Idol Sales News – Week Ending 01/22/12

CHR/Pop

29 22 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger
(What Doesn… 3323 1959 1364 19.683

+1 Position

+183 Spins

+10 Bullet

+1.435 AI

26 26 KELLY CLARKSON Mr.
Know It All 2611 3215 -604 12.983

-71 Spins

+74 Bullet

-0.197 AI

48 47 DAUGHTRY Crawling
Back To You 446 460 -14 1.479

-2 Spins

+12 Bullet

-0.019 AI

HAC

1 5 KELLY CLARKSON Mr.
Know It All 3856 4285 -429 25.013

-55 Spins

+15 Bullet

-0.165 AI

9 7 DAUGHTRY Crawling
Back To You 3137 3196 -59 16.583

-29 Spins

-48 Bullet

-0.340 AI

17 15 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger
(What Doesn… 1885 1165 720 13.042

+1 Position

+87 Spins

-40 Bullet

+0.524 AI

45 38 ADAM LAMBERT Better
Than I Know M… 223 164 59 0.897

+3 Positions

+17 Spins

+10 Bullet

+0.106 AI

40 41 DAVID COOK Fade
Into Me 214 274 -60 0.578

-3 Positions

-9 Spins

-6 Bullet

-0.021 AI

49 49 JAMES DURBIN Love Me
Bad 133 131 2 0.228

+1 Position

+2 Spins

+7 Bullet

-0.007 AI

AC

6 5 KELLY CLARKSON Mr.
Know It All 1277 1193 84 11.894

-1 Position

+12 Spins

-1 Bullet

+0.151 AI

10 9 JASON ALDEAN/KELLY CLARKSON Don’t
You Wanna Stay 731 817 -86 4.361

-3 Spins

+11 Bullet

-0.073 AI

17 16 DAUGHTRY Crawling
Back To You 260 221 39 0.841

+5 Spins

+1 Bullet

-0.013 AI

30 30 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger
(What Doesn… 45 40 5 0.123

-1 Position

-1 Spin

-4 Bullet

-0.007 AI

44 34 CLAY AIKEN Bring
Back My Love 25 15 10 0.015

+3 Positions

+2 Spins

0 Bullet

+0.002 AI

Country

23 22 SCOTTY MCCREERY The
Trouble With Gir… 1934 1785 149 11.848

+34 Spins

+16 Bullet

+0.273 AI

33 33 CASEY JAMES Let’s
Don’t Call It … 928 912 16 4.292

+12 Spins

+15 Bullet

-0.002 AI

37 39 LAUREN ALAINA Georgia
Peaches 581 652 -71 3.022

-15 Spins

-26 Bullet

-0.100 AI

Active Rock

39 45 JAMES DURBIN Stand Up
125 175 -50 0.118

-1 Position

-6 Spins

-6 Bullet

-0.008 AI

Urban AC

17 17 JENNIFER HUDSON I Got
This 497 412 85 2.461

+17 Spins

+57 Bullet

+0.115 AI

30 27 RUBEN STUDDARD June
28th (I’m Singl… 167 125 42 0.651

+1 Position

+5 Spins

-7 Bullet

+0.038 AI

Christian AC

5 4 MANDISA Waiting
For Tomorrow 906 867 39 3.327

+12 Spins

+11 Bullet

+0.005 AI

Canada-CHR/Pop
54 41 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger
(What Doesn… 232 112 120 1.525

+1 Position

+17 Spins

0 Bullet

+0.092 AI

Canada-HAC

10 16 KELLY CLARKSON Mr.
Know It All 467 577 -110 3.185

-16 Spins

+3 Bullet

-0.147 AI

27 18 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger
(What Doesn… 429 288 141 2.711

+1 Position

+25 Spins

+7 Bullet

+0.121 AI

28 28 DAUGHTRY Crawling
Back To You 242 283 -41 0.967

-2 Positions

-11 Spins

-6 Bullet

-0.03 AI

44 41 ADAM LAMBERT Better
Than I Know M… 138 119 19 1.523

+3 Positions

+4 Spins

-3 Bullet

+0.014 AI

Canada-Main AC

3 4 KELLY CLARKSON Mr.
Know It All 308 335 -27 2.726

+3 Spins

+11 Bullet

+0.094 AI

22 19 DAUGHTRY Crawling
Back To You 128 108 20 1.345

+2 Spins

+1 Bullet

+0.028 AI

Canada-Country

43 41 SCOTTY MCCREERY The
Trouble With Gir… 121 125 -4 0.47

-3 Spins

0 Bullet

+0.003 AI

Congrats to Adam on his “failed” BTIKM making Top 40 HAC on its Adds week! :)

Some numbers from X Factor UK Season 7 acts.

UK Album sales as of this past Sunday (January 22nd)

One Direction – Up All Night – 499,850
Rebecca Ferguson – Heaven – 405,932
Matt Cardle – Letters – 245,271

Cher Lloyd – Sticks + Stones – 198,199

From Idol Chatter

Kelly Clarkson, Stronger (15,000 weekly, -6%, 501,000 total) (#14 Billboard 200)

Scotty McCreery, Clear as Day (11,000, +7%, 890,000) (#29 BB200)

Daughtry, Break the Spell (8,000, -8%, 346,000) (#42 BB200)

Lauren Alaina, Wildflower (5,000, +41%, 233,000) (#86 BB200)

Mandisa, What If We Were Real (1,000, +12%, 140,000) (140,000)

Daughtry, Daughtry (1,000, -12%)

Both Scotty and Lauren received an AI boost, but not as big as some of the ones that we’ve seen in the past.

Ah, I was wondering why they had an increase.   I forgot about AI giving idols boosts,

Stronger (the album) is officially gold and Stronger (the single) is now #1 on iTunes!  It’s a good day for the Original Idol. ;0

First milestone for BTIKM!  Very nice.

Let’s not forget to congrat Clay Aiken. His song also hit a Top 40 milestone today!

Note:  Before anyone asks why I don’t have Kelly’s album “Stronger” on this list, there is a good reason for it.  On the albums side of the i-tunes feed, instead of it showing up deluxe and regular versions for the album, there are showing rankings for WDKY and so I left it off of the list.  Hopefully, it will get corrected at some point.

i-tunes

Singles
2. What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger) – Kelly Clarkson (Deluxe)
3. Set Fire to the Rain – ADELE
17. Moves Like Jagger (Studio Recording from “The Voice” Performance) [feat. Christina Aguilera] – Maroon 5
20. Someone Like You – ADELE
31. Rolling in the Deep – ADELE
34. Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine) – Gym Class Heroes
54. Without You (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
56. Mr. Know It All – Kelly Clarkson
75. The Trouble With Girls – Scotty McCreery
95. We Found Love (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
105. Rumour Has It – ADELE
116. Moves Like Jagger / Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
122. Remind Me (Duet with Carrie Underwood) – Brad Paisley
136. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
158. Drink On It – Blake Shelton
171. Tough – Kellie Pickler
182. Georgia Peaches – Lauren Alaina
206. We Are Young (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
207. Far Away (feat. Chris Richardson) – Tyga
215. 100 Proof – Kellie Pickler
225. Don’t You Wanna Stay (with Kelly Clarkson) – Jason Aldean
241. Make You Feel My Love – ADELE
242. Summer Nights (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
243. Turning Tables – ADELE
250. Bad Day – Daniel Powter
282. What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger) – Kelly Clarkson
367. Chasing Pavements – ADELE
414. I Love You This Big – Scotty McCreery
439. Crawling Back to You – Daughtry
452. One and Only – ADELE
456. Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson
458. Jesus, Take the Wheel – Carrie Underwood
488. Before He Cheats – Carrie Underwood
512. Good Morning (feat. TobyMac) – Mandisa & tobyMac
513. The Letter (To Daddy) – Kellie Pickler
550. Rumour Has It / Someone Like You (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
615. Wedding Bell Blues (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
628. Fly Over States – Jason Aldean
648. Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis
764. Cowboy Casanova – Carrie Underwood
766. Just a Dream – Carrie Underwood
794. Mother’s Day – Kellie Pickler
809. Lovesong – ADELE
815. Undo It – Carrie Underwood
860. Don’t You Remember – ADELE
877. Already Gone – Kelly Clarkson
889. New Morning – Darren Criss
895. Stronger – Mandisa
951. Because of You – Kelly Clarkson
1006. Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
1015. All-American Girl – Carrie Underwood

Albums
5. 21 – ADELE
7. 100 Proof – Kellie Pickler
20. 19 – ADELE
39. Winter – EP – Jack and White
67. Clear As Day – Scotty McCreery
183. Break the Spell (Deluxe Version) – Daughtry
235. Wildflower – Lauren Alaina
278. Glee: The Music, Vol. 7 – Glee Cast
315. Play On – Carrie Underwood
469. iTunes Live from SoHo – ADELE
476. Break the Spell – Daughtry
517. iTunes Festival: London 2011 – EP – ADELE
536. What If We Were Real – Mandisa
579. Soul Surfer (Music from the Motion Picture) – Various Artists
605. Memories of a Beautiful Disaster – James Durbin
611. Red – Dia Frampton
699. Some Hearts – Carrie Underwood
787. Glee: The Music Presents The Warblers – Glee Cast
839. Gemini – EP – Jack and White
850. Duets II – Tony Bennett
902. Glee: The Music, Vol. 6 – Glee Cast
908. Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson
927. Come Through for You – Javier Colon
932. Glee: The Music, Vol. 1 – Glee Cast
950. Glee: The Music, Vol. 5 – Glee Cast
959. Daughtry – Daughtry
982. iTunes Session – Kelly Clarkson
997. Sing You Home – EP – Xenia

I think that Lauren and Scotty are getting increases or holding steady more from their tour opening acts than from Idol.  I don’t think Idol will help them out much until (and if) they get a performance spot.  

Elliegrll….where would I go to see how the premier of Idol affected past years sales?

I don’t think the fact that BTIKM is off the top 1000 songs on iTunes is a good sign. Hopefully the video will get folks excited. But if there isn’t a good response to that, I don’t think RCA should waste weeks of time on this single (especially with better stuff in the wings.) They did that with Cook and it ended badly.JMHO.

I think it actually IS showing the album but iTunes renamed it. RCA probably wanted them to change the s0jg title to Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) but they renamed the album instead.

Kelly is number 1 on itunes!

Thanks for the album numbers.  I noticed that Scotty and Lauren were getting an i-tunes boost for Scotty’s feature and for both Lauren and Scotty’s singles being featured on the show last week but the day after the season premiere,  I noticed that the boosts that CAD and Wildflower received wasn’t that much compared to when they both performed on televised events (i.e. awards shows/specials/Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, etc.).  I blamed it on the show’s lower than expected ratings but I’m glad to see they both received some benefit from it. 

Check the archives here, or on Idol Chatter.  Considering that we usually see a bump the week that AI debuts, I don’t think that it’s a huge jump to believe that the same thing would happen this year.

I think it might be too soon to worry.   I think all of Adam’s  hardcore fans have bought the single so now he has to sell to the casual listener/fan.    They won’t know he has a single out until it is played.   So hopefully he will have increased spins.   I know there is some ai # that needs to be reached before we can expect to see increase in sales.   I don’t know what that # is, but I’m sure Adam’s far from it at this moment.

Yes, I know there are people like Jason Mraz, etc who can sell without spins, but Adam just doesn’t have that large of a fanbase.   It seems at this point to be bigger than Cook’s (during Cook’s second era, not first) but that isn’t saying much.

And congrats to Clay.  I always thought he shoudl have been America’s Michael Buble.   Hopefully he can get some traction from this single.   I haven’t heard it, is it good?

From UKMix:

Pop Songs

*** No. 1 *** “It Will Rain” Bruno Mars

Greatest Gainer No. 5 “Set Fire To The Rain” Adele

Debut No. 36 “Take Care” Drake Featuring Rihanna

Debut No. 37 “Sorry For Party Rocking” LMFAO

Debut No. 40 “Middle Finger” Cobra Starship Featuring Mac Miller

Adult Contemporary

*** No. 1 *** “Someone Like You” Adele

Greatest Gainer No. 13 “The One That Got Away” Katy Perry

Debut No. 29 “Easy” Rascal Flatts Featuring Natasha Bedingfield

Debut No. 30 “Holding Me” Allison Park

Adult Pop Songs

*** No. 1 *** “Not Over You” Gavin DeGraw

Greatest Gainer No. 16 “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” Kelly Clarkson

Debut No. 36 “I Won’t Give Up” Jason Mraz

Debut No. 40 “The Sound Of Winter” Bush

Dance/Club Play Songs

*** No. 1 *** “Hotel Nacional” Gloria Estefan

Greatest Gainer No. 24 “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” Kelly Clarkson

Hot Shot Debut No. 47 “Where Have You Been” Rihanna

Debut No. 48 “Turn It Down” Kaskade With Rebecca & Fiona

Debut No. 49 “Be Your Freak” Kenny Dope Featuring Josh Milan

Rap Songs

*** No. 1 *** “Ni**as in Paris” Jay Z Kanye West

Greatest Gainer No. 5 “The Motto” Drake Featuring Lil Wayne

Debut No. 23 “UP!” LoveRance Featuring IamSu & Skipper or 50 Cent

Debut No. 25 “Shot Caller” French Montana Featuring Charlie Rock

Rock Songs

*** No. 1 *** “Lonely Boy” The Black Keys

Greatest Gainer No. 7 “Somebody That I Used To Know” Gotye Featuring Kimbra

Hot Shot Debut No. 43 “In My Blood” Black Stone Cherry

Debut No. 49 “We Take Care Of Our Own” Bruce Springsteen

Alternative Songs

*** No. 1 *** “Lonely Boy” The Black Keys

Greatest Gainer No. 9 “Somebody That I Used To Know” Gotye Featuring Kimbra

Debut No. 31 “Set Fire To The Rain” Adele

Debut No. 37 “Charlie Brown” Coldplay

Debut No. 40 “Get Burned” Sleeper Agent

Country Songs

*** No. 1 *** “I Don’t Want This Night To End” Luke Bryan

Greatest Gainer No. 4 “All Your Life” The Band Perry

Hot Shot Debut No. 51 “No Hurry” Zac Brown Band

Latin Songs

*** No. 1 *** “El Verdadero Amor Perdona” Mana Featuring Prince Royce

Hot Shot Debut No. 4 “Las Cosas Pequenas” Prince Royce

Greatest Gainer No. 23 “Dutty Love” Don Omar

Debut No. 33 “Regalo Del Cielo” El Chapo de Sinaloa

Debut No. 42 “Tu Ya Eres Cosa Del Pasado” Fidel Rueda

Debut No. 43 “El Vestido Blanco” Vicente Fernandez

Debut No. 50 “Stereo Hearts” Gym Class Heroes Featuring Adam Levine

Regional Mexican Songs

*** No. 1 *** “Te Quiero A Morir” Banda El Recodo de Cruz Lizarraga

Greatest Gainer/Debut No. 20 “El Vestido Blanco” Vicente Fernandez

Debut No. 31 “Amor Confuso” Gerardo Ortiz

Debut No. 34 “Un Hombre Normal” Espinoza Paz

Debut No. 40 “El Mejor Perfume” La Original Banda el Limon de Salvador Lizarraga

Latin Pop Songs

*** No. 1 *** “El Verdadero Amor Perdona” Mana Featuring Prince Royce

Greatest Gainer/Debut No. 5 “Las Cosas Pequenas” Prince Royce

Debut No. 27 “Corre” Jesse & Joy

Debut No. 38 “International Love” Pitbull Featuring Chris Brown

Debut No. 39 “Vallenato En Karaoke” Elvis Crespo Featuring Los del Puente

Tropical Songs

Greatest Gainer/Debut/*** No. 1 *** “Las Cosas Pequenas” Prince Royce

Debut No. 12 “Te Dijeron” Plan B

Debut No. 23 “Dutty Love” Don Omar

Debut No. 24 “Mi Santa” Romeo Santos Featuring Tomatito

Debut No. 34 “Tu Lo Que Buscas Novio” NG2

Debut No. 38 “Mi Mal Nesesario” Don Perignon y La Orquesta Puertorriquena

Debut No. 40 “Dia De Suerte” Alejandra Guzman

Christian Songs

*** No. 1 *** “My Hope Is In You” Aaron Shust

Greatest Gainer No. 3 “Where I Belong” Building 429

Hot Shot Debut No. 38 “Live Like That” Sidewalk Prophets

Debut No. 41 “Long Way Home” Steven Curtis Chapman

Debut No. 49 “Won’t Let Me Go” Addison Road

Gospel Songs

*** No. 1 *** “In The Middle” Isaac Carree

Greatest Gainer No. 25 “All Is Well” Troy Sneed

Debut No. 29 “Speechless” Anita Wilson

It is early days for BTIKM and I think the video will help alot. But RCA moved really fast to replace FYE and I hope they do the same if they feel the first single isn’t doing its job.

#38 on HAC for BTIKM is a good sign. And his AI is going up as well. Happy.

The official HAC add date for BTIKM was this week.  Apparently the CHR add date is next week (and not yesterday as some thought).  It looks like the video will debut on Vevo on Monday, 1/30.  I’m sure it won’t be long before it debuts on VH1 as well.  The song is just getting started.  Give it time to grow.  It got a nice iTunes bump from the Leno and Ellen performances.  It proves that when people here it, they like it.  It needs to get more radio play, and it will. Some are just too quick to say “stick a fork in it”.

