Yep, there’s so many, I’ve got an afternoon (or early evening, if you will…) edition of headlines today…
“Idol” champ Allen’s CD reflects life on the road
“Name a big city and I probably recorded a song there,” Allen told Reuters ahead of the self-titled “Kris Allen” release on November 17.
The Arkansas native recorded songs in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Milwaukee and other cities.
“It was pretty crazy, and kind of weird switching your mind from tour mode to writing and recording mode,” he said.
Allen had the luxury of time, for one thing, unlike when he booked the studio himself on his first album and had only a few days to record. This time, he also included exotic instruments, including a sitar, and experimented with different styles, from pop to the blues.
Adam Lambert on His New Album ‘For Your Entertainment,’ Working with Lady Gaga, and His Appeal to Women
The Wall Street Journal: On your Twitter feed, you said Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ video ‘melted my brain.’
Oh my god, I love it. It’s so out there. She’s so brave in her artistic freedom; she’s an inspiration.
She actually contributed a song ‘†‘Fever’ ‘†to your new album.
Yeah, I really wanted to work with her; she’s just one of my favorites right now. She had an old demo ‘†I think she said she got signed with that demo to her first label deal ‘†and then she never produced it and got it done. I think that it’s a really catchy melody; the lyrics are really fun and silly. Overall, I really enjoyed the process of recording with her. She was on the other side of that glass, just egging me on. She was constantly like, ‘Go crazier! Go higher! Go louder!’
Which song pushed you the furthest vocally?
‘Sure Fire Winners’ is pretty vocally acrobatic. It’s crazy ‘†but they all kind of go crazy. Artistically, I think the Linda Perry song was a departure for me because it was a little out of my obvious comfort zone ‘†vocally, it sits in this falsetto space, and lyrically, if you really listen to it, it’s complicated. The lyrics contradict themselves, which was done on purpose ‘†Linda and I really talked about it.
Danny Gokey, Lady Antebellum talk ‘It’s Only’
The same songwriting team that penned country trio Lady Antebellum’s breakthough hit I Run to You also wrote Danny Gokey’s single, It’s Only.
Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum — which won Vocal Group and Single of the Year at Wednesday’s Country Music Association Awards — wrote both songs with Tom Douglas.
“Tom came in with the majority of that idea,” Kelley said Wednesday before the CMAs. “He’s a poet, and he’s a very spiritual guy.
“When I sent that over to a friend of mine at Sony, she immediately thought of Danny Gokey. Upon first listen, he felt something by it. I was so excited. It’s his first single. He sings his butt off on it. We’ve gotten to know him since then, and he’s such a nice guy, got a great story. I hope the best for him.
More Idol Headlines after the JUMP…
Adam Lambert: Hot Entertainer
American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert is hoping to prove that a second place finish doesn’t mean you can’t reach the top of the charts. The glam rocker’s debut album ‘For Your Entertainment’ drops Nov. 23, and Lambert himself dropped by TV Guide Magazine’s Hot List party to tell TVGuideMagazine.com what his fans can expect, his thoughts on Ellen Degeneres (and her underwear) and all about his encounter with a certain musical icon.
FACTBOX: Record sales for “American Idol” contestants
Ruben Studdard is left off the list. Sads.
Winner Kris Allen’s self-titled “Kris Allen” lands in record stores on Nov 17; runner-up Adam Lambert’s “For Your Entertainment” is out on November 23; Allison Iraheta releases “Just Like You” on Dec 1, and Danny Gokey will release his country-style debut in early 2010.
Not all “Idol” contestants enjoy the same level of recording success after the show. Following are U.S. record sales for notable “Idols”, who are contracted after the show to Sony Music Entertainment labels. All figures are from Nielsen SoundScan.
Spotted: David Archuleta Satisfies His Hunger
Former “American Idol” contestant David Archuleta didn’t win the season he competed (that honor went to erstwhile Our Lady Peace fan David Cook), but in many ways it’s worked out better for Archie. He has never had to deal with the pressure or scrutiny of being the winner, but there is still plenty of enthusiasm surrounding everything he works on (including his recently-released Christmas album). Plus, he’s not hounded by photographers all that often. Really, it’s the best kind of fame. Still, it was nice to see him show up in the paparazzi viewfinders yesterday, as Archuleta was spotted leaving high-end Los Angeles eatery Il Pastaio with singer and songwriter Kina Grannis.
Allison Iraheta’s Just Like You: The Album Snippet Preview!
