Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Music Buzz: Buy Cook's Album


Oh RCA.

The Duel of the Davids to the media, Brothers to either of them,
(dirty) Marketing Strategy to RCA.


David Archuleta's single was released a little over two months ago, and debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest single debut since 2007, and debuted at #1 on iTunes in about 19 hours. Come on, even Britney's Womanizer needed 22 hours to reach #1, and that's Britney Spears.

A little over 60 days now, and Crush is still holding steady within iTunes Top 20, fluctuating between 14-18, with scarce promotion. No TV appearances as of yet, no myspace and official site gimmicks or updates (on the latter, I'd like to say Jive/Azoff, for the love of everything Archuleta, do update them!). After the initial week's sales surge - brought about, on the bigger percentage, by his fans, his single has been living a life of its own. If his sales this week will be consistent as the weeks before, his debut single is likely to reach GOLD - in a little over 2 months! So much for losing American Idol. Oh, and did I say his music video also topped iTunes?

Apparently, all this "success" (may) have been putting some pressure on *highlight*winner*end*higlight* Cook whose ironically "power-ballad" categoried single Light On peaked at ... somewhere between #6-#8 on the iTunes Top 100. "Rock" fans are more album people than single people, so they say. In the past few days, it has been dropping spots to as low as #98 on the charts - something I feel bad about, though I'm admittedly not his biggest fan. However, as of late, Light On has shot up at least 50 spots up! And I was about to feel happy for him. Well, almost.

If by any chance, you didn't get an email from iTunes, and you're a supporter of the younger David, thank the good Lord for it.

I'm at a loss for words, aside from the title of this post, of course. Here, be my guest:

New Music Tuesday email from iTunes

"The Battle of the Davids" was one of American Idol's fiercest competitions ever, as David Cook ultimately outlasted his younger competitor to win it all. With his self-titled debut, the rock-oriented vocalist is out to prove that viewers made the right choice. Pre-order the album on iTunes and get the pre-order-only track "My Last Request" when the album is released on November 18 and the single "Light On" will begin to download immediately. (highlight mine)

5 months after the cheesy show I love called American Idol ended, here's how the winner's label promotes his album. Fueling fan wars, rekindling a painful loss, and shamelessly trashing a previous opponent, 17-year old kid (who by the way worships the ground Cooks walks on) who's doing well on his own - without a need for desperate promotion, much less any promotion at all.

Ooh, you got the Davids angry. Bad move, RCA.

Cook may or may not have a say in how his label promotes his album, and that fact still warrants I rant civilly about this as much as I can, and that I fight the nagging disappointment in my brain, but this definitely puts him a negative light. Of course, his fans on the internet say there's nothing wrong the email. Typical.

Yeah, the adjective "younger" very much makes it an achievement to be proud of. And it's an insanely brilliant idea to need to prove a right choice was made.

If there's any good thing, at all, to come out of this post, it's the certainty and confidence, that I definitely made the right choice. I'm a fangirl, I know.


Have you?


----

David Archuleta's self-titled album is out on November 11, watch out for it!
Cook's is out on November 18, by the way.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post, Kricket!!! I agree completely. That ad was obnoxious.

Anonymous said...

In Cook defense, he, himself, has said nothing but supportful, caring and loving things about the younger David.

K.R.I.C.K.E.T. said...

RE: In Cook defense, he, himself, has said nothing but supportful, caring and loving things about the younger David.

Yes, but let's just hope some of Archie's upset fans would take time to realize that. That's exactly why I said Cook may not have a part or a say in the way RCA promotes his single. Still, it puts him in a negative light, especially for Archie's fans.


from: http://wurdnurd.livejournal.com/304473.html

"Way to put down the Archies, RCA"

..and that's coming from a wordnerd.

Anonymous said...

With 750,000 copies sold, Crush has already reached GOLD. It will likely reach PLATINUM(1,000,000 sold) in 4 or 5 weeks.
I agree that RCA's tactics are pretty disrespectful....and desperate.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't matter how the wordnerds feel about the email. There is no question that damage has already been done. They can feel good all they want. I for one had pre-ordered Cook's CD, just to show support for him, have now canceled that order. So one less sale from me.

Anonymous said...

You are so right. When I first saw this email, I.WAS.SPEECHLESS.

It's just LOW and disgusting. All that only show how desperate they are and how insecured they get. Dirty RCA, very DIRTY.