ETA: I see BTIKM is listed under “Cool New Music” on All Access.

I am not a number nerd but some times I wish I were.  It would be nice to have a comparison chart of adds and spins for WWFM both on HAC and Pop to get a real feel as to how era 2 is going.  Anyone out there who happened to be that anal.

I don’t think the fact that BTIKM is off the top 1000 songs on iTunes is a good sign. Hopefully the video will get folks excited. But if there isn’t a good response to that, I don’t think RCA should waste weeks of time on this single (especially with better stuff in the wings.) They did that with Cook and it ended badly.JMHO.

Right now, airplay is more important than Itunes placement.  A song can always return to the chart, it’s not like once it falls off there’s some rule in place that it can never return again.  At this point RCA has to hope that HAC stations continue to support it, and that Pop PDs see that support, take it to mean that the listeners of those stations like the song, and that that results in pop spins.

I’ll take #38 on HAC :)  Gotta start somewhere, and top 40 is not a bad place to start.

Tess, I honestly don’t know how you would begin to compare the chart paths of WWFM and BTIKM—the circumstances of these two releases are SO different.

Regarding iTunes placement for BTIKM, for the most part, unless you are a fan or happened to catch Leno/Ellen, this song is on nobody’s radar. It just isn’t. And we are talking limited spins on HAC radio. It just isn’t going to be shooting up the iTunes chart yet. This song is going to have to climb up near top 20 for substantial things to begin happening.

From Billboard

Adele’s ’21′ – Biggest No. 1 Album Since ‘Bodyguard’

It seems that every week, there is a new Adele-related accolade to tout.

And this week is no different, as her “21″ album hits its 17th
week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (95,000; down 9%). “21″
has been No. 1 longer than any other album since “The Bodyguard”
soundtrack wrapped a 20-week run at No. 1 on the chart dated May 29,
1993.

Could “21″ hold on another week at the top? That all depends on how new albums from Tim McGraw (“Emotional Traffic”), Celtic Woman (“Believe”) and Kellie Pickler (“100 Proof”) — among others — sell this week. Also new to market: the “2012 Grammy Nominees” compilation.

Elsewhere on this week’s chart, the “Kidz Bop 21″ album debuts at
No. 2 with 59,000 sold. That entry grants the long-running series
its 14th top 10 set and fourth to reach the runner-up slot. (The
“Kidz” have yet to claim a No. 1 set on the Billboard 200.) The last
“Kidz” set — “Kidz Bop 20″ — started at No. 2 as well, with
69,000 sold on the chart dated Aug. 6, 2011.

The second-highest debut arrives at No. 7 by James Fortune & FIYA,
who sees its “Identity” land with 18,000. It’s the best sales week
and highest charting album for the gospel singer — who also debuts
at No. 1 on the Gospel Albums chart. On the latter tally, it’s his
first leader after reaching No. 2 twice previously.

As for the rest of the top 10 this week, the Black Keys’ “El Camino” holds at No. 3 (29,000; down 20%) while Drake’s
“Take Care” is also stationary at No. 4 (29,000; down 8%). (Only a
couple hundred sales separate the two titles this week.)

Rihanna’s “Talk That Talk” is up two slots to No. 5 (20,000; down 8%), Young Jeezy’s “TM103: Hustlerz Ambition” is steady at No. 6 (19,000; down 19%), and Toby Keith’s
“Clancy’s Tavern” zooms 22-8 with 17,000 (up 27%). The latter
album’s physical CD was sale priced for just $4.99 at Target stores
last week. Also only $4.99 last week: George Strait’s “Icon” greatest hits (118-66 with 6,000; up 63%) and Le’Andria Johnson’s “The Awakening of Le’Andria Johnson” (174-79 with 5,000; up 78%).

Rounding out the top 10 are Coldplay’s “Mylo Xyloto” (moving 8-9 with 17,000; down 13%) and Nickelback’s “Here and Now” (falling 9-10 with just under 17,000; down 13%).

Right outside the top 10 is the third biggest entry of the week, as
Attack Attack’s “This Means War” bows at No. 11 (17,000). Right
behind that is the surging “Joyful Noise” soundtrack, which zips
21-12 with a bit under 17,000 (up 23%).

On the Digital Songs chart, David Guetta’s “Turn Me On,” featuring Nicki Minaj,
blasts from No. 7 to No. 1, selling 198,000 downloads (up a
whopping 44%). It’s the first No. 1 on the Digital tally for either
artist, and should bode well for the song’s fortunes on the
overall Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. (News on the latter list
will be released later on Wednesday.)

Last week’s
No. 1, Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain,” slips to No. 2 with 185,000
(down 4%). Right behind her is a hard-charging Kelly Clarkson, which sees her “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” fly 11-3 with 175,000 sold (up 48%).

Tyga’s “Rack City” falls one spot to No. 4 (148,000; down 11%), Flo Rida’s
“Good Feeling” slips 2-5 with 142,000 (down 21%) and Rihanna’s “We
Found Love” holds at No. 6 with 140,000 (up less than 1%). LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” slides three rungs to No. 7 (134,000; down 14%), Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa’s “Young, Wild & Free” drops three to No. 8 (134,000; down 11%) and Jessie J’s “Domino” hits the top 10 for the first time, climbing 16-9 (122,000; up 25%). Closing out the top 10 is Katy Perry’s
“The One That Got Away,” which returns to the top 10, rising 14-10
with 117,000 sold (up 9%). The latte benefits from an acoustic
version of the song, which was released to digital retailers on Jan.
16.

Overall album sales in this past
chart week (ending Jan. 22) totaled 5.01 million units, down 1%
compared to the sum last week (5.10 million) and down 4% compared to
the comparable sales week of 2011 (5.25 million). Year to date
album sales stand at 15.95 million, up 3% compared to the same total
at this point last year (15.54 million).

Digital track sales this past week totaled 27.89 million downloads,
down 2% compared to last week (28.56 million) and up 6% stacked next
to the comparable week of 2011 (26.38 million). Year to date track
sales are at 89.21 million, up 7% compared to the same total at this
point last year (83.60 million).

Next week’s Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2011 when: Amos Lee’s “Mission Bell” rang the bell at No. 1, debuting with 40,000. Iron & Wine’s “Kiss Each Other Clean” started in the runner-up slot with 39,000. The previous week’s No. 1, the Decemberists’ “The King Is Dead,” fell to No. 10 with 29,000 (down 69%).

I know that comparison is futile, Chicagolaw (by the way I do miss the old days down on Rush Street….my favorite) but my pea sized brain seems to remember that it took from December to February for the song to even begin to get any real measurable spins and that its best days were in the early spring.  

Maybe I’d just like to confirm that the angst over the slow path for this era isn’t an anomaly.

Tess, I don’t think WWFM got a daytime spin in Chicago until late February.  And it didn’t get treated like a ”hit song” (and by that I mean getting maybe 3 spins a day) until after Adam’s AI performace. So, yes, it was slow going.

OMG Rush Street   Many memories, including my Bachelorette party :)

I agree Tess slow and steady is how I remember WWFMs climb up the charts. The thought might be to get this one out and sell some copies and let it build because it is similar to WWFM before pulling out the sure fire hits that the critics say are on the album. 

WWFM got added to the two biggest Top 40 stations in the country in LA and NY the week it was released to radio. I’m not quite sure how that qualifies as a slow start. It may have taken awhile to climb iTunes but it hit the Top 40 lottery its first week. The good news is that yesterday wasn’t the official CHR add date!

Typo: Brian has Daughtry down for 8,000 sold, not 9,000. 

Brian has added sales for James and Carrie as well.  James didn’t get an AI boost and has fallen out of the BB200:

James Durbin, Memories of a Beautiful Disaster (2,000, -43%, 83,000)

Carrie Underwood, Play On (2,000, -5%, 2.075 million)

Carrie Underwood, Some Hearts (1,000, -1%, 7.163 million)

Right behind her is a hard-charging Kelly Clarkson, which sees
her “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” fly 11-3 with 175,000 sold (up
48%).

Wow!  Excellent boost for sales of WDKY!  :)

Adams single is moving up and gaining spins. For me right now, that’s what matters. Slow and steady.

I think there is no comparison with FYE single. In my opinion they dropped it like a hot potato not because it wasn’t good but they didn’t want any on going reminders of the AMA controversy and I get why but I think that song would have charted pretty well. And his WWFM….still gets spins. I still hear it on the radio. For me that’s a sign of a solid, well liked, song that’s well sung. How many peeps thought that was a terrible single and wouldn’t go anywhere? For me it’s less about “good” and more about what catches ears, at a particular point in time, for one reason or another. There are plenty of songs that hit big on the charts and sold lots that I personally can’t stand to listen to. It’s not ‘bad’ it’s just not my taste. Plenty of songs I like that didn’t chart or sell millions. They aren’t bad songs either they just didn’t resonate with the masses, just wasn’t what a lot of people wanted to hear at that time.

If there was a formula for creating smash hits then every one would be doing it. That’s just not real world. Many, many moving parts to what hits and what doesn’t. YMMV

WDKY is n°1 on the overall itunes chart.

Caught up with the Carrie news this morning (finally)….really happy to see Kelly’s Stronger has sold over 500k and to see WDKY at #1 Itunes. Big congrats to her and to us because it’s nice when our smash radars aren’t totally off ;) Anxious to see what the predictions for Kellie’s 100 Proof 1st week sales are too. Congrats to Scotty and Lauren on their Idol boosts.

Wow, James is out of the BB200. I’m not really a fan, but that is kind of sad.

Except that LA never played it…

WWFM got some nice adds out the gate, but it was slow going. Certainly you remember all the discussion that took place at the time.  Really the only thing it had in its favor early on was Z100 support, which is wonderful, but not nearly enough to sustain a song without help from other big markets.

Lauren is quite a few spins down today, have anyone followed her song closely, is it just because of the rolling chart? 

Yay! Finally got release dates for Kris! (well tentative ones anyway)  Single – late February. Album – late May/early June

WDKY is also n°1 on the overall itunes world chart!

She seems to be up one day down the next.  One thought I have is she seems to get 2 spins one day on some station then one the next so it goes up and  down.  She needs to start getting more consistency though.

So happy that WDKY reached n°1!

Go Kelly!

That song’s hook is off the chain. I knew it would do well, but I wasn’t sure it would be able to hit the top so soon. It’s pretty darn competitive up there. And her song isn’t even in the top 10 on any radio chart and it’s not the debut single, so I’m pretty impressed.

If you are talking about KIIS, the song didn’t fit the station’s format, and neither does this one.  But, KIIS and Z100 adding WWFM so early in its run,  caused other stations to jump on board.  WWFM’s climb was slowed down by the freeze, but it really wasn’t slow.

but I think that song would have charted pretty well.

RCA had already invested a lot in FYE, so it’s likely that they learned that PDs weren’t crazy about the song, and that’s why they dropped it.

WDKY has already outpeaked MKIA as it rises from 21 to 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week giving Kelly her 10th top 10 hit!

So, that means single probably in April and album in July…just kidding :) RCA seems to be getting its act together these days.

This will be a fun Spring for Season 8 fans!  (I hope—poor MJ!!)

It is kinda sad, like Adam falling off itunes top 1000 :(
Maybe both will get a sales boost off an AI appearance this season :)

That was pretty much my point—WWFM never fit the format at KIIS, thus it wasn’t played, and the add didn’t help much.  We will have to disagree about just how much influence the KIIS ADD had in bringing other stations in. I’m going to say not much.  And I think the CHR add history and spin numbers would back that up.

Z100, on the other hand, was the best thing WWFM had going for it for a long time.  And probably kept the song afloat in the early months.

I’m hoping that when Brian gets single sales he’ll have something for Adam but not counting on it. 

Kelly’s sales are fantastic!  This song is a smash hit and should carry her album for a while.  That’s exactly what she needed IMO.  She’s just passed 500K on the strength of her first single and now single #2 is heading up the charts.  Good for her. 

Girly where did you read or see the potential dates for Kris? 

From Billboard

‘Set Fire to the Rain’ becomes the third single from ’21′ to lead
the Hot 100 while ’21′ has sat atop the Billboard 200 – a Hot 100 first.

Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” takes over atop the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, dethroning Rihanna’s “We Found Love,” featuring Calvin Harris, after 10 weeks and making history in the process.
 
As Adele’s set “21″ leads the Billboard 200 album chart for a 17th week,
“Fire” is the third single to top the Hot 100 while “21″ has sat atop the album tally. First single “Rolling in the Deep” began a seven-week Hot 100 reign the week of May 21, 2011, when “21″ was in its sixth week in charge of the Billboard 200.
 
Follow-up “Someone Like You” crowned the Hot 100 the week of Sept. 17, 2011. In the song’s fifth and final week at No. 1 (Nov. 5), “21″ returned to the Billboard 200 apex for a 13th frame.
 
With “21″ at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 four another four weeks as of this week, “Fire” (Adele’s third career Hot 100 topper) makes the set the first to have led the Billboard 200 concurrently with three Hot 100 No. 1s.

In the 53 years that the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 have coexisted, 10 albums had topped the Billboard 200 at the same time that two of their singles dominated the Hot 100. Usher had last so doubled up, with “Yeah,” featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris, and “Burn” each commanding the Hot 100 in 2004 while parent album “Confessions” led the Billboard 200.
 
(The “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack was the first to manage the concurrent feat, heading up the Billboard 200 while the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” and “Night Fever” each reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1978).
 
The coronation of a third Hot 100 No. 1 in “Fire” as “21″ continues to rack up weeks atop the Hot 100 reinforces the set’s uncommon staying power. The strength of the album’s singles has clearly been a factor in keeping “21″ afloat atop the Billboard 200 for 17 (nonconsecutive) weeks, making the set the longest-running No. 1 album since the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to “The Bodyguard” (20 weeks at No. 1) in 1992-93.

“Fire” reaches the Hot 100′s top spot despite slipping 1-2 on the Digital Songs chart. The song sold 185,000 downloads (down 4%) in the list’s tracking week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. With its latest week of sales, it passes the 2-million mark in downloads sold.
 
On Radio Songs, “Fire” holds at No. 5, up 13% to 1.05 million audience impressions, according to Nielsen BDS. The gain grants the song top Airplay Gainer honors on the Hot 100 for a third consecutive week.
 
“Fire” douses the 10-week reign of Rihanna’s “We Found Love” on the Hot 100. The cut slips to No. 2, although it spends a 10th frame at No. 1 on Radio Songs (150 million, down 1%). “Love” maintains both its rank (No. 6) and sales total (140,000) from last week on Digital Songs.
 
Flo Rida’s “Good Feeling” holds at No. 3 on the Hot 100, bulleting at No. 3 on
Radio Songs (125 million, up 4%) while dropping 2-5 on Digital Songs (142,000, down 13%). In a bittersweet turn of timing, the song keeps the voice of R&B legend Etta James at its Hot 100 peak to-date after her passing at 73 Friday (Jan. 20). (Today would have been James’ 74th birthday). “Feeling” samples her 1962 song “Something’s Got a Hold on Me.”  

David Guetta’s “Turn Me On,” featuring Nicki Minaj, bounds 10-4 on the Hot 100 with the chart’s Digital Gainer award. The song blasts 7-1 on Digital Songs (198,000, up 44%), marking each artist’s first No. 1 on the download chart. On Radio Songs, “Turn” charges 31-19 (48 million, up 23%). With his Hot 100 ascent, Guetta matches his best rank, first achieved with previous single
“Without You,” featuring Usher. The music video for “Turn Me On” will premiere Jan. 31 on Vevo.
 
Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away” rebounds 6-5 on the Hot 100, Bruno Mars’ “It Will Rain” drops 4-6 and LMFAO’s former two-week No. 1 “Sexy and I Know It” descends 5-7.
 
Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” roars into the Hot 100′s top 10 (21-8) on the strength of an 11-3 vault on Digital Songs
(175,000, up 48%) and a 71-44 flight on Radio Songs (29 million, up 73%). With “Mr. Know It All,” the first single from her album “Stronger,” having peaked at No. 10, Clarkson posts her first back-to-back Hot 100 top 10s (excluding last month’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” which was not actively promoted to radio) since the first four singles from her album “Breakaway” hit the top tier consecutively in 2004-05.
 
Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Ni**as in Paris” falls 7-9 on the Hot 100, while Jessie J celebrates her first top 10 with “Domino” (15-10). While the latter
song is the British singer’s maiden Hot 100 top 10, it’s the 36th and 29th, respectively, for co-authors Max Martin and Dr. Luke as writers.

Singles typically fall out of the top 1000 when they are just getting started. When an album drops off the top 200, it is gone.
Especially with LMB and SU going nowhere but down. :(

The possible sales boost from any Idol appearance is not going to make a big enough difference for MOABD. At this point, the album will probably end up around 100-125K. :(

Singles don’t need temporary sales boosts from shows like AI. Any kind of promo helps a liitle here and a little there, but it really all comes down to radio play. BTIKM is moving in the right direction. :)

Songs take time to move up the charts!

