Idol Related Sales Numbers after the jump (Billboard issue date 07/05/08)
Digital Download Numbers
20 Jordin Sparks “No Air” 56,584 (-14%; lw 65,584) Total: 2,121,229 (12)
39 David Cook “Time of My Life” 34,961 (-20%; lw 43,780) Total: 557,852 (23)
42 Carrie Underwood “Last Name” 32,703 (-11%; lw 36,911) Total: 338,925 (32)
Idol Related Downloads:
14 Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love” 75,705 (-21%; lw 95,626) Total: 2,606,233 (8)
Please post numbers as you find them. Thanks!
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ToML sold more last week than I would have expected, given the decreases in sales the weeks before this one. Maybe the TV appearances are getting more sales?
I am surprised, too. It is such a hard song to fit into your playlist. It does not fit into a rocking playlist, but it is not really and R&B or adult contemporary playlist material, either….
I don’t think he did any appearances last week. Did he? He’s doing ok with airplay so that could be cushioning the sales.
Stupid question, but would this help downloads? TOML is spotlighted here
http://pepsistuff.amazon.com/gp/pepsistuff/home.html
TOML is getting a lot of radio play. It’s just unusual to have a song go down the sales chart while it moves up the airplay chart. With increased radio play, TOML should stabilize on the downloads chart or even go up. If it goes up the radio charts as it sells less downloads people may start using the “p” word as in payola to explain why the radio is playing it so much.
But Idol coronation songs are in a world of their own. The big plus is the song got that huge boost of sales right after the finale.
I don’t think so Trina. I think his last appearance before the View was with Kimmel on the pre-game show. I kind of suspect the decent airplay the song is getting is cushioning the sales #s too.
From the Billboard Chart Watch:
What a great opportunity for someone who I believe will be a great artist to have his song available right after the AI finale.
I know I never downloaded from itunes before David Cook came along. And then again, I didn’t own an ipod until David Cook came along.
It’s really mind boggling how the song is doing on the AC and HAC charts but especially HAC. Amazing!
I know WPLJ in NYC is playing it often and several times it was by request. Maybe the fans that are requesting are impacting the radio play its getting? I know even Z100 has been playing it and I didn’t think they would.
Amazing. And it finally broke into the Top 10 on AC today. Top 10 on AC, Top 15 on Hot AC and Top 40 on Pop
Wow, wow, wow! I love hearing all of this news! Thanks mj for keeping us all posted!
This is really awesome. When he finally does some real music, just look out!
gingerly, you said it girl!
I think the sales for TOML are based on airplay at this point.
And, I don’t think the “payola” issue can be brought into play here either.
If you actually look at any radio format, the sales and airplay don’t exactly match up. Sometimes, radio picks up on a song first or vice versa.
The fact that it is a sappy coronation ballad and his AI fans who wanted it have had it for weeks kind of gives away the fact that he is selling (gasp!) just like other artists in the “real world” are expected to. He deserves kudos, IMO.
And, if radio and music buyers are receptive to him with this POS, I, for one, can’t wait to see what he can do with music that is decent.
I love David Cook. I love his singing. I am not crazy about TOML. Imagine what he will do when he gets a really good song.
David Cook has the fastest rising AC single since Leona Lewis. Mmm these two have something in common but I can’t remember what it is.
I was thinking that maybe the Leno performance gave it a bump….
I wonder what connection there is between radio interviews and other American Idol tour promotions and TOML airplay.
The Adult Contemporary station I listen to in New Hampshire, of all places, plays TOML about twice a day. They almost never play music so new.
They have recently interviewed Jason and Syesha, during the season they had a few chats and a VISIT with Simon’s brother Tony. And I’m sure they’ll get scads of tickets to give away in August.
They’ve always played a lot of Daughtry and Clarkson, “Before He Cheats”, “Tattoo” and even “The Real Thing” are in the regular playlist. Things that make me go hmmm….
I think contests and letting stations have interviews actually are a form of payola I could be wrong though. WPLJ has been playing magic rainbow often and has been pimpin the hell out of a VIP package to win for the AI tour for a couple of weeks now. They started putting TOML into heavy rotation the same week this contest went up
http://www.wplj.com/Article.asp?id=706578
I wouldn’t be surprised if similar happenings were going on at other stations. Something had to be struck for Z100 to start playing it I bet.