Hope you don't mind if I post this article around?

Anonymous said...

Cook is the artist, he should have a say in the promotion of his music. But I doubt he will, fair or not, he cares abt himself only, beats me, if not. What irks me why did RCA have promote Cook at the expense Archuleta. Why did RCA have to mention the AI result side hitting the runner up. It is unfair. Cook should prevent this. I am not so gonna buy Cook album then.

Anonymous said...

RCA is playing dirty and what they did using Archie to promote Cook is downright nasty and uncalled for. It crosses the line of respect and ethics.
Also, I dont understand why people has to say that "in defense of Cook, he has always been loving and supporting Archie", and so what is the point? Archie doesnt owe him anything? All the other Idols were caring and supportive of ARchie too, what makes Cook special? As if ARchie has some kind of gratitude to Cook, for what? Cook has been nice to Archie to gain his fans, thats what. This is the music business now and Cook has always have been very competitive and this is no different. Unfortunately, he will suffer the wrath of the ARchie fans with this kind of promotion.

Anonymous said...

great blog. straight to the point. and i most definitely agree that this will backfire on Cook, but will more likely benefit Archuleta in the end. for some reason, i'm no looking into this fiasco as a blessing in disguise for Archuleta.

Anonymous said...

I haven't attempted (til now) to describe the creepy feeling I got when I caught wind of the "New Music Tuesday" iTunes email. I have always liked Cook and have never doubted that his affection for Archuleta is genuine. Stll don't. This desperate plea of a promotion does, unfortunately, reflect badly on Cook, and I (a solid "Archie") found my reflex reaction was an odd mix of pity, embarrassment and nausea... for Cook. RCA must have known they were as much as overtly admitting (flaunting almost) that their winner is a loser. How Rude. How Sad. How Pathetic. How Creepy. How Unnecessary. *shivers* Both Davids deserve better than that. I disagree with the notion that this will evoke any Archie Wrath. More likely embarrassment and pity for Cook. And sadly from more than Archies. Probably from (formerly) potential buyers...who likely also experienced a similarly *creepy* vibe with that (ahem) "promotion." *ick*

Anonymous said...

Guys, I don't think it's that serious. It's not really Cook's fault. Besides, there's nothing we can really do about it. That's RCA's marketing tactic, and obviously, it has worked. Cook will probably surpass David in first week album sales, and maybe even in overall album sales. But it doesn't matter, because David is the runner-up and is not expected to outperform Cook. The email is annoying, but complaining about it won't change anything. All we can do is buy David's album and support his music.

AlkemieBlue said...

Thanks so much for posting this. I'm pleased to see RCA's dirty tactics exposed as much as possible. I'd wondered what RCA would do when Cook's single was dropping like a stone on iTunes while David's was humming along and selling about the same number of copies each week. It had become evident that it wasn't just David's original fan base who were buying these copies of Crush. No, new fans were emerging. So RCA decided to try to undermine David and prop up Cook at the same time. It's certainly working for Cook's single in the short term. The question is: can RCA prop up Cook in the longer term? What if his album sales slump after the first week? What do they do then to "prove" that Cook is the one who deserved to win? I see in that statement an amazing lack of confidence in their rocker. If I was a DA fan who was considering buying Cook's album, I'd consider whether I wanted to reward RCA's tactics.

Anonymous said...

To those who are defending Cook, please just stop, its not about him, its about how Archie is stil being undermine and used by RCA. It so happens Cook will feel the effect of this but please dont make it about Cook anymore. It was ARchie that was disrespected, bottom line. For Anonymous who was saying that David is not expected to outperform Cook, well if you havent notice David is already doing that with his single right now. Anything can happen, just because you are a winner , it doesnt assure you of a success.
To those Archie fans thinking of buying Cooks album, all I can say is think carefully about your decision as you are TOLERATING THIS KIND OF ACTION FROM RCA AND THEY WONT STOP IF YOU SUPPORT THIS KIND OF NASTY MARKETING TACTICS! THE KEY HERE IS TO NOT LET THEM DO IT AGAIN AND THAT MEANS NOT LETTING YOUR MONEY GO TO RCA, NO MATTER WHAT THAT MEANS OR WHO SUFFERS HERE, BOTTOMLINE, WE HAVE TO LET OUR VOICE HEARD AND MAKE A MESSAGE TO RCA, THAT WE ARE AGAINST THIS KIND OF PLOY!!!!!