According to Toby knapp’s( love him or loathe him, trust him or not) latest Adam-related blog a “massive pop radio push” is coming and Adam is rumored to be appearing on Idol. Clearly the label peeps are planting the seeds of an idol appearance as at least one other pop DJ mentioned it in air. In addition, btikm was just listed on All Access as a chr ” hot pick” by WIHT, Knapp’s station. The other stations that have listed the song as hot pick have added, so maybe an add is coming on that station. Anyway, it looks like things may start to move with the song. Time will tell.

Deleted

I’m hoping that when Brian gets single sales he’ll have something for Adam but not counting on it.  

I doubt that Adam’s song sold enough last week to break into the top 200 downloads, so Brian will have to call in another favor to get its total.

November 23rd was the adds date for WWFM. It took until 1/18/10 to break into the top 40 on HAC.

I’m not sure how it was doing sales wise on its release and adds date.

LLWD was around 75K after five weeks of being on itunes and we all know how that turned out! Singles often fall off the chart or way down the chart until the radio play pushes them back up. There is nothing unusual about this at all.

I doubt that Adam’s song sold enough last week to break into the top 200 downloads, so Brian will have to call in another favor to get its total.

It could’ve landed on the Hot 100 between sales and radio play and that might help get the numbers.  I’m not expecting it but I’m hopeful. 

I know how worried you are for Adam but I don’t think you should be. Luckily Adam can sing live without embarrassing himself so he should be able to sell the single with flawless performances like he did had on  Ellen and Leno. Although I think he will continue to rise slowly because he is going to focus on doing more in the UK and European markets. 

single sales are up at idol chatter

Kelly Clarkson, Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) (174,000 weekly, +49%, 523,000 total)

Kelly Clarkson, Mr. Know It All (39,000, -13%, 1.185 million)

Scotty McCreery, The Trouble With Girls (25,000, +5%, 462,000)

Brad Paisley/Carrie Underwood, Remind Me (16,000, -6%, 1.38 million)

Lauren Alaina, Georgia Peaches (12,000, +62%, 42,000)

Jennifer Lopez, On the Floor (12,000, -6%, 311,000)

Tyga feat. Chris Richardson, Far Away (10,000, -10%, 303,000)

Jason Aldean/Kelly Clarkson, Don’t You Wanna Stay (10,000, -6%, 1.885 million)

Scotty McCreery, I Love You This Big (6,000, -3%, 767,000)

Carrie Underwood, Jesus, Take the Wheel (6,000, -13%, 1.939 million)

Carrie Underwood, Before He Cheats (5,000, -2%, 3.377 million)

Mandisa, Good Morning (5,000, -12%, 45,000)

Mandisa, Stronger (3,000, -10%, 150,000)

Carrie Underwood, How Great Thou Art (2,000, +8%, 290,000)

Mandisa, Waiting for Tomorrow (1,000, +6%, 15,000)

Jason Castro, Hallelujah (Album Version) (1,000, +59%, 88,000)

I went back to watch how WWFM was doing two years ago, it wasn’t charting as high on HAC but was top 50 on pop the 12/06/2009 and was n°36 two weeks later before stalling then climbing to a 13 peak.
http://wweb.uta.edu/faculty/gghunt/charts/Songruns/L/AdamLambert/whataya_want_from_me.htm

Both FYE and WWFM charted relatively high early on itunes, for instance on 12/14/2009, FYE was n°92 and WWFM n°143.
Of course it was different because Adam got a lot of exposure that year, so it’s not really a fair comparison with BTIKM.

The early add from Z100 is what got WWFM charting quickly on Pop. However, it was also one of the problems. By the time other makrekts had caught up and started adding, Z100 had taken it out of power rotation. I think Z100 jumping on a little bit later this time, will actaually work to its advantage.

November 23rd was the adds date for WWFM. It took until 1/18/10 to break into the top 40 on HAC.

Wow, this really puts things into perspective.  BTIKM is really doing great to already be in the HAC top 40.  This is looking very optimistic for this song.  The timing would be perfect for an Idol performance around the time his album drops.

But what he really needs is a song that will stand out on the radio to get any real attention from new listeners. He has a beautiful voice but a run of the mill song that doesn’t have a strong hook but does have generic run of the mill lyrics.

WWFM and FYE had hooks that made you remember them  even if you didn’t listen to the song or to Adam singing it.

Even Rebecca whats-her-name- had a song that was – for better or worse – an earworm and it grabbed headlines despite the fact she could not sing. There is nothing about Adam’s song that would make someone on the radio stop to listen and even less that stays with someone after the song is over. His performances of the song on TV so far have showcased his amazing talent, but it is almost as if it has been in spite of the mundane music he is selling.

It pains me to see Adam’s talent wasted in this manner but that is what I feel it to be. I will be purchasing Trespassing, but I truly hope it contains much better music than BTIKM.

According to Toby knapp’s( love him or loathe him, trust him or not) latest Adam-related blog a “massive pop radio push” is coming and Adam is rumored to be appearing on Idol.

Well, I’m not sure I trust his motives for providing Adam fans with this information, but I find it hard to believe he’d completely make something up out of whole cloth.  The “massive pop radio push” seems like information he’d be privy to …. hmmm, very interesting.  I like the sound of “massive.”  :)

The numbers for Kelly are great!  And congrats to the Kris fans for finally getting a timeframe for his new single and album.   

Ok, so Brian can get Jason Castro’s sales of Hallelujah (less than 1,000) but not Adam’s BTIKM?   bummer.   I know Brian’s access to charts is limited so I’m not reading too much into the numbers.   Adam should have sold at least 1000 since he had the Leno/Ellen spike last week.

Excited to see Scotty closing in on gold (crossed fingers) 

Congrats to Kelly for those big sales!  And Lauren for a big % increase (think it really helped for them to play her snipped on AI:)

James could get back in the BB200 if his next single takes off.   I don’t follow his career closely, but what is his single status?   I know his current one if starting to drift down the charts, does his label have another one in wings?   Also, I don’t know how idols have fared in the pass on Active Rock, but does it seem as if he has made some inroads?   I also think if he teams up with the whole wrestling scene, there is some potential there for him to increase sales.

I went back to watch how WWFM was doing two years ago, it wasn’t charting as high on HAC but was top 50 on pop the 12/06/2009 and was n°36 two weeks later before stalling then climbing to a 13 peak.
http://wweb.uta.edu/faculty/gg… 

This is why I don’t get the talk that adds were slow for WWFM.  Z100 is just one station, and even though they were spinning it upwards of 100 times a week, 100 spins isn’t enough to break into the top 50 on the pop charts.  The Z100 add spurred other stations to add it to, which is what was supposed to happen, and why RCA struck a deal with that station.  Just look at the add board, and the number of stations that added the song in the two weeks following Z’s add.

The weeks that the song seemed to stall were due to the Christmas freeze.

WWFM still moved up slowly, slower than LLWD. It stalled at the same exact place for 5 weeks during the freeze. The freeze isn’t that long! lol
Plus, LLWD continued to move up during the same time period.
LLWD was slow, but WWFM was even slower to move up the charts.

Z100 was an early adder and a huge support for both LLWD and WWFM during the early days. One of the djs was plugging Adam’s single and album this am, so perhaps they are on board to add BTIKM soon!

Z100 really helped WWFM in the early days but the other adds came SO SLOWLY (much slower than those for LLWD) that by the time the other stations kicked in, Z100 had to reduce their spins. It was a very uneven journey up the charts and one that hurt the song in the long run. Timing is everything in radio!

LVD: Lauren is quite a few spins down today, have anyone followed her song closely, is it just because of the rolling chart?

Lauren was a +11 in spins in last Wed’s update but only +1k in AI. So today’s -15 spins might be an offset to the spin gain but she’s down -100k in AIs which is higher compared to last week. GP’s been struggling the past few weeks but it seems like many of the songs right around it are struggling too. Rodney Atkins and The Farm have comparable Mediabase AI losses for the week to date, while Gloriana and Trace Adkins are barely up. Love & Theft isn’t making up enough ground to pass either. 

Lauren’s not in immediate danger of losing her t40 spot so there’s that and Billboard recurrency is also not an immediate danger since GP isn’t 20 weeks old yet. 

On another point: if Carrie’s new single really goes out to radio on 2/23 (which is a Thursday?) that gives Scotty and CaseyJ some time to make t20 and t30 respectively in the 1st available window coming up. I’d been thinking there was a chance she’d temporarily block 1 or both from their new milestones if the single came out next week but 2/23 would actually give them time to make it and maybe even consolidate their position based on recurrents. 

Headline Country is saying 100 Proof is Kellie’s next single. We knew that, but I’m wondering if there’s some extra word from the label that they’re getting ready to promote for the main chart. Kellie didn’t sing 100 Proof this morning on GMA but I’m thinking she’ll sing it on Ellen since she’s already performed Tough on Ellen’s show.

Okay here’s the deal. BTIKM was released to I tunes during the Christmas freeze. Unless you know of another idol song that was released during that time ( Adam’s included) comparisons are worthless.  Quite simply there hasn’t been any other rollout like this one. Was it a mistake? Only time is going to tell but because of that time frame there is alot of ground to make up.

Worst case scenerio- the song fails. Really, so what? Put another one out there by album drop- one of the three or four that have been universally called hits by those that have heard them ( Cuckoo, Tresspassing, Kickin In, etc) and all’s well that ends well :) Of course a flop for Adam usually sells over 300,000 copies anyway so…… ;)

Best case scenerio: The song is a slow grower like WWFM and sells over a million copies.

Looks like a win win to me. I ain’t skeeered :)

That is all.

The WWFM situation was too different from BTIKM to really compare. That song rose fast for something released right before the freeze.

Anyway, this has a video coming and a rumored big renewed push, so I say let’s just sit tight and see what happens in the coming week. It’s not completely dead yet!

I’m jumping on your sit-tight bandwagon.  It’s way too early for me to form an opinion about what I think Adam’s single will or will not do.  

In other news: Yay for Kelly’s single kicking serious booty.  Double yay for a tentative Kris Allen timeline.

As for James falling out of the BB200, well that’s a bummer.  But, a lot of those albums at the end of that chart are actually pretty close together.  So, he may not have fallen out that far, and could possibly re-enter.  

Also, I know it’s kind of a given that the major labels will stop dropping singles once an album falls off that chart, but does a smaller label like Wind Up do the same?  While we may assume that RCA or the like hope for a gold or platinum album, is James’ label like that?  Or, are they a label that might be pleased with a 100K + result?

(Those aren’t rhetorical questions – I really know nothing about Wind Up and I’m curious).  

so I say let’s just sit tight and see what happens in the coming week. It’s not completely dead yet!

Ha, for me it’s not even partially dead yet!  It just jumped a bunch of spots to land in the Top 40 of HAC – in its official adds week.  So I’m happy.

WWFM still moved up slowly, slower than LLWD.

That’s not true, WWFM entered the top 40 faster than LLWD, even though it had fewer spins than LLWD had when it hit that milestone.  LLWD was up against more competition when it entered the chart, but all of the heavy hitters had already released new music by the time that WWFM came on the scene.

 It stalled at the same exact place for 5 weeks during the freeze. The freeze isn’t that long!  

Yes it is.  That’s why it’s usually not until the third week in January before the chart gets back on track.  So, given that, at the very least, we have things slowing down the week before Christmas, and PDs getting back to work the week after January first.  

The Cumulus stations were very late in adding WWFM.  By the time they did, it had already peaked.  It would have charted higher had they jumped on board earlier.

I believe that cumulus will not add Adam until forced to by him reaching a top 20 or higher chart position.

No, its not 5 weeks long on CHR. Many songs move up the chart (slowly) during the freeze. That is what LLWD did. WWFM stayed at the exact same spot for 5 weeks.

WWFM may have entered the top 40 faster, but it had fewer spins and moved up the chart much slower. Both songs ended up doing great, even though they didn’t race up the charts like a Kelly Clarkson song. That is the

BTIKM was released to I tunes during the Christmas freeze. Unless you
know of another idol song that was released during that time ( Adam’s
included) comparisons are worthless.  Quite simply there hasn’t been any
other rollout like this one. Was it a mistake? Only time is going to
tell but because of that time frame there is alot of ground to make up.

I think it is not too early to call the roll-out a mistake. The song is out of the top 1000 and the add date on the primary format came and went without much of a splash. They have yet to get a major influential station to add the song.

When BTIKM release date was announced just before Christmas, most radio/number watchers were totally surprised. Who drops a song a few days before Christmas when everybody is distracted and radio is frozen? There were lots of theories that they must have gotten a big gig for him somewhere (XF finale, New Year’s Eve, something), but that wasn’t true. There was talk about it getting killer sales that would be used to market it to radio (people scooping it up with their iTunes gift cards). But that didn’t happen. There was talk of getting a jump on the other songs going for adds in January, but that didn’t happen either. Every possible reasonable theory for defying convention and dropping Christmas week has failed to be true. Whatever the label was going for, it did not work. We may never know what they were trying to do, but I think we can safely say that it failed.

Now, this doesn’t mean the song is a failure. Not at all. It just means that there is a reason we don’t see a lot of songs dropping the week before Christmas. The label tried something new. It didn’t work. Lesson learned. Time to adopt a more traditional roll-out. Sounds like that is what they are doing next week if Toby is to be believed.

I happen to think that they played it too safe with this song and it is “meh” (full disclosure: I thought “Someone Like You” was a mistake and clearly I was wrong).  If it turns out that I’m right and the label is wrong, they can pick a new single. There is time.

I will say that they ought not to waste any more promo opportunities on pushing this song. I’m a firm believer that a debut single should sell the album. If you have to work too hard on selling the song, toss it. Ideally, you want to save your Leno/Ellen/Today Show/Letterman/GMA slots for when your  album is dropping so that people can put a face to that song they love from the radio and know the album is out. If you burn those slots trying to get sales to convince radio to play the song, what are you going to do when your album drops? They aren’t going to have you back 1 month later to sing the same song. If you sing a new song, people don’t recognize it.

Sum it up: Too soon to judge BTIKM. Not too soon to judge the roll-out.

The total for The Trouble with Girls at 462K in sales surprises me a little.  Didn’t think that particular song would have made it to gold, but looks like it has just about made it….only 38k away from being a gold record!  That will give him 2 gold records and a platinum album so far.  Wtg, Scotty!

I’m not 100% sure on what Wind-up expects from James but I don’t think they have the same expectations as RCA or Interscope. James did better than most of the artists on their roster and Wind-up generally don’t drop their artists for what the Idol bubble considers “low sales”. Look at Emily Osment, I’m using her as a comparison because she, like James, came off a TV show with a fanbase and was also marketed to pop radio. While this is all yet to be confirmed, another single will be released, James will perform on Idol, is going to be involved in the “Be A Star” campaign with the WWE and will tour. James’ career is far from over.

Congrats to all the Idol alums. Kelly’s single is doing extremely well & giving her album sales a boost. I love Daughtry, but I think his music is getting to sound the same over & over which is a problem for listeners & effecting his sales. I think it’s too early to say Adam’s single will bomb or he needs a new single. It has just started getting radio airplay. Many people said the same thing about Kelly’s MKIA, but the song is still a hit just not a smash hit. Sad to see James’ album out of the Top 200. It’s a good album. I think the label needs to release another single. I don’t think his current singles are attracting any new listeners or fans. 

Scotty & Lauren got a little bit of a boost from Idol. I expected more of a boost for Lauren since they played her single while Scotty only was mentioned on Idol. Scotty’s TTWG looks to still be moving up the charts just slowly. I would like a new single. I don’t expect TTWG to reach Top 10, but since it keeps climbing I think we have to wait for a new single in March/April. Lauren is doing well. It is really tough for a new female country artist now. It’s a man’s world right now unless you’re Taylor Swift.

(full disclosure: I thought “Someone Like You” was a mistake and clearly I was wrong). If it turns out that I’m right and the label is wrong, they can pick a new single. There is time.

OMG, Kirsten! I thought the exact same thing. I was sure that Adele’s label had made the biggest mistake in going with SLY. (although I like the song in the context of the album) I was sure they would never play the song consistently on CHR stations, and certainly not on those that leaned heavily towards the rap/rhythmic direction. I was so wrong! lol

Having no idea how a record label thinks or how radio works (every time someone says the label is pushing a song to #1 this week I go DUH) I do, though, have a theory about the timing release of Adam’s single and for me it is all tied up with the Bastard album.

From what I understand (snippits of memory) The distributor for the bastard album was releasing it and a single for sales on the digital sale sites….and at the same time they released a single to the radio stations.  Confusion reigned and PDs were amazed that Adam would be releasing said song. 

As a counter measure Adam took the one song off of his album that had been fully laid down and RCA came on board and released it…both to I-tunes and to the radio world in hopes of counter attacking the release of a bastard song.  This way…without getting into more legal hot water the Adam team was trying to point out the real new album.

I still think the album wasn’t totally completed when all this happened and that the best “finished” song had to be sent out whether it was intended as the first single or not.  This is why I think Adam did a real soft opening only hitting 1 night and 1 daytime show and that most of his current promo is geared to the eventually album release and not the single.  He is also going overseas, I believe, and if he was really into BTIKM he wouldn’t be promoting an album that comes out in 2 months quite so heavily, now.