Dye your hair with Kool-Aid and start joking about cutting, because 30-second snippets of Allison Iraheta’s major label debut Just Like You have hit the web. Everybody knows I was less-than-thrilled with the super-poppy, heavily-processed vocals of Iraheta’s Max Martin-produced single “Friday I’ll Be Over U.” But will the rest of her album make me happy? Let’s go through these too-short snippets and see.
Foster, Mazzie, Damiano, DeGarmo, Ranson, Doyle and More Set for Carrie Reading
Tony Award winner Sutton Foster and Tony nominees Marin Mazzie and Jennifer Damiano will take part in the industry presentation of the 1988 cult musical Carrie.
As previously reported, Stafford Arima (Altar Boyz, Tin Pan Alley Rag, Somewhere in Time, London’s Ragtime) will direct the 29-hour Equity reading that will take place in Manhattan Nov. 20.
Also revealed are “American Idol” finalist Diana DeGarmo (Hairspray, The Toxic Avenger) as Chris, Matt Doyle (Spring Awakening, Bye Bye Birdie) as Tommy and John Arthur Greene (West Side Story) as Billy.
PHOTO CALL: Dreamgirls National Tour Launches at the Apollo
Prior to touring the country, the new production of Dreamgirls plays New York’s historic Apollo Theatre through Dec. 6.
Robert Longbottom directs a cast headed by Moya Angela as Effie White, Syesha Mercado as Deena Jones and Adrienne Warren as Lorrell Robinson. Also featured are Margaret Hoffman as Michelle Morris, Chaz Lamar Shepherd as Curtis Taylor, Jr., Chester Gregory as James “Thunder” Early, Trevon Davis as C.C. White and Milton Craig Nealy as Marty Madison.
X Factor: Lucie Jones is backing Stacey Solomon to win
X Factor reject Lucie Jones today backed Stacey Solomon to win the talent contest.
Jones, 18, performed in front of hundreds of fans in her home town of Cardiff after she was knocked out of the competition on Sunday.
Judge Simon Cowell refused to make a call between her and twins John and Edward and put it to the public vote to see who should stay.
Before performing four songs today in front of her cheering supporters, Jones defended Cowell’s decision to take the vote to “deadlock”, even though it meant she was kicked out of the running.
OK, I’ll just say to count whatever adds make you feel good.
However, the industry views the official “add date” as a benchmark and labels tout the adds of their artists based on this date, not how many stations played the song before it went for adds. All adds prior to the add date get counted in the week the song is officially up for adds.
This is why Jive put a big banner on AllAccess after Kris’ add date touting his #2 adds at Top 40.
I agree that that “5,000 spins = a flop” is a “whack” benchmark.
And I believe that something that I wrote a couple of weeks ago got severely twisted around — what I worte was that all of the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 songs had over 5,000 spins. And that to be a hit [defined as Billboard Top 10] a song need more than 1,000 spins — usually over 5,000 spins. It took about 4 hours for that to get twisted by some other commenters into a song with less that 5,000 spins is a “flop”. Just to be clear:
About 50% of the Billboard Hot 100 ranking is based on broadcast radio airplay — number of spins wieghted by Arbitron audience measurement to get “airplay points”. It is almost impossible for a song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 without significant airplay. The typical Top 10 hit has over 5,000 total spins. And the songs that make the Top 10 with less than 5,000 spins typically has significant airplay in the major markets — because airplay points are the largest component of the Billboard Hot 100 formula.
Here is last week’s Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 with total spins:
1. Fireflies, Owl City 7037
2. Empire State Of Mind, Jay-Z + Alicia Keys 2796
3. Whatcha, Say Jason DeRulo 10097
4. Replay, Iyaz 5991
5. Down, Jay Sean Featuring Lil Wayne 9475
6. Party In The U.S.A., Miley Cyrus 9231
7. Paparazzi, Lady Gaga 10359
8. 3, Britney Spears 7556
9. Russian Roulette, Rihanna 3153
10. Sweet Dreams, Beyonce 8911
Currently there are Top 10 song has less that 5,000 — but they are both songs that have gotten airplay the large markets.
The Hot 100 is often criticized for weighing airplay more than sales. And the ratio given to sales and airplay has been changed many times since 1958. In the 1950s and 1960s sales points were given more “weight” in Hot 100 calculation. As the singles market dwindled in the United States, Billboard to adjusted the sales/airplay ratio to favor airplay points, and now a song can top the Hot 100 Sales chart and sell only a few thousand copies in a week, but a song that sells 40,000 units with no airplay won’t creack the Top 40.