While I am certainly not naive enough to believe that payola (in many different forms) does not exist, I did a little comparison sleuthing and discovered that (OMG!) it is quite possible that this song is doing well on radio the good old fashioned way.
For comparison:
The song directly above TOML right now on itunes is In Love With a Girl by Gavin DeGraw. That song currently sits at #17 on pop, #53 on AC and #7 on HAC. So, that song is getting a lot more airplay but just barely outperforming in sales.
The song directly above TOML right now on the pop radio chart is Thunder by Boys Like Girls. It is not in the top 100 on itunes. So, more airplay but fewer sales.
The song directly above TOML right now on the AC radio chart is Jordin’s Tattoo. That song hasn’t been in the top 100 on itunes for a while but it doesn’t affect AC airplay because, as I’m sure Kimberley Locke would tell you, AC airplay doesn’t sell much.
The song directly above TOML right now on the HAC radio chart is Won’t Go Home Without You by Maroon 5. Again, that song is not on the itunes top 100.
So, sales and airplay: two different beasts (both important, but different nonetheless).
As to the question of whether requests drive airplay: maybe yes, maybe no, maybe a little, but probably not much. I will use my local Top 40 station (WHOT in Youngstown, Ohio - which is a monitored station) as an example. The station (like most others) does a request countdown nightly. If requests equaled airplay, the most requested songs would be the most played. However, only two of the most requested songs fall in the top 10 most played list. FWIW, they belong to Leona Lewis and my boy, David Cook. (There we go again with those two.) BTW, Cookie is #1 most requested and #8 most played.
Keep in mind, when Jordin’s Tattoo had been at radio (with the benefit of a LOT more Z100 play than Cookie is getting) for a month before it was released to itunes. It sold less in its first week out than Magic Rainbow has in its fifth. Did stations stop playing the song? Or, did her airplay increase enough for her to have a #12 pop radio hit by the time her album was released? If payola was not a consideration or at least questioned then, I really don’t see why it would be now.
One last morsel for thought: Last year, Kelly’s Never Again and Elliott’s Wait For You sold roughly the same amount of downloads. Her album outsold his. He received far greater airplay than she did for their singles. Neither of them was able to do much with a second single from their respective albums. She was considered as failing while he was considered as a modest success. To me, they were pretty much equal. Just another example of how sales and airplay sometimes mesh and sometimes don’t.
OK, my rambling (but true) informational lecture is complete. Carry on.
Really interesting, sherryw. Thanks. I understand none of it :), but I love to read about it.
He only dropped 10,000 this week as at Monday 24th and he is 36 on Top 40 and 9 on Mediabase and 14 on Hot AC. In only 1 month he has sold 558,000 downloads. This is brilliant as we know how long it took even Carrie, despite having physical cds available for International Fans and despite the fact that sales were so much more vibrant 3 or 4 years ago. And now with the tour starting and everyone able to see DC live, the sales will increase again. He is getting radio play because he has a radio friendly voice. It is clear when you hear David on air, that he sounds established. This is the reason he sold so many downloads with his studio versions each week. It was not only the AI fans who were buying them.
What’s also interesting, as per Mediabase if I’m reading it correctly, is that his “spins” just keep jumping up like crazy each week. At some point, that combined with the tour surely has to result in increased sales, wouldn’tcha thnk?
I had no idea that it takes so long for a single to hit big airplay. I guess I assumed that popular artists immediately shoot way up there in airplay. It’s so interesting to read that only Leona Lewis has equaled him this year in the time required to reach Top 10 in that category.
I think his biggest spin jumps are happening on Hot AC and AC. On AC he has like a 410 bullet which seems pretty high to me, and Hot AC he made that big jump from 19 to 14 in I think a day. Pop seems to be a little slower but he’s inching along (36 today).
Last night he debuted at #9 on the z100 interactive countdown. I’m almost sure that countdown relies on votes or requests. I don’t know if his fans have been voting or if the average Z100 listener is actually liking it. The countdown is pretty popular though.
I’ve been clicking through to “leaders” and “starters” now and then on Mediabase because, yes, I have actual work that I’m ignoring. He’s in the top 10 at a lot of AC and Hot AC stations, and #1 on at least one of the few I checked this morning. His Top 10 status happened fast at many of them, where they went from playing TOML zero times to playing it so much that his first appearance on those stations put him in the Top 10. I see no signs AT ALL of it slowing down in airplay, but I’m no expert reader of these things.