Now that the dye is cast and the song is out there, Adam and RCA will just let it do its thing.  They have experienced this same scenario before…and if the resistance is still high after the video release and after the next month I wouldn’t be surprised if Adam didn’t drop another single before the album release.

Now all this is conjecture but, heh, it works for me.

Interesting that they linked to the live performance from Ellen rather than the studio version…is this normal? 

Yesterday I was a little worried about BTIKM becaause it is just a slightly better than average song IMO.  What I didn’t take into account is that it is at least as good if not better than most its competition.  It is not like it is up against a bunch of masterworks.  I listen to my HAC station everyday in my car, and it stacks up well.  Also it has the secret weapon of Adam’s powerful live performances on its side.  I think it will do its job.

Adam on Idol *sigh*. Anyway I hope RCA has gotten their ammo ready to go. As for worrying about Adam’s roll out we’ve been down this road before. Leave it to Adam to start out giving his fans WTFs but it is how the game ends that counts.
I’m not worried about Adam using his TV slots to sell is album. He’s only had 2 appearances so no where near over exposure to the general public. Leno and Ellen adore Adam and they will find a way to get him back on their shows when album drops. He’s was on Leno 2x and Ellen 3x last time. I do miss Oprah darn it. He was one of the few performers that took almost her whole show with her. Talk about mother of all TV promo. Oh well. With BTIKM it’s best for fans to concentrate on the present and not focus on Adam’s last songs trajectory or other Idol songs because someone can always find a way to spin the numbers and before you know it the doom and gloom starts to spread like cancer.  Also there’s our number guru Saga who knows her shit. When she starts angsting about Adam’s number that’s when I’ll start.

Tess- This theroy is very interesting and makes a lot of sense to me.  Good job!

Tess- This theroy is very interesting and makes a lot of sense to me.  Good job!

“I think it is not too early to call the roll-out a mistake. ”

If you don’t know what the final outcome is, then it’s too early to call it a mistake :) IMHO, of course. BTIKM maybe teetering in and out of the top 1000 now a week after Leno ( I believe just yesterday it was in the 800′s) but the song/ performance is raising consciousness about Adam and the album. It’s buying him time.

I kind of agree with Tess’ assessment about puting it out there as a soft push and one of the UK peeps even mentioned it, but I think it was mainly because something totally changed direction when he went in the studio with Pharell and BTIKM was probably one of the only songs in the can at the time. not saying Tess is wrong about BFM, because that is highly probable, I just really, really think that Adam found some magic in that studio and was thinking holy shit I better get something out there so I can buy some more time.

Edited to add: I started thinking this when the reviews from Uk came in and just about everyone ( and LP from the US) was saying that BTIKM was not representitive of the album.

Sure there was alot of specualtion early on with the itunes giftcard stuff, but there is ALWAYS that kind of speculation. Since we still to this day do not know the reason FYE was switched up so early ( again, it’s all specualtion) I doubt we will ever know why the label/ Adam decided to release during the Christmas freeze. I’m okay with that. I have confidence in this album as a whole. :)

If there’s one thing I learned following Idols is that the rollout for the first album and the second album are very different.

In terms of what’s going with BTIKM my theory is that RCA overestimated the buying power of the Glamberts and their Xmas gift cards. I just think they expected a bigger bang with the pre-Xmas release.  Anyway, I’m ready to forget about the first month of the rollout and start following it from this week!

And it’s very good news that this wasn’t the week for CHR adds. I’m still not a fan of the song and really hope that the great buzz about the other songs on the album is on the $.

The theory that RCA overestimated the buying power of Adam fans was never a thought until this Toby guy put it out there and now some are happily running with this. This is how one plants the seed of doubt to rattle a fanbase and before you know it it starts to spread. I always say consider the source. Toby also said that Adam fans may have downloaded the song illegally. I call that bullshit because Adam fans don’t give away Adam shit away for free.
You can accuse some of buying 100 copies are gifting the song to everyone and their UPS guy but give his shit away for free. Not happening.

I could be wrong about this but didn’t they release “Someone Like You” to radio as Adele’s first single and it went no where then after her sales soared they released “Rolling in the Deep” and after that had it’s run pushed “Someone Like You” a second time?  That’s at least how I remember it on CHR….please correct me if I’m wrong, you guys are incredible with the charts. 
My two cents…think RCA wanted to reintroduce Adam to radio with BTIKM. I think they played it too safe and went with a song that is very like WWFM in emotion and sound.  IMO this was a mistake.  I’m struck by how Adam never talks about BTIKM in interviews, he talks with excitement about several tracks on the album buy doesn’t mention his current single…to me this is telling. As Kirsten said, too early to judge BTIKM but not to early to question whether or not this was a good decision.  Now back to supporting BTIKM…

According to Toby knapp’s( love him or loathe him, trust him or not)
latest Adam-related blog a “massive pop radio push” is coming and Adam
is rumored to be appearing on Idol.

I take whatever Toby Knapp says with the tiny grain of salt it deserves.  He said a couple of weeks ago that “a bunch of” CHR stations would be adding BTIKM the next week.  It didn’t happen.

The theory that RCA overestimated the buying power of Adam fans was never a thought until this Toby guy put it out there

I don’t think that that’s true.  I think a lot of people assumed that they were releasing the song right before Christmas in order to capitalize on glamberts with gift cards, and that they were going to make the total sold a bullet point in their presentations to the radio stations.   I don’t think that it escaped notice that the two week total was not going to be a part of the marketing plan.

HDD 1 days have Kellie selling 23-27k, #2 country. I was hoping for 30k and I think she could trend up because she had GMA this morning (any bump from that wouldn’t be in their Tuesday based estimates) and she’s got Ellen Friday. I think that’s fine considering she’s got no single on the main charts at country radio right now and her previous album had sold 43k 1st week with an almost t20 single on the radio. Kellie’s also going to get a t10 debut on the Billboard 200 out of this.

Adele’s expected to get her 18th week at #1 with 21 and Ingrid Michaelson’s predicted to sell 35-40k.

Everything is speculation. We will probably never know why they decided on the strange holiday release. It could be as simple as giving fans an early Christmas gift or using it as a way of countering the confusion that was happening with BFM. All speculation

“I think a lot of people assumed . . . .”  No facts though?

Do you really think a major corporation releases music to give fans a gift?

Sorry, that’s one theory I’m just not buying. ;0

I don’t understand your point in quoting that. It makes sense to capitalize on gift cards during Christmas. The idea that they were using this data as a selling point in their presentations to radio stations came from who? You have been the only one that I have seen that has been saying that but where did you hear this information. Do you have sources that this is indeed what they did . My post regarding the overestimating the buying power of Adam has nothing to do with what you are saying. Unless it came from RCA no one knows the fans buying power that the label thinks is good or not. Toby is an ass and I take nothing at what he say as a fact.

The reason I don’t “buy” this theory is that the single was immediately available for download if you pre-ordered the album on Adam’s site.  Now I doubt that the “singles” were counted as sales and will be tracked once the hard copy album is sent out to fans.  Why “taint” the numbers game if the purpose was to exalt the number of single sales.  Doesn’t make sense to me.

Besides, I can remember the “theory” being posted here with no direct evidence of any kind that this was true.  In fact, I proposed the idea that RCA was releasing the single to get a handle on the fan base that had traveled with Adam.

I’m not sure why would RCA expect big single sales from Adam without radio play? It’s not like Adam had multiplatinum  singles on his first album? RCA can expect big initial sales from Britney Spears … or Ke$ha.

I have to agree with Tess, that the single was dropped due to the confusion of the BFM album.  I mean it came as a complete surprise to everyone that he was dropping the single.   Didn’t Adam originally announce his single release date would be in January sometime?   I could be wrong about the single date as I don’t follow Adam that closely. 

It seems to me RCA threw out the BTIKM ASAP.    Plus I really don’t buy into the ITUNES gift card scenario.  Also agree that RCA has to know the size of Adam’s fanbase based on sales of the Glamnation DVD.   He’s put nothing out since then, why would his fanbase all of a suddend quadruple in size?

True! In fact, all RCA had to do was look at the first week sales numbers for FYE and WWFM. I don’t think they were expecting BTIKM to sell an enormous amount the first week.

snow_ghost: Good point about the sales of the GNT DVD. That would be the latest product Adam had for sale.

I only take about 50% of what Toby says as true. I think he gets his statements from several sources (some which may not be as reliable as others) and then he puts those facts in a blender and pours out some mixed up version of everything he has heard or read so far. I believe Toby’s intentions are good, but he is just one of those people who often mixes up a few facts and they end up coming out as something else.

Well, of course they had to buy it, lol!

I just really, really think that Adam found some magic in that studio
and was thinking holy shit I better get something out there so I can buy
some more time.

I’m sorry, the logic of this escapes me. “I’m making some excellent music that is sure to be a hit, so I’m going to send out this POS song to buy time?” Eh? Sounds totally risky to me. What if people decide that you are radio poison or that the “buying time song” represents who you are trying to be (and don’t give you another chance when the magic is ready)? Why not just wait a month until the magic is ready?  It’s not that much time to buy and lead singles, videos, the works cost a lot.  If you are in a hurry, you rush one of your magic songs through the studio and you release that. If he’s heading over to Europe to do promo, then the album must be pretty done by now? Would waiting 1 month for magic (when most of radio is frozen for two weeks) not have been the wiser strategy?

Nobody releases music a few days before Christmas. Buying time seems like an unlikely reason to me. If it is the reason, RCA needs to cut down on their booze and blow budget.

The theory that RCA overestimated the buying power of Adam fans was
never a thought until this Toby guy put it out there and now some are
happily running with this. This is how one plants the seed of doubt to rattle a fanbase and before you know it it starts to spread.

I read that theory a lot of places before Toby posted it. Toby did not originate the idea. Bragging about big first week sales is a common thing to see in industry adds aimed at generating radio airplay (on Mediabase, AllAccess, industry reports, etc).

And why would Toby be trying to rattle a fanbase? What is his purpose? What would even happen if the fans got rattled? Would it be like the Cuban missile crisis?

If Adam comes with a strong album and good promotion around its launch, forget the controversial BTIKM, his fans would not complain of anything, people would buy his music, a new single maybe close to March 20th and an AI performance, so there is hope for a good first week sale and going on… 
I wrap my head around sometimes how the social-media-internet works so fast for some things, spread the word in no time like Rebecka Black’s song, 5 guys playing one guitar, the 1 year old twin babies’ “conversation”, the cat playing piano, the running buck bumping into the bicyclist, and for ordinary things even if “promoted” on tweeter by people with strong followers, slim impact. Thinking of idols like DC, DA for example with pretty strong followers, slim album sales for sophomore-albums, even videos in not “the millions of viewers” category like that plain song sung by the 5 guy/w a guitar, over 30 mil. in some days. So, the extraordinary “point” has ruled, the guitar and the 10 hands on it, otherwise I don’t think only the 5 voices would attract so many viewers. Same with the music, if the artists’ songs don’t have something extraordinary in the sound, a hint of whatever not necessarily the whole song, for a great impact over the meh one, forget success and sales.

ETA: My two cents…think RCA wanted to reintroduce Adam to radio with BTIKM. I think they played it too safe and went with a song that is very like WWFM in emotion and sound. IMO this was a mistake. I’m struck by how Adam never talks about BTIKM in interviews, he talks with excitement about several tracks on the album buy doesn’t mention his current single…to me this is telling. As Kirsten said, too early to judge BTIKM but not to early to question whether or not this was a good decision.

Interesting, I didn’t know that, sometimes the unspoken tells more than anything.

I agree with you Tess. It wasn’t to long ago that we all figured RCA wanted to gauge Adam’s fan base and came to the conclusion that his base hadn’t eroded and stayed intact. So what’s the problem now. I seriously doubt RCA would use hardcore fans numbers as a selling point to radio as some litmus test on how a song will do without the benefit of radio play being heard to the masses. If that’s the case others who debuted with lower numbers might as well not see their song get pushed to radio. The golden rule around here has always been a song doesn’t really sell until an AI of at least 10million unless you are established. Nothings changed for I am concern. I’m not buying all these theorys that seem to change depending on who it is and I don’t think fans should be bamboozled with so called “experts”. I will wait to see how this song does without all the noise.
 

I read that theory a lot of places before Toby posted it. Toby did not
originate the idea. Bragging about big first week sales is a common
thing to see in industry adds aimed at generating radio airplay (on
Mediabase, AllAccess, industry reports, etc). 

^^^ Do you have links?

The golden rule around here has always been a song doesn’t really sell
until an AI of at least 10million unless you are established. Nothings
changed for I am concern. I’m not buying all these theorys that seem to
change depending on who it is and I don’t think fans should be
bamboozled with so called “experts”.

Ah, I remember when I first posited the 10M AI as the amount required to support single sales way back in early October of 2009 (a certain debut single had fallen out of the top 100 on iTunes and there was much concern).

I like it when my theories become “golden rules”.

But yes, I do think airplay is necessary to support most sales beyond the first few weeks. That is why those singles are so important and always generate so much “Is the label brilliant/complete morons”? debates rage.

Trespassing was going to be released in november or around that time. All of a sudden, Beg for money had a release date the same week. RCA has BFM removed and then put back up for sale. Now they have a law suit to deal with. RCA announces delay of Trespassing so BFM wont confuse buyers. I believe, BTIKMS was released to give Adam’s fans something to hold them over until Trespassing gets released. 3 or 4 month delay folks!

Depends where the Tobsters gets his information in regards to Adam?      Perhaps Toby was just using conventional wisdom based on other, more established artists?  

Seriously, RCA just went through this with David Cook, who happened to sell more albums in the US then Adam did.  I know in bubble, we have Adam fans with believe Adam is a superstar and we have those who like to believe that Adam is one big fat disappointment to his label. 

I like to think RCA is more realistic about Adam  It’s going to be an uphill climb for Adam, but he can do it but it is going to take a lot of hard work on his part.   Even then, he may only end up with modest sales.

42 Daughtry “Break the Spell” 8K (-8%; lw 8,897) Total: 346K(36)
86 Lauren Alaina “Wildflower” 5K (+41%; 8,897) Total: 233K (133)

I don’t understand the numbers for albums posted at the top:

Daughtry sold 8K this week compared to 8897 last week and is down 8%.
Lauren sold 5K this week compared to 8897 last week and is up 41%

I notice the sales last week are the same for both of them…is the number for Lauren last week incorrect?

I notice the sales last week are the same for both of them…is the number for Lauren last week incorrect?

Sorry, that was a cut and paste error. I’ve fixed it. Thanks!

Ideally, you want to save your Leno/Ellen/Today Show/Letterman/GMA slots for when your album is dropping so that people can put a face to that song they love from the radio and know the album is out. If you burn those slots trying to get sales to convince radio to play the song, what are you going to do when your album drops?

I think Adam went on Leno and Ellen because, as someone said, they’re fans and they’ll probably have him back again at some point in this album’s cycle.  Also, RCA recognizes that Adam has a broad fanbase, so it clues in some of his older fans that a new album is on the horizon (to preorder) and a single can be downloaded (which most probably don’t do, so no sales there).  It also gets clips of a live performance out there circulating in the internetverse, but not necessarily at sites frequented by listeners of Pop radio.

I sincerely hope RCA wasn’t thinking that the Leno/Ellen appearances would convince CHR stations to spin this song, lol.  That would be … unfortunate, ha.  I don’t know anyone in the teenage target demographic of US Pop stations that ever watches any of these shows (including the morning shows).  Youtube clips of Kimmel and Ferguson maybe, but not these.

The type of pop radio push being hinted at by Knapp is what will get this song some decent airplay and, if young ears like it, they’ll request it and buy it and push it up the iTunes and Billboard charts.  At this point, without airplay, this song hasn’t penetrated the teenage psyche yet.  JMHO.  
 

“Is the label brilliant/complete morons”? debates rage.

I usually try not to lose sight of the fact that labels have access to more information than I do.  It’s often hard to figure out what their thinking is, though, and sometimes what they’re thinking with.  ;)

Before Toby posted that theory – would you mind mentioning the “lot of places” you read it?   Thanks.

POS song is a matter of opinion, don’t you think? If RCA
thought it was a POS song they wouldn’t release it IMO, but
thanks for the non biased review, lol.

It’s all relative. If the new stuff is as you described “magic” that one needs to buy time for, then the stuff before is not “magic”. Why release the non-magic when you only need a month? Wait for the “magic”. Forget the “non-magic”. Again, why buy a month with something that isn’t as good as what you soon will have? Where is the logic in that?

As for the non-biased review…every review I give is biased. Are there any unbiased reviews? Reviews are people’s opinions. Everybody has a bias. I’m not writing a news report. A review is an op ed especially on a blog. And like I’ve ever said I liked that song. I’ve always called it a piece of recycled “meh” and Adam deserves better material.  If people were labouring under the impression that I thought the song was magic, they must not have read any of my opinions on the subject.

Full disclosure: I thought Katy’s “California Gurls” was a POS too, so my opinion on a song does not doom it to failure. Although, even though I hated it, I thought CG had a killer hook.

I don’t get why RCA would expect Adam get huge single sales from fans just by releasing it before Xmas without any significant promo and radioplay. None of his singles from his first era started with big sales and that was when he was right off the biggest tv show. why would anyone expect it otherwise 2 years later? Anyway, when it comes to single sales, radio play is the key, when to release the single won’t matter.

