Tatiana Del Toro (probably purchasing her own mp3 to boost her sale)

Hi – larious!!! lol

I’m still hoping Matt G does Georgia again. I’m so buying that! So far, no one has performed anything that I have any desire to own. I love Anoop but I like the original My Perogative way better – it’s on my ipod. It’s really got to be amazing to make me download a cover… DC’s Billie Jean and Hello, Jason’s Halleluiah and Somewhere Over the Rainbow – amazing, imo.

It is a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“flukeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  in that it clearly is an exception to the rule. But I hardly think this à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹glimpse behind the curtainà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ is an accident. They want the public to see that America agrees with the judges selections and the popularity is reflected in sales. Just another little bit of manipulation here, typical for the way Idol runs things.

Exactly. I’m a software designer. There is simply no way that this disclosure is an accident. Idol songs are tagged automatically to be hidden from iTunes sales rankings. It’s not something they’d require somebody do by hand every week. Someone probably had to go through a lot of special effort for this to “slip” out. TPTB are getting hammered from all sides for this fraud of a season and that travesty of a wild card show. They hoped that by showing these numbers, people would say “oh, I guess they did choose the right four people.” I know they think we fans are dumb but it’s starting to frighten me how dumb.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t know if there will be a watershed moment for any of them but think ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s too soon to say that there wonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t be.

I don’t think anyone is saying there won’t be. In fact I sure as hell hope there are some showstopping moments because, like MJ, I really love this stupid cheesy show. Hopefully as these contestants get their footing and start to build real (rather than producer-manufactured) fanbases, people will start investing in their favorites.

But having tracked the iTunes sales pretty obsessively over last season (what? it’s a hobby!), I can tell you definitively that what we’re seeing right now is a major fall-off from S7, even at this early stage in the game. I agree with what many have posted here about why this might be (lack of seasoning due to the 1-song semifinal format, poor song choices), but seeing that the Wildcard performances overcame both of these obstacles to some degree, I would say things are not looking good in terms of demand for these contestants right now.

Last season’s best-selling Idol performance tracks would usually start to appear in the iTunes overall rankings by the Thursday morning after the results show. The really big hits usually made the top five by mid-day Thursday, and then climbed to #1 or #2 through the weekend. I’ve already mentioned the big semi-final hits from last season. Of the pre-finale studio recordings last year, two finalists had songs make it to #1 or #2 on all of iTunes: Castro (Over the Rainbow) and Cook (Billie Jean, Always Be My Baby, and IDWMAT). These mega-hits also had incredible staying-power, remaining in the overall rankings for weeks after they were performed.

But even amongst performances that were not true “watercooler moments,” there were a bunch of songs that made it into the #10-#30 range on all of iTunes before gradually drifting back down after the Idol spike was over. Of the S7 finalists, four had songs that hit the top 30 overall: Brooke (Let it Be), Michael Johns (We Are the Champions, It’s All Wrong…, Dream On), David A (Angels, You’re the Voice, Smoky Mountain Memories, Love Me Tender) and David Cook (Eleanor Rigby, Little Sparrow, Music of the Night, I’m Alive, and Hungry like the Wolf).

None of these S8 Wildcard performances even sniffed the top 120 this week, and from the looks of the popularity bars I’m not sure even Matt or Anoop made the top 500. Like I said, this does not in any way preclude them from having break-out performances in the weeks to come. We obviously have a very limited amount of data, and who knows – maybe some of the early-round standouts sold more than Flo Rida. We didn’t have visibility into that. At this point though, signs point to no.

One positive is that great performances as the season progresses do tend to lift sales of the entire back-catalog. David Cook probably experienced this phenomenon more than any contestant last year – as the weeks wore on and he delivered over and over again, he gained new fans who went back and purchased all of his early-season performance stuff. It happened week after week – ‘Hello’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ would pop back into the top ranks weeks later when he was in the top 10 with ABMB, Music of the Night, IDWMAT, etc. Hopefully some of these S8 kids will show sustained growth in the same way, because (Kristy Lee Cook not withstanding) that’s what I think TPTB are looking for when it’s time to make signing decisions.

Later in the season Cook was #1 overall on iTunes with à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Billie Jean,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹ABMB,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹I Donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t Want to Miss a Thing.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ He likely moved six figures in each of those weeks. I think Idol and Apple made a LOT of money on S7 downloads.

I still wish they’d someday release those figures. Someone must have them, since people got paid based on those numbers… Oh well.
Thanks for reminding me what was David’s 3rd #1, too. I remembered there were 3, but couldn’t remember what was the song other than BJ and ABMB.

