Rank / Name / Album / Release Date / Sales / Chart Position 1 Clay Aiken Measure of a Man 10/14/2003 612,859 1 2 Ruben Studdard Soulful 12/9/2003 416,569 1 3 Carrie Underwood Some Hearts 11/15/2005 314,549 2 4 Chris Daughtry Daughtry 11/21/2006 303,677 2 5 Taylor Hicks Taylor Hicks 12/12/2006 298,199 2 6 Kelly Clarkson Thankful 4/15/2003 297,000 1 7 David Cook David Cook 11/18/2008 ~283,446 3 8 Fantasia Free Yourself 11/23/2004 239,389 8 9 Bo Bice The Real Thing 12/13/2005 226,976 4 10 Jennifer Hudson Jennifer Hudson 9/30/2008 217,185 2
I'm surprised he even sold that much b/c a) the album was not only garbage but sounded nothing like anything Taylor would choose himself and b) the label and show made it a point not to promote it. He never even had a single. Woe.
(I own his album, don't tell anyone! :-) Can't help it, I was one of those odd people who genuinely liked the guy)
Oh I liked him too, I just can't fathom how he sold that close to 300K back then. But the market was different even two years ago. That CD was shit. I still play his old stuff every once in a while when I'm feeling Southern rock-ish, and I still love his crazy drunken live bootlegs.
i'm always a little bitter over his lack of promotion. The opening numbers IMO were a good sign, he could have sold if they had just tried. Even if they didn't like the guy, I thought business was supposed to be business, you know? Who doesn't want to make more money? FWIW at least he did get certified platinum (I think actual sales were about 750k though, there was some gross overshipment going on there).
I'm trying to feel for a pattern here so I can project but the top five of that list is throwing me way off. Carrie's debut is half that of Clay's but she ended up selling twice as much, and she and Daughtry definitely outsold Ruben in he end.
If I concentrate on the bottom five though, Thankful went 2x platinum, Free yourself sold 1.8 million, and both albums got fair promotion IMO. So those look like good odds for David Cook to go 2x platinum as well, or very close to it.
it's so hard to say, too, because there are so many other factors. i mean, in ruben and clay you had such a huge bitter rivalry to drive sales. plus, pirating music has become SO much more widespread in the past five years. hell, album sales this year and down 25% from 2007. that shit is crazy.
ugh, 25% in one year! and '07 sales were already bad enough. i know on one forum they did a list of the top selling albums of the calendar year, and only one - ONE - album has hit double platinum (lil wayne). coldplay was at 1.8m so maybe they will get there in by 12/31...maybe. but that is a ridiculous number when you consider that not so long ago, pushing a mere 'platinum' was nothing - sometimes even considered a flop - for major artists, and now it is a huge fucking accomplishment.
i have heard people say before that music is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment and so it doesn't get affected as much by the economy and that may very well be true, but pirating is so easy now that it completely nullifies that theory. it really comes down to fan loyalty. it SHOULD be about the music, but it isn't - hasn't been for a very long time. it's about if you can convince someone to like YOU enough to buy your album even if they already have their favorite song as their ringtone.
it's so weird to think about twenty, ten, five years ago when it actually was not hard to develop a committed fanbase of any size if you put out a good (or at least commercial) album in your genre. now? it's like pulling teeth to get people to be bothered or to make the connection between album sales ---> favorite artist's chances of getting to make a next album. and if they do nine times out of ten they are not average fans, but obsessed stans. i have no problem with being designated as an obsessed stan if that is what it comes down to, btw :-) but it's a shame that it has to be like that. i have friends/a sister who look at me like i've lost my mind when i buy an album, b/c i could easily have it for free. i shouldn't feel like a freak for buying a cd, for crying out loud.
as you can see i could talk about this all day...music is my obsession. all that said i'm really proud of dc for doing 283k his first week, and a number like that, with continued steady promotion, SHOULD hold up to a good total at the end the entire cycle. i have my fingers crossed for him.
Yeah, if this had been even two years ago DCook's numbers would be much higher, but album sales are just down in general. There was a detailed article posted on the DCO numbers thread about it a while back.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-25 10:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-25 10:04 pm (UTC)Rank / Name / Album / Release Date / Sales / Chart Position
1 Clay Aiken Measure of a Man 10/14/2003 612,859 1
2 Ruben Studdard Soulful 12/9/2003 416,569 1
3 Carrie Underwood Some Hearts 11/15/2005 314,549 2
4 Chris Daughtry Daughtry 11/21/2006 303,677 2
5 Taylor Hicks Taylor Hicks 12/12/2006 298,199 2
6 Kelly Clarkson Thankful 4/15/2003 297,000 1
7 David Cook David Cook 11/18/2008 ~283,446 3
8 Fantasia Free Yourself 11/23/2004 239,389 8
9 Bo Bice The Real Thing 12/13/2005 226,976 4
10 Jennifer Hudson Jennifer Hudson 9/30/2008 217,185 2
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-25 10:25 pm (UTC);)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-25 11:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-26 12:28 am (UTC)I'm surprised he even sold that much b/c a) the album was not only garbage but sounded nothing like anything Taylor would choose himself and b) the label and show made it a point not to promote it. He never even had a single. Woe.
(I own his album, don't tell anyone! :-) Can't help it, I was one of those odd people who genuinely liked the guy)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-26 12:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-26 12:41 am (UTC)i'm always a little bitter over his lack of promotion. The opening numbers IMO were a good sign, he could have sold if they had just tried. Even if they didn't like the guy, I thought business was supposed to be business, you know? Who doesn't want to make more money? FWIW at least he did get certified platinum (I think actual sales were about 750k though, there was some gross overshipment going on there).
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-26 12:36 am (UTC)If I concentrate on the bottom five though, Thankful went 2x platinum, Free yourself sold 1.8 million, and both albums got fair promotion IMO. So those look like good odds for David Cook to go 2x platinum as well, or very close to it.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-26 02:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-26 10:12 am (UTC)i have heard people say before that music is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment and so it doesn't get affected as much by the economy and that may very well be true, but pirating is so easy now that it completely nullifies that theory. it really comes down to fan loyalty. it SHOULD be about the music, but it isn't - hasn't been for a very long time. it's about if you can convince someone to like YOU enough to buy your album even if they already have their favorite song as their ringtone.
it's so weird to think about twenty, ten, five years ago when it actually was not hard to develop a committed fanbase of any size if you put out a good (or at least commercial) album in your genre. now? it's like pulling teeth to get people to be bothered or to make the connection between album sales ---> favorite artist's chances of getting to make a next album. and if they do nine times out of ten they are not average fans, but obsessed stans. i have no problem with being designated as an obsessed stan if that is what it comes down to, btw :-) but it's a shame that it has to be like that. i have friends/a sister who look at me like i've lost my mind when i buy an album, b/c i could easily have it for free. i shouldn't feel like a freak for buying a cd, for crying out loud.
as you can see i could talk about this all day...music is my obsession. all that said i'm really proud of dc for doing 283k his first week, and a number like that, with continued steady promotion, SHOULD hold up to a good total at the end the entire cycle. i have my fingers crossed for him.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-26 03:20 am (UTC)