I do not see any long-term star potential in any of the remaining 5 other than probably Allison.

I see that potential in Allison, Adam, and Kris. And Danny in CCM. I think those four will have musical careers worth noting.

Oh but one fact needs to be cleared up – Season 7 was the first time the songs ended up on ITunes for sale during the Season. During Season 6 they were being sold on the official AI websites, and as I recall, ALL of the Idols sales numbers were pretty craptasic.

Nevertheless, Blake’s AI performances still outsold hers significantly. It diddn’t translate over to the real world. So we can infer NOTHING about Adam’s commercial potential based on his Itunes figures.

Hardly. Blake outsold Jordin in terms of in-season downloads. Howà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d that turn out for him in the end?

Excuse me while I laugh hysterically. I think Blake’s demise had mostly to do with him being a PR nightmare and the fact that his talent was no where near the size of his ego. But that’s been debated to death so I’ll leave it at that.

Oh but one fact needs to be cleared up – Season 7 was the first time the songs ended up on ITunes for sale during the Season. During Season 6 they were being sold on the official AI websites, and as I recall, ALL of the Idols sales numbers were pretty craptasic.

Hardly. Blake outsold Jordin in terms of in-season downloads. Howà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d that turn out for him in the end? As others have stated, there is an out-of-sight/out-of-mind factor that goes along with the Idol-spawned à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“artistsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ . And also, the ones that perform the most interesting and appealing music while on the show tend to move the most downloads.

But, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not predictive of what will happen in the real world. However, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sure all the Glamberts will passionately try to convince themselves (not to mention, the rest of us, ad nauseam) otherwise.

Fair point. As much as many people are enthralled by Adam (me included), I do not think he will be the AI success that Carrie/Kelly turned out to be. I do not see any long-term star potential in any of the remaining 5 other than probably Allison. But I am totally against any 16 year old be put through the arduous demands of winning AI (one look at archie and i cannot help but feel for all the misses he has had be it playing games or just plain old hanging out w/friends and all that that comes with just being a kid – yuck!), so I do not hope for her to win this. Kris seems so laid back that he will potentially benefit from anything that will come out of this, not so much for AI. He seems their best bet now and ideally their dream contestant to sign up and work with, so I am gearing up for more standing O-s from the judges for Kris, just to upset the clear status of Adam.

But seeing how conceited and self-indulgent the AI PTB have been, it will be just fitting for Adam to win. I care less if he will make a small dent in AI’s $8Billion pocketbook.

“”I heard the same rumor. He definitely sounded a bit rusty. Loved his dance moves though; he really worked the stage.”"

Surely David A. could learn to SKIP!

Works for Adam. Mama likie.

The thing is when they do release the singles I buy based on what they put outà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦..I liked Cook, but none of his singles impressed me, so I wont buy simply because I am a fan..if it doesnt cut it for meà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦I WONT BUY IT. I liked Archie, but Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m not buying any of that fluff either. Huge Jason Castro fan..if his releases coming up dont cut it, I wont buy them either. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s how I roll, and I suspect thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s how most of the casual viewers/general buying public roll in the real world also.

I’m the same way Chipmunk (sharing a brain again!). In the past, I’ve pre-ordered a couple cd’s from people I really liked on the show, only to discover that 90% of the cd was crap. So, now, I only download a single here and there, and only if I like the snippet.

Does this answer peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s questions know whether or not the music buying public out in the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“real worldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  would by music from Adam Lambert? Since some of you liked to assume his only appeal was live performances

Hardly. Blake outsold Jordin in terms of in-season downloads. How’d that turn out for him in the end? As others have stated, there is an out-of-sight/out-of-mind factor that goes along with the Idol-spawned “artists”. And also, the ones that perform the most interesting and appealing music while on the show tend to move the most downloads.

But, it’s not predictive of what will happen in the real world. However, I’m sure all the Glamberts will passionately try to convince themselves (not to mention, the rest of us, ad nauseam) otherwise.

.

Gokey: definitely a flash in the pan; maybe a one CD wonder. Kris Allen: singer, songwriter, musician; maybe 2 CD’s, but more potential (as in money) as a songwriter. Matt: keeps on keeping on. No CD’s, but no worries.

Adam: I can’t quite put together a long term package for him. I would definitely want a shot at his first CD, tour, but someone already has that and won’t give it up.

OH- here is a little piece that may add to you insight as to Allison’s character. I never go with a “gut feeling”, but instead do what I can to get a little insight.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/04/american-idol-5.html

except for an american idol download (thats why i think AI downloads are going to go up up up in the charts!)

Since Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a Youtube freak I watch the numbers for the Studio Versions that are uploaded. Adam not only leads every week in numbers of views, but sometimes as many as 20 different people upload the same song. So we get two different kinds of voters hereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦those that visit Itunes so that they can listen on their Ipods (etc) and those that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“watchà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  Youtube because they spend all their time on the computer and its free. I wish I had the patience to add up all the views for every studio version for every contestant to really see the relevant numbersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦.but alas Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d rather be reading MJs.

I have some numbers but I also count the videos for live performances as well. I use viralvideochart.com to check if anyone seeded their videos before TPTB took them down on youtube. I take the sum of the 5 most popular videos for each performance.

It’s not conclusive at all. The Top 10 videos (excludes semifinals and wildcard) are:

Mad World Adam Lambert 2,512,003
Black Or White Adam Lambert 1,412,753
The Tracks Of My Tears Adam Lambert 1,359,130
Ring Of Fire Adam Lambert 1,187,829
Play That Funky Music Adam Lambert 386,063
Born To Be Wild Adam Lambert 374,341
Always On My Mind Anoop Desai 246,342
P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing) Danny Gokey 240,182
What Hurts The Most Danny Gokey 210,259
Papa Was A Rolling Stone Allison Iraheta 202,944

On average view per performance, the Top 13 would rank like this.

