abbysee Feb 21st, 2008 at 3:30 pm

Can I get a citation on the throwing away all of clayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s text messaged votes? If that were true, then there truly is no reason to vote, and if that is the case how in hell did Taylor win?

If you have the time, these 2 websites have the answers to the voting controversies. Not just for season 2.

http://www.dldewey.com/idolfin.htm

American Idol Outrage: Your Vote Doesn’t Count

Tonight, four wannabe American Idols will be sent home, whittling the top 24 down to a more manageable 20. If a certain chipper judge has anything to say about it, a certain seven singers will be sacred cows, at least for now. “It would crush me, but there’s no way it could happen, if David Archuleta or Jason Castro or Michael Johns [got eliminated]. But I just don’t believe they could be knocked off,” Paula Abdul tells TVGuide.com. Among the dozen ladies, Paula says, “I loved Amanda Overmyer’s performance. It was awesome. And Alaina [Whitaker], the little 16-year-old, Ramiele Malubay, Carly Smithson…. I would be crushed if any of them were knocked off.”

While the Idol kids sing like there’s no tomorrow, Abdul is out promoting the brand-new video for “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow,” her first new single in eons. (Watch and discuss the video here.) Asked how her archenemies wound up contributing a cameo, she reports, “Simon [Cowell] said, ‘Unfortunately, I hate you, but I like the song…. I don’t do this for my own artists.’” To which Paula, god bless her, retorted, “That’s because they probably don’t want you in their videos!” à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  Matt Mitovich

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Great-American-Idol/Paula-Abdul-Reveals/800033840

How exactly is Jared Cotter the Idol Predecessor to Jason Yeager?

There first names both start with “J”? We’ve never heard either of them make a sound prior to the semi-finals? The LA Times dude was reaching?

anyone else who has knowledge of song publishing royalties: How much of a factor was money in compiling the list of the 50 songs from the 60à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s that were offered to the contestenats?

Everything I learned, I learned from Nevada.

Songwriters get mechanical royalties. The royalties are based on a statuatory rate set by the US. Congress (and you thought they wasted all their time investigating steroid use in pro sports).

This means that there is a standard rate that they are given for each unit sold. Currently, the standard rate for songs less than 5 minutes long is 8 cents. Then, you get $0.0155 per minute for every minute over 5 minutes (I don’t know how it works if you sing 90 seconds of the song). Typically, the record company takes 50% and the publlishing company takes the other 50%, though those shares can be negotiated.

So, I’m not sure if it makes a difference to Nigel who wrote the song when it comes time to sell it (though, Sony/BMG might like them to favour their stable of artists). Popular songs require the same songwriter/publisher royalties as crappy songs.

Performance rights seem to have variable costs. Dolly Parton has said that she’s not opposed to having contestants on the show sing “I Will Always Love You”, but the producers aren’t willing to pay her what she thinks it is worth (she called the producers cheap).

So, I think it’s the performance royalties which are causing the sucky song choices. Though, it may be that the artists need to approve you to record a song and Nigel just doesn’t want the hassle so he goes with the songs that have been sung 40 times on Idol before or were used as commercial jingles (so, obviuosly, the royalty holders have no qualms about it being used for anything). Or maybe the goof thinks were more likely to buy songs that he picks than what the contestants might pick (wrong-o Nigel)

Here is a nice little article: How Music Royalties Work

Somebody else mentioned this and I think ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s true. The fact that they are selling the songs on iTunes is at least one factor driving the tight song list in the semis.

Yeah, I think you are dead on with that. At first I thought it was a ploy to stack the deck earlier towards their favorites, but now I’m sure it was about getting the rights to songs so they could sell downloads. And I HATE IT. The semis used to be the only time you could really see people’s musical tastes/identities before the hoop jumping themes started, and that is just RUINED now. Think how we really got to know who Blake and Sligh were last year? Or Elliot, Taylor and Chris Daughtry the year before? Uggh.

And I have to strongly disagree with Randy and Simon about being able to make any song contemporary and hip when you are saddled with à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Where the Boyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Areà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ .

I think it is possible to make these songs sound fresh, but not without knowing a little about musicianship, especially having an ear for arrangements. But to me, it’s very unfair to expect the pure singer types (and the less experienced) to know how to do that effectively. Half of them don’t even know these songs. Boo!

Re: the LA Times handicapping article, I didn’t agree with many of their comparisons. How exactly is Jared Cotter the Idol Predecessor to Jason Yeager? I doubt Donny, err Jason, could even dream up a move so spectacularly creepy as Jared’s hand-over-face gesture.

I keed, I keed.

Chikezie is not on ITUNES? Hmmmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦that smacks of racism if true and you better believe VFTW is on top of that.

Jumping straight to racism is a bit of a stretch, IMO. If it wasn’t just iTunes messing up, it was probably the 19Alphabet messing up. If anybody did it on purpose (and why would they tip their hand so obviously?) it would be done simply because he isn’t one of TCOs. Few get to be TCO.

I only mentioned it because I thought it was kind of odd (although, it might have been buzz worthy if he’d quit in anger and started dishing backstage gossip to all the talk shows).

http://blog.allmusic.com/2008/2/20/american-idol-semifinals-pt-1-or-dudefest/