Posted on 03/15/2005 5:53:32 AM PST by silent_jonny
Very true. It's also true that Bo's version of the single isn't doing well at all, anywhere on any list. It's virtually impossible for two artists to have two versions of the same song out at the same time, and for both of them to succeed with it. It's absolutely ridiculous marketing strategy for the same record company and producers to put both of their new artists out there competing against each other with the same song -- whether or not the song stinks. It's not fair to either artist.
I realize you don't like Carrie...
It isn't that I don't like Carrie. Rather, it's that I don't understand why I turned from liking her earlier this season to disliking her. In any case, I haven't mentioned it in "every" post. What I've been trying to do by reporting weekly industry radio airplay and sales/chart updates is to provide a sense of the current music climate and what/who Carrie will have to compete against in the non-AI world.
I think Bo has an even more steep hill to climb if he wants to compete against today's hot rock groups.
As a fan of AI, I would like to see both of them succeed. Whether or not you believe that, it happens to be true.
Whether or not I like it, or you like it, the fact is that popular music today is edgy, often dark or hard. Even sweet country ballads like "God Bless the Broken Road" and "Making Memories of Us" have a sad, heart-rending quality to them. And a lot of the upbeat country tunes these days have more than a touch of rock to them. That's the real world in which Carrie is going to have to compete.
Not just Carrie, by the way. The young woman who won this year's Nashville Star competition, Erika Jo, released her first album recently, and so far it's nowhere. She's cute, but not flat-out beautiful like Carrie is. Also Erica Joe's voice, while good, is not as naturally big as Carrie's voice. But Erica Jo is genuine country, is an excellent performer, and has big-name country people behind her. Yet her album is going nowhere so far.
We'll know as the numbers come in, but I think she's going to debut with a modest hit. However, I think it won't have any staying power.
The target release for both first albums by Carrie and Bo is thus Fall. Personally, I wish they and the producers would not rush, but take their time to find quality material that suits each of their styles. We are, unfortunately, a disposable society. Yesterday's star becomes tomorrow's has-been all too quickly unless they can make money for the producers. Remember how hot Justin Guarini was after he finished 2nd in the first season? I honestly don't want to see that happen to either Carrie or Bo.
Here are Carrie's first week sales for her single:
Billboard Hot Single Sales: 129,610 (No. 1)
Billboard Hot Digital Sales: 39,024 (No. 4)
Total Sales (Physical & Digital): 168,634
Tomorrow we'll find out where Carrie landed on the overall Billboard singles charts, which combine sales and airplay numbers, and which are used by the industry to determine hits vs. misses.
This year, Billboard began adding digital download sales to physical in-store sales, which inflates the total numbers. Carrie's in-store sales of 129,610 are the weakest sales numbers for any AI winner to date. (I'll report Bo's numbers when they come in next week, but I don't expect much.)
Here's the first week sales (in-store numbers only, and rounded off) for past AI winners:
Kelly: "Before Your Love"/"A Moment Like This" -- 236,000 (eventually went platinum)
Ruben: "Superstar"/"Flying Without Wings" -- 286,000
Fantasia: "I Believe"/"Chain of Fools"/"Summertime" -- 142,000
The AI leader in first-week single sales is Clay with 393,000 for his cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water." (Don't remember what side 2 was on it.)
In other words, Carrie's in-store sales were lower than Fantasia's last year.
Just so Carrie fans here won't misunderstand and take it that I'm criticizing her rather than just reporting the numbers, here's some representative commentary from Pulse Music Board. A lot of music industry insiders participate there, and that's where I found the above numbers. (You have to subscribe to see Billboard's sales charts.) The first post is from Carrie's fan board, and the second is from one of the Mariah Carey fan boards. Both are verbatim:
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KikiMets
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Re: "Inside Your Heaven" - Carrie Underwood
« Reply #250 on Today at 8:26am »
Those sales are pretty bad. She did marginally better than Fantasia thanks to the inclusion of digital sales, but still pales in comparison to the first-week sales of the singles from the first 2 seasons (especially considering that season 1 had maybe half as many viewers as subsequent seasons).