The main thing is that video next week ignites some downloads. What PD will add a song that can’t chart in the top 1000 iTunes songs? And it’ll be quite a long road to get 10 million AI on HAC (without Top 40 stations adding the song). You need to be in the top 15 or so on that chart to see that number.

Maybe RCA actually thought that followers on twitter = sales. No even they couldn’t be that dumb. ;0

There’s a lot of “meh” songs on radio that get radio play and sell. All the current Idols songs to me that are out now and one coming out is “meh” to me. Kelly’s “stronger” being OK and they all getting radio play some selling some not so much. lol. “meh” is a matter of opinion that’s why we need millions of people to listen to these songs some will like some not so much. I remember people say WWFM was “meh” at look how well it did and it is still getting plenty of radio play.

double post

What PD will add a song that can’t even chart in the top 1000 iTunes songs?

PDs add songs all the time that are out of the itunes 1000. It happens every week.

From HDD:  One Day Sales

ADELE CHALLENGES BODYGUARD

Her 18th Week at #1 Gives Her Longest Run Since Whitney Houston Soundtrack

So what else is new? For the 18th non-consecutive week, XL/Columbia Grammy darling Adele’s 21 will be the #1 album. That’s based on one-day sales reports from those on and offline retailers who haven’t closed shop to set up Newt Gingrich campaign headquarters.

Adele’s chart-topping performance will send her past Billy Ray Cyrus’ Some Gave All, with 17, and turn her sights to the Bodyguard soundtrack, which logged a total of 20 weeks at #1, ending on May 29, 1993, the longest previous run.

Adele beat out this week’s new releases, including Curb’s new Tim McGraw album, Emotional Traffic, his first studio effort since 2009’s Southern Voice, which is now targeted for between 65-75k, quite a bit fewer than the 137k that album racked up.

Epic heavy metal gods Lamb of God’s seventh album, Resolution, is looking at estimates in the 50-55k range after scoring 68k for their previous release, 2009’s Wrath.

Universal Republic has the new 2012 Grammy Nominees album, with first-week prognostications of 50-55k, which would top last year’s 38k opening tally.

Cabin 24/Mom + Pop’s Ingrid Michaelson, going through RED, will see her new album, Human Again, her fifth, launch with 35-40k in sales.

BNA’s Idol alum Kellie Pickler’s 100 Proof, her third, should do between 23-27k, while Amnesty International’s four-CD Bob Dylan tribute, Chimes of Freedom, is looking at 15-20k.

Album sales were down 1% vs. last week, down 4% vs. same week last year and up 3% year to date.

Track sales were down 2% vs. last week, up 6% vs. same week last year and up 7% year to date.

TEA sales were down 1% vs. last week, down 1% vs. same week last year and up 4% year to date.

Yeah, I think Toby is used to dealing with a lot of fanbases.    Adam’s are just one more.   I just don’t think he is that invested.   I don’t follow him, but from what I have read here, he seems to be hit or miss.   He might make a lot of assumptions which don’t pan out.   But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that little single gets some spins.   :)

Before Toby posted that theory – would you mind mentioning the “lot of places” you read it?

Past editions of this thread would be a good start, as well as the comments’ section on Idol Chatter.  The second week that the song was out, when it fell out of the BB 200 many fans asked Brian Mansfield why did RCA release the song during that period, and he pointed out how a lot of people use gift cards to buy music right after Christmas.  He posted some examples of songs that saw bumps during that week.

I sincerely hope RCA wasn’t thinking that the Leno/Ellen appearances would convince CHR stations to spin this song, lol.  That would be … unfortunate, ha.  I don’t know anyone in the teenage target demographic of US Pop stations that ever watches any of these shows (including the morning shows). 

They are using the possibility of an AI performance as a way to catch PDs interest, so why wouldn’t they use Leno and Letterman?  Labels and management do it all of the time.  They make out a list of an artist’s appearances, and have that information posted on Mediabase, All Access, and Hits Daily Double.  The idea is to let the PDs know or believe that the artist is in demand.  As well as to let them know that the artist has new music.

What PD will add a song that can’t even chart in the top 1000 iTunes songs?

PD who like the song.  PD who think their audience will like the song.  PD who remember that WWFM did well and think this song has a shot at doing well also.  PD who trade a favor with RCA for something else.  PD who get a commitment from Adam to do an interview or a visit or something else that will help them promote their station.  Lots of reasons why a PD would add a new unproven song. 

It’s only a spot on a list.  And that list is in a constant state of change.

Past editions of this thread would be a good start, as well as the comments’ section on Idol Chatter. The second week that the song was out, when it fell out of the BB 200 many fans asked Brian Mansfield why did RCA release the song during that period, and he pointed out how a lot of people use gift cards to buy music right after Christmas. He posted some examples of songs that saw bumps during that week.

The request for links is referring to the statement from Toby where he stated that “RCA overestimated the buying power of Adam fans”. Until Toby posted this statement from RCA on his blog, no one had heard this information. Toby is the one who is a PD and gets inside information from Joe. This statement had not been expressed by anyone else who was in the position to know any kind of inside information as far as what RCA was thinking.

Do we have a link to another PD, with insider information, that had been passing that same information along to the fans?

Maybe RCA actually thought that followers on twitter = sales. No even they couldn’t be that dumb. ;0

I agree. I don’t believe RCA expecting a huge opening number base on the twitter number. That’s why saying the label is disappointed with the initial sale is ridiculous. I think the opening weeks of BTIKM is similar with all the FYE singles is a great news. It means Adam somehow managed retaining his fans. After all, the main reason for sophomore slump is idol fans simply moved on from their idols after their first albums.
Edited, cause spelling matters…

Hey does anyone know what the sales stats are today for “Better than I know Myself”.   I love this song, but it is going to take more than an appearance on Leno & Ellen to sell this song and get airplay.  It seems to be moving up the HAC chart though at 38.  It is going to need a lot more TV promo for it to sell.  WWFM had Leno, Ellen, Letterman & Oprah plus the appearance on AI.

Wow! BTIKM is charting on radio and increasing spins and it has just been released to radio. I don’t see the doom here, what am I missing? Just because it isn’t in the itunes downloads at the moment doesn’t mean a whole lot in the bigger picture IMO. Give it a little time to catch on on the radio, see the video, and more appearances and promo, and of course the album drop! I am not going to set myself up expecting record setting sales, but saying it is flopping is premature to say the least. It is getting played and charting, give it a minute before accessing it a hit or miss :)

It’s early yet, so at the moment it’s all a question of belief, do you believe BTIKM is the right choice for Adam considering the early radio and itunes response (not calling it good or bad that’s a matter of interpretation).
Would you be happy to see RCA continue to promote and push this single to radio, get him to perform this song on talk shows, late night shows, idol etc.
Because once all of this is decided, that’s a 3 month commitment and this is the time a single would need before peaking in the top 5-10 of HAC/CHR just at the right time for the album release..

This is a question because there have been a number of reviews not only praising to high heavens at least a couple of other tracks (Cuckoo and Trespassing comes to mind), calling them major hits but seemed a little more ambivalent towards BTIKM, saying that it doesn’t really represent the album (at least that was my impression reading them).
Normally I would think switching singles would be a mistake but in the case of Adam it worked once.

I think it doesn’t matter what we believe, it’s up to what RCA and their researchers believe. And how long they are committed to promoting this project. Are they willing to be patient and push this single before dropping an uptempo? How many singles do they have planned long term and what promo do they have already lined up?

Do they panic now and put the eggs in another basic to try for a quicker radio rise? (Which TBH, there is no history of with Adam.)

Sure, I could spout my opinion but I haven’t heard the other tracks. I thought TLG was a great song for HAC. Then I heard the album and thought Paper Heart would have been a better choice.

The only thing we do know, is that the UK has pretty much unanimously agreed that Cuckoo or Trespassing would fit their format. So I don’t know what to think about that, seeing as they couldn’t crack that nut before and they shouldn’t discount the feedback now. It is the point of doing previews after all.

I guess I’m saying I don’t know and it’s too early to tell. But I’m glad it’s not my job.

What’s the deal with Claude/Luke singles anyway? ;)

I think it doesn’t matter what we believe, it’s up to what RCA and their researchers believe. And how long they are committed to promoting this project. Are they willing to be patient and push this single before dropping an uptempo? How many singles do they have planned long term and what promo do they have already lined up?

Do they panic now and put the eggs in another basic to try for a quicker radio rise? (Which TBH, there is no history of with Adam.)

Sure, I could spout my opinion but I haven’t heard the other tracks. I thought TLG was a great song for HAC. Then I heard the album and thought Paper Heart would have been a better choice.

The only thing we do know, is that the UK has pretty much unanimously agreed that Cuckoo or Trespassing would fit their format. So I don’t know what to think about that, seeing as they couldn’t crack that nut before and they shouldn’t discount the feedback now. It is the point of doing previews after all.

I guess I’m saying I don’t know and it’s too early to tell. But I’m glad it’s not my job.

What’s the deal with Claude/Luke singles anyway? ;)

Yikes!  Adam’s song is doing so poorly, they don’t even list it.  I loved WWFM and IIHY- I don’t like this song but I thought it would do good on AC, it could probably go TOP TEN if they push it, but I don’t see it doing anything on any other format, pop radio is not going to play it, no matter what.

I think it doesn’t matter what we believe, it’s up to what RCA and their researchers believe. And how long they are committed to promoting this project. Are they willing to be patient and push this single before dropping an uptempo? How many singles do they have planned long term and what promo do they have already lined up?

Do they panic now and put the eggs in another basic to try for a quicker radio rise? (Which TBH, there is no history of with Adam.)

Sure, I could spout my opinion but I haven’t heard the other tracks. I thought TLG was a great song for HAC. Then I heard the album and thought Paper Heart would have been a better choice.

The only thing we do know, is that the UK has pretty much unanimously agreed that Cuckoo or Trespassing would fit their format. So I don’t know what to think about that, seeing as they couldn’t crack that nut before and they shouldn’t discount the feedback now. It is the point of doing previews after all.

I guess I’m saying I don’t know and it’s too early to tell. But I’m glad it’s not my job.

What’s the deal with Claude/Luke singles anyway? ;)

They are using the possibility of an AI performance as a way to catch PDs interest, so why wouldn’t they use Leno and Letterman?  Labels and management do it all of the time.  They make out a list of an artist’s appearances, and have that information posted on Mediabase, All Access, and Hits Daily Double.  The idea is to let the PDs know or believe that the artist is in demand.  As well as to let them know that the artist has new music.

PD of CHR stations are smart enough to know that Leno’s and Letterman’s demographic is not their demographic.  They have a whole different system of determining who’s “in demand” as far as their target audience is concerned.  I don’t think they’re looking to these shows to make that judgment.

I’m not saying these shows aren’t a good thing for Adam.  They are because, as I said, he has a broad fanbase.  What I’m saying is that I don’t think anyone should expect that appearances on these shows will result in new adds on Pop radio – since it caters to a completely different group.

Bottom line, it’s way too soon to pass judgment on BTIKM’s performance. Let’s see how the label’s push to the Pop stations goes. I think once the song gets some regular airplay, it will propel itself. I loved the song the first time I heard it and everytime I’ve listened again I’ve thought, damn that’s a great song. Great song, great vocals.

My theory is that RCA released the single because several sites were posting links to the single and people were downloading and listening to it for free. RCA thought, rightfully so, that Adam’s fans would like to pay for the single and support him as an artist so they released the excellent HD quality for sale. I am not worried because I cannot think of another artist from Idol that successfully toured as the headliner supporting their first album. Adam’s fan base is around… just today CHUM stated they received 10,000 votes to make Better Than I Know Myself the #1 single on their top 5 at 5. Also, I was checking out the Adam site in the UK and there were over 2,000 users signed in while I was browsing. I will not worry unless the number of album pre-orders are low. Everything between now and release date is just drama.

Ok guys, here are the Soundscan BB200, Hot Digital Tracks, and Digital Tracks Catalog charts from UkMix.  You will be able to see all of these charts on the same page as the provided link.

Billboard 200 Albums Chart
Week Ending January 22, 2012

Wks On 2Wks LW TW Artist Name Album Title TW % CHG LW Total
48 1 1 1 ADELE 21 95144 -9 104047 6147317
1 2 * KIDZ BOP KIDS KIDZ BOP 21 58704 999 68 58810
7 3 3 3 BLACK KEYS EL CAMINO 29341 -19 36251 536315
10 2 4 4 DRAKE TAKE CARE 29156 -8 31674 1349788
9 6 7 5 RIHANNA TALK THAT TALK 20214 -8 21882 583382
5 4 6 6 YOUNG JEEZY TM 103: HUSTLERZ AMBITION 19373 -19 23925 380230
1 7 * FORTUNE*JAMES & FIYA IDENTITY 17823 999 103 13361
13 14 22 8 * KEITH*TOBY CLANCY’S TAVERN 17153 27 13489 385872
13 5 8 9 COLDPLAY MYLO XYLOTO 17003 -13 19558 1070802
9 11 9 10 NICKELBACK HERE AND NOW 16879 -13 19405 645817

13 16 14 14 CLARKSON*KELLY STRONGER 14985 -6 15926 500613

55 13 16 15 ADELE 19 14671 -3 15150 1789346

64 21 25 24 ALDEAN*JASON MY KINDA PARTY 11899 -9 13062 2304476

16 25 34 29 MCCREERY*SCOTTY CLEAR AS DAY 10620 7 9908 889877

39 33 37 36 MAROON 5 HANDS ALL OVER 9062 5 8653 945915

9 29 36 42 DAUGHTRY BREAK THE SPELL 8205 -8 8897 346290

5 75 83 69 * SHELTON*BLAKE LOADED: THE BEST OF BLAKE SHEL 6021 17 5130 490297

15 131 133 86 * ALAINA*LAUREN WILDFLOWER 4898 41 3482 233173

18 51 76 88 BENNETT*TONY DUETS II 4820 -11 5430 738113

28 80 80 92 SHELTON*BLAKE RED RIVER BLUE 4667 -12 5296 523804

7 62 96 101 GLEE CAST GLEE: THE MUSIC, VOLUME 7 4446 1 4383 154494

9 61 121 124 MURPHY*LANDAU EUGENE JR. THAT’S LIFE 3975 6 3751 134474

12 55 82 131 BOYLE*SUSAN SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME 3701 -28 5145
494819

35 120 125 136 PAISLEY*BRAD THIS IS COUNTRY MUSIC 3630 0 3646 624825

3 173 184 148 * AEROSMITH BEST OF AEROSMITH-MILLENNIUM C 3321 21
2740 406122

Top Catalog Albums
Week Ending January 22, 2012

Wks On 2Wks LW TW Artist Name Album Title TW % CHG LW Total
4 150 163 99 MAROON 5 SONGS ABOUT JANE 2065 34 1540 4793893

4 100 114 131 CLARKSON*KELLY BREAKAWAY 1777 -2 1822 6204093

5 115 112 137 AEROSMITH GREATEST HITS 1745 -5 1832 5359058

66 161 135 154 ALDEAN*JASON WIDE OPEN 1639 -2 1679 1506087

35 121 150 172 UNDERWOOD*CARRIE PLAY ON 1523 -5 1604 2074564

I read that theory a lot of places before Toby posted it.

I am intrigued by this. I’ve been following radio charts and pop music in general for a long time and i’ve never really seen any proof of this other than fans with no insider info making up these theories from scratch. 

Do you have links? I’m talking about legitimate sources (aka people who could possibly know this and have the information – mainly label people, maybe producers, songwriters etc).

 I have to admit though i’m a bit skeptical about DJ’s too because WE KNOW they lie to fans ALL THE TIME (i don’t blame them btw). It’s the worst kept secret ever.

For example if they won’t play a song, they always say to fans they don’t have it yet or the label doesn’t want them to play it yet etc etc.  And that’s ok, i don’t expect them to be 100% truthful and open to the fans about the info they have, but i am also not selective, so when a DJ is source, i’m always a bit skeptical regardless of the information and regardless of the artist/song in question.

Anyway if you have some facts about that sales theory (again i’m not interested in speculative fan talking), i’d appreciate you posting them. Thanks.

ETA: oh i see you meant idol fans on this board (and other idol articles maybe) coming up with this theory.

Good, i thought that it’s created out of thin air because we know the download numbers from previous singles so it’s obvious the theory makes zero sense.

You were just agreeing with the theory. I get it now. Originally i thought you have some legitimate reason to believe it because of some insider info.

Ignore my whole comment then :)

The request for links is referring to the statement from Toby where he
stated that “RCA overestimated the buying power of Adam fans”. Until
Toby posted this statement from RCA on his blog, no one had heard this
information.

It all started with this: “The theory that RCA overestimated the buying power of Adam fans was never a thought until this Toby guy put it out there and now some are happily running with this. ”

I responded saying the theory had been around before Toby mentioned it (as elliegrl mentions, it was discussed in past numbers threads). So, it isn’t something that Toby originated as a theory.

I didn’t know Toby had posted it as a statement (I don’t read his blog) and that makes it different. I would totally agree that he is likely the only insider to confirm that the theory was true. Before that, it was just speculation and theories.

So, Toby is stating it as a fact? Well, he does have some insider information, but I doubt RCA would tell him that officially. Are we sure he’s just not speculating?

