Herald Sun - "Idol goes into sales decline"

[dededom]

WARNING WARNING - Negative article coming

Nb: COMMENT - I wonder whether this is a fair comparison, given that the two highest retailers, Sanity and HMV, have ceased to be included in the chart compilations?

EDIT: FURTHER COMMENT - subsequent posts in this thread to tend to suggest that the adverse assertions made in this article are incorrect.


Idol goes into sales decline
December 05, 2006 12:00am
Herald Sun

THE mega success of Australian Idol looks to be waning with new Idol Damien Leith unable to match past winners in the charts.

Leith still managed the No. 1 spot with sales figures up to three times better than many No. 1 tracks.

However the Irishman's single Night of My Life recorded disappointing results in comparison to his predecessors.

Guy Sebastian's Angels Brought Me Here outsold Leith's tune by more than 110,000 copies three years ago.

Even more worrying for record label Sony BMG, Leith didn't match Kate DeAraugo's effort.

Despite all of this, the ARIA charts did their usual thing of awarding Leith platinum sales because 70,000 copies were shipped to stores.

First week sales: 2003 Guy Sebastian -- Angels Brought Me Here 128,679, 2004 Casey Donovan -- Listen to Your Heart 35,817, 2005 Kate DeAraugo -- Maybe Tonight 20,307, 2006 Damien Leith -- Night of My Life 16,326 (14,000 CDs, the rest digital downloads).

www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20870091-28957,00.html

[Smiley]

I am wondering what effect the winner's souvenir album has on these sales too. Will it (the CD/DVD) be counted on the Aria Album Charts?

[winterlong]

bwaha dede, my thoughts exactly!


Its interesting isnt it? The spin has certainly begun, both for and against the new Idol...on the same day we get one article claiming NOML is the fastest selling single this year with over 100,000 orders, and another saying its the lowest Idol release ever...

If these figures are true, then I still give D a huge pat on the back! Three little things come to mind:

• This is the first Idol single where sales from HMV and Sanity, the 2 largest music retailers, have not counted towards sales figures.
  
  
• In my home town Melbourne, from the 5 major aria accredited stores available to me in the city, only one store stocked it...both on Monday and Thursday of last week! And of the 3 major digital single sellers, only one had it available for download the whole week...iTunes and Sanity (does Sanity digital even count as sales?!) have only had it available a few days..
  of course, it was readily available by the truckload at HMV, where the sales dont count....
  
  
• D is the first Idol to have the video shot after the win...the others were shot at final 2 stage (yes, 2 vids made) and it was released with the single. So far no sign of D's, a major piece of promo MIA!
  

Oh, I could go on! Like all the magazine articles this week, you really dont know who is feeding you what....

in any case, I'm very proud of D and am looking forward to his future self-pened releases...charts schmarts!.....though I am going to buy another single this week



Oh...and heres another positive angle....if these figures are to be believed, then 14,000 people at the very least (though we do know its alot more with HMV/Sanity sales) own a copy of "Come to Me"....who'd of thunk it?! Certainly not D a year ago....

First Idol to have his own music on his first release instead of a cover from the show?! Outstanding ;D

[auntybesure]

This kind of article is crap because even though others may have sold more than him, they make no mention of how amazing it is to sell 70k+ units in one week. You're dead right about the whole Sanity and HMV thing too Winter. I haven't been able to buy NOML because the only music shops around here are either Sanity or HMV. And I know my story of attempting to buy it on the internet isn't the only one of trouble and woe. (still haven't got it yet - it's been 6 days since I paid for it).
To be honest *starts to crouch* I think that a lot of people may be waiting for the whole new CD to come out *starts flinching* so that they can see what he can do other than NOML...*covers head with arms* because even though NOML is great (don't get me wrong) it's still not totally in line with the most popular kinds of tunes he did on idol (think Wicked Game or Creep or even Never Meant to Fail)...Judging by a lot of the comments sent through to his MySpace, a lot of people are just gagging for his original stuff.
Going number one is definitely nothing to be scoffed at. Journos can be a bunch of tossers a lot of the time. This is just as bad as trying to spread rumours about Eileen being pregnant and all that (even if she is, it's still not been officially announced by either of them in which case it should be off limits in my opinion - the first three months are crucial and they shouldn't have extra stress of fighting off claims)....

[Mi chiamano Kami]

Uhh... but this makes no sense? Damien's CDs are flying off the shelves at least here and everyone is talking about how great he is, and I'm pretty sure the same was not the case for Kate or Casey.

Aside from the fact that I'm not sure I believe this at all, they're not making a fair comparison. Damien has a CD/DVD coming out with both the tracks from the single on it. A lot of Damien's fans would probably be more likely to buy that than a single with only a couple of songs. And then there's the Sanity/HMV thing - nobody is selling as many singles as they were in previous years. And yes, the video thing. And they're completely ignoring the fact that Damien has been getting such a lot of good press compared to former winners, and there is so much interest in him in the general public. And that he had less time to get to #1 than all the other artists there, because his single wasn't in most places until Wednesday/Thursday.

(Question: does the platinum accreditation include singles shipped to Sanity/HMV?? Because that would be... interesting...)

You know, I don't see Damien's future being in chart-topping singles anyway. I think he's going to end up like a John Farnham (or may I even say Bernard Fanning?), an artist who focuses on delivering strong albums and not catering so much to the singles chart.

I just hope Damien ignores this nonsense and focuses on the truth. If he hadn't been in the Idol final most people would have stopped watching ages ago. He's doing really well and he's only going to get better from here.

