Idol Sales News – Week Ending 06/07/09

Airplay:
No. 21 – Kelly Clarkson ( 2.6 million)
No. 80 – Daughtry ( 3.2 million)
No. 114 – David Cook ( 1.4 million)
No. 139 – Jordin Sparks ( 3.4 million)

Streaming
No. 8 Kelly Clarkson – My Life Would Suck Without You

Did I read that right? Is Kelly Pickler more popular than Daughtry? The world has truly gone mad. I’m not really a fan of either but that just seems wrong to me. Although Kelly was adorable on Ellen; she needs her own show.

Does this mean that no AI season 8 idol held up his/her spot/s on digital downloads for this week? Wow, it’s not yet even a month since the finale. Is this to be expected, or otherwise stated, has it always been like this?

By the looks of it, the Pickle is more popular than not only Daughtry but Kellie C as well, whose single sold more last week than KP’s but is dropping and hasn’t sold as many overall. She’s clearly got a run at being more popular than Jordin, too, although I expect Jordin’s numbers to pick way up as that song gets more Top 40 radioplay.

Wow. Can’t have better evidence than that that the singing voice doesn’t matter very much. It’s so much about image, personality, and being the cute blonde girl.

Jordin will soon pass everyone on this chart. Her single continues to be the most added song on Top 40 radio. It’s only a matter of time before the downloads catch up.

No Boundaries is just too terrible a song to achieve any success. Although it has vanished very quickly. I wonder if it even sold less dls than Jordin’s coronation single. I’m sure someone has that coronation list somewhere.

Kellie is opening for Taylor Swift on a huge tour and is nominated for some big country award. The song may be good too (I hate country so I won’t listen). I have been wasting time looking at My Space hits. Kellie is currently getting way more hits than Daughtry. Although when it comes to album sales, he’ll do great. Pickler doesn’t sell that many albums.

By the way Elliott’s my space is getting close to 60K hits a day which ain’t bad. Daughtry gets about 100K daily. Why FFL isn’t doing better is a mystery to me,

You can’t underestimate the country music machine. There are more country radio stations out there than any other and they play the same set list on repeat. Kellie’s new song was also co-penned by Taylor Swift and that alone is enough to ensure it airplay. DJs love all things associated with Taylor because she sells and makes them money. Speaking of which, Kellie is also touring with Taylor right now. I think all of that combined make that single popular.

Kellie’s new song is good. I don’t like country, much, but I do like this song. I’ve seen her perform it live (took 2 little girls to a Taylor Swift concert) and the entire female audience was singing along. It’s a good, “I got jilted but too bad for you” type of girl anthem.

Does this mean that no AI season 8 idol held up his/her spot/s on digital downloads for this week? Wow, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not yet even a month since the finale. Is this to be expected, or otherwise stated, has it always been like this?

This is only the second year that AI has really sold songs on iTunes past the finale week. You could buy compilation tracks but that was only one song per contestant and those typically didn’t make much of a splash (especially after the first week).

Season 6 is the only comparable year and the last Idol song fell out the top 200 by the end of June. We haven’t seen the full list of the Top 200 for this week yet (just the Top 50 plus a few extras).

These songs aren’t getting any new exposure, so it’s not surprising that they fall off quickly once the show is off the air. What would make somebody suddenly decide they want one of the songs?

No Boundaries is just too terrible a song to achieve any success. Although it has vanished very quickly. I wonder if it even sold less dls than Jordinà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s coronation single. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sure someone has that coronation list somewhere.

I don’t have the complete list with me now, but when “This is My Now” fell out of the Top 200, it had sold 170K. “No Boundaries” has sold 220,539 as of last week.

By the way Elliottà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s my space is getting close to 60K hits a day which ainà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t bad. Daughtry gets about 100K daily. Why FFL isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t doing better is a mystery to me,

Elliott’s an indie. lol.

Seriously, the couple of stations that are actually playing the song in the daytime report that he is in their top 5 songs getting good listener responses on the phone. Top 5! … But the stations play very few indie artists. It’s not just me saying this — you can look it up!

On the Season 8 people — seems to me the “albums” held on somewhat longer than the singles, didn’t they? Adam’s album is still somewhere in the top 50 last time I looked (well above Keith Urban’s, for example), and Kris’s just recently exited the top 100. They actually remained at those spots just as long as or even a bit longer than some other big-name albums — and *actual* albums, at that — that came out at the same time. But of course albums sell a lot less well than individual songs, so that isn’t doing all that much for their overall numbers.