So, to borrow the word “whack” from Kristen, the only thing “whack” is the Billboard Hot 100 — a chart on which Mariah Carey holds the record for the most weeks at number one in total with 93 weeks atop the chart — not because she has sold so much music but because she holds the record for airplay points.
Finally, the Billboard Hot 100 is not the chart used by American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest — they use the MediaBase CHR and Hot AC, distributed by Premiere. The MediaBase airplay chart is the most commonly used for countdown shows in the US.
i can go for that trina – what say ye, o fans of allen and lambert?
these are the big dogs, and the guys, and allison, are playing in the big leagues now…
hmmmm. That might explain why Kris had so many adds his “first week of adds”. So, that HUGE number of adds was 3 weeks put together? No wonder.
Curious because I didn’t give a crap about Idol message boards last year. What standard were the Davids compared to? Carrie/Kelly/Daughtry or Jordin/Blake?? Or merely to each other? Can someone enlighten me?
I remember that. I was wondering where people were getting the “5,000 in three weeks” from. I figured it was a twist of some kind.
I wonder if you’ll get any replies to this post from those who were putting words in your mouth?
The comparisons the the Davids was mostly about measuring idol fanbases. Not about the totality of anyone’s careers. Kris and Adam haven’t been out long enough to talk about that. All that has been said is that the new guys don’t seem to have the starting fanbase of last year’s guys. Since no one’s career is determined by what happens the first 2 weeks, it really doesn’t matter. Its not a blood sport death match worthy issue, IMO.
No as far as singles… IMO, successful singles generally follow a pattern of steady adds and increasing spins, with a short lived stall or 2, on the march to its relatively high peak. But that’s only general. Some singles behave differently. So you can’t ever really call it on a song until its really done – that is, free falling off the chart. So far, Crush is clearly kicking everyone’s ass… lol… but either one of the current crop’s releases might suddenly catch fire and shoot up. It is relatively uncommon, but it happens. You never know. And if not this song, then maybe the next. In any case, I would be way more concerned about my favorite doing enough to keep their label happy than I would be about winning some theoretical comparisons to past and present Idol contestants. I can promise you their labels don’t give a crap about any of that.
Mostly each other. The comparisons between the two for the single and albums sales went on quite a while but eventually died down. But they definitely compared to others too and they still are. Till this day DC is knocked for not selling 5 million albums like Daughtry, last year when their first week numbers came out of course it was noted that they both sold more than Jordin being the previous winners. Blake’s numbers were so pathetic he wasn’t used for any standard.
Well, we could compare the two Davids right now to Carrie/Kelly/Daughtry. Let’s make it current and compare the last couple of months.
I can’t remember. How did Clay and Ruben do with their 1st singles and albums?
I think that’s exactly right.
And they may be doing it because they realize that when you come out with something kind of new, going directly for singles radio play as your entrance into the market may not work so well — so you try to build popularity and buzz and sales for your performer in other ways, since when radio sees that he/she’s *popular* then they’re more like to play it.
Or, they may be doing it this way because that’s the way they roll, just generally, which it is — or at least much more than Jive, at any rate — because we’ve seen similar starts for other RCA artists.
But why not push for the single right now with some radio interviews, etc? Just curious.
Q3 So it sounds like radio adds are quite important as far as Billboard chart success. And the summary of all of this for Adam (and maybe Kradison) is that it’s just too early to call? They all still have time for radio adds, right? Future promotion will still increase those, right?
The AMAs had better be the performance of Adam’s life. I’m counting on it, myself.
Very few people know the answer to that question. Barry Weiss, Simon Fuller, a handful of lower tier execs, maybe Adam
The rest of us are going to have to wait until next year and answer that in retrospect.
I, personally, don’t give a rat’s ass about the numbers “game” for any singer. Numbers are nothing more than a parlor trick….they are used to prove a point and are used without benefit of underlying circumstances that “caused” the subsequent numbers. And, for the most part, they are usually taken out of context.
EVERY Idol comes into the “real world” with a complete different set of circumstances and influences. So many things come into play while they are attempting to make it in the music business. Some have gigornormous fan bases that are completely active 24/7, who span every on-line poll, vote a thousand times, buy multiple copies of singles and albums. Others have a fan base who follows them around from concert to concert, makes videos of every performance and makes sure they are available on every blog forum.
Some Idols move into a genre, like country, that has a significant impact on music sales and radio play. Some Idols don’t give a damn about being #1..they just want to make money and do their thing. Other Idols are “carbon copies” of what is currently popular and just ride the coat tails of established artists…they aren’t finding a “new” audience, just relying on the hard work that other’s have done before them.
