release, AL is still a rookie, no matter what HiFi says, bwah and even with all the money 19/RCA has to surround him with the best collaborators.

These days rookies are expected to sell like the veterans out of the gate and in sports they are expected to be superstars their first season, the latter because they are being paid outrageous salaries when they haven’t proven themselves yet at a professional level. I would not want that kind of pressure ever. It is hard enough to be a rookie but to be expected to meet such high expectations from the get go -that is incredible pressure piled on top of incredible pressure. Some thrive on it, others choke on it – some that have choked have managed to turn it around and survive, others either never get another chance.

My question is how did this global superstar not get recognized until American Idol? Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m serious here. Every show he auditioned for, every song he sang should have been pure gold.

Well, the thing is “global superstar” is a combination of things — talent, but also marketing, having just the right company behind you that is able to push you forward in just the right way, hitting the “right moment,” having the exact right songs written by and for you and produced in the exact right way to hit the moment, having the right look, having producers that give you aural and visual stuff that strikes just the right chord with a lot of audiences, etc. So I think it’s quite possible that a “global superstar” could go by a lot of people without being “noticed” — because even if you notice an extreme talent, you have no way of knowing whether all of these other things will come together.

Plus, plenty of people with brilliant talents never become big stars at all. When you’re trying to work your way up, you only have a certain selection of jobs — and the job of “superstar” isn’t one of them. There are jobs in bands, in musical theater, in little cabarets in your town. Your brilliant talent — even if it is absolutely genius quality — may not be exactly the right fit for any of those roles or venues, or others may be jealous of you and try to shove you aside, or your inexperience may make you unable to showcase your brilliance properly, or you may be too adventurous to be fully recognized by most people, or the local critic or record producer may be sick of that particular venue or genre and not show up to a performance to see you.

And then you can put out your own demos — but they will virtually never be brilliantly produced and they may have to fall into line behind the not-as-brilliant but good demo that was sent to the label by the company president’s brother-in-law’s nephew. And maybe your genre isn’t the “hot” one right at the moment that it arrives at the record label, and perhaps they aren’t able to recognize that your style could, in fact, be the next one to take the world by storm, because everybody, even normally very talented trendspotters, has blind spots. Or maybe you come onto the radar screen but people decline to take a chance on you because they think maybe you don’t have the right look or they decide that the world may not be ready to fully embrace an out gay performer who has pictures around of himself in drag or because they figure that you’re a little too short, or chubby, or too white or too black, or too old….

There are about a billion reasons why somebody with genius-level talent may not *ever* get “discovered” in an industry like music. Even if that person does have the potential to be a “global superstar.” And for those who get discovered, the combination of factors that could actually make that person the “global superstar” are so numerous, and so many are completely 100 percent out of the person’s control and even out of their corporate sponsor’s control (or ability to predict) that saying someone doesn’t have the *talent* to become a global superstar just because they haven’t become one doesn’t make any sense.

Why didn’t anybody publish Emily Dickinson’s poetry? Why didn’t Herman Melville sell more than a handful of copies of Moby Dick in his lifetime? … and in both cases they were later granted “global superstardom” that lasted at least a *century.* But at the time, hardly anybody noticed.

I think that all the stuff about “global superstar” boils down to is — A lot of people think that Adam is mad talented and very charismatic. But being those things doesn’t even guarantee that he would ever have been discovered, let alone guarantee any particular kind of future.

Van Gogh is also a pretty good example of that–he only sold one painting during his lifetime, and that one was only sold because his brother was an art dealer.

I think that all the stuff about à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“global superstarà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  boils down to is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  A lot of people think that Adam is mad talented and very charismatic. But being those things doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t even guarantee that he would ever have been discovered, let alone guarantee any particular kind of future.

This. Adam is, in many eyes, amazingly and unusually gifted, but even now it’s not guaranteed that he’ll be a global star. I’m just really glad that he’s been discovered and is making an album.

Interesting to hear from perspectives in Denmark, btw.

Part of Adam’s problem was that musical theatre is filled with multi talented triple threats so standing out isn’t easy. Most of his colleagues would blow most AI contestants off the stage. I am anticipating more musical theatre types trying out for AI this year. If they are smart and frustrated, they should.

