Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Phillip Phillips Debuts At 172K

Hits Daily Double is reporting that Phillip Phillps' debut album has sold 172K in its first week last week. That is a great number these days:

http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/sales/salescht.cgi

It's highly unlikely that Jermaine Paul of The Voice or Melanie Amaro of X Factor will be anywhere near that number. They'll be lucky to get half.

Chris Mann, the pop-opera singer from The Voice, released his debut album on October 30. I can't find any sales numbers for it, which probably means it's DOA.

Scotty McCreery's Christmas album, which was released on October 16, sold 50K last week, putting his total at around 165K.

** Update 12/05/12: HDD shows Phillip getting another 78K for his second week, bringing his total to around 250K. Scotty got another 40K, bringing his total to around 205K.

** Update 12/11/12: HDD shows Phillip getting another 66K for his third week. Soundscan showed his two-week total at 243, bringing his three-week total to around 309K. Scotty got another 43K, bringing his total to around 248K.

**Update 12/15/12: Soundscan shows Phillip at 309K after three weeks, and Scotty at 244K after eight weeks.

**Update 12/19/12: HDD shows Phillip getting another 66K in his fourth week, bringing his total to around 375K. Scotty got another 48K in his 9th week, bringing his total to around 292K.


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Why "The Voice" Contestants Fail

I've been asking why is it that contestants from The Voice do poorly after the show compared to contestants from American Idol. I've decided to try to answer the question myself:

1) The "Blind Auditions" of The Voice might be entertaining, but they don't find stars. Back when Simon was on Idol, he always talked about "star quality." How can you judge star quality without seeing the contestant? You can't.

2) The "Battle Rounds" of The Voice are seen by many as a big weakness in the format because a contestant can be eliminated simply because the song favored the other contestant in the battle. Imagine Phillip Phillips vs either Jessica Sanchez or Joshua Ledet with a big song. Phillip would be gone. And that's assuming Phillip could make it past the blind auditions in the first place.

3) The Voice was created by Mark Burnett, a great television producer. With The Voice he has created a fine show for television. But Idol has always been about finding a star.

4) Idol producers are simply better at finding talent to send to the judges than producers of The Voice. For instance, both Phillip Phillips and Lauren Alaina were rejects from America's Got Talent, yet became stars on Idol.

5) Idol draws more contestants to the auditions, so they have a bigger pool of talent to choose from.

6) Idol still gets around 7 million more viewers than The Voice. That's 7 million more potential sales.

7) Many Idol viewers have been with the show from the beginning. They are loyal and supportive, and they don't watch the show like it's just a game show. They know the show is about finding stars. They would buy more albums if only the contestants would put out better albums.

The bottom line is while The Voice might be interesting television, it plays more like a game show, and viewers don't take the artists very seriously after the show.


Saturday, November 17, 2012

Jessica Sanchez's Seventeen Magazine photo shoot:


A very exotic-looking girl.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

An Odd Kara-Siobhan Connection

This Boston.com article says that Kara Dioguardi is a professor for the current semester at the Berklee College of Music:

Click Here To Read The Article

This is kind of funny because Siobhan Magnus once tried to get into Berklee, but was unable to, and ended up in glassblowing. Then, in Season 9, Siobhan and several current and former students of Berklee auditioned for American Idol. Some made it to Hollywood, but only Siobhan made it to the Top 24. Then, during Season 9, judge Kara DioGuardi had no idea what to make of Siobhan, at one point going three weeks in a row with nothing to say about Siobhan. Kara was let go after that season.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Phillip Phillips & Jessica Sanchez News

Phillip Phillips & Jessica Sanchez News.

Here is a sampler on YouTube of Phillip Phillips entire album which is scheduled for release on Nov 19:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP7GuFMXse4

In this Hollywood Reporter article, Jessica Sanchez talks about "Glee" and her upcoming album, which will not be released until next year:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/american-idol-jessica-sanchez-glee-387768

AEvangelista - American Idol Blog