If the WC downloads are indicative of anything, than this really does not bode well for Season 8 so far. I still routinely listen to my S7 downloads to this day, there were some real jems in there.

http://i39.tinypic.com/10rpuo4.jpg
most of the songs rankingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

Other than the wildcard songs, the rest of the list is alphabetized.

I heard that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Aloneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  peaked at 22 on ITunes but its popularity is higher than Brookeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Hold Up My Heartà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  and that made it to the Top 10 so shouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t that have made it to the Top 10 too? Also what about à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Drops of Jupiterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  that also made it to the Top 100 on ITunes too and there may have been one or two other songs that people performed that made it to the Top 100.

iTunes popularity rankings (and the Top Songs list) track a rolling period, commonly believed to be ~2-3 days. So these rankings and popularity bars are not cumulative – they are essentially reflective of how songs are selling “now,” with perhaps a 48 hour cushion to smooth-out spikes. As songs peak and their sales start to wane over a few days, their ranking and popularity bars relative to other songs will go down.

Brooke’s HUMH sold better than ‘Alone’ last week after her Idol appearance. Over the first day or so when her downloads were at their highest volume, you could watch her track rise up into the top ten and stay there for awhile. And then as the rolling tracking period moved further away from her performance date, she started drifting back down the rankings. Now her spike is mostly over and ‘Alone’ is selling better and more consistently. ‘Drops of Jupiter’ and other songs that got a temporary bump from Idol exhibited the same behavior – up in the first 48 hours or so after a performance, and then gradually down through the next week.

http://i39.tinypic.com/10rpuo4.jpg
most of the songs rankingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

There are no popularity bars for the other songs, that list is meaningless.

I have a feeling that there was added stress on this group because they knew they had to be in the top 3 to get through instead of staying out of the bottom 2. They certainly didn’t make the best song choices overall but it’s also hard to take a chance with it under the circumstances. I don’t know if there will be a watershed moment for any of them but think it’s too soon to say that there won’t be.

Didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Hallelujahà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  go to #1 last year? It was at least Top 10 I think That was a live version from the semi finals.

Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah went to #1. Jason’s Hallelujah did really well, too, but you have to conceed that you can’t really compare the songs
Hallelujah and ‘My Perogative’. The quality of song that the wildcard contestants sang might have something to do with the lack of downloads.

“And thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s one of the arguments against this semis format à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  no one is allowed to grow and break out.”

I agree but donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think we should hold this seasonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s idols accountable for that.

They’re not accountable but that’s how it is. Like Season 7 is said to be boring and lacking in drama. It’s not the contestant’s fault that most of them are drama-free and quite professional; it’s also not their fault that the show focused on mentors rather than on the contestants themselves. Not their fault technically but Simon/Nigel/TPTB blame it on the contestants why 7 was boring and that the ratings were going down.

mj Mar 7th, 2009 at 11:42 pm

I think this is a fluke. None of the semi weeks work if you try it that way.

It is a “fluke” in that it clearly is an exception to the rule. But I hardly think this ‘glimpse behind the curtain’ is an accident. They want the public to see that America agrees with the judges selections and the popularity is reflected in sales. Just another little bit of manipulation here, typical for the way Idol runs things.

You’ve gotta love the chutzpah of the little disclaimer there on the iTunes page:

iTunes and FOX are committed to presenting contestants in a fair and balanced manner online and on-air.

Talk about horsesh!t, Jesus, these guys are arrogant.

And thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s one of the arguments against this semis format à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  no one is allowed to grow and break out.

I agree but don’t think we should hold this season’s idols accountable for that.

I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t know if ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s fair to compare to previous seasonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“watercoolerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  performances because most of this seasonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s idols have only had one performance/recording

And that’s one of the arguments against this semis format — no one is allowed to grow and break out.

I don’t know if it’s fair to compare to previous season’s “watercooler” performances because most of this season’s idols have only had one performance/recording and even though the wildcards got a 2nd one I believe there were some limits on what they sang not the least of which being time. I didn’t buy any of last season’s first songs until later when I went back and got Michael John’s “Light my Fire” and Jason Castro’s “Daydream”.

Overall the production quality of the semis was w-a-y better than this yearà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s cassio-music-as-backup-track.

There was a 5 piece band, and backup singers playing throughout the semis, you just couldn’t see them.

Not only that — last year at this time my Idol concert crew was already making plans to buy tickets to the Season 7 show, as we knew that the talent pool was strong and deep. We’re not there yet.