The only individual song that did really well for a bit was Kris’s No Boundaries (Heartless and Adam’s Mad World kind of secondarily, also) — but since it truly is an awful song, I think people were solely buying it as a souvenir. And when that happens to the coronation song it drops pretty quickly. You don’t buy souvenirs after the trip is over!

No Boundaries is just too terrible a song to achieve any success. Although it has vanished very quickly. I wonder if it even sold less dls than Jordinà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s coronation single. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sure someone has that coronation list somewhere.

All coronation songs are terrible. I’m ashamed to say this, but the studio version of NB has managed to lodge itself in my brain and I was humming it for days after first hearing it (of course, every time I’d figure out what I was humming I tried to stop, to no avail). However radio isn’t really playing along and it does look like it’ll be your standard flash in the pan coronation song. You have to wonder how things would look if it was Adam’s first “single” rather than Kris’, even though I like Kris’ version better and think it’s more radio friendly.

Don’t have exact numbers, but I think Jordin sold 300K plus of her coronation single. NB will likely pass that feat, since it should be close already, I think.

I have been wasting time looking at My Space hits. Kellie is currently getting way more hits than Daughtry. Although when it comes to album sales, heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll do great. Pickler doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t sell that many albums.

By the way Elliottà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s my space is getting close to 60K hits a day which ainà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t bad. Daughtry gets about 100K daily. Why FFL isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t doing better is a mystery to me,

That whole MySpace hits thing is kinda interesting. I wonder what drives that? I mean, do the people who use their MySpace page a lot get more hits? Does it go up by genre? Is it about the age of your fanbase? Maybe not, because there are people of all ages on Myspace. Clearly Pickles is not more popular than Daughtry, but maybe Country fans use myspace more than rock fans? Like, does Nickleback have a MySpace and what kind of hits do they get if they do? Eh, I think too much. Heh.

OK, found the info from USA Today:

Jordin Sparks, This Is My Now
301,000 – digital songs

Kris Allen, No Boundaries
221,000 – digital songs

That’s from June 4th, so Kris will accumulate more sales I’m sure. I think he’ll definitely pass Jordin when all is said and done. Of course, Jordin’s is the worst performing coronation song and was never a real radio single (was it?), so passing it is only really good so Kris won’t be stuck with having the “new” worst coronation single.

After this I’ll stop because it’s OTT but I checked Nickleback’s MS and they already have 70K hits today. Way more than Pickler and Daughtry combined so far. I can’t figure any of it myself either.

Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s album is still somewhere in the top 50 last time I looked (well above Keith Urbanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s, for example), and Krisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s just recently exited the top 100.

I think that’s probably just in digital sales. Once you factor in store sales, the ranking goes way down. It’s not surprising though. Without any kind of radio exposure, the only people buying those songs would be Idol veiwers. I’m actually surprised that the Heartless and Mad Mad world singles are still selling reasonably well. Must be from the television appearances.

^^ Exactly. People need to remember that iTunes may be very accurate representation of single sales, but the same is not true for album sales. Digital album sales still make a very small percentage of overall album sales. Most albums go down very quickly in the iTunes chart, even if they continue to sell very well elsewhere, as digital sales tend to have a huge drop-off once the initial rush dies down. Since Kris and Adam only sell digitally, they have a disadvantage, but it really doesn’t matter – their real albums are the test, not some Idol compilation.

Thanks, Kirsten, for the info. I was a casual viewer of the show until this season, so I’m just clueless. Also, I’m not conversant with itunes sales, etc. Coming from another country does not help me much, either.

People need to remember that iTunes may be very accurate representation of single sales,

Do you happen to know what proportion of singles downloads comes from iTunes? I think read somewhere that just over 50% of digital sales comes from iTunes, but I have no idea this refers to singles sales or if it includes album and other stuff.

The most recent stats I’ve seen (from April ’09) give iTunes 87% of the digital market (that’s for both singles and albums combined). Amazon MP3 has been making some inroads there, most notably on the digital album front, where their aggressive pricing ($2.99 for many catalog titles as well as weekly new-release specials under $5) has given them an edge over iTunes. Billboard’s 2008 Year in Review issue had an article that indicated Amazon MP3 outsells iTunes 2:1 in digital albums. But I think they’ve only gained about 10% of the overall digtal market since launching their store – iTunes is definitely still the 800 lb gorilla, especially where singles are concerned.

