Over 8 American Idol contestants will be releasing records from September to mid November with 3 contestants releasing CD’s on the same day November 14th. Fantasia Barrino’s sophomore effort is due Oct. 17.  Ruben Studdard’s will release his third CD on September 26th. Clay Aiken’s street date is October 14th.

Take a Look at these sales figures below.

Kelly Clarkson – 5.4 million copies
Carrie Underwood – 3.2 million units
Clay Aiken – 2.8 million
Ruben Studdard – 1.8 million
Fantasia Barrino – 1.7 million
Josh Gracin – 667,000
Bo Bice  – 641,000

Kelly Clarkson is the only true megastar American Idol broke. Auditioning 10,000 artists and finding one legitimate gem? This sounds about right.

(Variety)

 

Tooth and Nail has signed Mississippi based Jonezetta. Its a new wave act a cross between The Killers and Franz Ferdinand.

Victory Records has signed Florida’s hardcore emo screamo act A Day to Remember.

Virgin Records has signed singer/songwriter folk artist A Fine Frenzy (pictured) out of Los Angeles. 

San Diego based Dynamite Walls are beginning to make a mark selling 1,000 EP’s in the 1st month of the release online. The band has been compared as everything from Coldplay to John Mayer, but I also hear radio contempories such as the Fray. For more information contact Jason Burkhart or legal Nick Ferrera.
Aug 7 Los Angeles, CA – BMI
Aug 10 Santa Barbara, CA – Club Soho
Aug 17 Tempe, AZ – The Sugi Tap
Aug 26 San Diego, CA – Epicentre
Sep 8  San Diego, CA – The Beauty
Sep 29 San Diego, CA – Pi Beta Phi Sorority
Kiss and Ride (mp3)
Now (Tell Me) (mp3)

She has a platinum record and a sold out tour that may end up being the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist. She is controversial and always creates a national buzz and is one of the best selling music artists of all time. What’s odd about this is that I rarely heard her new singles on the radio. Radio barely spun first three singles from her latest album.

Hung Up” got middling airplay on mainstream top 40 outlets, “Sorry” was barely played, and “Get Together” has been all but ignored by pop stations. (Her album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” has sold a healthy 1.5 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.)

Why did radio shun legitimate Madonna singles that J Lo could never get her hands on? Because she isn’t hip hop enough. I know many at this point haven’t tuned into radio for the last year but your not missing anything. Hip Hop owns radio.

Warner Bros. was aware that the songs on “Confessions” could present challenges at mainstream top 40 radio, acknowledges Tom Biery, the label’s senior VP of promotions. “Top 40 radio is so hip-hop-driven,” he says. “We were coming in with a global pop star who made a dance record.”

If you want to earn your position at top 40 I suggest you lose your artistic vision and write hip hop songs. Nelly Furtado and Mariah Carey took no chances and quickly hopped on the hip hop wagon. Even so called punk rockers Good Charlotte are going to trade in the axe for a rap and has recorded a track with the Game for their upcoming album.

According to Dom Theodore, regional VP of programming for Clear Channel and program director of top 40 WKQI Detroit, today’s programmers consider each Madonna song on a case-by-case basis to determine if it fits mainstream top 40, adult top 40 or both. Or neither. For Theodore, the sound of “Confessions on a Dance Floor” skews more retro-adult top 40 than mainstream top 40, while recent club tracks like Rihanna’s “SOS” have “more hip-hop credibility.” The Rihanna jam may reference an early-’80s dance hit (Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love”) but Theodore believes it does not have the same “retro ’70s feel” as the Madonna tracks.

Are your ears bleeding from the beats of Hip Hop? Then pack your bags and move out of the US (The Home of Hip Hop)

Madonna has had no such problems internationally. Since its release last November, “Confessions on a Dance Floor” has topped the charts in 29 countries and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide, according to Warner Bros. Except for dance radio outlets like KNGY San Francisco, KNRJ Phoenix and KNHC Seattle, Madonna is missing from the terrestrial radio landscape in the United States.

To shun legitimate singles because they are not hip enough is exactly why music is in its lowest life form. But to avoid singles from a career artist like Madonna is even more frightening. This is why terrestrial radio is chopping its own head off and people are tuning out.  (Reuters)

My Luminaries (who are up for grabs for publishing) – will be releasing their debut single on Gronland in Autumn, album out on V2 in January. My Luminaries are an indie rock band formed in London in 2004. NME magazine has compared them to The Arcade Fire and 90’s indie legends Pavement. Check out the track Outsider Steps Inside (mp3)