Ty Taylor is a great stage presence, sexy, edgy with a killer voice. But even exposure on Rockstar INXS hasn’t really changed his career – people loved Ty but he couldn’t shake that musical theatre thang which wouldn’t work for that particular band. They needed a more organic lead singer. Ty was already doing headline roles in musical theatre before the show, he continues to do the same – I am not sure if he wanted a solo career or not or whether he has pursued it. I got a chance to see him perform solo in a special gig for some of the Rockstar INXS contestants in Toronto and he was incredible – he even performed an original song he had written and we thought it was dynamite – Ty surprised us with that one.

However Rockstar only got a small fraction of the viewership of American Idol so it is not surprising that many of the extremely talented people that performed on both shows, INXS and Supernova are still struggling. Probably Suzie McNeil from Season 1, perhaps Marty Casey is a very close 2nd, and Ryan Star from Season 2 have come the farthest and they still got a long way to go. And again Suzie, Marty and Ryan would blow most AI contestants off the stage.

My question is how did this global superstar not get recognized until American Idol?

My impression of AI voters is that they don’t want a true star. Like everything in today’s celebrity culture, they want someone to whom they can relate. Someone that embodies their view of themselves. Someone they can take home to dinner, have a bear with or even date. Obama had to go boiling and drink bear to prove to people that he wasn’t better than them so that he could get elected. Clinton was reduced to downing shot of whiskey for god’s sake.

When it comes to the American populace voting, what I see as foreigner, is that they vote for the familiar rather than the stellar.

I’m not saying that Adam will be a global star, no one can know that in today’s fluxing music market.
What I am saying is that the logic of gaging future global, or local, success based on the response of the AI voting public has been proven flawed for many years now.

Ty Taylor is a great stage presence, sexy, edgy with a killer voice. But even exposure on Rockstar INXS hasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t really changed his career – people loved Ty but he couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t shake that musical theatre thang which wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t work for that particular band. They needed a more organic lead singer. Ty was already doing headline roles in musical theatre before the show, he continues to do the same – I am not sure if he wanted a solo career or not or whether he has pursued it. I got a chance to see him perform solo in a special gig for some of the Rockstar INXS contestants in Toronto and he was incredible – he even performed an original song he had written and we thought it was dynamite – Ty surprised us with that one.

However Rockstar only got a small fraction of the viewership of American Idol so it is not surprising that many of the extremely talented people that performed on both shows, INXS and Supernova are still struggling. Probably Suzie McNeil from Season 1, perhaps Marty Casey is a very close 2nd, and Ryan Star from Season 2 have come the farthest and they still got a long way to go. And again Suzie, Marty and Ryan would blow most AI contestants off the stage.

Amen about how all these mega-talented, uber-hardworking people from Rockstar are great evidence that you can have the right stuff and do the right stuff and still not fully “make it.”

And when you think of JD, who got the INXS gig, – I agree that they wanted the “organic” thing that he has (and I do think he’s really talented). But I would bet the band also resonated with some of his out-of-control, neurotic, needy stuff cause it reminded them a bit of their beloved Hutchence….So there are all these intangibles involved, too, that people making the choices that lead you to stardom may not even be aware of.

Agreed lucy success in the music business is the ultimate crap shoot, bwah.

In terms of INXS, though, the grassy knoll is a few football fields long, a lot of fans are not satisfied they are getting the total story from any side right now and the sadder thing is JD is writing some great stuff which he is sharing with fans online. Despite his flaws, that boy is like a cat and I think he has some lives yet.

These shows do show that there is a great deal of undiscovered brilliant talent out there and Idol and Rockstar doesn’t even scratch the surface.

I realize that true genius might be overlooked and perhaps only recognized by the masses posthumously. Van Gogh is certainly a tragic example. In addition to loving his art, his very “human” story resonated deeply with me. Adam, without doubt, is talented — genius, well that’s debatable.