And on the album front, digital downloads are still just a drop in the bucket in terms of overall sales volume. Most albums in the top quarter of the Billboard 200 album chart only move a couple thousand units a week digitally. (Kelly and Cook both sold 3000 digital albums last week, for example).

Kelly’s new record is actually selling very strongly digitally – about 22% of her album sales are through downloads. But that’s exceedingly rare on the chart right now. Cook’s digital sales have also been quite strong (he moved 59,000 copies digitally his first week, which is a record for a debut artist), but overall digital albums only account for 12% of his total. Daughtry is at 8% of his 4.46 million, and Carrie has only sold 7% of Carnival Ride’s total units through digital downloads.

The digital album market is growing, but not fast enough yet to offset erosion in physical CDs. That’s why you’re starting to see more creative packaging and bundling like the iTunes passes that they have done recently for The Fray, DMB, and Kris Allen. The industry is scrambling to find a way to get listeners to invest in more than just a $0.99 single.

Of course, Jordinà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s is the worst performing coronation song and was never a real radio single (was it?)

“This is My Now” was a studio recording and it was released to radio, it just didn’t do very well. Here are the radio play stats for the same week that year (when we had access to the full charts):
à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“This is My Nowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ : 42 AC (46), 68 Pop (71), 119 HAC (87), 460 Rhy (-)

Adamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s album is still somewhere in the top 50 last time I looked (well above Keith Urbanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s, for example), and Krisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s just recently exited the top 100.

I think thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s probably just in digital sales. Once you factor in store sales, the ranking goes way down. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not surprising though. Without any kind of radio exposure, the only people buying those songs would be Idol veiwers. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m actually surprised that the Heartless and Mad Mad world singles are still selling reasonably well. Must be from the television appearances.

Yep, definitely just Itunes sales. I should have said that! Nevertheless, a few people kept on buying them for a while. I can imagine scenarios where nobody would have been forking over the 10 bucks a couple weeks after the final!

On MySpace hits — When I see the number of spam comments on Myspace pages, I wonder whether a lot of those hits aren’t just bots of some kind posting ads for other people’s products, and going to the pages with lots of friends since they may get more business there….

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“This is My Nowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  was a studio recording and it was released to radio, it just didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t do very well.

Thanks Kirsten. I read a comment somewhere a few days ago where someone said Jordin’s coronation song never got an add date and Jive opted to rush out Tattoo instead. Shouldn’t have taken that as gospel obviously.

The most recent stats Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve seen (from April à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹09) give iTunes 87% of the digital market (thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s for both singles and albums combined).

Thanks. Do you have a link for that? I remember reading about the ~50% market share of with some surprise because I thought it was higher than that, I probably misread or misremembered as to what that figure refers to. Wiki gives a figure of over 70% but that’s for world wide sales (in UK it’s also ~70%).

Hazehel: Amazon finds niche in iTunes-dominant market (from CNet)

Can’t access the Billboard article anymore because I let my Billboard.biz subscription lapse. I’m pretty positive about Amazon MP3 outselling iTunes 2:1 in digital albums though. We discussed it pretty extensively at some other boards when that article came out.

It’s only Kellie’s song that is selling from what I can tell. She still doesn’t seem to be moving many albums. But, her BFF Taylor is definitely carrying her career at this point.

Anyway, they really need to their rename their act, “The Chicks Who Can’t Sing Without Autotune Tour”. Special guest: Miley Cyrus.

Jordin’s song is absolutely blowing up. She’s probably fourth biggest music star among Idol alum at this point. Who ever saw THAT coming?

Jerzytrash, I don’t think you can say Kellie is more popular than Daughtry or the others based on one single. I’d say look at the albums and the total sales history of both before judging that. You are comparing an album seller to a singles seller, though Daughtry has also had hit singles.

I don’t think Kellie is overall more popular than Daughtry, but she has had a lot of airtime lately. Also her song is good and the video is really good also (some funny stuff). I believe her single sales have gone up since it was released and as stated before, having Taylor Swift in it didn’t hurt a bit. As far as I’m concerned it’s ALL good. I love Kellie and Chris both and wish them both much success.

Kellie’s single is reaching it’s peak….while others are newly released and just starting the climb. You can’t compare singles at different periods in their life cycle.

Jordinà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s song is absolutely blowing up. Sheà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s probably fourth biggest music star among Idol alum at this point. Who ever saw THAT coming?