[Bahamagirl]

I agree with all of you. Damien appeals to all age groups and probably a lot of his older fans are waiting to buy the DVD/CD or even waiting until next year for his first album. I shocked myself when I bought his single last week-first time that I've bought a single since I was a teenager, back in the vinyl days.

The media just loves to be negative, it sells more newspapers. Nothing is going to equal the Guy Sebastian release because it was a new concept. Look at the steady decline in first week sales since 2003. We all know that NOML wasn't exactly the best song for Damien. The real test will be his album sales next year, especially if he puts a lot of his own stuff on it and full-length versions of some of his great covers from the show.

[murfinator]

Yeah exactly! Everyone was caught up in the Idol hype in 2003. I bought both Guys and Shannon's albums but I haven't bought any of their others or any of the Idols others

[flynn]

Yep I agree with all of the above. The first series of Idol was HUGE coz it was new and different etc... Every child in Australia wanted to be a part of it and buying the single was the best way to do that. So Guy had genuine buyers but he also had a whole lot of reality tv fans and excited school kids buying the single. The preceding years didnt have the same impact on the kiddies (I know - I've been surrounded by them) and they didnt nag their mums and dads to buy the single in the numbers they did the first time round.

Also, people dont like Idol winners songs - no matter how decent a job the winner does with them. They're sick of being obliged to buy some unknown writers song that's been dragged out of the reject box and foisted on them by Idol and Sony/BMG. Most people who like Damien liked him for his other vocal performances and just thought he made the best of an appalling song with Night of My Life.

Even so, I'm surprised he didnt do better than last years winner. That makes no sense to me even with all those good reasons people have said.

It can only be about Idol having lost its shine, not about Damien.

[auntybesure]

I think that with a three month gap between the single being released and then the album being released that a whole lot of momentum and excitement will be built up and the album will go through the roof. That will be the real test. Of course all the previous winners would have had big sales of their CDs in previous years because they were all released while everyone was still on an idol high. I think that with Damien's music, people will be dying to hear a whole batch of new stuff for real rather than just getting on the band wagon...
Just wondering how they are going to keep things going until then - what songs will they use in all his appearances? He can't keep singing NOML and Come to me for three months! I guess they will probably release a new single as soon as it's been recorded - probably soon after Christmas? There's probably room to release at least one new single before the new CD comes out...I can't wait for a full-on tour. I wonder if they would have him supporting anyone and if so, who? Or who would be supporting him in a tour?
Did Kate tour last year? I wasn't into it then so I only heard of in-store appearances and variety shows and stuff.

[hyperrune]

The Winner's Journey is a big thing. People are probably waiting to buy it so they'll get the single along with audio from the performances, instead of doubling up like us hard-core devotees. Besides, we need to put it in perspective:

*Is the 2006 Australian Idol, and has a record deal, and has the number one single, and has both a gold and a platinum within a week, and is releasing a DVD, and has a few months to work on an album he can be proud of

* Hasn't sold as well as other idols

I think we all know which fact will be on his mind more. What he's achieved is nothing to sniff at, and he's done phenomenally better than other artists, and on his first effort too. It could be worse. He might not have won. He might not have entered. If he was still a struggling performer playing at the Bowlo and someone said to him "You would've had a number 1 single by now if you'd entered", he wouldn't have turned around and said "Yeah, but I'd still not have beaten the previous Idols."
The poor guy is still in denial and is happy to ttake what he can get! He's excited that "a few" of his own songs "might" be on his album! Everyone who bought the single heard his work! Everyone will hear his work on the album! He's 1,000 miles from where he was at the beginning of the year.
Trust me. I'm sure it won't worry him to much. He's more mature than that. He doesn't want to be the best commercially, just musically. And who knows how quickly the DVD's will be snapped up? Cd's sound hard to come by, so by the end of it he might eventually overtake even Guy. Who knows?
Ok, my rant is over...

[Smiley]

If the accreditation is now platinum (70,000) after originally being gold (35,000) doesn't that mean that the cd is selling and the stores want more? If it was just SonyBMG shipping out cd's on the off chance then they either would have shipped 70,0000 to start with or wouldn't have shipped more if they weren't selling. Am I making sense? One news story has over 100,000 units sent out??

I'm expecting his souvenir CD to break all sorts of records.

[-- Janny --]

This is the first Idol single where sales from HMV and Sanity, the 2 largest music retailers, have not counted towards sales figures.

Indeed. I think Damien has done extremely well despite the circumstances (late stock, the video, etc). I hope that Herald Sun will pay respect for once. Gaah...

BTW I have a little question.... I heard that Sanity and HMV are joining the ARIA charts quite soon (though I question the reliability). If that's true, will the previous NoML sales by Sanity and HMV count towards the ARIA (or will it only count starting the time it rejoins the ARIA?)

[flynn]

It wont be counted in retrospect even if they do rejoin ARIA

[dededom]

Here is a link to a post from someone within Sanity

forums.damienleith.com.au/index.php?showtopic=182

"we had sold over 6000 damien singles in less than a week and his album is out saturday and there is already 1400 pre orders and they want us by the weekend to push it and increase it so we have 10,000 pre orders by saturday"

--- comment: do otheres agree that this tends to suggest that the impact of Sanity sales NOT being in the ARIA calculations serves to suggest the actual sales figures for Damien's first single release are much higher than reported above.

[KrisLovesDamien]

OMG...what the hell?...I dont like that article *STAB STAB STAB!!*