Next week, numbers could be hard to get. Doesn’t bode well that it took until late in the day on Saturday to get the billboard numbers. I’m trying not to think about it. At least there will be, you know, Christmas with the happy small children running around, overly hyped up on sugar and toys, to distract from the (potential) lack of numbers.

140 PICKLER*KELLIE KELLIE PICKLER 8,333 24 6,745 129,189

I hope we get BB200 at some point next week because between Ken B. being off and no HDD it could get ugly.

Wow LO is #38 on iTunes. I think that’s the highest it’s been in quite some time. Fly little light, fly!!! Fly like a magic rainbow!

10 COOK*DAVID DAVID COOK 103,544 19 87,069 582,048
21 ARCHULETA*DAVID DAVID ARCHULETA 59,077 6 55,699 430,492
50 UNDERWOOD*CARRIE CARNIVAL RIDE 26,942 35 20,017 2,516,976
81 HUDSON*JENNIFER JENNIFER HUDSON 15,223 8 14,087 503,728
104 DAUGHTRY DAUGHTRY 11,046 33 8,291 4,314,738
191 SPARKS*JORDIN JORDIN SPARKS 5,431 18 4,603 970,649

DA is at 40 on the mainstream top 40 this morning. Now, if he slips off that chart tomorrow, does that mean he cannot go recurrent later? Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve been watching his slide there and am wondering does that mean ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the end for Crush on that chart?

Depends on if they purge the song or not. It’ll likely stay at 40 tomorrow, so it’ll remain on the chart this week and next week, whether it drops below 40 or not. Then next Sunday, if it’s below 40 they may purge it, or they may leave it on there. Really depends. It’s 2 weeks to recurrency. I’d like it to get there, but it doesn’t look like it will. The year-end countdowns may keep it afloat, but who knows. Really, recurrency does only one thing for a song–allows it to appear on recurrent charts. Radio stations more often play recurrents years later than non-recurrents (simply because a song that stays on the chart longer is more recognizable period), but a song that missed recurrency by one or 2 weeks probably has just a good of a shot of getting later airplay than a song that hit the recurrent mark. And there are huge hits that did hit recurrency that are never heard again because they’re simply out of date.

Also, mediabase recurrents are different than recurrents measured by BDS (which Billboard uses). Some songs make recurrent on one and not the other. Crush is at 34 this week on BDS, with 18 weeks on the chart. It could make recurrent there.

This is all very interesting! If it’s true that Jordin and her dad held out in order to sign with Jive, this also was a very smart move!

Wait?! Nick Lachey is still with a major label? Did he have any platinum records?

There are a lot of factors involved. If the label can keep costs down for a project, the artist doesn’t have to move as many units to be deemed successful. Jive is rumoured to be very good at stretching promo budgets and being frugal (this all came out during the Barry/Clive thing).

Anyway, Nick’s last album was certified Gold, debuted number 2 on Billboard, had it’s debut single go to #6 on the Hot 100 and it’s follow-up go to #1 on the Hot Dance Airplay. His new album is supposed to be out in Feb, 2009.

MJ, heard New England was socked by the storm. Glad LO guided you home.

Theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve also got Nick Lachey, Nick Cannon, T-Pain, Kelis, and the Backstreet Boys (among others).

That is not correct, Kelis is no longer with Jive, because Jive dropped Kelis.

Glad you got home safely, MJ. Driving in a terrible snowstorm is awful.

One of my new favorites is also signed with Jive–Lesley Roy. She’s more pop-rock than anything and I really liked her first single “I’m Gone, I’m Going” which didn’t quite take off (although my local station played it a lot). Her second single, “Unbeautiful,” seems to be doing better, though. They’ve also got Nick Lachey, Nick Cannon, T-Pain, Kelis, and the Backstreet Boys (among others).

They have done an awesome job of getting her out there! Wow! Amazing numbers considering where she started.

Also, (this has probably been asked before and to some may be obvious), what other pop artists are with Jive?

I have to say DA was wise to go with Jive. I truly believe he will go so much further than Jordin.

However, I am so happy for her!!! Happy B-Day Jordin! Yeah!!!! Keep going!

Kenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s last update before he went on vacation was 12/19 and her sales were at 283,000. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s about 300,00 less than where DC is. Blake was at 156,000, quite a contract to Archieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s 430,000. Major kudos to Jordin for her current sales.

Trina,
Can we assume as well that the sales this year are worse than last year, making the AI 7 idols success even more stellar?

I was curious where Jordin was at this point last year so I went back and looked at Ken Barnes sales data. Really mindboggling. I knew things for her and Blake were bad in the beginning, well his sales stayed bad, but wow. Kenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s last update before he went on vacation was 12/19 and her sales were at 283,000. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s about 300,00 less than where DC is. Blake was at 156,000, quite a contract to Archieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s 430,000. Major kudos to Jordin for her current sales.

That is mindboggling, Trina. Thanks for bringing that over. And congratulations to Jordin for doing as well as she did in the last year. It’s great to see that the Davids are having a great start as well.

Now there is a marked contrast in sales trajectory (speed) between AI6 winnerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pace vis a vis the AI7 winner.I should think Platinum will be reached sooner.

I was curious where Jordin was at this point last year so I went back and looked at Ken Barnes sales data. Really mindboggling. I knew things for her and Blake were bad in the beginning, well his sales stayed bad, but wow. Ken’s last update before he went on vacation was 12/19 and her sales were at 283,000. That’s about 300,00 less than where DC is. Blake was at 156,000, quite a contract to Archie’s 430,000. Major kudos to Jordin for her current sales.

Usually in [Brit's] articles, like the one in Januaryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Glamour, highlight her selling over 25M records as a major accomplishment- very little mention of platinum singles.

That’s because she doesn’t have much to brag about in the single department. They can either focus on the fact that she has sold TWENTY-FIVE MILLION records or they can focus on the fact that she has 4 platinum selling singles listed in the RIAA database (“Baby One More Time”, “From the Bottom of My Broken Heart”, “Gimme More”, and “Piece of Me” (although “Womanizer” has sold more than a million now too. It’s just not showing up on the RIAA database, yet)). That’s chump change for today’s artists. None of them are listed as being multi-platinum.

Brit’s huge hit albums came in the days before iTunes. People keep forgetting that sales of digital downloads have MUSHROOMED in the last 3 years. Back in early 2006, you could get a platinum selling download by moving 200K units. Many big singles move that in a week now (I notice nobody ever normalizes single sales to previous years, because those numbers would be sad). While Brit was off having babies and breakdowns, iTunes came into being. So, it’s not surprising she doesn’t have a lot of platinum selling singles yet. She’s just getting back into the game now. There is no doubt that she is a successful artist. She just didn’t have her big successes during the Download Era.

Now, I’m not an expert on how record labels make money, but whatever Jive/Zomba is doing is likely deemed to be successful by Sony. Sony/BMG didn’t decide to put Barry (Barry=Jive/Zomba) in charge of the BMG wing of the company because they thought his business mode was crap. They probably wanted him in charge because they wanted his management style and whatever he was doing to influence the entire company. Meanwhile, Clive (Clive=RCA) was given a nice little make-believe job and told to just play in the corner and not hurt anybody (Clive isn’t likely going to stay there, so this could get interesting). Clearly, RCA is very successful (as are many of the people on the label – the problem is that they end up dropping a lot of artists. Their Big Bang Theory of music isn’t producing a big enough bangs to make up for the artists that fizzle), but Sony/BMG (now Sony) probably decided they liked the Jive/Zomba model a little better. I have to think that they know what they are doing, but then I’ve seen a lot of companies make stupid moves in the last year, so maybe they don’t.

RCA obviously knows of RadioDisneyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s adds and are fine with it. I have no complaints with RCA thus far. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sure they are happy, too.. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll take almost any radio spin or play.

I completely agree. A spin is a spin is a spin. I attribute Crush staying in the top 50 on iTunes to Radio Disney. It’s not monitored, but it has an effect.

My point wasn’t that DC shouldn’t be played on Radio Disney, just that I didn’t think LO was really a Radio Disney-type song. It surprised me when they started playing it and I think it surprised others as well. But every playlist has a few songs that are a little different from the rest.

Oh, and yeah, I think Jordin’s success is fantastic–and it is a different model of success than we’ve been accustomed to.