1 Adam Lambert 1,042,306
2 Danny Gokey 192,767
3 Megan Joy 151,147
4 Kris Allen 142,308
5 Allison Iraheta 139,111
6 Anoop Desai 108,656
7 Matt Giraud 91,049
8 Alexis Grace 82,162
9 Jorge Nunez 57,958
10 Scott MacIntyre 39,946
11 Lil Rounds 39,727
12 Jasmine Murray 21,044
13 Michael Sarver 8,217

As you can see, there are anomalies happening. So don’t read too much into it.
Also videos that were not seeded and were removed by TPTB are gone. We can’t capture their data which skews this ranking a lot.

proudmomà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s even more amazing that Archie is doing well with that song consideringà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦he did not Sound Good last night, poor babyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦I heard he was sick?

I heard the same rumor. He definitely sounded a bit rusty. Loved his dance moves though; he really worked the stage.

When the show is off the air, out of sight out of mind and when the next Idol season begins, they are moving onto the new faves. Which is why Archie and Cook were killing themselves to get that album out in November.

Otherwise, given his iTunes popularity, David Cook should have sold 5 – 10 million albums by now if everyone who voted for him bought his album or even a portion of those peeps, nà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢est-ce pas?

I mean Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve watched the show on and off since it started – loved it Season 1 and 2, I was meh about Seasons 3 – 6, got drawn back in Season 7.

I have not bought one single album put out by any single Idol contestant. Do I get slapped now? I did however download a few songs from iTunes, last season.

I will break the drought this year, and buy an album from an Idol contestant and I might pick up a Kelly Clarkson album one day but thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll likely be it. And I have the first and will buy the second album of another reality show contestant, Suzie McNeil.

I am a music fan per se, I buy a fair amount of music. But for me it does tend to be out of sight out of mind and Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll save my pennies to get that James Morrison album, or the Killers or Blue October.

How many Idol viewers are like me?

I’m like you sort of……….they’re not out of sight for me when Idols is over, I still look out for any releases, but stick to buying my regulars..The thing is when they do release the singles I buy based on what they put out…..I liked Cook, but none of his singles impressed me, so I wont buy simply because I am a fan..if it doesnt cut it for me…I WONT BUY IT. I liked Archie, but I’m not buying any of that fluff either. Huge Jason Castro fan..if his releases coming up dont cut it, I wont buy them either. That’s how I roll, and I suspect that’s how most of the casual viewers/general buying public roll in the real world also.

So you never know who will do well or not post idol…it will all depend on the quality of the material they put out. Remove a few overinvested fans,who would buy it regardless, it can go either way.

2nd, 3rd, or 4th place a 19 contract pretty much guarantees a bunch of lame pop starsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ cast off songs one Diane Warren song one mandatory appearance in a lame David Foster PBS special.

See Archuleta to butress point :laugh_tb:

However, I would have some requests. The main one is, do not overproduce this boy!!! Simple is absolutely best for Kris. Could there be an actual idol (19) first, a full/ or mostly acoustic album?

I think it would be so cool that their top 2 albums would be polar opposites. (tm simon). Because yeah, my assumption is that Adam will win it all!

There’s always room for upsets. Adam has to deal with fan complacency and his fan’s too high expectations. These are real issues for Adam. Also, you never know who fans of voted off contestants will flock to. Kris could be taking some of Danny fans. Who knows.

Nobody knows if any of the contestants will be successful, or really even what kind of album they will put out (since it’s never what people expect). We just have to go on potential and possibilities. And Matt has potential. And the further you go in the competition, the more chances he has to show his potential and get some contract.

I don’t know why people get worked up thinking there is only one person who “wins”. Every year, multiple people get amazing opportunities. Multiple people get recording contracts. There’s room for multiple Idols to have success this year.

When the show is off the air, out of sight out of mind and when the next Idol season begins, they are moving onto the new faves. Which is why Archie and Cook were killing themselves to get that album out in November.

Otherwise, given his iTunes popularity, David Cook should have sold 5 – 10 million albums by now if everyone who voted for him bought his album or even a portion of those peeps, n’est-ce pas?

I mean I’ve watched the show on and off since it started – loved it Season 1 and 2, I was meh about Seasons 3 – 6, got drawn back in Season 7.

I have not bought one single album put out by any single Idol contestant. Do I get slapped now? I did however download a few songs from iTunes, last season.

I will break the drought this year, and buy an album from an Idol contestant and I might pick up a Kelly Clarkson album one day but that’ll likely be it. And I have the first and will buy the second album of another reality show contestant, Suzie McNeil.

I am a music fan per se, I buy a fair amount of music. But for me it does tend to be out of sight out of mind and I’ll save my pennies to get that James Morrison album, or the Killers or Blue October.

How many Idol viewers are like me?

Well, I feel like a big fat goober, but i have to askà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦ who is Jesse McCartney?

He’s a teen popstar not affiliated with the Idol brand. He’s done a little light acting on Disney and such. If you don’t have a tween in your home, you prolly missed out on this person’s career.

(Please be gentle. I skipped last season altogether in protest over the Melinda Doolittle screwification of Season 6… so if this Jesse McCartney person was last year’s? je suis confuse…)

Even though Dowloads are different than actual phone/text votes it would be interesting to see how Kris and Danny do on the phone/text votes.

I really believe that Kris Allen might have passed Danny Gokey last week in phone and text votes.

I do think with some backing and good song writing Kris might actually have a more successful career after Idol than Danny looking at the itunes download sales.