For me it’s only about WHAT I ENJOY and what makes me happy. If my favorite makes it through this next year, tours, makes a second album, and shows up on my radar every now and again I’ll be happy. And whether they “upstage” any other Idol is neither here nor there. I want the “American Idol” title to die a very fast death. When it is no longer used in conjunction with my fav I will be a very happy camper indeed.
Q3 –
If I read you corectly, you are now saying that to be a hit, you have to make the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That is an insanely high criteria for a hit. Many songs are big hits and don’t make the Top 10 of the BB Hot 100.
That chart favors songs that get played or urban and rythmic stations.
You can have a very big hit on Top 40 radio and not break into the BB Hot 100.
“It is almost impossible for a song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 without significant airplay.:
Crush hit #2 last year based purely on sales. If you sell alot of singles it’s still possible.
Agree with this completely. Well, almost completely, I’ll always associate American Idol with Adam and won’t mind it, because without it, I don’t think I would have ever known who he was. Not because I don’t think he’s talented enough to have made it otherwise, but because of various reasons, I don’t think record executives would have ever given him the chance if he didn’t already have the American Idol following. He always speaks highly of Idol and the opportunity it afforded him in allowing him the dream of making a record, so if I have to hear “American Idol” preceding his name for the foreseeable future, I’ll smile when I hear it.
Love the RS article where Adam says he thinks woman like him because he’s friendly. Oh, so adorable! Yes, Adam. Women are prone to toss undergarments and lust after friendly fellows. We’re just wired that way!
And it’s cool that Adam has the highest pre-sales numbers of any Idol, ever, at Amazon. Obviously, we don’t know what that will translate to in terms of actual sales. But, who cares? That’s a nice little cap to wear.
iTunes wasn’t a factor for single numbers back then and their coronation singles were sold via physical CD singles..not sure about Ruben’s coronation song but Clay’s This Is The Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water single sold 393,000 its first week.
First week numbers for their albums:
Clay – Measure of a Man – 612,859. Current sales to date are approx 2.7 million
Ruben – Soulful – 416,569. Current sales to date are approx. 1.8 million.
Ruben’s first album single, “Sorry 2004″ reached #9 on the BB Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart.
Clay’s “Invisible” reached #38 on the BB Hot 100 and #8 on the AC chart.
I read it to be an explanation of what it takes to be a top 10 hit. She did not say a song wasn’t a hit if it wasn’t in the top 10.
Sorry to say, but your fave will only have a second album, a tour, be invited to show up here and there if he/she has good numbers. I think it was Brandy who was dropped of her label right away after selling “ONLY” 300k copies, no? Something like that. Labels nowadays want profit. A lot of it and fast. That’s why everybody is worried about numbers. But if you are willing to travel the entire country to see your fave playing in a small bar somewhere… Good for you, I guess? But I’m sure he/she prefers to be successful, buy a nice house, have a real tour, etc.
If the BB Hot 100 is whack for not valuing sales, I’d say S8 fans should be grateful. So fall all the singles have done horribly using that criteria.
Here’s the current Top 10 by airplay
1. TAYLOR SWIFT – You Belong With Me = 107.407 (- 0.675)
2. LADY GAGA – Paparazzi = 103.552 (- 0.150)
3. JASON DERULO – Whatcha Say = 101.750 (- 0.102) â– ²
4. BEYONCE ‘“ Sweet Dreams = 101.557 (- 0.688) â– ¼
5. JAY-Z – Empire State Of Mind = 100.099 (+ 3.073)
6. JAY SEAN – Down f/ Lil Wayne = 95.767 (- 1.240)
7. JAY-Z/RIHANNA/KANYE WEST – Run This Town = 78.313 (- 3.281)
8. KINGS OF LEON – Use Somebody = 75.358 (- 0.657)
9. MILEY CYRUS – Party In The USA = 72.269 (- 0.838)
10. DRAKE KANYE LIL WAYNE EMINEM – Forever = 70.380 (+ 0.140)
I think that people need to look outside of the AI bubble and see the “real life” numbers of current famous artists for their first two or three albums. I think people will be very very shocked how few were really sold and how long it took many Artists to become “well known”. If people believe that you either sell a million out of the gate or you become history…they need to have another think. And pulling a single name out of a hat (and someone with a problematic back story) is another manipulation of the numbers racket. geesh!
you rock tinawina…
I guess that would be me.
Let’s go to the instant replay:
Q3: Monday Morning Mediabase Thread
Nobody objects to 5000 songs being a hit. I think the universal objection was to the having to get at least that in 3 weeks criteria.
Personally, I think it was our arguments that were twisted.