I live in Connecticut, so Proposition 8, is California’s deal. It appears California is more conservative than the worldview realizes. I’m not here to debate politics. In the theatrical world, in the art/literary world, in the show business world in general, I’m certain being gay is not a foreign concept. Nor is it a foreign concept in a household in Texas or Montana or North Carolina or Maine.

I do not believe Adam being gay held him back in the industry. That just doesn’t fly for me at all. Adam lived openly as a gay man as I live openly as a heterosexual woman. I don’t mention my sexuality ever second of every waking moment. No one cares. We all live our lives, struggling to make our mortgages, car payments, rent, seeking employment, finding love, dying…

The media decided to run with the gay thing. The media chose to judge most Americans as being homophobic. The media tried to force feed us this crap over and over again. It appears many of Adam’s fans swallowed it. America, in fact, chose Adam Lambert over Danny Gokey, basing it on, I would hope, talent and not that Danny was a conservative Christian. Or are we all prejudice in our own unique way?

Adam is a young man, hoping to have a long music career. Was exploiting his sexuality his decision or a decision that the media and producers made for him? Not one person that I know mentioned Adam was gay. It was always about the music and personal taste.

On another front, all I can say is whoa, Mayfair, just, I don’t even know. I’m always amazed by generalizations that fly so freely. Not to get all patriotic, but I think we do damn well here in America, melding a variety of cultures, religions, and political viewpoints.

We could have a thousand testimonials from people all over the world, stating Adam is the greatest. Kris’s fans worldwide would attest the same about him. He does have them, as well.

I balk at fanaticism, find it disturbing on all levels. The mindset freaks me out — so much bad comes from it.

Bottom line is: all we can do is wait and see about Wilshire, Hi-Fi, as well as, Adam Lambert’s future success. I hope he can rise above it all.

There are about a billion reasons why somebody with genius-level talent may not *ever* get à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“discoveredà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  in an industry like music. Even if that person does have the potential to be a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“global superstar.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

Great post, lucy. Very thorough and insightful and I agree with everything you wrote.

And you make an important point. Adam wasn’t just a gay artist; he was an openly gay artist with no intention of ever going back in the closet. While a lot of the reasons you cite represent hurdles, I would argue that the issue of his gayness was one of the higher hurdles Adam faced. The whole “why didn’t Adam make it big before” question just seems to tacitly ignore that point. Like it never mattered. But it did. Emphasis on the past tense.

Bottom line: I think Adam would be the first to admit that he came on this show with something to prove. Something to prove to the agents and the record companies and the producers who were unwilling to take a chance on him because of his sexual orientation. He bypassed them all and went directly to the people and put his outsized talent out there for the world to see and fearlessly “put on a show.” Some of my favorite Idol moments were watching Simon’s reaction to the fans’ reactions to an Adam performance. That slow Cheshire cat grin would start spreading over his face and you just knew he was getting it.

Although he didn’t win, Adam was HUGELY successful on this basically (no matter how hard it tries not to be) cheesy show pitched squarely to small town Middle America. As Adam has said, you don’t get a record deal unless you have a fanbase. Adam proved he has a fanbase, because he had to … because those agents, producers and record companies thought his being openly gay might get in the way of acquiring a fanbase. Wrong.

Now (hopefully) the gay issue is on a back burner. It may never go away completely, but at least it’s manageable, on a low simmer. And the fact that it is no longer a controlling issue is exciting and one of the reasons I’m so hopeful about Adam’s future prospects. Because in so many other areas Adam is strong and evolved: his beautifully trained voice, his performance instincts and polish, his confidence, his musical knowledge, his business savvy. Now that this sexual orientation/fanbase hurdle (which never should have been a hurdle in the first place) has been removed, Adam is in a flat out sprint. Yeah, I’m liking his chances a lot.

A small aside…

Adam mentioned he was a little frustrated doing “the Ten Commandments” because the director and producer spoke to him about “Is Anybody Listening?” sounding too gay and to tone it down.

So, yeah. It hasn’t been an easy road for Adam.

123abc456
Jun 27th, 2009 at 8:58 pm

The American public will vote with it’s pocket book come November and not one person on this board can predict what will happen with Kris or Adam’s albums. We can look at how they have done so far after Idol and say they have done okay and that is all not fantastic or earth shattering or record breaking. Just Okay. That is all we have to go on for now.

