Hope you David Cook fans out there got a chance to download your copy of his pre-idol CD Analog Heart, ’cause it’s no longer available on Amazon. Go ahead and click the banner. The message you get is “Not Available.”
It looks like Roger Friedman’s article, posted Monday on the FOX website, has led to the album being pulled from Amazon. (Hello, Roger: David studied Chris Daughtry’s audition prior to his own audition before the judges–they aren’t actually buddies. And do your effing homework. David Cook isn’t the first Idol to sell a pre-Idol CD during a run on the show.)
Currently Carly Hennessy Smithson’s CD is still available on Amazon. Chris Sligh sold a CD through Amazon during last year’s competition, and Taylor Hicks sold his pre-Idol CD, Under the Radar through an independent record store in Birmingham.
Could it be that TPTB had the album pulled, because David’s CD was showing up on the Amazon rankings? Or that other media outlets were beginning to pick up the story? It’s not clear how many copies have been sold, but Amazon mp3 downloads only make up 2% of the total paid downloads in the US market. Hardly a “major” market, I’d say. Although Analog Heart was number #1, considering those stats, I can’t imagine it was burning up the sales charts. This CD has been available for awhile. If it violated the terms of his contract with AI, it would have been pulled months ago, one would think.
Friedman is a little late to the “ringer” controversy. It raged months ago, when it was discovered that Carly Smithson, Kristy Lee Cook and Michael Johns had honest-to-goodness major record deals before they auditioned for Idol. David Cook is considered a non-ringer in the controversy. The fact that he released an independent CD two years ago that’s now available on rinky-dink Amazon mp3 downloads hardly elevates him to ringer status in my book. Nice, Friedman–making a mountain out of a molehill.
The Idols comings and goings always have and always will be grist for the rumor mill (see: David Archuleta and his rumored stage daddy. That shiz can’t be easy for the kid as he tries to compete in this stress-filled contest), but it’s a little annoying to see something this innocuous blown up into a big deal. The upside of the CD being pulled–maybe the story will stop right here instead of growing legs.
