Idol Sales News – Week Ending 02/01/09

Keep on plugging Crush! heh Woot for Kelly again!

Airplay:
No. 19 – Kelly Clarkson ( 8.8 million)
No. 203 – Jennifer Hudson ( 3.1 million)

R&B airplay:
Jennifer Hudson 41

Streaming:
21 Kelly Clarkson – My Life Would Suck Without You

Go Kelly. She is doing great so far.

Wow Kelly, #1 for two weeks in a row. You go girl!

Go Kelly. Awesome!! Fun, catchy song. Video is adorable.

Yay for LO. Slow and steady. Nearly 700K? I am pleased as punch.

Crush! Triple Gold!

ok ok ok, 1.5M

Nice milestone. Will it make it to 2x platinum?

Great RCA Press Release about Cook and his album and track sales off DCTR. Pulled this from DCO. Thanks DonnaAC.

“David Cook’s Self Titled Debut CD is Certified Platinum by the RIAA for Sales Exceeding 1 Million Units

Collectively the songs from David Cook have sold over 2 million tracks and ringtones combined.”

http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-04-2009/0004966239&EDATE=

Awesome! Way to go Cook.

Heh. Kelly Clarkson’s almost gold in two weeks. That’s the way to do it!!!!

Great RCA Press Release about Cook and his album and track sales off DCTR. Pulled this from DCO.

Love those numbers, and love RCA press releases.
Now I’m waiting for an add date. C’mon RCA.

Way to Go Crush and David A! 1.5 MEELION (insert pinky in corner of mouth) downloads to date, and still kicking butt! Crush has proven to be a veritable digital download MONSTER, lo these many months after its August premiere…. what was inconceivable months ago is now a definite possibility – the day when I peek in here and see Crush at DOUBLE PLATINUM! Zowie Batman!

We are so proud of this young man and his accomplishments… and we’re looking for great success with ALTNOY as well…. His tour is generating huge buzz on the web, and in the towns he’s slated to appear, and I can’t wait to hear Crush and ALTNOY sung LIVE in Richmond!

Keep on keeping on David – we’re behind you all the way :thumbup_tb:

Crush! Triple Gold!

ok ok ok, 1.5M

Nice milestone. Will it make it to 2x platinum?

:ponder_tb:…… Survey sez…….. HECK YEAH! :wink1_tb:

The Billboard 200

*1 New BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Working On A Dream (Columbia / Sony Music)
2 1 TAYLOR SWIFT Fearless (Big Machine )
3 2 BEYONCE I Am…Sasha Fierce (Music World / Columbia / Sony Music)
4 3 NICKELBACK Dark Horse (Roadrunner )
5 4 KANYE WEST 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam / IDJMG)
*6 New VARIOUS ARTISTS Grammy Nominees 2009 (Grammy / Rhino)
7 8 JAMIE FOXX Intuition (J / RMG)
8 6 KEYSHIA COLE A Different Me (Imani / Geffen / IGA)
*9 New FRANZ FERDINAND Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (Domino / Epic / Sony Music)
10 7 BRITNEY SPEARS Circus (Jive / JLG)
*11 New SOUNDTRACK Voices: WWE The Music Vol. 9 (WWE / Columbia / Sony Music)
12 5 SOUNDTRACK Twilight (Summit / Chop Shop / Atlantic / AG)
13 11 VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW 29 (Universal / EMI / Sony Music / JLG / UMe)
14 15 PINK Funhouse (LaFace / JLG)
15 17 AKON Freedom (Konvict / Upfront / SRC / Universal Motown / UMRG)
16 18 T.I. Paper Trail (Grand Hustle / Atlantic / AG)
*17 24 JASON MRAZ We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (Atlantic / AG)
*18 New PAT GREEN What I’m For (BNA / SMN)
19 20 LADY GAGA The Fame (Streamline / KonLive / Cherrytree / Interscope / IGA)
20 14 DAVID COOK David Cook (19 / RCA / RMG)

Yay for DC hanging onto the Top 20. I’m just bummed in advance that he’ll probably fall out next week unless something crazy happens– since RCA REFUSES to release the next single! Argh, RCA…

Yay for DC hanging onto the Top 20. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m just bummed in advance that heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll probably fall out next week unless something crazy happensà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ since RCA REFUSES to release the next single! Argh, RCAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

LOL. I think it was amazing for him to stay in the top 20 as long as he did. He’s a new artist, he really shouldn’t be that high anyway! He’s done fantastic. I expect they’ll announce a new single any day now.

^^Cool news, thanks!!

Won’t help for this week, but he does have the comedy TV spot, Disney Idol Experience, and GMA next week so maybe there’s hope for a little bump… But then I suppose other new releases will be dropping too. Hummmm…

Yay for DC hanging onto the Top 20. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m just bummed in advance that heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll probably fall out next week unless something crazy happensà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ since RCA REFUSES to release the next single! Argh, RCAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

Exactly.