Please enlighten us on exactly what they have done since Idol (?). Unless I am reading this incorrectly, they haven’t had a chance to do anything yet since Idol except some interviews and rehearsing for the tour.

I would also like to agree with the person who previously stated about Daughtry, AI votes do not determine album sales.

BTW: I would still love to see the iTunes sales figures for AI8. What’s the big deal about not revealing them? :ponder_tb:

I’ve been keeping track of post-finale sales garnered from Brian Mansfield and Kirsten. Top 200 Digital Track Chart.

As of week ending 6/21/09, Kris has sold singles/albums — $1,058,279.70
As of week ending 6/21/09, Adam has sold singles/albums — $901,641.00

The album compilation was a complete the album deal, meaning any singles that had been purchased during Idol would not be repurchased when buying the Album compilation. In other words when buying the Album compilation, you pay for only the singles you did not have already. Because of this I believe these totals are close to an accurate assessment of singles sold during and post Idol. These figures do not reflect Ringtones (Kris was #1 for several days), videos (Adam did well here, Kris also made a strong showing), I-tune pass and singles/albums that fell off the Top 200 digital chart.

Of course, not engraved in stone.

The album compilation was a complete the album deal, meaning any singles that had been purchased during Idol would not be repurchased when buying the Album compilation. In other words when buying the Album compilation, you pay for only the singles you did not have already. Because of this I believe these totals are close to an accurate assessment of singles sold during and post Idol.

So you’re assuming that everyone who bought singles also bought albums? Sorry, I think that’s a flawed assumption and therefore your figures are not reliable. I agree with anna in vegas, though, I would love to see the true numbers.

The figures are reliable for post-idol sales. You may believe my assumption is flawed concerning the complete the album, that’s your perogative. But the post-idol figures are accurate based on numbers available, whether it is to your liking or not. I don’t believe you will ever see the TRUE numbers. David Cook fans have been pining for them for a year or more now.

Rickey from Rickey.org stated that Adam fans are “completists” when he saw Adam’s album sales were higher than Kris’s, but the single sales were lower. I ‘ve read many negative reactions concerning both Kris and Adam’s sales as not being all that impressive, especially when compared to David Cook. I think they’re both doing well.

There is an ADD on All Access under cool new music for Adam’s single ‘Want’  from Hi Fi/Wilshire records.

‘The new release from the talented 2009 American Idol runner-up!’ 

http://www.allaccess.com/

IMO Adam’s early works album won’t affect his RCA album sales. If anything fans will have the opportunity to purchase both albums. And you never know, Adam’s pre-idol album might be better than his RCA album. With the exception of “Want” which is a badly written song with a with a repetitive chorus, there might be some good music on Adam’s summer release album. Personally I am going to listen to snippets from both albums and purchase the songs I like the best.

And if Adam Lambert does have a contract with another label, it would be in 19E’s best interest not to manage him after the tour. 19E 19M does not need this headache and all the accusations that will follow when this blows up in the press. The management of American Idol is indeed in a very precarious position if Adam has a contract with another record company. If Adam has been honest then there won’t be a problem. But if Adam lied or forgot about this alleged contract, then I see no reason for 19E to extend their relationship with someone that was not truthful, because it will hurt their reputation.

Also, Adam already has a recording contract with RCA and I’m sure RCA and another management firm will be able to manage him properly.

Didn’t catch in first edit — prerogative. Sorry.

Chatty Cathy tonight. LOL As far as the fanbase hurdle, every one of those kids had that same hurdle. Whether they were a Jewish Gay kid from California or a Christian Heterosexual kid from Arkansas, establishing a fanbase was a challenge for each and every one of them. Although, many of Adam’s fans seem to view his “gayness” as a disadvantage in the Idol game, his steady advancement each week proved this wrong. Viewers either loved or hated Adam Lambert’s style — his singing, as well as, presentation. My older sister loved Adam, couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do from week to week. As they say, to each his own. Of course, there will always be bigots, haters, Kris hasn’t been immuned from them either — reverse bigotry is still bigotry.

