JONES*LAKISHA 1415 … 1425 debut
DOOLITTLE*MELINDA 754 … 47813 9

Jimbo i dont think the winner has to sell more than anyone else in that season.
Didnt Clay sell out Ruben? Did Daughtry sell out Taylor?

Clay outsold Ruben. Daughtry outsold Taylor by a mile. Even Kellie Pickler outsold Taylor.

Fortunately for Elliott, while US sales are poor, his album is doing fine in Japan where he has the benefit of a major label supporting him. Going indie might work right after Idol but three seasons later, it’s really tough to make it without the promo. That said, lots of good songs on the album and FFL is still showing signs of life, so I’m feeling optimistic the total sales numbers will slowly but surely grow.

The thing is, saying that he needs a new single doesn’t really work based on his indie status. Because he’s indie and not major, there’s very very little that his label can do to give him the initial boost. His rise depends very very very very heavily on requests — and, of course, you don’t get requests unless people have already heard the song. It’s a Catch 22. So if you miss hearing Elliott — shoot a phone call or email or text to your local Top 40 djs, and ask them to play the song! As an indie, that’s the only tool he has to get to the top. But he’s closing in!

– 84 DAVID COOK COME BACK TO ME

Oh, what I wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t give to have Yoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Face, All I Really Need is You and Baba Oà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢Reily as iTunes studio versions. Dammit, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m still not over that.

You, me and every Cook fan there is. I was so mad that we didn’t get ‘Yo Face’, studio version to download. I’m still not over that either. TPTB=Fail

I never downloaded anything last year, so I still hold out (slim) hope that IDol does “albums” for all alumns at some point.

Digital sales are actually up significantly this year overall. Hard copy album sales are way down though.

The only chart worth considering is the sales chart, because it reflects what people are actually prepared to pay, a true measure of popularity.

This completely ignores album sales impact on single sales. I don’t think that is a fair representation of popularity. If 1M people already own the song, of course they won’t buy the single again. That is why pre-album singles tend to sell big, then the next few taper off drastically. just look at Kelly.

An artist who manages to sell well despite relatively poor airplay when compared to others in a given genre (Kellie P for example) doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t want to be kicked twice by including a huge airplay factor in the chart calculation.

That’s just it isn’t it? Adding airplay is just an extra unfair (and easily manipulated) factor in the calculation of chart position. If a song is popular, it will sell, and that should be the only thing that counts. I can never understand how a song getting played on radio can be any kind of measure of popularity except in the very broadest and most vague term (the whole audience impression/spin number thing as any kind of absolute measure is just nonsense to me), and the whole idea that airplay should count towards any measure of popularity is to me absurd. If the airplay drives the sales of a song, then that’s fine. But if heavy airplay of a song doesn’t drives the sales of a song much, that would mean that the song is not that popular, and it would be completely wrong to use airplay to bolster the song’s chart position.