Alex Day

Well it looks like I f***ed that one up rather spectacularly didn't I? :D Definite lesson learned, as I suspected - online audiences are fickle. The novelty of trying to get into the charts last year has now faded for them and they're not interested, regardless of the quality of the track - which is actually quite a saddening realisation about today's young people imo. The attention spans are so short that people don't appreciate the value of something like a great pop song unless it comes with gimmicks attached. Anyway: I feel the opposite. I don't know why everyone else bothers with albums! iTunes makes it a singles market. It means I get to put more emphasis and work into each individual track. It's better for radio and the charts just to push one song at a time (not that it mattered). Most artists release one or two tracks with ten duds and charge you ten quid for it: I just don't release the duds. Anyway, the reason for the charts is a means to an end. I don't have a label, a manager or any radio support or PR, so I need to get people's attention in the industry without those conventional routes. The charts is an easy form of exposure. But now it's not working so I'll just need to think of something else to help my music break. =)

The chart position doesn't matter to me unless I get number one because I want one of those cool trophies! The reason for pursuing the charts is that it's a means to an end: the end being to break my music beyond my YouTube audience and get my songs into the mainstream. I hoped to do that with Forever Yours last year - #4 put it on the radar of all the radio stations so it was definitely gonna be played into the New Year, it'd be playlisted, it'd really break ... nope. Nobody played it and it dropped off again the following week. Lady Godiva and Stupid Stupid are further attempts to achieve that, by showing that I wasn't just a kid who released a song out of boredom last year but a musician with regular singles who wants more attention to his music. If this doesn't work it'll be the last time I'll be trying the 'YouTube audience get me in the charts' route and will start thinking of other ways to break, but for now it's worth giving it one more try. In terms of an album, no, it's not something I'm thinking about. Why bother releasing ten songs if most of the general public haven't even heard one yet?

The people that buy the original are gonna buy it either way; I need to maximise the sales figures by having them all out at the same time.

I've just never liked the quote thing cos I think it looks bulky. It's cos it's only when I'm releasing a new song that I need to know how it's selling :)

Thanks Aaron! I really appreciate that. Maybe you'll like the next one. :)

"I don't think you've understood my point though. It doesn't matter if you come up with the greatest song of all time, you've made it really hard for yourself to take seriously by having these flash-in-the-pan successes. The general public are very likely to not give you a second chance. Maybe it would help if the song was playlisted and got airplay, but all the reasons why radio isn't taking the song seriously makes me think that you do need to think outside the box to have long-term success. One-offs don't repat themselves successfully very often (because your rise to chart fame has been a one-off), which is the reason why I don't think that this song isn't doing to do very well commercially." It's not something I've really had much say in: I can't make Radio 1 play it and I can't make people buy it for more than one week. I didn't set out with Forever Yours thinking 'I'm going to make this a flash-in-the-pan success'. Doesn't mean I should give up now just cos that's what it was. "I'm not trying to bring you down and I'm happy for your success, I'm just trying to give you some advice and help you out." I know and I'm not being brought down :) no worries. "How many versions of the new song are going to be produced? I seem to remember there were about 20 of "Forever Yours"" There were 11 of Forever Yours and there will be 5 of Stupid Stupid, all done by other musicians and friends. (Not including two additional versions exclusive to the physical CD which will be available in HMV.) "regardless of chart success, as long as you put out good quality music, that's all that really matters to me" Me too! The reason I do this (and I joked about it in my video) was not so people know ME but because I think my music deserves to be heard by more people. I agree incidentally with whoever said Good Morning Sunshine should be the real hit - I love that song, it's my favourite of all the songs I've released this year but I wanted to take a break from the chart conquest thing so it didn't get boring and as a result I didn't push the song that hard. The video got a million views though - I'm really proud of it.

I just tweeted you :) http://image.bayimg.com/b7a001cfe778c370cce209d0bae8d507523aa78c.jpg My twitter is @thatalexday if you wanna check that.

ME TOO!

Thanks :) The music video will be up Thursday, the song's streaming on Record Of The Day's website. I can't link to it cos I haven't posted it enough but it's Googleable.

Wow, lots of things to reply to! "Hope this songs does well on xmas week again for you - how did you try and get radio 1 to playlist it and how did they reject it?" I got an email one day titled 'Radio 1 Playlist Feedback' having done nothing. The head of music took the song into the playlist meeting after hearing it on an industry site. "Your success so far has warranted at least a listen", he said to me. But they decided it was too much of a novelty song, which is fair enough tbh. "Perhaps we should all ask Radio 1 to play Stupid Stupid on their Request Show next Sunday." You're welcome to try - but I've never had any success with the request show. My friends Phil and Dan are taking it over as of January though, so maybe they can explain to me why I'm not getting played when I know I'm getting requested! "Btw Alex, didn't you get into the Guinness World Records for the "biggest fall from the Top 5" (#4-#112)?" Unofficially, yes, I hold the record according to Wikipedia's "UK Singles Chart records and statistics" page. But Guinness World Records only award records for the Top 75 or above, so they wouldn't give me it. I do have the record for 'highest charting single by an unsigned artist' and the certificate is framed above my desk! "i have to say that you don't have a chance of Christmas #1 so don't even try." Don't even try? That's bleak. Last year I thought I didn't have a chance of #1. But I tried anyway and I got to #4. Not exactly achieving the goal but much better than if I'd just sat and done nothing. "What if someone nuts him before he says to them 'do you know that song stupid stupid' cus I was getting close to wanting to by then." You know I do read these? :) "Forever Yours was number 1 on my personal chart last year. Lady Godiva didn't impress me too much though." Thank you! That's very kind and I appreciate the honesty. Hope you like the new one. "I don't think this song is going to do very well, unless you do loads of publicity for it. It doesn't matter if it's a good idea - artists with flash-in-the-pan success like yours aren't taken seriously by the general public bar the first or the second single. That's just the way it goes. So, yeah, I need to be honest with you and give you a brief reality check from my perspective, I don't think it's going to do very well at all. It might go Top 20, but that's it really." Top 20 is fine (three Top 20 singles in twelve months with no label or management sounds good to me) but you're missing the point - I'm not selling the song to the general public. Few people outside my fanbase bought Forever Yours last year. For my audience, they need a reason. "Christmas number 1 for charity" is exciting - we got to #4. "Let's try again at Easter" isn't as exciting - we got to #15. I predict this one will fall somewhere in the middle of those two - unless it catches hold with press or radio, in which case it can grow. (This incidentally is why I keep gunning for the charts - to get the attention of wider media who can spread me beyond what I already have and stop me from being a 'flash-in-the-pan success'.) "releasing in some nondescript quiet week against minimal competition woud be your best option." We already know that's not the case. Forever Yours last Christmas was #4. Lady Godiva in a nondescript quiet week - #15. The Christmas charts are the only chart that people really care about (in terms of the general public) so this is in fact my best and ONLY real option to get exposure.

