Posted on 03/25/2008 5:58:52 AM PDT by silent_jonny
AI bad mouth and dissed TH whenever they could, and still do. He never got the same promotion as a winner as the others did.
I didn't care for his first CD eithe and the one song on it that I bought it for, because I liked his pre Idol version of it so much, sucked on the new cd because it had been changed and not in a good way, imho. I was very disappointed. He should have left it alone. I hope he learned something from that first cd.
What I am wondering if there is more behind the scenes than we are being told by both sides. When the album sells didn't meet expectations then there could have been a lot of finger pointing and "I told you so's" on both sides that it created a riff.
Alot of people think you can take anyone and make it successful with today's technology. Take for instance the O'Town band experiment we know that is not true. You have to have actual talent. And then there are the dozens of band releases each year that do not go anywhere.
Then there are bands that get little or no air play and they make it on the strength of their live performances and word of mouth to become superstars.
I don't know what happen with TH's first CD but it was not good. That being said if he produces a good one on his own and gets good live performance reviews then just maybe he want end up on a VH-1 reality series with Ron Jermey, Tara Ried, Gary Coleman, and Flavor Flav.
I’m posting this question to SJ since I know he won’t mind me bugging him, but really this is for anyone who can fill me in. I got an email ad from Apple extolling me to download iTunes from AI contestants, and I must admit I am tempted with a few of the songs! (Yeah, so I’m a Cookie Monster! LOL!) But I don’t own an iPod, and believe me, I am very technologically challenged. Can I download these songs directly to my computer and play them there? If so, how? And since I am on dialup (I am going to upgrade one of these days, maybe this summer, but certainly not before May 21) would the files be too big to download successfully? If I download large files late at night it is usually okay, but it does take forever! How big is an iTune file, anyway?
Thanks, everyone! (I know, I know, I need to join the 21st century. One of these days. :)
They started bad mouthing him before the cd was even made. Cowell didn’t like him and after AI would make bad comments about TH whenever he was being interviewed.
My son was saying that there is a place to downloadsome of the songs for free. I would think the time to download would depend on the length of the song. For instance, would it be the studio version which is probably longer or the AI, minute and a half version?
Yes, you can download Itunes songs to your computer and listen to them there or burn them on to a CD. BUT I can’t even begin to imagine how long it would take on dial-up. I think it even says on the Itunes site that it’s not recommended for dial-up.
Itunes songs are in their own format (I think it’s called like MP4 or something) and they can’t be put on to regular MP3 players. Well, they CAN, but it’s sort of a pain in the behind. I have Creative Zen Vision and I download a lot of stuff from Amazon, but the AI performances are exclusive to Itunes.
For Idol songs, this is a pretty good source from the Top 12 on.
Note: If you have a Ad Blocker, you’ll want to turn it on now, some of the ads aren’t child-friendly.
http://new-music-now.blogspot.com/
To download the performances, find a post with ‘Live’ in the title, and click the desired performance. This brings up the page that plays the mp3. Click “Download this File”, then click the “Download Now!” button. Then the timer runs down, click “here”. To save the performance mp3, click “Save” and select a place to save it in.
To download the studio recordings, go to a post that says Studio Recordings in the title, and click the desired song. This will take you to a page where you must enter a captcha, then click “Download Now”. Click “Save” on the window that comes up and specify where to put the file.
For songs from the Top 16, 20, and 24, this site is the only complete source I’ve found. They are very buried, so it would be beneficial to use that site’s search feature to find performances.
To Download, click on the performance post you want, right click on the Bolded link near the bottom of the post, select “Save Target As” from the menu, and specify where to save the file.
For all of these files, when they are done downloading, the window will either close by itself, or wait for more instructions. If they stay up, clicking “Open” will open the file in your default media player, “Open Folder” will bring you to that place the file is saved, and close will close the window.
Now, bear in mind this is total speculation, but I imagine Taylor Hicks, not being a naive youngster, made changes to the AI contract at an early stage in the competition. TPTB, thinking that TH couldn’t make it that far anyway, went along with the revisions. (I’m recalling that something like this did, in fact, happen—something to do with TH keeping the rights to his name, I believe). In order to discourage other AI contestants/finalists from doing the same, they made it very hard for TH to be successful. They definitely DID NOT promote him the same way they did other contestants. And it always has to be about the money, in the end.