Seems like hip-hop, dance, and R&B are where it’s at on Top40 these days, and Jordin is exactly the right fit on today’s radio. Makes me wonder– maybe someone should snap up Syesha. That girl never did it for me musically/artistically, but proved herself versatile as hell, and could sound awesome singing some of the same kinda uptempo stuff Jordin seems to have on her new album.

I get the appeal of Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler’s music, I really do, I just don’t understand why people shell out money to go see singers they know to be terrible live, unless it’s some big production like Britney…?

Ladymadonna – Unless I misread it (again!), I think that article said 87% of of those polled used iTunes (and they may use more than one store), so it is unlikely to be 87% of all legal downloads. Probably still around the 70% mark I suppose.

Jordinà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s song is absolutely blowing up. Sheà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s probably fourth biggest music star among Idol alum at this point. Who ever saw THAT coming?

Not me. I have said it before that I thought Battlefield is a terrible song, certainly it’s worse than Daughtry’s song (I thought No Surprise dull, but hearing it again it doesn’t sound so bad, perhaps it’s just lowered expectation). I still don’t think it will sell a great deal, but who knows, people can be persuaded to buy anything.

Nope, you’re totally right. I pulled that link and the 87% stat right out of my notes without re-reading the article. Dumb. Try this one – it’s not as recent (end of 2008) and the sourcing is a little vague, but it pegs iTunes at “70%-plus”, and Amazon MP3 at 5-10% of the market at that point. It’s still an estimate, and I know Amazon has been making strides, but I still think the 50% number you mentioned above is too low for iTunes. I think 70-80% of the digital market is a reasonable guess.

I’ve been getting a kick out of totaling the sales for Kris and Adam post-idol finale. Pretty addictive. Numbers used obtained from Brian’s Idol Chatter (rounded) and the figures accrued from the Top 200 digital tracks and albums (Kirsten’s).

Kris Allen recently had three singles in the Top 200:
No Bondaries — 27,000
Heartless — 26,000
Ain’t No Sunshine — 8,000

Kris Allen Album — 1,000

Total Sales from Singles post-idol finale = $843,349.74
Total Sales from Album = $149,850.00
__________
Total Monies Earned = $993,199.74

Adam Lambert recently had two singles in the Top 200
Mad World — 21,000
No Bondaries — 8,000

Adam Lambert Album — 3,000

Total Sales from Singles post-idol finale = $559,191.00
Total Sales from Album $279.720.00
____________

Total Monies Earned = $838,911.00

This data only includes sales from the Top 200 digital downloads each week post idol. Just an overview of sales from the data available.

Thanks to Kirsten and Brian.

Brian at Idol chat has posted more sales numbers: http://blogs.usatoday.com/idolchatter/2009/06/the-weekly-american-idol-sales-report.html#mor

Digital Tracks

Kelly Clarkson, I Do Not Hook Up (41,000, -4 percent, 369,000 total)
Kellie Pickler, Best Days of Your Life (33,000, 6 percent, 442,000)
Daughtry, No Surprise (30,000, -4 percent, 268,000)
Kris Allen, No Boundaries (27,000, -69 percent, 247,000)
Kris Allen, Heartless (26,000, -66 percent, 230,000)
Kelly Clarkson, My Life Would Suck Without You (25,000, -6 percent, 1.91 million)
Adam Lambert, Mad World (21,000, -64 percent, 196,000)
David Cook, Come Back to Me (17,000, -1 percent, 181,000)
Rascal Flatts, Here Comes Goodbye (11,000, -10 percent, 478,000)
Adam Lambert, No Boundaries (8,000, -66 percent, 68,000)
Kris Allen, Ainà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t No Sunshine (8,000, -69 percent, 104,000)
Carrie Underwood feat. Randy Travis, I Told You So (7,000, -26 percent, 340,000)