By release, I think most people are asking why did RCA release the song during the freeze.  I don’t think that the total sold is an issue, except that the low amount might taint the view that some people have of Adam.  The real issue is whether or not RCA can get people to play the song. 

Hot Digital Tracks
Week Ending January 22, 2012

Wks On 2Wks LW TW Artist Name Title TW % CHG LW Total
9 19 6 1 GUETTA*DAVID FEAT. NICKI MINAJ TURN ME ON 192612 45 132850 755887
48 3 1 2 ADELE SET FIRE TO THE RAIN 184673 -4 192798 2026569
13 49 10 3 CLARKSON*KELLY STRONGER (WHAT DOESN’T KILL YO 174254 49 116978 522654
19 5 2 4 FLO RIDA GOOD FEELING 141401 -13 162611 2157198
9 13 4 5 TYGA RACK CITY 136791 -8 149001 658650
22 2 3 6 LMFAO SEXY AND I KNOW IT 134128 -14 155809 3857296
18 4 7 7 RIHANNA FEAT. CALVIN HARRIS WE FOUND LOVE 132806 1 131382 3355922
16 14 12 8 JESSIE J DOMINO 122027 25 97834 915302
15 7 5 9 SNOOP DOGG & WIZ KHALIFA FEAT. YOUNG, WILD & FREE 120158 -12 136474 1402591
1 10 GLEE CAST WITHOUT YOU 97258 0 97258

31 15 20 14 MAROON 5 FEAT. CHRISTINA AGUIL MOVES LIKE JAGGER 85793 11 77600 4281107

48 12 19 21 ADELE SOMEONE LIKE YOU 71481 -10 79777 4013483

32 17 23 25 GYM CLASS HEROES FEAT. ADAM LE STEREO HEARTS 61364 -12 69459 2975491

1 31 GLEE CAST WE FOUND LOVE 56984 0 56984

58 31 37 39 ADELE ROLLING IN THE DEEP 49150 0 49130 6030505

1 42 GLEE CAST MOVES LIKE JAGGER / JUMPIN’ JA 46389 0 46389

1 43 GLEE CAST THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR 42827 0 42827

20 34 43 48 CLARKSON*KELLY MR. KNOW IT ALL 38671 -13 44605 1184835

1 59 GLEE CAST SUMMER NIGHTS 31695 0 31695

19 62 83 75 MCCREERY*SCOTTY THE TROUBLE WITH GIRLS 24987 5 23778 462367

43 59 80 85 ALDEAN*JASON DIRT ROAD ANTHEM 22706 -9 25057 2239694

18 57 79 95 ALDEAN*JASON TATTOOS ON THIS TOWN 20554 -18 25080 560392

33 88 99 101 ADELE RUMOUR HAS IT 18583 -9 20405 700435

1 103 GLEE CAST WEDDING BELL BLUES 18221 0 18221

33 102 118 127 PAISLEY*BRAD DUET WITH CARRIE REMIND ME 16204 -6 17191 1379916

7 159 189 166 GLEE CAST WE ARE YOUNG 12813 11 11518 281801

41 134 150 167 SHELTON*BLAKE HONEY BEE 12812 -9 14073 1768160

1 176 ALAINA*LAUREN GEORGIA PEACHES 11947 62 7392 41976

3 161 130 184 POWTER*DANIEL BAD DAY (ALBUM VERSION) 11552 -28 16139 3235793

4 152 177 186 LOPEZ*JENNIFER ON THE FLOOR 11520 -6 12212 311446

Ah! Thank you Kirsten! I felt like no one was understanding anyone. lol
I understand what you were saying now, thanks for clarifying!

With Toby, we don’t ever REALLY know if he is speculating, quoting, embellishing, or simply getting the facts mixed up. :)

Just as a point of clarification, Clay, Cook and I think Taylor all headlined successful, almost sold-out tours supporting their first albums immediately coming off of Idol. There may have been others.

Also the number of votes to a radio station does not accurately represent the number of fans, due to bulk voting, etc. Idol fans are notoriously loyal and adept voters, which is why they are often courted for those polls. :)

“My theory is that RCA released the single because several sites were
posting links to the single and people were downloading and listening to
it for free. RCA thought, rightfully so, that Adam’s fans would like to
pay for the single and support him as an artist so they released the
excellent HD quality for sale.”

Possibly, but I believe that this is the case with most artists nowadays. And I think that those bastard links were actually posted after it had already been announced that they were releasing the single, although prior to the singles release, for sure.

Or perhaps Toby reads this blog :)   He could be quoting one of us!  LOL

Best theory yet. Toby reads MJs!

duplicate

“He’s only had 2 appearances so no where near over exposure to the general public. Leno and Ellen adore Adam and they will find a way to get him back on their shows when album drops. He’s was on Leno 2x and Ellen 3x last time.”
***

Just a small correction, he did Leno 3 times also. He did WWFM, Sleepwalker, and IIHY! :) Ellen and Leno love Adam. He will be on again!

I ordered Kellies 100 Proof from Amazon yesterday afternoon and it was on my front porch before noon today.  Awesome service!  LOVE this album!!!  If you don’t tap your toes when Unlock the Honky Tonk plays, you’re dead and don’t know it.  100 Proof is still my fav song but Stop Cheating on Me is a very close second.  The song about her dad made me cry when I heard it.  Not really a song I didnt like.  Hope Kellie does well with this one, its a keeper.

You aren’t missing anything.  What a thrill to see the song already on top 40 barely 48 hours after it’s adds date!  It’s so exciting to see this song moving so much faster than WWFM, which did so great even on a slow burn.  I’m really excited to see BTIKM be the song that bridges FYE and TP.  I’m also anxious to hear Cuckoo as the next single (I think it will be, though it appears there are quite a few options according to industry insiders) as the kick-off to Adam’s new style for this era.  That one should be a hoot to watch – I hope it comes out right before the album drop to optimize CD sales.

And speaking of style, I love, love, love the artwork for both the BTIKM single and TP album covers!  Adam is one hot looking dude!  Wow, it sure is fun to be a fan of an artist like this – never a dull moment.

I can’t see the doom about Adam at all.  He has great industry and media support,tons of fan support from all over the globe and he’s an incredibly gifted performer.  If for some reason BTIKM doesn’t click I’m sure that RCA will be quick to release another single pronto just like they did with FYE and WWFM.  Adam will be fine. No worries :)

Digital Tracks Catalog
Week Ending January 22, 2012

Wks On 2Wks LW TW Artist Name Title TW % CHG LW Total
55 40 56 51 MAROON 5 SHE WILL BE LOVED 8712 -2 8874 2202014

52 84 108 57 ADELE MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE (ALBUM) 8000 15 6984 788919

2 73 61 PAISLEY*BRAD SHE’S EVERYTHING 7811 -2 8001 1291196

2 26 66 LEWIS*LEONA BLEEDING LOVE 7632 -34 11549 4243730

107 59 84 78 ALDEAN*JASON SHE’S COUNTRY 7298 -5 7687 1773574

1 87 MAROON 5 SUNDAY MORNING 7137 134 3052 951959

55 78 113 101 ALDEAN*JASON BIG GREEN TRACTOR 6546 -5 6857 1921882

2 100 109 CLARKSON*KELLY BREAKAWAY 6368 -10 7099 1414534

3 95 143 119 ADELE CHASING PAVEMENTS (ALBUM) 6230 3 6023 1266700

3 142 193 124 AEROSMITH I DON’T WANT TO MISS A THING 5992 15 5190 1338083

2 124 141 UNDERWOOD*CARRIE JESUS, TAKE THE WHEEL 5661 -13 6517 1912558

5 135 189 170 UNDERWOOD*CARRIE BEFORE HE CHEATS 5151 -2 5241 3376760

2 99 184 SPARKS*JORDIN & CHRIS BROWN NO AIR 4991 -30 7110 3332159

Guess so – don’t know where else the “lots of places” could be.   Other blogs?

If you haven’t seen, the second part of Lyndsay’s interview is posted in the Adam thread and it is must see. Lots more info on the songs and title of a couple new ones, particularly “Naked Love”. Good to see BTIKM charting in Top 40 already, Yay!

I’m very excited for adam’s new era.  It seems like RCA has done a fantastic job of getting all the dominoes lined up and one by one it looks like they’re starting to fall: Exposure for the march 20 album drop via btikm – check.  Top 40 for the first single within 2 days of adds date – check.  International roll-out – check.  Laying the groundwork for pr in the states on tv via Leno and Ellen – check.  Tons of good press – check.  Probable AI appearance to coincide with album drop – check.  And I gotta say, my personal favorite, linking Adam with Queen – check.  Sometimes it almost feels like it’s just fair for one Idol to get such a large share of the goodies, but ngl, it makes me very happy for him that he does.

Congrats to Kelly on album & (2nd) single going gold!

The song was released a month ago, so although the adds date was Monday, radio has been able to play it for much longer than that. It is a good sign that it is Top 40 on Hot AC before much of the major promo really kicked in though

Toby seems to relish the attention from both the Adam and Kris fans too much, which seems very unprofessional to me. He wants to keep getting this attention because he has kind of gotten addicted to it I think, so he keeps spinning bits and pieces and innuendos to keep getting his fix,lol. I don’t know if he has actual info that he plays up or down as he sees fit or if he is full of shit but either way it is seems inappropriate for someone in his position, IMO. I don’t trust him.

Well maybe that was the plan! Get it to chart just 2 days after the add date! That works for me, lol.

“Nobody releases music a few days before Christmas. Buying time seems like an unlikely reason to me. If it is the reason, RCA needs to cut down on their booze and blow budget.”

Oh, Kirsten. LOLOLOLOL. You really need to get a comedy show on TV. I would be a constant viewer.

If Adam wastes an appearance on AI by singing this song, I will be pulling my hair out.  WWFM vaulted into the TOP TEN with his appearance singing it, but it was a great song, so people responded.  I don’t think they will respond to this so I hope he is on the 2nd single by then, he will most likely not be able to choose when he is going on the show this time, I am sure the slots will be cut throat with so many from last year being signed, he needs to make the most of it.

Clay did not headline the tour he co-headlined the tour. I know because I went to see him and Kelly. She must have been sick that night because he sang circles around her. 

He’s going on AI?

I know right?  That’s why I don’t understand anyone angsting over RCA’s marketing strategy – it’s going great as far as I can see.  It’s going to be a very exciting two months ahead.

this was in reply to annieba – sorry the link didn’t work for some reason.

We don’t know RCA’s rationale.  Since they’re the ones with the expertise and the ones spending the bucks, it would seem likely they know what they’re doing. 

I absolutely agree.  I was a marketing manager for a F500 corp. in my last job, and although everyone always has an opinion about creative areas like this, most ppl just don’t know anything about it.  If you’re lucky the product is creative and unique.  And if you’re smart, you do your market research, decide what demographics you have and what others you need, and you devise your strategy accordingly.  I get ppl not understanding the strategy, but sometimes you just have to accept that you’re not going to understand it and just be happy that job belongs to the people that do.

Adam is a marketer’s dream – creative and unique enough for five artists, with a huge dose of charm and likability thrown in.  And he’s articulate in interviews while managing not to forget his talking points!  You don’t know how rare that is.  It is pretty cool to watch a strategy like this unfold when both sides of the equation are kicking in.

Pam, thanks for posting all these download numbers.  Man, Jason Aldean has sold a boatload of singles in addition to his past two albums selling a ton.  Pretty impressive.

BTIKM has been out a month, but a couple of those weeks were during the Christmas freeze. Most radio stations (especially HAC) don’t put new songs into their rotation during the week of Christmas or the week after when all the countdowns are being played. Two or three weeks earlier would have been a much better time to release it or a couple of weeks after Christmas.

RCA had to have known this. They couldn’t have expected much in the way of adds or radio play during that time period.

I remember WWFM getting the exact same “meh” description here BTKM is getting. I don’t think WWFM is a better song. I love BTIKM, it is his best single so far IMO. I sincerely doubt, after watching him sing his ass off on Leno and Ellen that performing it on AI could possibly be a waste. It is a great song and he slays it live.

actually it says an awful lot about how good the album probably is when the insiders rave about the track and then add that btikm is good, but perhaps the weakest of that.  If btikm can hit Top40 within 2 days of adds, then imagine what the other singles will do.  I’m guessing that TP will outsell FYE handily – and I LOVE FYE!  Yup, don’t I think Adam’s going to see the sophomore slump that most idols do.

Roger Kramjet, Adam wasn’t the only Idol that headline a tour with is debut album but he was the first to headline worldwide. The others were US only.

RCA had to have known this. They couldn’t have expected much in the way of adds or radio play during that time period.

I’m sure that they didn’t expect much during that period, but they probably would have hoped that more Pop stations would have given the song some test spins, or added it after the new year.  They probably wanted more support from stations in large markets.

You mean you hope Adam doesn’t see the sophomore slump that most idols do, right. Making predictions like that even if you think so gets stored in the database only to reappear when such predictions don’t come true.

is that for me?  I don’t care if my opinion gets proven wrong.  I’m not an oracle – just a fan with an opinion.  I don’t think Adam will have a sophomore slump.  nbd.

We don’t know what RCA hoped or expected. They are the only ones that know the game plan. Everything is just speculations on idol fans part.

Tap, sorry. I don’t know why my replies aren’t showing up. What is nbd?

Adam wasn’t the only Idol that headline a tour with his debut album but he was the first to headline worldwide. The others were Us only

Daughtry also toured outside the US. They had some concerts in Asia and then did a tour of Australia with their first album.

That’s true, but Adam toured all throughout Europe too.

Adam has a banner on All Access with streaming comments from PDs. It says “impacting Pop 1/30″ and “Vevo Video Premiere 1/30″.

http://www.allaccess.com/

He’s really broken the idol mold, hasn’t he?  (well, with the exception of Kelly, another idol that regularly tours and sells well outside of the states).  But hey, he’s in really good company with Kelly!

Really. You sure it wasn’t one offs or promo tour like Kelly. RCA keeps insisting Adam is the first to do a worldwide tour from Asia to Europe.

nbd = no big deal  :)

Quite a few idols do well in parts of asia – esp. the phillipines.  This is sort of an AI phenomenon, not a particular artist phenomenon.  In the same way that some country Idols (like Carrie) sell a little in Australia and/or Canada.  Selling wider than these areas, though, is not at all common.  I think you’re right that he’s the only one that headlined his own tour, right out of the gate, to a broad international audience.   It’s pretty much how he made $6 million during 2010, and we saw that that put him in the top tier of Idol money-earners for that year.

The most impressive thing about that figure is that he didn’t earn it off of a body of work sold 3-7 years earlier, when the digital industry hadn’t yet devolved so badly.  Even someone like Clay, who isn’t selling well right now, can convert the royalties made from his first album’s sales into a lifetime profit if he’s smart – which I think he’s doing.

Adam and the other idols in recent history have a tougher row to hoe, in terms of sales, which is why it’s useful to have either very good business and investment smarts, or the talent to diversify into other arms of the entertainment industry.  Luckily I think Adam has both.  I think this is the real reason RCA seems to like him so much – every label and mgmt. team is looking for clients like this, but Adam’s a rare bird, frankly (luckily for us)

but Adam toured all throughout Europe too

I thought we were just talking about the only Idol to tour outside of the US. I don’t know the exhaustive list of where Daughtry toured because I was never a fan and it was 5 years ago, but they also toured Europe with their debut album in 2007. UK, France, Germany, Holland, the usual.

Ten years in, it’s hard for any Idol to be the only one to have done something

“Really. You sure it wasn’t one offs or promo tour like Kelly.
RCA keeps insisting Adam is the first to do a worldwide tour from Asia
to Europe.”

Daughtry did Asia, Oceana and Europe.

Wow, it sounds like btikm isn’t going to be a problem getting on Pop.  This is exciting news – can’t wait to see the hac and pop trend lines over the next two months.

I’ve never seen adam live, but i was all set (still am as a matter of fact) to purchase tickets in an instant if the Queen/Adam event got scheduled in Verona.  I’m a big fan of both, plus a big history buff, and the Verona arena with them would just be irresistible  to me.

If something else opens up with Queen/Adam I’ll do that for sure, but I’ll be looking for an opportunity to see Adam live in his outlaws tour here in the US.  I’m already loving the concepts he’s outlined for this album, and he does so well converting studio music to the live setting, so I’m sure he’ll be fantastic.  

RCA keeps insisting is the first to do a worldwide tour from Asia to Europe

Those are the same bozos who claimed Lee was the first to Idol winner to co-write his debut single. The first was Kelly. That should be a little hard to get wrong. It’s not like she is an obscure Idol.

PR guys spin things and fudge the truth a little. That is hardly limited to Idol press releases.

Daughtry had actual multi-date tours across the Globe in 2007.

Kirsten, why are posts being deleted? My post about AllAccess and Studio57′s post about the same thing are showing on the “recent posts” list but not on the thread anymore.