Anonymous said...

kudo's to this statement:
To those Archie fans thinking of buying Cooks album, all I can say is think carefully about your decision as you are TOLERATING THIS KIND OF ACTION FROM RCA AND THEY WONT STOP IF YOU SUPPORT THIS KIND OF NASTY MARKETING TACTICS! THE KEY HERE IS TO NOT LET THEM DO IT AGAIN AND THAT MEANS NOT LETTING YOUR MONEY GO TO RCA, NO MATTER WHAT THAT MEANS OR WHO SUFFERS HERE, BOTTOMLINE, WE HAVE TO LET OUR VOICE HEARD AND MAKE A MESSAGE TO RCA, THAT WE ARE AGAINST THIS KIND OF PLOY!!!!!
October 25, 2008 8:16 PM

Anonymous said...

American Idol never fails to make me sick.

Cook's single was #98 after a disastrous week in sales, and then it suddenly went from there to #19 in a day or so. I was wondering why, and now I know: they are using album pre-orders as single sales.

Now the single is falling down the charts again. It was #32 on iTunes this morning. Wonder what they will come up with next?

Not signing with 19 Entertainment for management was probably the biggest blessing in David's career so far. If he was with them, they would not exactly be promoting his career.

Anonymous said...

Light On is #41 on iTunes. What next, RCA?

K.R.I.C.K.E.T. said...

RE: "Great post, Kricket!!! I agree completely. That ad was obnoxious."

thanks so much! it sure was!

RE: "It doesn't matter how the wordnerds feel about the email. There is no question that damage has already been done. They can feel good all they want. I for one had pre-ordered Cook's CD, just to show support for him, have now canceled that order. So one less sale from me."

Indeed, the damage has already been done. I have to admit, i did plan to buy Cook's album because I'm sure David would've wanted his fans to support his "brother", but RCA just messed things too much. Their loss.

RE:"Hope you don't mind if I post this article around?"

Oh no problem at all! iTunes/RCA did send that obnoxious email to the fans, so let's just say we're helping them spread their email. *snicker*

RE:"What irks me why did RCA have promote Cook at the expense Archuleta."

Exactly!!!!

RE:"great blog. straight to the point."

thank you so much!

RE:"RCA must have known they were as much as overtly admitting (flaunting almost) that their winner is a loser."

I know, right. I mean, if i were Cook, i'd be "hey, why do i have to PROVE my self/my worth as a winner?"

RE:"Guys, I don't think it's that serious. It's not really Cook's fault. Besides, there's nothing we can really do about it. That's RCA's marketing tactic, and obviously, it has worked. Cook will probably surpass David in first week album sales, and maybe even in overall album sales. But it doesn't matter, because David is the runner-up and is not expected to outperform Cook. The email is annoying, but complaining about it won't change anything. All we can do is buy David's album and support his music."

thanks for the comment, but it actually IS a serious thing. well, not world war-serious, but it is a huge controversy as to marketing ethics. i don't actually remember any other album being promoted as if almost saying "hey, buy my album, it's much better than this artist/my rival. oh, and don't forget, i beat that other artist." It's sad.

And YOU CAN ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING. Some fans (who planned to support Cook) at message boards have agreed to purchase Cook's album a week after it is released (a week after 11.18). This is so they do not contribute much to Cook's first week sales/debut week sales. This sorta/indirectly helps heighten Archie's debut week sales. I think it's a fair plan, considering the dirty marketing plan RCA threw against Archie. If its a "competition" RCA wants, its a "competition" they shall get.

BUT, after RCA's email, I'm not sure if the plan stays or they would just not buy Cook's album at all. In David's words : Well, that's unfortunate.

RE: "It's certainly working for Cook's single in the short term. The question is: can RCA prop up Cook in the longer term? "

Best of luck to them, eh?

RE:"Cook's single was #98 after a disastrous week in sales, and then it suddenly went from there to #19 in a day or so. I was wondering why, and now I know: they are using album pre-orders as single sales."

Imagine if David's album preorders gave away CRUSH as a "free/advance" download? God knows how many numbers it would add to his sales! Even without it, he's holding steady within the top15! wow.

RE:"Light On is #41 on iTunes. What next, RCA?"

let's not hope they have more evil schemes under their sleeve. *shudder*

 
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