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ross
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Re: "We Belong Together," Mariah Carey Sixteenth #
« Reply #4014 on Today at 10:16am »i don't know if these type of posts get deleted but...
i can't believe i don't read more here about the ai/Fox fraud when it comes to record sales.
do you really believe that Carrie was #1 on itunes, but only #70 on wal-mart.com, and not in the buy.com's top100.
Considering NBC spent over $7M per episode for "Friends", don't you think FoxTV would spend $1M one-time to insure that carrie is #1 on the hot100, so ai seems like it is still finding future music stars?
Do you really believe that ruben sold 1.7M album1, but only sold .1M [Wolfie's note: by .1M I think he means 100,000] of album2?
Do you really believe that fantasia sold enough singles to barely be #1 on hot100 and 1.5M albums, yet is opening for Kem in short tour in small, non-sold-out venues?
As for Bo, i doubt he will be #1 because FoxTV only cares about the winner (see diana and justin, whose sales are legit, imo), so only buys the winners products.
Personally, i think kelly is the only legitimate super-star from ai (but clay's sales are also real, because his diminishing fans were initially so upset that ai gave ruben the title)
Hi, Wolfstar! (Saying hello over here instead of the other thread--haven't been around in a few days and missed some posts)
However, word also is that a number of top country music writers have been in discussions to work with Carrie on her upcoming album. If she gets quality material and can put some heart and soul into it, she should do fine.
And that's counting digital downloads too? Ouch.
I don't understand that decision at all. It's a weak song, made even weaker by Bo because it's not suited to him. There were/are at least a half-dozen better songs that AI could've released as his single. Pinning "Inside Your Heaven" to both of them is colossal mistake.
Actually, when digital sales are added to Carrie's numbers, she's a little higher than Fantasia last year. Carrie's total physical and digital first-week sales were 168,634. Fantasia's total, physical only (digital weren't added last year) was 142,000. Carrie is below Fantasia if digital sales are subtracted from her total.
I agree with you completely. It's a stupid marketing strategy done only to make a quick buck off what the AI/19 Management people must have thought were two entirely different fan bases. That's wrong. It's all one fan base -- the people who watch AI and are willing to support the winner and runner-up.
I know Netizen and perhaps some other Carrie fans here think I've been ragging on her because I don't like her. That's not it at all. I'm not a music industry professional, and yet I could see this coming a mile away for both Carrie and Bo.
It's wonderful that Carrie has her first #1 song, and she will probably be #1 on the all-important Hot 100 chart when it updates tomorrow (if her weak airplay numbers don't pull her down). But that's not the point. The point is that AI/19 Management and the supposedly brilliant Clive Davis should not be saddling these new artists with crappy material that further weakens their's and AI's credibility.
That's why I included that harsh commentary from the Pulse Music Board -- to show folks here what AI contestants like Carrie and Bo are really up against.
Bo was on The View today, where he repeated that he was glad he finished 2nd. He said he's very appreciative of the fans who voted for him, and for the opportunity he has now. But he considers himself a songwriter. He was concerned that winning AI might have hurt his credibility badly in the industry. He really wants a chance to do his own stuff, and if it hits, good. If it doesn't, at least he's had the opportunity to put it out there.
Word is that the Nashville types are eager to support Carrie. In my opinion, they need fresh blood in country music that might appeal to a younger, broader audience. So I repeat, if she gets good material and pours her heart and soul into it, she's got a good shot at succeeding.
I hope she does. Why should there be only one way for someone to succeed in show business?
I totally agree. The song is crappy, the production values on the CD's are crappy, and both the winner and runner up were forced to release the same song. That's a recipe for disaster. It's especially terrible for new artists who, above all, need to establish their credibility to fans and industry insiders alike.
Just got done listening to both singles again and just have to shake my head at the horrid, horrid production values, especially on Carrie Underwood's album. The RCA version with Bo is marginally better, but neither deserve much airplay either on pop stations or (in the case of Underwood) country stations.