To all Glamberts: I’d get prepared for Adam’s 2nd album to sell much less than his first. He’ll be lucky if it goes gold. It’s become the pattern for all Idols except Kelly. Her 2nd album sold more than the first but she had SYBG kicking it off. Everyone else, including Daughtry and Carrie have continuously sold less and less. Daughtry went from over 4 million to less than 400,000. Carrie’s first sold over 6 mil,then her second sold I think over 3 mil,the fourth around 2. I don’t think Cook’s 2nd album has even hit 200,000 yet and his first sold over 1 mil. Back to Kelly: While her 2nd album sold over 6 mil by the time she hit her fourth album that went only Gold, and that was with hit singles too.
Just sayin.

Kirsten, why are posts being deleted?

I don’t know. Pam has been saying that some of her posts with links disappear. I did see your post earlier.

Try sending an e-mail to MJ with as much detail about the problem as possible (e.g. time posted, thread, content, link) so she has more of a chance to diagnose the problem

Since it did show up for others and on the sidebar, I don’t think it went into moderation. I’m sorry, but I can’t check for you. Ever since we went to disqus, only MJ can delete or mod posts.

Try posting again, but break the link and tell people how to fix the link. That might get it past whatever the problem is.

I don’t know what RCA is up to with Adam’s rollout, I really don’t understand it, but I’ll just sit by and watch.  Like I always do with my favs.  Sometimes, usually, mostly, meaning always, I disagree with them. But it’s their money, their budget, they have the numbers.  They do seem to be promoting heaving internationally, well people have money to spend there as well. 
Sophomore slump?  The odds are sooo not in the favor of Idols. 800k will be hard to beat, Kelly isn’t there yet with a soon to be #1 Pop single.  That’s gonna take a lot of work. I’m sure Adam has had a fan base erosion like they all do.  Although the loudest and the craziest seem to be hanging on ;) 

Can I just be a little sad still not seeing the lovely Carly hit it bigger? I love her voice.

Every possible reasonable theory for defying convention and dropping Christmas week has failed to be true. Whatever the label was going for, it did not work. We may never know what they were trying to do, but I think we can safely say that it failed.

I am a little late to the party but I kinda thought a big reason for putting out the single when they did was because of the whole “Beg For Mercy” kerfluffle.
They were advertising  it EVERYWHERE as Adam’s “NEW” music so by putting out the OFFICIAL single they blocked them from confusing fans about Adam’s music. YMMV IMHO

woops double post sorry

He might have slayed it on Ellen and Leno, but that just tells you it’s the song itself that is the turn-off.  Usually a great performance of a great song leads to, you know….. sales.  That hasn’t been the case here so it tells you no matter how well he does with it, no one’s buying.

robfuzz, This is news? I think most Idol fans know this. lol Well maybe you have a few who may think not. I read the other day that Kris would be the first to break the Idol sophmore slump but no one took them seriously.

robfuzz, what kind of fan would not expect the best?! That’s what being a fan is all about!

It climbed 700+ spots on itunes. That is a much better boost than we usually see when Idols perform their songs on shows like Leno or Ellen. Appearances like these will only create temporary itunes boosts.

Songs need radio play to move up the itunes charts and stay there.

oh ok

I’m pretty sure that the distinction for Adam touring worldwide is that he HEADLINED.  Didn’t Daughtry open for other bands on his international dates?  I know the US was a mix of headliners and opening spots but I thought the international dates were all openers.  Adam never opened for anyone internationally they were his own headline concerts.  Even the Singapore Grand Prix gig he headlined the night he was on and Daughtry actually was on before him.

I am a fan of Daughtry and I’m pretty sure most of those European dates were acoustic performances or promos at radio stations. He did do 2 shows in Australia and the usual mini tour in the Philippines and Singapore that everyone does.

The first album did pretty well in Europe and I never understood why he didn’t do more there at the time. That still puts him in a pretty elite class of Idols!

it is gonna be so cool if adam is the only idol, besides kelly, whose second album outsells his first.  Yay – can’t wait to see how it goes!

Also I’m guessing that his outlaws tour will start perhaps late summer/early fall?  That seems to be enough time for a global launch of the album.  I’m pretty sure there will be promo tours during this time, but I mean the big, second era tour.  I’m also gonna guess that it will take place both in 2012 and 2013.

Can’t wait to see how he does on the Forbes list in the aftermath of this second era.  I’m thinking he’s going to be up there with Kelly and Carrie, and outstripping Daughtry by then.

I cannot think of another artist from Idol that successfully toured as the headliner supporting their first album.

Just to clarify – Season 5 Winner Taylor Hicks headlined a successful tour supporting his first (Idol) album. He was the first to headline his own tour and had opening acts; Adam was the second, though Taylor’s was all in the US.

I think most sane fans are aware of the Idol pattern, thanks.

^^^But when you have people like Toby who is in the industry and suppose to know what he is talking about making statements like this to fans some may think well he knows what he is talking about. http://www.hot995.com/pages/toby.html?article=9653667

“Either way, it’s early, and the excitement from Lambert fans seems to
indicate that the single – and the full CD – will sell enough for a
platinum award from the RIAA.”

Now why you do that Toby?

Great banners at AllAccess 
http://www.allaccess.com/
and FMQB http://fmqb.com/home.asp
Looks like the POP Impact date is next week Jan.30th and the video is being premiered on Vevo also on Jan. 30th.  :D

I remember Daughtry playing with his band in small venues like Adam did in the UK and the rest of Europe.

{Bangs head} Please Toby, just stop talking!

Adam is the first Idol to headline a worldwide tour immediately following his season.  Other Idols have toured internationally (and most not to the extent that Adam did), but no one has done it right out of the gate like Adam.  That’s an impressive distinction that he holds.

Another ad for BTIKM on FMBQ this time.  Says Pop Impact Date this week (10/31)

http://www.fmqb.com/chr.asp

What are Adam’s sales of BTIKM so far? I haven’t seen any numbers the last couple weeks. Wasn’t his first week sales around 40,000? And isn’t that close to numbers on the initial releases of his previous singles?  To me I don’t see why that would be disappointing or change industry people’s opinion of him to move a product, because it would mean he has retained his fan base, not lost it. Unless they were expecting it to be bigger based on some ridiculous thing like twitter, which I highly doubt. Not worried yet, there is still time. If this song doesn’t catch on, there is still time to change directions. I actually was not a fan at all of WWFM and I didn’t expect it to take off. I started really loving it after he began performing it acoustically.

Just to clarify Adam wasn’t even the second to headline for his first album in the US. If you had continue reading he is the first to support his debut idol worldwide according to RCA. 

Do you have any idea what Carrie and Kelly make? LOL, no. Especially Carrie. 

sorry for dup

You can’t be for real right. Are you messing with us? lol. Kelly and Carrie will do wayyy  more than Adam. I wouldn’t even put him on the top of the heap on the next list since he did not tour in 2011. Daughtry’s earnings last year were not even all is earnings because of the cutoff month.

I am surprised Adam hasn’t tweeted about the video. He must be so excited. I saw the FMBQ banner as a gif because it won’t scroll I think in my iPad but it says something about 96% increase in digital downloads.

Aww GS61, all fans hope for nvm

I know it doesn’t look promising right now, but it’s early days – James can still pull it off.  Maybe the album is a grower.  Maybe they just need to release another single to catapult it.  A lot can happen yet.  I’m not sure which track I’d pick for him next that might do the trick.  What do you think?

Actually, initial sales for his other singles were lower than that. WWFM sold only 10k for the first 3 weeks or so and then around the 4th or 5th week (when it debuted on the charts) did it reach 40k in sales. IIHY was fairly similar IIRC. I can’t see how improved first week sales from the last his successful singles with almost zero radio play would be anything but a good thing.

The thing we also have to remember is that there were sales outside the US to consider, so we have no idea how many it’s wold worldwide. BTIKM was released in many countries and was sitting on the top of a few different iTunes sales charts. Some of the bigger markets, UK and Japan, haven’t even gotten it yet. The pre-order for Japan has been on top of their best seller list for a while. It’s still early to determine how it’s done so far and whether RCA considers it a success or disappointment is unknown. 

Ultimately, who really knows what RCA is thinking. I sure don’t. Lol. 

Kelly and Carrie are going to rake it in probably. Although if Adam does 2 or 3 performances with Queen on top of his own touring he could make a pretty penny. Adam’s successful WW tour is what made him most of his money last year and I have no doubt he will tour WW again this era. His presence overseas seems to have expanded to even more countries since he last toured and Queen can probably still fill huge venues, big bucks. We shall see.

oh I didn’t say adam would do better than Kelly or Carrie – I don’t think any Idol will.  I just said I thought he’d be third behind them for annual income during the year when he posts his second era tour revenues.  I do see Daughtry’s base falling off, which is why I thought he would top him during that time, while he tied him in 2010.

How often does an idol get another single after their albums fall out of the BB200?  I remember alot of talk about Adam not getting SW as a single when FYE finally fell out of the BB200 after 50 weeks or what ever it was.  And like Daughtry getting single after single BECAUSE his album had been in the BB200 for along time (first album that is)

ETA: oh wait I guess it does happen I remember now that Allison got that Orianthi single even though she hadn’t seen the BB chart in months haha my brain isn’t working today

records were made to be broken tho.  yes I do indeed hope that Adam’s the next one to break the Idol sophomore slump streak.  We’ll all know soon enough – by year end at the latest.

omg, he’s confirmed he’s going to do at least 1 thing with Queen this year, and that will net him a ton of $$$. They only do a few things each year, but they’re always huge, either in terms of venue size/attendees, or at least in total revenues even with a smaller venue.  The frontman will get a hefty share, there’s no doubt about that. One event alone will inflate his figures significantly.  If he does 2-3 events with them a year, that will be more than enough to keep him in third place on the Forbes list.

You are probably right, maybe it’s not a sea, but rather just a lake ;)

And by the way, no reasonable fan of James ever thought or said he would outsell Daughtry, hell Daughtry can’t even sell like that anymore.

Well I agree with you that he was never going to come close to Daughtry, but it doesn’t mean he can’t do all right.  He’s with a niche label and their expectations are different than with the majors, so he may be fine as is.  I hope his numbers come up a bit more though.  I’m not sure where Lee D’s sales figures are right now.  Has he passed him yet?

oh, and I should’ve added that of course Daughtry has greater *wealth* overall compared to Adam – he’s had great sales in his earlier albums.  I’m just projecting the annual income during Adam’s second era tour compared to Daughtry’s during that same time period.

A lake! More like a puddle. ;)

I doubt he will be third or even fifth.  Not only will Daughtry come in before him, I’m sure Jennifer Hudson will, too- she will make a mint on this new book and being a weight watcher’s spokesman and any movies she does- Scotty will most likely make more as well, he’s actually moving albums.

Lee Dewyze sold a total of 140,000 I believe, but what I don’t know is how long it took him to get that high.  I have no idea how many he had sold in the first two months (how long James Durbin’s CD has been out).

scotty may sell more albums, but adam has additional revenue streams that scotty doesn’t – at least not yet, and I doubt he’ll ever have something like a Queen collaboration.  But I think you’re right about JHUD – I forgot about her, so I will revise my estimate to be Carrie, Kelly, JHUD, Adam, Daughtry, and Scotty in that order (the basis year of comparison still being the same – when adam reconciles his second era tour revenues)

Idols don’t make money on albums unless they have cowrites. Scotty will be an opening act am I right? they don’t make a lot of money neither but get nice fees. I think Idol winners generally make about 1million total in album advances and endorsements and that usually gets them at least #10 on the list their first year but I think I read they got cheap with the Idols so who knows now. The money is made headlining your own tour. International even more because countries like Russia tend to shell out the big bucks. I remember when Adam fans first started tracking his International sales there were a lot of snickers and those international fans showed up at his sold out tours. It paid off nicely. Now a lot Idol fans want their Idol do to the International thing. Man how times have change.

Thanks for the info. I’m really not worried then. It’s early days yet. Did you see the banner saying he had a 96% digital sales increase this week? I wish we knew what the numbers were before that week to see if that really means much. What it does mean is seeing Adam perform the song live really gives it a boost. Hopefully the video will add to that since he’s a visual artist. I think if radio gives it a go people will like it. They just need a chance to hear it. I also don’t think he would be wasting a promo spot to sing this on idol. I think it could do the same thing that it did for WWFM. I think a performance of this on a huge stage could make all the difference.

That’s a good question. Since I never followed any other Idol after the season, I have no clue to the answer. But since Lee was a winner, wouldn’t a more reasonable comparison be to another 4th place finisher?

Well the best one to compare to then is Alison Iraheta.  Also came in 4th, and she sold approx. 100,000 in total.  But again, I have no idea how many she had sold in the first two months and how long it took her to get to 100,000.

Daughtry was the only one, as far as I know, that placed lower than 2nd place on Idol, to sell like he has in the millions.  All other Idols that placed below 2nd have sold much, much lower than Daughtry.  Really James is in line with others who placed lower than 2nd place, not really a surprise at all.  I am really, really curious to see how Haley, Casey, Stefano, Naima and any others from S10 will sell.  It should be very interesting. Haley was pretty popular and may sell pretty well, but you never know.

I’ll compromise and say one “glamorous” pond ;)

Honestly if Adam can’t break the sophomore slump then no one can imo. He’s got great buzz, a solid fan base and great label support. Maybe BTIKM is not a great song but it’s certainly good enough to do well on the charts.

depends what he does with Queen. If it is another tv awards show like the EMAs, that would provide him with another major opportunity for exposure, but not much in the way of actual $. If, on the other hand, it’s a concert in a stadium, then he could rake in the cash. 

Well I think Allison sold about 100k give or take

I agree about Haley having the best chance of those you mentioned. What’s going to hurt her is the late release of her album. She may have missed her window of opportunity. Hope she does well however, along with rest.

Depends on what you think is much much lower, JHud, Kellie Pickler, Josh Gracin all sold well above 500k on their first albums, Bucky Covington also did quite well altogh not sure if it went gold or not.

Those aren’t Daughtry numbers but they’re well above 100-200k altough in those days, album sales weren’t deflated like they are nowadays.

I meant no one else has sold in the millions – sorry – I changed my post to read that. 

The #200 song on the digital chart sold 10,500 last week. BTIKM sold less than that or Brian would have had the number. But we don’t know how much it actually sold. For example, it could have sold 3K the prior week and 6K this week. That’s a percentage increase of 100%. Or any number as long as the total this week wasn’t higher than 10,500.

When BTIKM  makes it into the top 200 songs Idol Chatter will have the complete sales numbers.

Even a stadium concert isn’t going to give him a large share. Possibly he gets a share after the venue, managers, roadies, sound techs, drivers and merch people’s expenses are paid, then he gets a share of the remainder. The bigger the band, the smaller the share plus he’s just a guest singer so he probably gets a flat fee that is in the thousands, not in fractions of millions. It would take a dozen such concerts to earn him significant money.

What it indicates to me is that people will buy the song if they hear it. The jump was way more than I’d expected. Usually bumps for shows like Leno and Ellen are not very significant unless the song being performed is also being played on the radio. The platform for television exposure for debut would need to be much larger (Idol or an award show maybe) for it to do anything huge, but this was a respectable jump. 

Sleepwalker is another ex of a song performed on Leno without it being a single and no radio play, and charted a tiny bit in around the upper 800s IIRC. So, if the song is good and or performance is good enough, people will buy it. They just need to hear it. We’ll have to see if radio will in fact play it enough to make an impact. 

Any performer of a song on an album gets royalties on every CD and single sale – though not usually as much as the writer of the song.  A successful touring artist can make far more than a medium-successful seller of CD’s.  Of course there’s a huge range of permutations in there.

Right now Scotty has probably made about the same or slightly more than Adam when comparing his CD sales alone compared to Adam’s FYE sales alone.  If you compare single sales, Adam has made about 4x as much as scotty.  There are also the remixes, glamnation tour video and EP albums for Adam, which are revenues Scotty doesn’t have.

As for touring, it seems to me that no matter how Trespassing does, Adam has proven to be a big money-maker on the concert circuit.  That doesn’t look to be changing at all, and I’m pretty sure he’ll do better the second era (which is based on the same reasoning for my belief that he’ll do better in second era album sales too).  A country act won’t have access to most of the international market, so I’m pretty sure Adam will out-perform him financially in touring and merchandise as well.  Now if Scotty were on the Nascar circuit, that might be different  :) And you’re right about opening and co-headlining acts. Openers can make next to nothing, but co-headliners would negotiate a deal. Scotty is a good draw, though, so regardless I’m sure his team will negotiate a good deal for him. It won’t get him international concert tickets in general though.

And again, Adam has Queen, and that’s huge.  I can’t think of anyone Scotty could pair with, as a major partner, that could net him an equivalent extra income.

I am hoping Haley does well too.  A lot depends on if any of them can get a big hit on the radio.  If any of these S10 kids that finished in the lower spots can pull off a big hit, they could end up selling a lot.  But if not, it will probably go about the same as it has for James.

That’s why I don’t think Wind Up is devastated or going to drop James over these sales.  They had to have done some research here. I’m sure they hoped that he might pull off another Daughtry, but I’m sure they were realistic about it too.  With the winner of S9 only selling 140,000, they had to have taken that into consideration when they signed James.  And that was before Scotty’s CD was out, so they had nothing to compare to except previous Idols. But that’s just my opinion.

You mean like Daughtry?

Believe it or not, Bucky sold 400K. Don’t forget Elliot! Kimberly Locke sold over 200K and even Tamyra and Mandisa sold over 100K.