It’s amazing to me that the album is going to reach Platinum sales on the power of LO alone, considering how people thought it might sink after the holiday season… This album has shown great stability up to now.
But without promo or a new single to replace LO on the radio, I’m not expecting miracles. Sales will pick up once RCA get a move on, which will hopefully be soon.

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s amazing to me that the album is going to reach Platinum sales on the power of LO alone

I disagree. The album is doing amazing, yes, but I don’t believe it’s on the power of LO alone. It’s done well so far on the power of DC’s popularity from Idol, TOML and LO. I think RCA’s pretty much milked those three powers for all they’re worth, so we need more DCTR on the radio, stat!

Some more numbers to chew on until Brian updates Idol Chatter:

No. 18 sold 18,000
No. 26 sold 15,000

I’m hoping DC was closer to 18K, since HDD had put him close to 18K.

Well today Feb 4th YaHoo Finance announced that David Cook’s album has been certified Platinum SOLD. Mediabase only gets sales information from 80% of the vendors that report to them.

“NEW YORK, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ — David Cook’s self titled debut CD has been certified platinum by the RIAA for sales exceeding 1 million units.”The article also quoted: “Collectively the songs from David Cook have sold over 2 million tracks and ringtones combined. ”

So that’s DCTR going Platinum in 11 weeks. He’s also been in top 20 on Mediabase since his debut with many weeks in top 10.

Here is the link:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/David-Cooks-Self-Titled-Debut-prnews-14248788.html

Re ranking this past week for the Davids:
David Cook drops from #16 to #18 on the Billboard 200. The album continues to chart on Top Internet Albums (22) and Top Rock Albums (5).

David Archuleta drops 11 spots, from #51 to #62 on this weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Billboard 200, the only chart on which it appears.

Well today Feb 4th YaHoo Finance announced that David Cookà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s album has been certified Platinum SOLD.

Yahoo Finance, like most of what you read in the financial press, just re-formated a press release (this one from RCA). I would have a lot more respect for the financial press if they would stop parroting press releases and would go out and do some investigative reporting. Maybe then the entire world wouldn’t have gotten blind-sided by this lates financial crisis (I still cannot believe that the SEC couldn’t figure out what Madoff was up to while others in the biz could). Thus ends my rants on the lazy financial press. At least Yahoo News flags this one as a Press Release, so they are at least being honest that this is not a properly vetted article.

We don’t have the numbers for this week yet, but I would be very surprised if Cookie has sold 1 million copies of his latest album (based on ranking this week and sales as of last week). The article claims that “David Cookà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s self titled debut CD has been certified platinum by the RIAA for sales exceeding 1 million units.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  If you visit the RIAA website and view their pages on certification, they are very clear that they certify based on shipments and not sales. If the RCA promo monkeys had bothered to do even an elemental bit of fact checking, they wouldn’t written that. But, then, maybe they knew it and don’t care what they wrote is inaccurate because the average schmoe reading the article or financial reporter won’t care either.

Mediabase only gets sales information from 80% of the vendors that report to them.

Mediabase doesn’t report sales. It monitors airplay. AllAccess (owned by Mediabase) does print estimates of percentage changes in sales. HDD gets sales information from 80% of the vendors and then uses mathematical models to predict the total numbers sold. SoundScan monitors album sales at point of sale and is the source most often used for reporting album sales.

I’ve started to wonder recently if RCA is timing the announcement and release of a new single so that DC can premiere it whenever he comes back to perform on AI (and I will straight out admit that I don’t always read all the threads so I don’t know if this has already been brought up and discussed here).

I’m thinking if Kelly is releasing her album on March 10, she will probably perform on the show that week. I’m betting DC performs the week before or after that.

Just a thought that’s been rolling around in my head recently.

I don’t know, all these just sound too confusing. Isn’t it true that SoundScan can’t monitor all sales (therefore the reported sales must be lower than actual sales), which is why the the shipment figure is still used for certification? The shipment figures may give a more accurate figures for sales than SoundScan? Is there any estimation of what percentage of sales might be missed by SoundScan? Or have I got everything confused?

There is no doubt about how much the album has officially sold – that figure is known and it’s still under Platinum at this point. All album certifications are based on shipped rather than sold units, so the press release was either vague or somewhat misleading.
Most people don’t know the difference and most people don’t care. I don’t see it as a big issue since the album will reach Platinum, and will not take a year to do it like Jordin.

About the idea that RCA is timing the single announcement to coincide with an AI appearance – I can see them premiering the song on TV on AI, but wait to even announce what it is? IDK. Having the song go on radio before that time would be smart, too, since it would need time to build up its audience impression. ALTNOY has gone for adds a month ago and is building slowly, who’s to say Cook’s next single will move any faster? No one. That’s why I don’t see this delay in a positive light, but I hope I’m wrong and everything is timed to perfection.