It’s my understanding that the contract that top 10 Idols sign before they go on tour allows them to audit the books, since they are getting a cut of receipts. Taylor has been the only one to ever to call for an audit and hired an outside audit agency to do the review.
This did not sit well with the producers.
It is possible but I doubt that a contestant can change their AI contract. If it were possible they would all be doing it. The next thing you know Monchichi would stipulate that only the homeless could be in the studio for his performances and all said homeless would have be wearing at least 10 different awareness ribbons. While David C would have to have at least 12 different crossword puzzles delivered to him before he would preform and 2 of them would have to be in a foreign language. Then Seacrest would demand that there be at least 10 dancing pool boys on stage with him when giving out results. All kidding aside no one knows how American is going to vote so why give a contestant that may fall flat on their face that kind of power plus AI would never get anyone signed to do the show with contract wrangling going on all the time.
I see Daughtry doing well in Europe if he tours and people see him. I think Underwood would be just in the states. I don’t know if there is a country/western market in Europe or Asia.
I think you're right on both points.
Recording artists make by far the lion's share of their income from touring. Record companies get nearly all the profit from album sales, leaving barely more than a salary for the artist. I don't know the digital sales business model, but suspect it's very similar, if not identical, to the album sales business model.
However, like all "old" media everywhere, the internet age is gradually changing everything. Record companies offer artists big marketing capabilities in return for signing with them. No artist used to have the ability to market themselves, but the internet is opening up self-marketing avenues for artists. We're not there yet, and it may take another decade or so, but the time may very well come when all music is sold digitally and physical sales will go the way of the horse and buggy. When that happens, artists will no longer need to sign with record labels.
I heard that, also. I believe he trademarked or copyrighted (I’m not sure what the difference is) his name before he auditioned. The producers were not happy about that.
That is why I don't see AI and 19 trying to deliberately sabotage their brand. It just does not make sense from a business stand point of view. Maybe AI did not promote the CD as well as they could have. But bottom line what did in TH's CD was TH's CD. It would not be the first time a for a producer and musician to miss the mark for a release.
I completely agree with you there. What people need to remember is that AI is a talent scouting contest. It no different for any other record label in sending out scouts to bars and other venues across American looking for unsigned talent to sign. If AI uses it's vehicle to discover the talent then they should have the right to capitalize on said discovery.
Definitely. It seems there are constant strains between a record company's interest in putting out what it considers to be commercially viable material, and the singer's (or band's) interest in being taken seriously as an "artist." Way too many singers/bands get all caught up in whatever it is they consider "art," and they forget (or don't know how) to be entertaining.
"The entry below dated January 5th, 2008, contains accurate information concerning the recent split with Taylor Hicks and J/Arista Records. We have found overwhelmingly since the story surfaced, that the prevailing spin in the media is Taylor Hicks was "dropped" from his contract, a notion that originated with the January 3, 2008 article, by writer Shirley Halperin, titled "Taylor Hicks, Ruben Studdard dropped from J Records?"
Considering that the dropping scenario conveniently fit in with the prevailing sentiment that American Idol was losing viewership and clout, the press was not interested in elaborating that the split was mutual, as confirmed by both Taylor Hicks and his former record company. As a result, the majority of the subsequent media reports state as fact that Hicks was dropped, effectively convincing readers that an artist who signed a three record contract and sold 500,000 copies of his debut album in the first two weeks (without the benefit of a single or radio play), was unilaterally dumped from his deal, and somehow in the process was convinced not to initiate a breach of contract lawsuit.
Now after this erroneous story has been repeated over and over, the "dropping" it is now taken as a fact. It's just too easy for some to paint Taylor Hicks as the poster boy of a supposedly failed American Idol system. Apparently selling an estimated 800,000 copies of a debut album worldwide without the benefit of top 40 radio play is the new definition of "failure".
Note on American Idol: For the record, we know the role American Idol played in bringing Taylor Hicks to the general public and the people who now make up his loyal fanbase, is tremendous. This is in fact the show that made Taylor Hicks' career. But it is now all too apparent that Taylor Hicks has been virtually eliminated from sight, support, and mention from American Idol. It is widely believed the reason for this excommunication is the fact he was the first Idol winner not to sign with 19 Management, effectively cutting off millions in revenue from the company. Show producer Nigel Lythgoe has gone so far to state in two separate interviews that the American Public "got it wrong" by voting for him. To his credit, Taylor Hicks has not responded to these provocative claims."
OMG!!! LOL! It looks just like him!!
LOL!
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