“And again, Adam has Queen, and that’s huge.”

Unless your Adam’s accountant, you don’t know how much $ he’s getting from Queen this year.  Queen can sell out their stadiums without him.  So I’m not 100% sure he’ll be making as much from appearing with them as you imagine.  And I’d really wait to count all the $ he’s going to make next year until the album is released.
It just seems more prudent.

Ron Simpson , Not so sure about that. We don’t know the actual contract that was signed but based on a UK report I think it was Dean Piper he said if Adam does a handful of concerts with Queen and I guess the UK peeps may have a better idea of Queens earning power Adam can rake in a couple of millions. But again no one knows what their deal is but I bet knowing the Brits we’ll probably get details since they’re loose with reporting this kind of info.

The Forbes list of Idol Income is for one year at a time, the next one will go from May 2011 to May 2012. No doubt Scotty earned a lot more than Adam in that time period.

I agree that an award show won’t pay in revenues, but the value of exposure – especially to an audience like the EMA’s has – is invaluable.  I’m guessing that some of the sales for Trespassing will be new fans from that exposure.  Unlike America, Europe loves flamboyant showman with great vocals.

I will want to see the totals :)

The Forbes list of Idol Income is for one year at a time, the next one will go from May 2011 to May 2012. No doubt Scotty earned a lot more than Adam in that time period.

I agree, with Adam in the studio for most of the reporting period and no new music out, I think Adam’s total will be much lower than the last time. And Scotty is pretty much guaranteed to clear 1M at a minimum with the deals the winner gets and stellar album sales.

I think Adam’s got a good chance of jumping back up higher on the list the next year if he has another tour similar in scope to GNT.

If Queen gets Adam to front them for an Olympics performance he won’t get any money. Its an honor for the bands to be invited to participate.

I’m guessing Queen averages about $150/ticket on their stadium and arena shows.  At 20K attendees (they always sell out) that’s $3M – for 1 event.  Venue, crew, and backup musicians, etc., along with other touring expenses are probably in the range of $300 – 400K (remember we’re just talking about 1 event here, not a full tour), and I’m calculating this on the high side in terms of margin.  I’m pretty sure Adam would be paid a pretty hefty fee from the remaining $2M+.  It would certainly be better than the one-time Amway event.

and srsly, just a singer? Fronting for Queen is never just a singer. Brian May has said the reason they haven’t done more is their lack of a good frontman. They obviously like Adam and believe that in him they’ve found a worthy successor to Freddie. They’re never going to go for long tours – I believe both Brian May and Roger Taylor are each worth about $85M, so at that age money isn’t the draw for them. They apparently like keeping a toe in the industry though, and Adam has provided the means for them to do that. They’d never treat him like just ‘a singer’.

I doubt any band does the Olympics for free. Yes it is an honor but the Olympic committee prepares years in advance for these shows and the advertisement revenue is in the 100s of millions maybe a billion through the course of the event. There is plenty of money put aside for these performers and who do you think will pay for flights, hotel and accommodations. There has been reports that a few acts have already turned down an invitation.

like I said, I’m willing to make a projection based on the premises listed above.  Never did I say we could measure the results now, so of course we’ll have to wait and see.  I’m fine with that.

sure, because Adam took the sales of his first album in the previous year, and was producing an album in the year scotty was selling his.  we could just compare their first year sales one to one if you like though.  And then when scotty finishes his first touring project we could compare those with the glamnation tour as well.  Forbes will have the numbers for a given year, and we know what activities took place in those years.  We’ll be able to compare the appropriate years for both artists easily enough.

 Supposedly the Spice Girls were asked to perform at the Olympics. They’re just waiting for Victorial Beckham to sign on.

Ugh.

Adam made $6M his first year of sales and touring combined, so yeah, I’m absolutely positive he’ll out-do the bare-minimum $1M mark that normal winners of a given year get on his second era.

If Queen gets Adam to front them for an Olympics performance he won’t get any money. Its an honor for the bands to be invited to participate.

Actually this is off the table, Adam shot down that rumor in one of the Access Hollywood interview clips released.

If Queen gets Adam to front for them for an Olympics performance he won’t *need* any money.  It is certainly an honor, and the exposure would be priceless.

But you’re wrong actually.  The Olympics committees pay a lot for feature/headling entertainers.

If we want to get real, we know that Forbes methods are shaky at best. Lets take the 6 million Adam supposedly earned on tour that year. The ticket sales might add up to that but realistically, after all fees, taxes, travel, management, promotion, lodging, crew and tons of other expenses Adam is lucky if he nets 1 million. I doubt even that much.

This is incorrect.  Forbes lists *income*, not revenues  Revenues are top line while income is bottom line (i.e. post expenses and taxes).

If Queen gets Adam to front for them for an Olympics performance he won’t *need* any money.

Once again, Adam said that this is not happening. It would have been amazing, but since he himself said he is not performing at the Olympics, fans really need to let this one go.

Fancy terms aside, are you suggesting that Adam got to put $6 million in his pocket after expenses and taxes? Bahahahaha!!!

Reminder:

This MY IDOL will earn more money than YOUR IDOL conversation has nothing to do with charts and numbers.

Can we move on please?

I believe he will be singing with Queen at the Olympics -another projection I’m willing to make.  Adam has no obligation to ‘tell the truth’ when asked about something he may not be able to talk about, so I’m thinking it’s still very much on the table, even if it’s not a done deal.

sorry, just saw MJ’s note.

I believe he will be singing with Queen at the Olympics -another projection I’m willing to make.

I don’t know how much clearer Adam can make it than saying “it’s not happening” LOL. But hey, believe whatever you want, ignore what he actually says and interpret it to fit your own personal daydreams, I prefer to live in reality though.

people have differences of opinion.  We’ll know on or before 7/27, so nbd.

Lauren was a +11 in spins in last Wed’s update but only +1k in AI. So today’s -15 spins might be an offset to the spin gain but she’s down -100k in AIs which is higher compared to last week. GP’s been struggling the past few weeks but it seems like many of the songs right around it are struggling too. Rodney Atkins and The Farm have comparable Mediabase AI losses for the week to date, while Gloriana and Trace Adkins are barely up. Love & Theft isn’t making up enough ground to pass either. 

Lauren’s not in immediate danger of losing her t40 spot so there’s that and Billboard recurrency is also not an immediate danger since GP isn’t 20 weeks old yet. 

I have been keeping track of those song like Lauren, Wade Bowen, Gloriana ext. It has been really tough as I think some songs are sticking around longer then they should be. But -71 spins seemed a bit high, so it is good to know that it is only because of the rolling chart. 

Saw Adam has a banner on FMQB for  BTIKM.

Impacting Pop the week
Digital single +96% this week
Trespassing available Spring 2012

I know Amazon sales aren’t a lot of units but “Trespassing” deluxe moved up to #6 movers & shakers and #59 overall. Does anyone know how many weeks  itunes pre-orders are released before album release date?

This! How could they expect big sales from someone that did not sell multi plat anything his first era?. They have enough of his products released to know the extent of his core fan base, hence why that Toby’s statement is the biggest fallacy of them all.

Even Daughtry with his previous multi plat sales and radio play sold a mere 45000+. So why wld Adam with no record of multi plats and with no radio play sell hundreds of thousands of downloads. The reasoning just does not compute.

Not even Kelly with all her radio support and previous hits sold that big. She did not open as high as some artists i.e. Rihanna and co with similar radio supports and hits in the industry.

It’s not going to be a lot of sales, but the good thing about it is people are noticing this far out  that he has a new album coming out and are starting to buy it. I have to say scrolling down that list of albums, his album really stands out. His eyes and the name of the album really pop off of the page. I think whoever took the picture was smart to have Adam looking straight ahead and giving an intense look. I’m loving that cover more and more each day.

In fairness, Adam did have some multi-platinum success in the FYE era – just not in the US. And wwfm is inching closer to double plat in the US ( may never get there, but it’s a lot closer to double plat than plat). Anyway I agree that there is no
way RCA expected mega sales of btikm with no radio play and little promo. They have enough of a history of his sales to know how he sells with radio play, personal appearances and public performances and how he sells without it. We will see whether their single plans turn out to be a boom or bust. So far Adams management and label seem to be doing a good job of building buzz for the cd itself 2/3 months out. They dont seem to be as on the ball with the single. But perhaps those all access and fmqb banners indicate that a push is on the way and that perhaps the fans have been expecting things to happen before the labels timetable. Looking forward to the video

PR guys spin things and fudge the truth a little. That is hardly limited to Idol press releases.

“a little”?  lol  It’s the job of PR people to spin, embellish, exaggerate and sometimes fib to the benefit of their clients.

The same thing happened to me with a post with links in it.  Odd.

Nice, what caused the move do you think. The interviews we’ve been getting? The performances were last week so I don’t think that was it.

Actually Kayla, he didn’t shoot it down. LS asked him ” Will Adam be performing at the Olympics”? To which he replied ” I think you have to be british to do that”. she didn’t ask him about Queen, and people think it was kind of a clever lie of omission. If Queen wants to play the Olympics, I am sure they will, but they do need a lead singer for that :)

Personally, all I care about is that he is playing with them sometime this year.

It’s a relief to see that the Pop Adds date hasn’t happened yet for BTIKM.  I know I saw people bemoaning the lack of adds this week so it seems that it wasn’t ignored, but rather not on tap yet. 

and very excited for the video too.  Smart that it’s scheduled for the same day as Pop adds because stations can link to the video on their websites. 

As for sales, I’d venture to guess Adam is closing in on 80K sold so far.  last numbers we got were 63K after three weeks.  If he sold between 3-10K every week since week four that would be right around where he is, give or take.  Being close to 100K with two performances and minimal radio play is pretty good IMO. 

Now speaking of touring, I’ve been an idol fan since season 1 and Adam is the first to launch a full scale, multi-city, multi-country world wide solo tour in support of their first album.  Yes, Taylor Hicks toured but his tour dates went from Feb 21 – April 27 and included 23 dates.  That’s not the same in comparison to Adam’s Glamnation tour which stretched from June 4, 2010 to December 16, 2010 with over 100 dates and 18 countries. 

I’ve heard that argument, and frankly I think it’s a reach. It ignores his flat out dismissal of the idea as a whole and tries to divine a different meaning by picking apart the exact words. Which kind of cracks me up because in that same interview he just snarked on people taking one little clue and spinning it into something that it’s totally not (when talking about the Broken English dirty edit). 

Sorry I think it’s just a case of fans really hoping the Olympics would happen and not wanting to let it go. The most I’d be willing to concede is the tiny chance that Queen just hasn’t been asked yet, so neither has Adam. But putting faith in a dissected interpretation of Adam’s pretty basic statement seems like a recipe for disappointment to me. JMO though.

well like I said- I won’t be disappointed. He is playing with them somewhere sometime this year- that’s good enough for me.

BTIKM is at #66 on CHR today- YAY! These next 2-3 weeks should be telling. If he gets to top 50 and his Itunes placement is still below the Top 1000- THEN I will worry. There is sometimes 1 or 2 songs in the top 50 that aren’t in the top 1000 but they don’t stay there long.

I hope Sirius continues to support him- even though they do not report AI, I think having that station in your corner is a big help.

Randi- I also think the video will help alot too. I knew he would drop it before he went overseas.

I’m going to agree with Kayla in that, when Adam says “no,” it usually means no.  If the Olympics thing were to happen, it would be epic, but it would also be probably a minute long at the most — hardly worth the controversy of using an American front man in a very British moment.  It’s not like there aren’t plenty of Iconic British acts.  The Rolling Stones come to mind, along with Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney.

Perhaps this push for the Olympics is fans trying to come up with a suitably epic setting to exceed the awesomeness of the EMA performance.  But I think that there could be something better and definitely longer than an Olympic moment for Q + AL.  Perhaps a command performance?

That would be cool.  And it might be just the thing to kick start the next generation of the British monarchy. :)

Yes, Taylor Hicks toured but his tour dates went from Feb 21 – April 27 and included 23 dates.

That wasn’t complete though. He had two back-to-back tours that year – I know, because I went to one in Dallas in the second leg of the tour. Off hand I don’t have the date, but if it’s really important, I’ll try to find it.

ETA: The summer tour dates were announced as:
Taylor Hicks Summer 2007 Tour Dates
5/2/2007 – Anaheim, CA – The Grove of Anaheim
5/4/2007 – Los Angeles, CA – Wiltern Theater
5/6/2007 – Pala, CA – Pala Casino
5/9/2007 – San Francisco, CA – Warfield Theater
5/11/2007 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
5/12/2007 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theater
6/2/2007 – Tupelo, MS – Elvis Festival
6/15/2007 – Big Flats, NY – Summer Stages Tags
6/16/2007 – Cohasset, MA – South Shore Music Circus
6/17/2007 – Hyannis, MA – Cape Cod Melody Tent
6/27/2007 – Norfolk, VA – NorVa
6/30/2007 – Charleston, SC – North Charleston PAC
7/6/2007 – Hagerstown, MD – The Maryland Theatre
7/8/2007 – Ashburn, VA – Loudoun Summer Music Festival
8/17/2007 – Concord, NH – Capitol Center
8/31/2007 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues

After that, more dates were added a few at a time – as late as November 2007. He called it ‘the tour that never ends’ :)
(I did notice that his wiki page only shows the dates you mentioned)

Cook played 150 plus headlining dates coming off of Idol, but it wasn’t a worldwide tour like Adam’s was. As far as I can recall he only went to three countries (4 if you include Iraq, lol).

WOW for David! I didn’t keep up with Season 7, but that is a fantastic number for him! Thank you for the information.

Even Daughtry with his previous multi plat sales and radio play sold a mere 45000+. So why wld Adam with no record of multi plats and with no radio play sell hundreds of thousands of downloads. The reasoning just does not compute.

Actually the logic is easy.  No artist (except Adele perhaps) sells multi-platinum in the US alone anymore.  That’s a comment on the industry devolution via digital media, not a commentary on any given artist.  Comparing artists against their peers in the same sales period is the only way you can make an accurate assessment of potential now.  If you narrow down the comparison to simply other Idols, it gets even worse, since they don’t do as well, on average, as artists outside the ai bubble.

Adam is doing great both inside and outside the bubble by today’s standards, and that’s really all his mgmt. and label care about.

It’s really hard to break out all the factors, but when you look at the overall buzz he’s had for a long time (it’s never really diminished) and then add the big exposure boost he got with Queen at the EMA’s, I think it goes a long way to explain his movement.

I think we’re going to see that Adam has expanded his fanbase quite a bit, certainly outside of the US, and in some very large markets there.  If Trespassing goes in the UK, that will make a huge difference.  As for the US, I’m not sure whether he’s gained in that market, but I believe he has.  One thing seems sure – he hasn’t lost any there so far.

I think he’s poised to break in the same way Katy Perry did in 2009/2010 after working hard for several years to find the right fit in the industry.  It looks to me like the stars are aligning in the same way for adam right now, and I love that he has a full international platform to maneuver through – it gives him so much flexibility of choice as he moves forward.

Exactly.  And none of that had anything to do with his body language ;)

Artists have to keep information confidential all the time.  In opposition to that, it’s a journalists job to try to ‘out’ that information.  The artist is not going to disclose this confidential information just because a journalist happens to hit upon the right question.  I thought he was very clever in the way he dealt with the issue.  He prevaricated, said he didn’t know anything about it, asked ‘don’t they need to be British?’, etc.  Either scenario is possible; truth or clever deflection.

As for performers ‘needing to be British’ – Queen is a British institution.  If the OC wants them, they’ll take whatever frontman Queen chooses.  It doesn’t mean the OC wants Queen, or that Queen will say yes if they do, but it’s just my opinion that the OC will and Queen will, and if that’s the case, it’s my opinion that they’ll ask Adam to front.  jmho.

Anyone who’s been in fandom for a while knows that that’s exactly what fans do – they speculate about everything and anything.  They do it to entertain themselves while waiting for their artist’s next era, they do it because things happen in the future which we are not privy to, they do it because they see trends happening (like Queen/Adam at the EMAs and confirmation that more such events will take place this year) and then draw cause/effect conclusions that connect point A to point Z.

Speculations may be right or wrong or a bit of both, but really it’s always just a fans opinion.  Fandoms aren’t monolith institutions that all believe the same thing – that’s just the way it is.  Otherwise there wouldn’t be much to discuss in blogs like these.  Someone would print the current numbers, we’d all read them, nod and move on.  I think it’s more interesting this way.

I’m betting that there might one day be a Sir Brian May   :)

Not only is he the lead guitarist of British legendary band, just honored for 40 years on the music scene, but he’s a frickken astrophysicist to boot.  I’m pretty sure he’s just the kind of iconic figure that the Queen would be likely to knight.

I do think there will be other Q+AL events, whether the Olympics event happens or not, and I love your idea of a command performance. I really like it in conjunction with a certain guitarist being knighted, too. Just speculating ;)

I loved Taylor, and also think he’s one of the handsomest of the Idol winners and alumni.  I really, really enjoyed him doing Friday with Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert – what a hoot!

No artist (except Adele perhaps) sells multi-platinum in the US alone anymore.

Ahem, just out of the top of my head: Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Eminem, Lil’ Wayne, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean, Michael Buble, Mumford & Sons and their multiplatinum albums would beg to differ.