Idol Sales News – Week Ending 04/15/12

By On 04/18/2012 · 132 Comments · In American Idol, Charts, X Factor

Share on TumblrShare via email

James Durbin sales up 520% after ‘Idol’ appearance

Lionel Richie tops the BB200 chart with 129K. The first African-American to do this with a Country album since Ray Charles in 1962.

5. One Direction, Up All Night, 66,000.

Idol albums (via Idol Chatter)
Kelly Clarkson, Stronger (15,000, -55%, 746,000) (#27 Billboard 200)
Scotty McCreery, Clear as Day (7,000, -65%, 1.023 million) (#65 BB200)
James Durbin, Memories of a Beautiful Disaster (6,000, +520%, 106,000)
Daughtry, Break the Spell (4,000, -45%, 427,000) (#117 BB200)
Casey James, Casey James (3,000, -33%, 28,000) (#168 BB200)
Mandisa, What If We Were Real (2,000, -48%, 166,000)
Daughtry, Daughtry (1,000, -14%)

Idol-related albums
Jason Aldean, My Kinda Party (15,000, -27%, 721,000) (#25 Billboard 200)
Soundtrack, Think Like a Man (feat. Jennifer Hudson’s Think Like a Man) (13,000, debut, 13,000) (#33 BB200)
Tyga, Careless World (10,000, -17%, 191,000) (#43 BB200)
Civil Wars, Barton Hollow (7,000, -4%, 411,000) (#61 BB200)
David Guetta, Nothing but the Beat (4,000, -17%, 293,000) (#108 BB200)
Various, 2012 Grammy Nominees (4,000, -30%, 310,000) (#113 BB200
Various, WOW Gospel 2012 (4,000, -19%, 76,000) (#114 BB200)
Various, WOW Hits 2012 (3,000, -37%, 260,000) (#146 BB200)
Tony Bennett, Duets II (3,000, -34%, 855,000) (#148 BB200)
Various, Now That’s What I Call Music 40 (3,000, -35%, 697,000) (#156 BB200)
Aerosmith, Best of Aerosmith: The Millennium Collection (3,000, -21%, 449,000) (#160 BB200)
Various, 2012 ACM Awards Zinepak (3,000, -40%, 16,000) (#185 BB200)

 
← Older Comments
  • Anonymous

    About why would you follow a musician if you didn’t want to buy their music -  I do that.  Especially with past Idols.  I have lots of different reasons for following Idols on twitter, it’s not always because I want to buy their music.  Some I follow just because I like them personally or wish them well or just like to keep up on what they are doing, and in some cases I would buy their music but I simply don’t like the type of music they put out.  Jacob Lusk is a perfect example – I enjoy following him on twitter but I can’t see myself ever buying his music because it’s not really something I would buy.  That’s why twitter followers don’t necessarily mean sales, especially in Idol world, because people get invested in them as people too, not just musicians and twitter reflects that.

  • http://twitter.com/sgjools julia

    where are you getting that figure elliegrll?  surely the breakeven mark is dependant on expenses and income not sales percentages.  for example look at these stats:

    Fine Line Music Cafe
    Minneapolis, MN
    Promoter: AEG Live
    Green River Ordinance
    Sold: 494
    Capacity: 690
    72%
    Gross: $12,521

    The Englert Theatre
    Iowa City, IA
    Promoter: First Fleet Concerts
    Green River Ordinance
    Sold: 428
    Capacity: 700
    61%
    Ticket Price: $24 – $0
    Gross: $10,272

    There is no way on this earth $10,000 gross = breaking even.  The support act and a five piece backing band would eat up that sum before you even begin to look at all the other places that income gets split (like the venues cut, the tour managers cut, transportation and other logistical issues, promo, etc) 

    Daughtry probably is breaking even, his gates are around the $100k mark, but its still a little surprising that he is having trouble selling 2000 tickets and definitely indicates his popularity is waning, IMO.

  • Anonymous

    I wonder about Twitter anyway. But Elliott’s sales make me wonder about it again. (ditto for other Idols, but at the moment it’s Elliott …)

    There are people who are going to follow Elliott and other alums simply because they were on AI.  I follow a lot of former idols, but I would never buy their music, and for the most part, I rarely pay attention to what they are saying.  There’s a difference between being a fan of the music, and being a fan of the reality show contestant.

    I think that One Direction showed that social media can be used to promote an act, but it takes a lot to use it to sell music.  One of the problems is that too many acts wait until their music is about to come out before they start interacting with fans, and then most of their tweets or posts are about buying the music.  That’s incredibly obnoxious, and not the best way to build a loyal fanbase.

  • Anonymous

    That’s the figure that has always been posted here.  I also think that GRO’s expenses are a lot different from Daughtry’s.  You can ask this question in today’s number’s thread, since that’s the one that will deal with concerts.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the answer! I can definitely see doing that ….

    I do still wonder why there would be over 32,000 people who follow somebody for those reasons and only 2000 who want the music — the ratio seems weird to me…. but I can definitely understand following for the reasons you do!

    I really really want to tell my bosses about these ratios, though — regarding the claim that you *have* to do social media because that’s where you’ll be getting all your *sales* in the future!

  • Anonymous

    “One of the problems is that too many acts wait until their music is
    about to come out before they start interacting with fans, and then most
    of their tweets or posts are about buying the music.  That’s incredibly
    obnoxious, and not the best way to build a loyal fanbase.”

    Thanks for the response!

    Yep, I’m sure you’re right about the above.

    That’s not the case with Elliott, though, in my opinion, anyway. He’s a pretty active, fun twitterer who writes about a lot of stuff in his life whether he’s got new music out or not and has been writing about his music and talking about and to fans all along. … So — even when you really work at it, your sales ratio is going to be *very* low….

    I should know more about contact-to-sales ratios from other forms of advertising, but I have forgotten everything I’ve ever read or heard about that. …. Wonder if 1 sale for 35 contacts-with-people-who-actually-apparently-have-some-interest-in-your-product is par for the course for other pr methods, or not?

  • Anonymous

    Congrats to James-Nice bump-hopefully it continues.

← Older Comments