And I promise to not angst about the 2nd single again for at least a few days now… LOL

Album and single sales from Idol Chatter HERE.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t know, all these just sound too confusing.

I know. That’s why I wanted to start clarifying things when people started taking the press release seriously. Obviously, they are shading the truth (okay, they are outright lying…I refuse to believe somebody employed by the label to write PR doesn’t know this stuff) in the press release, but one can kind of expect to see that kind of nonsense in PR puff pieces. I ignored it until people started using the press release as proof of sales.

Isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t it true that SoundScan canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t monitor all sales (therefore the reported sales must be lower than actual sales), which is why the the shipment figure is still used for certification?

Yes and no. SoundScan cannot monitor all sales because there are vendors that don’t have SoundScan scanners in their stores. All the major retailers of records do have them (e.g. Walmart, Best Buy, Starbucks, Amazon), but your neighborhood Mom-And-Pop hardware store probably does not. So, if an artist is selling well at a Christian bookstore, then SS is probably under-reporting by a lot. If it’s doing well at record stores/major chains, then the SoundScan reports are pretty accurate. It’s pretty much impossible to know how much underreporting SS does in general because it’s the most accurate measurement there is for music sales. Some estimate I have seen is that the underreporting is 5-15%.

The RIAA choses to use shipments because that is what they have been doing for the last many decads (SS only came into being in the 90s) and because they are an industry organization. They are the same dudes who go and sue little old ladies with no computers for alledgedly illegally downloading gangster rap tracks. They want the labels to look good because they are the labels and basing certification on shipments allows the labels to certify sooner.

The shipment figures may give a more accurate figures for sales than SoundScan?

It certainly is an accurate measure of shipment, but not much else. It’s easy to post a massive list of people who are certified at a certain level, but never came close to selling that. IIRC, HDD reported that Arista shipped 1.2 million copies of Taylor’s album (Taylor Hicks). He was certified platinum at a time when he’d only sold about 600K. He would only go on to sell just over 700K. So, what is more accurate measure of the albums popularity? The fact that 1.2 million copies were shipped or that 700K sold? Would it be fair to say that Taylor’s album has outsold Cook’s album simply because more were shipped? (we only know that 1 million of Cook’s albums have been shipped, but it is likely more). I would argue that it is better to rely on SS numbers when talking about which album has sold which amount.

Top 20 actuals leaked:
20 COOK*DAVID DAVID COOK 17770 -27 24417 936325

And the Hot 100:
1 1 KELLY CLARKSON MY LIFE WOULD SUCK WITHOUT YOU
29 39 DAVID COOK LIGHT ON

DCTR should sell platinum in about a month, I’m guessing? Tricky wording in the PR, but I’m guessing by “sales exceeding 1 million units” they must mean wholesale sales from the record to the distributor/stores, LOL.

Anyway, I need to quote this whole bit:

About the idea that RCA is timing the single announcement to coincide with an AI appearance – I can see them premiering the song on TV on AI, but wait to even announce what it is? IDK. Having the song go on radio before that time would be smart, too, since it would need time to build up its audience impression. ALTNOY has gone for adds a month ago and is building slowly, whoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s to say Cookà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s next single will move any faster? No one. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s why I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t see this delay in a positive light, but I hope Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m wrong and everything is timed to perfection.

And I promise to not angst about the 2nd single again for at least a few days nowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦ LOL

Total agreeance, Jolene– except the last part. I can’t promise that =P.

Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pretty much impossible to know how much underreporting SS does in general because ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the most accurate measurement there is for music sales. Some estimate I have seen is that the underreporting is 5-15%.

Ok, Just to play devil’s advocate, with Cook’s Soundscan sales over 936K, even if you add only 7% to reflect the underreported sales, it would be estimably true that DCTR has sold over 1 million. So, RCA didn’t really get it wrong. Because we’re talking inexact sales reporting from the best in the biz, I’m not going to fault RCA for the use of the term “sales” or “sold” in this context.

I wish they would just wait until SS #’s > 1 million to certify platinum. That would make things so much easier.

DC is sooo close. I believe he’ll make it by the end of March with no problem.

I wish they would just wait until SS #à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s > 1 million to certify platinum. That would make things so much easier.

But certification is always based on units shipped, that didn’t start with Cook and it’s not some favor or allowance made especially for him.

I do think it’s useless to debate how much the album might have sold outside of SS’s numbers. We simply can’t know that. In the end, the official sales figure is set at 936,325 (thanks sma11ie), and that’s the figure that gets reported and cited.
In any case it’ll all be a moot point soon enough, 3-5 weeks tops, IMHO. He’s getting his Platinum plaque and he’ll get his Platinum sales. RCA could have waited with their press release, but eh, whatever.