Albums

Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted (11,000, -8 percent, 603,000 total/2,000 digital, -15 percent, 130,000 digital total)
Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (10,000, -5 percent, 2.89 million/209,000 digital total)
David Cook, David Cook (8,000, -26 percent, 1.17 million/2,000 digital, -40 percent, 142,000 digital total)
Kellie Pickler, Kellie Pickler (7,000, 11 percent, 235,000)
Daughtry, Daughtry (5,000, -16 percent, 4.46 million/368,000 digital total)
Carrie Underwood, Some Hearts (4,000, -2 percent, 6.79 million)
Ruben Studdard, Love Is (4,000, -24 percent, 24,000)
Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson (3,000, -14 percent, 742,000)
Adam Lambert, Season 8 Favorite Performances (3,000, -71 percent, 28,000/3,000 digital, -71 percent, 28,000 digital total)
Various Artists, Rock of Ages (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (3,000, debut, 3,000/3,000 digital, debut, 3,000 digital total)
Kris Allen, Season 8 Favorite Performances (1,000, -70 percent, 15,000/1,000 digital, -70 percent, 15,000 digital total)

evanjane,

Nice work. Looks like they are both putting up some damn good numbers.

evanjane, those numbers don’t include the iTunes pass for Kris, right? Cuz it’s like a preorder now, I guess? And anyone know, what does a pass count as on the charts– an album? Or not at all?

thank you, hellothere, and to answer your question sma11ie, the figures do not include the i-tune pass for kris. it also does not include singles that fell off the top 200 digital chart nor ringtones nor videos. personally, at this juncture, i find it somewhat misleading to imply album sales are a reflection of future album sales for kris and adam as kris by the above data shows stronger sales.

kris:

no bondaries — (27,000) $34,830.00
heartless — (26,000) $25,740.00
ain’t no sunshine — (8,000) $7,920.00
total: $68,490.00
kris’s album — (1,000) $9,990.00
TOTAL MONIES — $78,480.00

adam:

mad world — (21,000) $20,790.00
no bondarries — (8,000) $10,320.00
total: $31,110.00
adam’s album — (3,000) $29,970.00
TOTAL MONIES — $61,080.00

although, adam’s album sales were higher than kris’s, it did not translate in higher monies earned in total.

Real numbers from the BB200:

45 CLARKSON*KELLY ALL I EVER WANTED 10,655 -8 11,620 603,293
47 UNDERWOOD*CARRIE CARNIVAL RIDE 10,473 -5 10,991 2,885,551
63 COOK*DAVID DAVID COOK 7,878 -26 10,709 1,169,165
81 PICKLER*KELLIE KELLIE PICKLER 6,618 11 5,985 234,501
97 DAUGHTRY DAUGHTRY 5,319 -16 6,304 4,461,679
147 STUDDARD*RUBEN LOVE IS 3,654 -24 4,811 23,711
166 HUDSON*JENNIFER JENNIFER HUDSON 3,022 -14 3,504 741,659
181 LAMBERT*ADAM SEASON 8 FAVORITE 2,787 -71 9,597 28,104

Unless I missed them, both Elliott and Archie fell off the BB200 this week.

63 COOK*DAVID DAVID COOK 7,878 -26 10,709 1,169,165

Thanks, Jolene! I’m happy with nearly 8000, but I’m worried DC will continue to drop this week… any chartwatchers know if DCTR looks like it’s trending down any further?

^^I’m not chartwatching per se, but CBTM is in the Top 100 on iTunes and the album looks like it’s holding steady right now. The downwards trend this week came on the heel of a two weeks AI boost after DC’s finale performance, I wouldn’t worry about it too much yet. Before the finale he was selling 7-8K a week, which is where he is now that the bump ran its course.

All things considered, he’s selling steadily and has been for a while, I don’t see reason to think we’re on the verge of a major shift.

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m happy with nearly 8000, but Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m worried DC will continue to drop this weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦ any chartwatchers know if DCTR looks like ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s trending down any further?

He’ll probabaly drop closer to 7K this week, and then 6 – 7K, and gradually keep moving down toward the 5K line. CBTM has slowed again on HAC, but it’s lingering right outside the top 10 on there (I also predict it will be an AC smash in time, if any song has AC written all over it, it’s that one).

However, since it’s dead on CHR, I don’t see why they couldn’t release another single with only a CHR adds-date, and then give it its HAC adds-date once CBTM runs its course. But, we’ll see what they do.

I agree it’ll drop closer to 7K this week, but I’m more optimistic than you– I hope it stabilizes at the lower end of 7K for a while until (fingers crossed) they release the next single and line up some more TV promo.

However, since ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s dead on CHR, I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t see why they couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t release another single with only a CHR adds-date, and then give it its HAC adds-date once CBTM runs its course.

That seems logical to me, but do labels do that typically?

We’re speculating on the Headlines thread about the possibility of new single by the August GMA concert series appearance. So fingers crossed, we’ll have something by then at least?