BuzzLightyear

^Gary Barlow doesn't have a big personality either. Shane and Mark both have the voices for solo careers but I agree that they've left it too late. It wouldn't have hurt to kick off their solo careers while the band was still going and this just smacks of financial desperation on Shane's part with his well documented troubles. It just depends on what material he brings out.

I read that it won't be officially launched on pop radio til the 8th of July so that could be a reason for the lack of airplay? Anyway, has Ed Sheeran even had a hit over there, and his album is doing alright, went top 5, so a hit single is not the be all and end all. Decent album sales could hold him over til the next album where his sound is probably gonna be more US friendly; "Maroon 5 esque".

Hey the presenting worked out for Olly! The thing about her was that her voice kind of has a ceiling, she's not a powerhouse singer, if she brings out songs were she chooses her notes well then she'll be heading in the right direction. As ever though, it's all about the songs.

The people who are saying her cringe worthy appearance as a judge had no effect are wrong. Ok her biggest fans still loved her but the neutrals like me were turned off... She didn't have the status for it and she came across as annoying. The songs played a bigger part cos they're crap but that never stopped her before, maybe the biggest factor was the change in record label.

I doubt The Wanted will struggle in the future, Ed Drewett will keep supplying them with hits no doubt. I had to laugh when Max said he was glad they weren't off the X Factor production line, he actually failed to get through to the live shows as part of a boyband! Btw I used to think they couldn't sing but One Direction have three superior singers (Liam, Harry, Zayn) to anyone in The Wanted. Don't believe me? Check this out...

Regarding the song writing input, they might have thought of the concept for the song and one or two lyrics but the writer/s probably actually wrote the music, melody and the framework of the song. As they get older they'll get more involved. Their main job would be in identifying submitted songs that sounded right for them and singing their parts. Personally I think they'll have Cher Lloyd success.

You never know, people could just be waiting for the album (unlikely). You need good songs and I'm glad to see Alexandra can't get away with rubbish tracks anymore, I think that's what has lead to this complacency. Moving to RCA is looking like a terrible move now. She shouldn't have went on X Factor as a judge either, she annoyed alot of people with her comments and obviously the fact she wasn't worthy after one album. All night long was good, but she really needs to go back to the drawing board and co-write some good material. It's not the end of the world, she can still make a fortune from gigs, maybe not tours but they pay 15k a time to hear you sing 3 songs at alot of events.

It's already out in the U.S, I don't think it has airplay yet though so it's gonna be a while before it charts. Still, he's building a decent fanbase over there stealing One Direction fans.

I don't see what the size of the agency or record label have to with anything, there are pros and cons just like being signed to the smaller ones. In any case it's good to see Joe have a crack at being a proper singer with original material. He can always fall back on the granny market with another covers album if it doesn't work out. No excuses of being mishandled this time though, either he finds his pop niche or he accepts his more of a musical/ classical singer which Cowell and Walsh told him years ago. He'd rather be a pop star so we'll soon see if he can pull it off.

Surely Olly adds viewers, he's always trending (not surprising considering how many followers he has) while its on and plenty watch it just for him. TV exposure plays such a huge part in sales these days, it's win/win for both parties. Apparently JLS, 1D and The Wanted (who Flack slagged off!) are filling in for him.

They'll both be crap judges but at least Britney will be a ratings winner and Lovato will be the only likeable judge. All they're really interesting in is ratings so Lovato and Reid should have been bigger names. Reid has a great career track record but he's a clueless judge, thinking Lovato was some old bird being quite ironic!

No radio support for Let me go really spells trouble. Alexandra will do well to hang onto her deal considering her album will probably be a flop.

The Wanted are the equivalent of a non league football team with no fan base being taken over by a sugar daddy. They're really not worthy of the promotion they get from their well connected management. Embarrassing sales figures.

There'll be no 4th single, promotion would be a waste of money, OMG did hardly anything for album sales after missing the top 10 and look at how badly Busy did, only the first two singles are shifting albums each time. He's already writing the 3rd album, between that and gigs he has no time to promote it considering the new one will be out in November and half of the time he'll be in America. If he starts releasing 3 singles from a yearly album he'll be releasing singles more often than most people.

This album was up to 7 last week, climbing to 6 this week. I don't know if Olly paid for the ITV2 show or if they paid him but it's worked out well in album sales! The guest feature on HSAB isn't bad... the most concerning thing is it's out on the 22nd of March! So right at the very start of when Olly sets off on tour with 1D so he'll struggle promotion wise and where's the American video? Pretty crucial when the song has been changed. I can see this being a half arsed American launch for Olly.

She has a fanbase (she owned the early weeks voting) but I can't see a place for her in the market. It's just gonna be Diana Vickers again.

I find this song strange as I can't recall him having any falsetto to speak of at all and he sounds totally different, so this song has been massively overproduced. It's decent but it'll sound totally different live.

Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurs. Well in lad. Not surprised though, he puts the effort in doesn't he. There's not a harder working popstar in the business, another busy day today. And a 7 week tour of America, numerous summer festivals, writing his 3rd album in 3 years, promoting two singles from that and co presenting Xtra Factor all yet to come this year.

HAHA I saw on twitter that you were moaning about him going to America, don't worry about it mate, it's better that he tries and fails than never tries at all. At least then he can focus all his energies on Europe etc without wondering what if, I'm sure he had a similar mindset when applying for X Factor and it worked out well. In any case, even if he doesn't sell many records I guarantee he'll gain alot of fans from the tour, some of their American fans like him already. Hey I didn't expect him to be so big in Germany, the 3rd biggest market in the world, if Columbia USA have faith in him then I do too. I would like them to replace Rizzle Kicks on HSAB though, in terms of raising awareness of the song, even someone like Tinie Tempah would help, even better Lil Wayne (as if)! ;) Btw I like your Olly blog, keep it up!

DWMT is #33, that song has shocked the hell out of me, it's sold loads!

Well he only has one version in the top 100 right now so he's pretty far off! We'll have to see where is is when the 'album' is added at the end of the day.

I like the song and he has a very good voice but I don't buy into him as an artist.

Olly has been doing promo for it on a few shows, it's out next week. I wonder if he'll struggle to get it top 10 because of this weeks sales + people already having it from the album? He has more promo lined up this week anyway...

I have to disagree about Busy, that's one of his strongest songs, even the instrumental sounds good on the M&S ad! His singles are chosen on how much airplay they'll get IMO. Check out the combined airplay chart on here, even a rubbish song like Heart on my sleeve got a ridiculous amount of airplay. I think he should have released Busy as 3rd single then just moved on. It must have been a close choice for 3rd single this time, I think he went with the most upbeat, but it was a good choice judging from reaction and airplay. I totally agree about the videos, they used the same director for DWMT and OMG and it shows as they bot look like they cost pennies, but the Busy video looks high quality in comparison. I think he's almost there already anyway? Not far off. Wikipedia reckons he's went past 900,000 already but surely he'd have mentioned it.

He'll deffo go top 10 in the current chart climate. People no one's heard of are making the higher reaches regularly. With his fan base he'll do it no sweat!