The far too loud Hawaiian guitar is really annoying to listen to, and if they took three takes for these songs, I'd be shocked. I would hate to be either singer and listen to these songs just before release - the blood has to drain from the body imagining how badly they'll crash.
Both will have to work REALLY hard to overcome it. Luckily, both have enough personality that they'll at least be able to hit the talk circuit to promote whatever the next production is, but it had best be of a reasonable quality or they won't make a third round.
Ugh. Terribly disappointed. There are some music producers who really need their rumps kicked.
What's funny is that if they were going to use a song and not have it linked to a single new artist, they could have gone with Angels Brought Me Here, and done better with it. Putting Indepenence Day and Vehicle on the B sides hurt, too, because people were tired of it (and many thought other AI performances were stronger).
I bet Bo thinks so too, probably why he was glad he didn't win. This way he can make more of his own decisions. The B'ham stations have been playing his version of Vehicle regularly. It's actually better than his live performance, even though I am so tired of the song. I am anxious to hear an original from him.
Preach it!
Minimal risk equals minimal gain. If Davis and the rest of the AI crew had the guts to allow Carrie and Bo to choose the songs for their singles--or even better: if they had allowed the AI fans to vote on which songs they should release--then there would be greater enthusiasm right now.
Contrary to what Simon Cowell said ("America got it right!"), AI must not have any faith in their finalists.
There's a great station here that plays nothing but requests--their motto is "We Play Everything" and they do! They go from Buddy Holly to Shania Twain to Metallica and everything in between. If it's a hit they'll play it.
I mention this because I listen to this station every day and I'll hear Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" at least three times a day. This is impressive because like I said, they play everything and it's very unusual to hear the same song more than once a day--or even once a week. But I have yet to hear them play anything from Carrie or Bo. From a station that plays nothing but requests, it seems that noboby is requesting the AI winner or the runner-up.
We have a station like that in B'ham as well. :) My favorite station, plus they have my favorite talk show personalities in the A.M. (Rick and Bubba) Don't know if you have ever heard them but they are great! But since it is B'ham and it is close to where Bo is from, his song gets requested often. Ruben was very popular around here as well. In fact for a while I believe Ruben's mom was more popular than he was. :)
While Carrie's place in chart history is now written in stone, she is likely to spend just one week on top of the Hot 100. The next No. 1 song will carve out its own unique niche in history, as it will likely again be "Inside Your Heaven," but the version recorded by Bo Bice, runner-up to Underwood on this most recent season of "Idol." If that happens, it will be the first time since the Hot 100 was introduced in August 1958 that one version of a song has replaced another version of the same song at No. 1.
The funny thing is, Bo is not pushing "Inside Your Heaven" in his TV appearances. He's going with "Vehicle."
In the meantime, seven months after its release, Kelly Clarkson's album "Breakaway" is finally dropping a bit down the charts thanks to a slew of hot new summer releases by big-name artists. However, it's still a strong #12 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart, and this item appeared in today's Chart Beat column:
STILL BREAKING AWAY: Kelly Clarkson is still at the head of the class on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, as "Breakaway" (Walt Disney/Hollywood), from "The Princess Diaries 2" soundtrack, is on top for the 17th week.
The only female singer to have a longer-running AC No. 1 is Celine Dion (with "A New Day Has Come" at 21 weeks and "Because You Loved Me" at 19 weeks). Clarkson is tied for second place with Faith Hill, whose "Breathe" ruled for 17 weeks in 2000.
If "Breakaway" can hang on just four more weeks, Kelly will have achieved a remarkable feat in the industry.
In my opinion, in order to succeed, both Carrie and Bo have to follow the path taken by Kelly. She did not rush out her first album, and she insisted on making a high-quality second album, then literally broke away from the AI/19 Management/BMG crowd. She's also working very, very hard at her career.
I hope they both do alright and make some money.
I still think Carrie is only riding the recent contest regarding the record sale.
I figure she'll be all but gone by next year.
Bo has a good chance if making some hits should some material of quality get to him.
Material with a bite...
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