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Carrie Underwood Surpasses Kelly Clarkson As Top ‘American Idol’ Earner

Christian Allaire — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:12:12 +0000

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Carrie Underwood has officially become ‘American Idol’s’ top earner, surpassing season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson.

As of May 16, Underwood’s album sales topped 12,296,000 and she’s moved more than 18,482,000 digital tracks since winning season 4.

Clarkson is close, though, selling 10,600,000 albums and 15,900,000 digital tracks since 2002.

Underwood has also spent a healthy chunk of the last two years on the road, racking up more money from touring. While Clarkson’s international presence is stronger than Underwood’s, who plays mostly to U.S. and Canadian audiences, she’s devoted less time touring and more time working on her as yet unreleased fifth album.

To compare the two, Clarkson’s tour revenues since her win is around $32,000,000, while Underwood has pulled in twice that amount since 2006, around $66,000,000.

As for the rest of the idols, we have rocker Chris Daughtry in third place with 6,104,000 album sales, while Clay Aiken comes in at fourth with 4,990,000 and Fantasia at fifth with 2,809,000.

Clarkson and Underwood are definitely my favourite ‘Idol’ winners, so I’m glad they’re on top. Underwood is lucky she has the country music scene on her side – that genre generates so much money, it’s ridiculous.

Glee’s Producer Starts Record Label

Christian Allaire — Sun, 08 May 2011 22:07:55 +0000

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Glee’s executive music producer Adam Anders is launching his own record label, reports Billboard.

The label, titled Anders Music Records, will first launch a self-titled debut album of singer/dancer/actor Shane Harper, who plays the recurring character Spencer Walsh on the Disney Channel sitcom ‘Good Luck Charlie.’

Also in the works are albums by Montana native Zac Poor and Texas singer/songwriter Ben Burgess.

“When you do a standard distribution deal, you are being boxed into one system,” Anders says. “By saying, ‘Let’s do everything in-house,’ we can make the decision as to when we need a major.”

Harper’s first single, ‘One Step Closer,’ was featured on ‘Good Luck Charlie’ in April. Radio Disney added the song to its playlist and Abercrombie & Fitch’s Hollister stores used the song and Harper’s image in promotional activities. Guess Anders took notice.

The single has now sold close to 3,000 digital tracks since its March 31 release, while the album has sold fewer than 1,000 units since its April 12 bow, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Harper is currently touring with YouTube star Greyson Chance and Cody Simpson, which wraps May 18.

“I don’t believe in putting out a single and then if it doesn’t hit, drop the artist,” Anders says. “We are here to develop artists — there is no timetable to getting it right.”

“I’m 35 and I tend to gravitate toward younger artists,” he says. “But if the singer is 30 and the music’s great, I’ll consider it.”

The man obviously knows music and has the power to launch his own label, so why not? I like his comment about not dropping artists due to low sales. It’s not always the artist’s fault and I think it’s unfair due to bad promotion or advertising. Hopefully he’ll bring back some integrity to the music business.

How Oprah is Helping the Music Biz

Sara Harowitz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:08:33 +0000

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Thanks to illegal digital downloading, album sales are on a continuous decline. And as sales keep sliding, the music industry keeps looking for ways to make big events out of record releases. There have been partnerships with big retail companies (such as Walmart’s exclusive with AC/DC’s Black Ice), large-scale live shows (such as Jay-Z’s event before the release of The Blueprint III), and exciting fan contests (such as Pearl Jam’s artwork scavenger hunt for Backspacer). But as rollingstone.com reports, one sure way to guarantee an album’s success is Oprah Winfrey.

For example, Canadian singer Michael Buble’s new album Crazy Love went to the top of the charts after he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which led Variety magazine to examine what they are calling the “Oprah Effect.”

“Oprah is the one thing everyone wants,” Diarmuid Quinn, president of Reprise Records, told Variety. “If you get that call back from her production people, my god, it’s the Holy Grail.”

For years, Oprah’s Book Club has been credited for pushing under-the-radar books to the top of the bestseller lists. So, it’s no doubt that the daytime TV queen’s level of promotion power has made the easy transition into music. Recent success stories credited to Oprah include Whitney Houston’s I Look to You and Barbra Streisand’s Love is the Answer, the latter of which beat out new albums by Paramore and Mariah Carey to the top of the charts.

Variety also suggests that Oprah saved Journey. About a year after the band’s album Revelation was released, they appeared on Oprah’s Oct. 5 episode. The next week, Revelation sales increased by 681 per cent.

However, one of the biggest beneficiaries thanks to Oprah is perhaps the young, deep-voiced Josh Groban. In October 2007, the musician’s Christmas album, Noel, debuted quietly on the Billboard Top 200. However, after appearing as one of “Oprah’s Favorite Things” on Oprah’s show seven weeks after its release, sales of Noel skyrocketed, and the record topped the charts in early December. Noel spent five consecutive weeks at the top of the charts, a new record for a Christmas album. The CD experienced a sales increase each of those five weeks following its appearance on the Oprah show. By the end of the year, Noel ended up with just over 3.5 million in sales, making it the best-selling album of 2007.

So what’s next on Oprah’s promotion schedule? Movies? TV? Fashion? No doubt tons of people will tune in to find out.

Kelly Clarkson’s Life Doesn’t Suck

Ilan Mester — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:44:37 +0000

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The first winner of “American Idol” landed at No. 1 when her album “All I Ever Wanted” sold 255,000 copies for the week ended Sunday. Meanwhile another former “American Idol” alum, Taylor Hicks sold only 9,000 copies of his sophmore album, landing the No. 58 spot.

The-Dream follows Clarkson with “Love Vs. Money,” which sold 151,000 copies. The singer is responsible for writing Rihanna’s hit song “Umbrella.”

U2, who landed the No. 1 spot last week with their latest album “No Line on the Horizon,” landed at No. 3, selling 132,000 copies.

J. Holiday landed the No. 4 spot with “Round 2,” followed by Taylor Swift who stays “Fearless” in the Top 10.

Lady Gaga landed the No. 6 spot with “The Fame” while “Dark Horse” earned Nickelback the No. 7 spot.

Chris Cornell closed the Top Ten albums based on statistics by Nielsen SoundScan. “Scream” is his second album since splitting from Audioslave.