RCA obviously knows of RadioDisney’s adds and are fine with it. I have no complaints with RCA thus far. I’m sure they are happy, too.. I’ll take almost any radio spin or play.

When I said aberration, I didn’t mean there were no other songs on Radio Disney that could be classified as rock. I meant that 90% of the music is not edgy at all (the JoBros aren’t edgy). I don’t think 10% of any stations playlist can constitute it moving in a particular direction different than the other 90%. There was a time in the late 90s when I did listen to Radio Disney because a band I liked was being played. And the mix was just about the same then as it is now–mostly Disney-label-related songs plus some mainstream songs (edited if necessary) that are generally pop or pop-R&B in nature, with some pop-rock or AC rock thrown in. It really hasn’t changed much from the late 90s to now. I guess if you want to go back further, maybe it’s changed from the 70s or 80s.

As frogcooke mentioned, Radio Disney’s rolling playlist stats can be found on All Access. I can’t provide you a link because All Access will always take you to the front page (you need an account). The top 10 I posted count spins from last Wednesday to yesterday. LO is #21 on its playlist as of today.

lw TW Artist Title TW lw Move
25 21 DAVID COOK Light On 1632 1632 -

Hm, isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t Britney Spears with Jive/Zomba? I know her second week drop was dramatic given that sheà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Britney Spears and all. I think her Labels would like both – album and single sales. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d even hazard to guess theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d prefer the album sales if given a choice. Usually in her articles, like the one in Januaryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Glamour, highlight her selling over 25M records as a major accomplishment- very little mention of platinum singles.

Any label would prefer both. Jive/Zomba artists sell albums–just not as many as artists from other labels. And there are labels that sell less albums than Jive. Jive/Zomba just happens to be better at selling singles and radio airplay, generally speaking, or so says Billboard and their annual rankings. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake aren’t the norm at Jive/Zomba–Jordin is (and she actually does better than a lot of Jive artists). And not even Britney sells like Britney sold in the early part of this decade. I’m sure they would highlight 25 million albums sold–because she sold 25 million albums. But that doesn’t change what Jive is in the here and now for most of its artists, or where its strengths seem to lie.

Jordin has followed her own and unique path to post AI success. No, she did sell mutilple platinum records right of the bat like Kelly or Carrie, but she certainly didn’t go the way of Taylor. I admire how her record seems to keep slowly but methodically chugging along in its sales. She just does it quietly. Impressive. I didn’t watch AI6 and only saw her on the AI7 finale and read of her successes on MJ’s. So good on her. A new AI model of success to know consider and compare against.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think Radio Disney is trying to be edgierà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’they have a core audience and a specific goal for their stations.

I said “edgier”, not hardcore heavy metal, for goodness sakes. From my perspective, as someone who’s been watching pop culture evolve since the 60’s, Disney would not have touched rock artists like Miley, Demi, or the Jonas Brothers in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s. In those days, all Disney movies were rated G. In 2003, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie was the first Walt Disney Pictures film to be rated PG13. Trust me, that film would not have been aimed at kids when I was young. According to Wiki, the Disney Channel has been going for a hipper image since 2002. IMHO, the culture in general has become “edgier” in the last 20 years, and children’s entertainment has followed. I’m sorry, I’m not up for writing a dissertation filled with statistics to prove my point. I’m simply talking about trends I’ve observed over my lifetime.

As for Radio Disney, since no link was provided for the Top 10 songs played, I can’t judge what else they might be playing and how often. I will say though, that Paramore, Nickelback, and DC comprise 10% of the songs on the Disney countdown. That seems like more than an aberration to me. Demi and the Jonas Brothers are not exactly lite rock either. IMHO, LO is not that different from many of the JoBros songs, or from Nickelback. Paramore is an Alt rock band. My 12 year old daughter loves them. She also loves DC, Demi, Miley, and the JoBros. Not every preteen wants straight pop. Some like edgy rock, and Disney seems to be catering to that. So, I don’t find it strange that Light On is on the list. Between the business ties that AI and Disney share, the AI appeal to kids, and David Cook’s broad overall appeal, I see no reason why Disney, and kids, shouldn’t like his music.

Now I just listen to my CD.