So Buzzjack, Comments on my new chart attempt this Christmas have ranged from "if his second single barely got into the Top 15, the new one won't have a chance" to "there's more of a reason to buy this time so it can definitely do better". I agree with the latter - in my experience, my audience care about the story behind the song, giving people a reason to buy it, and Christmas is a good reason cos it's the most exciting chart of the year :) Anyway - here's my video explaining the campaign. I'd love to see what you guys make of it (or whether you're up for helping!) QENIoi08INU I have physical CD singles exclusively in HMV, but sadly Radio 1, Radio 2 and Capital FM have so far all considered (and rejected) it for playlist. Maybe they'll change their mind if it charts but they tend to be pretty stubborn about these things. Music video out this week. WISH ME LUCK.

I just love great pop music of all types (as I hope is clear from Forever Yours and Lady Godiva :D)

Also, can we all talk about how great Call Me Maybe is? Oh GOD! "Hey, I just met you. And this is KUHRAYZEE" <3 I know it doesn't help me, but I bought it. :D

Depends how you define 'hit'. It will definitely be Top 20 - remember I know what the physical sales are and I've been doing signings round the country every day :) So I know that's helping. Obviously Top 10 would be my absolute dream goal and Top 15 is an optimistic but not impossible goal.

Hello - just popped back to see what you made of my tragic fall down the iTunes charts! I like to keep things interesting :)

Blimey, bit much. It's all good fun! Yeah, it's been tanking on iTunes after the first day or so (of course), but we should still make the Top 20, which is fine with me - not bad for an unsigned artist :) And yeah of course it'll drop out next week, but I've already got my chart place - and more importantly had a great week and sold thousands of copies of my song to people who love it. Can't ask for more!

Well presumably I'm supposed to be in the demographic of people that would know this Call Me Maybe song, no? I always find that 'hype' and 'airplay' is its own industry, they say it'll be big so it gets big, and it doesn't have any bearing at all on what people actually like and want to listen to. They've had fair warning that I was releasing my thing but nobody takes any interest. (Godiva's charting on iTunes in over ten countries as we speak <3)

*shucks* you guys ... Anyway, I'm not gonna turn this into the ask Alex Day questions thread, especially since last Christmas you were all moaning at how I ruin the charts by exploiting the remix rule :p

I don't have a clue who that is, so I guess ... good? I notice I'm selling more than Olly Murs which is a prouder achievement personally.

I turned down labels (re a video on my YouTube channel which I can't post the link for but it's called Record Labels Are Rubbish) as they want me to wait a year, release an album, not produce my own stuff, change how I speak to my audience, pander to radio etc etc etc ... this is far more fun :)

Haha - "Alex Day is back?" - I never left! I'm a musician, I release songs, this is what I do. And I'm fine thank you :)

Oh yes, much label interest. I'm not really expecting too much though, because right now I want to develop my own creative instincts as a songwriter and a producer, and I want to focus on singles instead of albums because they allow me to turn every individual song of mine into its own event (and makes more sense with the digital distribution model, which I can also do myself). A good label would be able to offer me a lot of exposure opportunities, and it'll be easier to get radio play if I'm on one, but that's provided the label would make me a priority and know what to do with me, which to be honest I doubt they do. Apart from XL, I don't think any label would know how to do things differently enough for it to work with the way I run things, and I'd especially worry about them stifling and dictating my YouTube content, which it's taken me five and a half years to build up on my own.

Aww, thank you! Look how nice you all are. I like this forum.

Yep - biggest loser the chart's ever seen, officially. I basically did a flashmob of the charts. Oh well.

I do agree - it seems like a crazy rule that just shouldn't be there. But hey, I'm unsigned and if it's all legal and above board to do it that way, I will. I even phoned the charts people to check. Anyway, I'm not a YouTube prankster trying to mess with things, I'm a musician trying to bring exposure to my music, and I definitely succeeded in doing that (for all the good it did, no radio play meant we dropped like a brick!) To answer your question, I had fifteen versions in total including the original, HOWEVER: the song on its own was at number 4 on iTunes for a good few days, and just that original track sold at least 20k. The versions helped a lot, but the song would have been in the Top 40 even without the inflation. And to whoever mentioned using the stems of a song to get the track higher up the charts - I looked into that and they said it wouldn't count because it would be too fragmented, and would fall into the rules of ringtones (selling specific segments of a song). (I've been stalking this forum ever since Chartjackers, finally joined because I wanted to see what people made of all this and helpfully contribute to the discussion)