wkdstepmother

I used the same point on DS earlier today but they just ignore anything that doesn't fit their perception of reality. These people live in a constant fight over "whose the biggest XF contestant" like that is relevant at all to anything other than them. Ed Sheeran is the break out artist of the year in terms of cross overs between album and singles artist and he sold £102K in his first week - after 2 hit singles had been in the charts for weeks. Will Young and James Morrison both sold £65K and their target market is Matt's so if he were to sell 80K copies in the first week that would be a brilliant performance. We can all say RFYL is a poor single (and I even mean it) but it was released a week before the album and even on XF they gave the date for the album release not the single. Syco isn't even tweeting about it - it's all been done by Columbia. I could be really cynical and suggest that there is a deliberate marketing strategy here to cut ties with all things XF using RFYL and then move on straight away to the album launch, Starlight and the Columbia artist. It seems like a very high risk strategy if it is but however I look at it I cannot believe experienced record executives thought the RFYL was the best lead single

Just been out shopping for my daughters birthday pressies and went into the HMV (well you have to don't you) Anyway, on display right as you walked in are copies of Letters - they wouldn't let me buy one until monday :( But they did let me have a good look at the lyrics book which is fabulous - there's even a Springsteenesque part where some of the lyrics are there in his handwriting. Anyway I was so proud to see all those songs with first writing credit to Matt Cardle - I know it's only a small thing but being a total lyrics geek I completely get off on it. :dance:

They make even less money from singles - even if a single sells 300K copies which is a huge seller, that's only £300K and you need to produce a video for each one which will take out a big chunk of that, not to mention promotion of them too. That's why merchandising is so important for single artists because the single itself is virtually a loss leader. The holy grail is an arena tour where, if they do 10 dates, of c10,000 per date at £30 a ticket the gross is £3m which totally dwarfs the record receipts. The fixed costs are enormous though so you need to know you are going to sell more than half of the tickets or you lose money - but if you can sell them all!! Springsteen's The Rising Tour grossed more than $200m dollars, and was relatively cheap to put on cos he doesn't have a "show" as such. But that's the big leagues

afternoon JaMaK :D

What a great album Rage in Eden is :dance: One of the trolls on DS is setting a prediction of 80K album sales this week - and he/she thinks that is a disaster - I think the issue is definitional. These people think that anyone who comes from the XF should automatically be a top selling artist, despite the fact that there is no evidence to date of that happening for anyone other than Leona Lewis and groups aimed at 14 year old children. :cry: I'd be bloody delighted if he shipped 80K in the first week so long as sales thereafter were healthy. It's bloody mad. Those who say touring is where the money is are right - but overall there is just not that much money in music anymore (unless you can sell out arena tours). That's why the record companies are focussing on artists who they can market in other ways, dolls, tv ads etc. Why do you think even the most successful artists are sponsoring perfume and the like.

The album has debuted in Ireland and is behind Noel Gallagher and Lisa Hannigan (an Irish singer songwriter that I'd never heard of :wub: ) which is good news especially given the single hasn't done much at all there. Gallagher seems to be easily outselling him though

If you want it to be :dance: though TBH I'm not that clever - it was originally a reference to the musical but that's nowhere near as good :huh: spoilt for choice with smilies :w00t:

I'm also a DSer (though have walked away from it this week due to the hideousness). I'm not a fan of XF, I saw Matt on it originally because my kids watch it but really fell in love with his Seven Summers stuff rather than the XF performances which, whilst a mile better than anyone else, are mostly contrived. I'm actually a huge Springsteen fan so feel a lot happier on here so I might just stay :D As far as album sales go; Noel is the talent behind Oasis and is bound to sell a huge number of albums - if Matt is 15% behind him when it's all counted I'll be delighted. It makes no difference at all where he charts, it's units sold that count. In my view, particularly for a debut album (by anyone not just an XF winner), i think it's incredible and I have no doubt if it is supported by the label it will sell very well up to Christmas. I really think RFYL was released to fulfill the winners appearance for XF and the real promotion is for the album with the second single pushing sales through to Christmas. I could be wrong but Columbia are orchestrating this not Syco and they are interested in album sales. At the end of the say, so long as he sells enough units for Columbia to stick with him, I'm happy (and if Syco jumped ship in the process that would be a bonus)

I was at the gig and he and his band were amazing - he did a cover of Unfaithful by Alanis Morrisette that was incredible. I've listened to the album previews constantly for weeks and the live stuff and for me RFYL is the weakest song on the album by a very long way - just don't understand why they thought it was a good lead single - the Barlow effect I guess Anyway I just can't wait for my copy to arrive now.