As far as Wilshire was concerned, there was more to it than Adam being openly gay and not wanting to invest money in him. The record industry has promoted and stood behind far more “outrageous” people, than a nice, well-mannered glam-goth kid who happens to be gay. JMO

Because of this I believe these totals are close to an accurate assessment of singles sold during and post Idol.

The figures are reliable for post-idol sales. You may believe my assumption is flawed concerning the complete the album, that’s your perogative. But the post-idol figures are accurate based on numbers available, whether it is to your liking or not.

In your original statement, you were making claims about sales during and post Idol. Since to me your basic premise is flawed (Rickey is a nice guy, but he runs an AI blog and doesn’t have any more access to in-season sales numbers than anyone else), projecting from post sales numbers and making conclusions about overall season totals is inherently unreliable in my view. As for whether your post Idol numbers have been calculated corrected, I have no idea. And, truthfully, I don’t care because I’ve moved on and am more excited about what both these guys, Adam and Kris – and Allison too – will do in November.

As far as your other posts go, the sense I get is that you don’t believe homophobia really exists in this country or, to the extent that it does, it’s been artificially manufactured by the media. That’s cool. To each his own, mileage varying and all that. I don’t want to get into a dog-chasing-tail kind of argument. I kinda wish I lived in your world though.

LaurelG, I never said homophobia didn’t exist. My brother-in-law is gay. I’m sure he has stories to tell. My point was that in the entertainment industry, being gay doesn’t seem to hold back talented people. There was a claim stated here that Wilshire didn’t promote Adam, work with him because he was gay. I found that statement suspect/flawed.

We could take each of those kids and point out some area that did not meet some “Middle America” criteria. This “middle America” label is pretty condescending to alot of people out there. The word “christain ” has been flung around on here with such vehemence, bordering on hate. No matter what side of the fence, it still sounds and feels the same.

What about the unwed mother?
What about the Puerto Rican kid?
What about the Indian kid from NC?
What about the young African-American woman with three small kids?
What about the divorced mother with a small child?
What about the bi-racial kid?
What about the sight-impaired kid?
What about the conservative christian guy?

In the long run, the contest came down to the two talented pretty boys. There were alot of factors that got them there. For me it was talent, personality, joy of music, kindness and class showed toward everyone…all those tangibles and intangibles.

My world is no different than your world, I just try not to raise up one while putting down another. Kris said it quite succinctly, “Why can’t everyone just get along?”

And as far as the numbers, I did make an assumption, which could not be proven with the data I had available. I apologize.

To bring this back on topic, Wilshire didn’t jump on the Adam bandwagon, now they have — it’s business.

Oh, yeah, and the media did play a huge role in this no matter how you look at it.

YMMV

Evanjane:

Being openly gay does, in fact, often make it more difficult for artists to sell in the US. The Scissor Sisters are enormous stars in Europe–not here. Mika is a huge international star, but there are tons of people here who have no idea who he is. It’s not a hard and fast rule, and there are probably major labels willing to sign openly gay people, but if you take the general difficulty of getting signed at all, no matter how talented you are, and add this on top of that, it’s difficult.

I wonder how many young artists out there in the past, knowing A.I. strict rules that you could not have a current contract, would have liked to have had the chance to get the kind of publicity only A.I. and national television can give them, to really get recognized. Maybe they werent’ selling much if anything or not getting any publicity and all they needed was exposure. Perhaps, some tried out and were accepted but later disqualified because they found out they were still signed.

There are a lot to struggling artists out there just needing exposure. I remember Carly Smithson, everyone was bashing her at the beginning as being a “professional” having had a contract with some record company, yada, yada. she was dubbed a “plant.” I think there were a couple of others people attacked also as being “professionals” or having put out singles, indies, etc. Carly sold like 1,000 albums and that’s it and her contract expired before she auditioned. Sure these people just don’t wake up one morning and decide they are going to audition for A.I. They’ve been working on their craft and all are struggling artists and broke.

What is A.I. going to do with Adam, he’s put them in a terrible position.