Kid Rock Strategy Causes Estelle's Sales to Plummet

Some artists/labels are avoiding iTunes because they aren't allowed to sell only albums, they also have to sell singles.

But major labels, in particular, prefer to manipulate sales and consumer desire in order to maximize gains wherever possible and currently that means album-only releases.

Since Kid Rock's latest album has outperformed while cutting iTunes out of the equation, music industry brainiacs are apparently taking that success, making the most obvious assumptions and applying the lessons they think they've learned from what is essentially an aging classic rock act to sales strategies for an emerging [in the States] RnB act, Estelle, with few market parallels to Kid Rock.

The result:

"British R&B star Estelle has seen her single American Boy plummet down the US chart after her latest album, Shine, was taken off iTunes in the States...It was in the iTunes top 10 in the US before its removal. It was also at 11 on the official Billboard singles chart - but has now dropped to number 37..."

"A cover version, by a group called Studio All-Stars, has taken advantage of the situation, appearing at number 43 on the download chart."

"Meanwhile, Shine, which is nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in the UK, has dropped to number 159 on the Billboard album rundown.  The album has spent 17 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 38."

So she's nominated for a major UK award, on tour with Kanye West Etc. and coming off a solid run on the charts plus has a cover of one of her singles doing quite well and yet her sales are tanking.

Estelle, you should sue.

And we should all remain sceptical of folks like "Warner Music Group spokesman, Will Tanous...[who] called the removal [of Shine's tracks from iTunes] part of a broad range of digital-release strategies 'uniquely tailored to each artist and their fan base in an effort to optimize revenues and promote long-term artist development.'"

Comments

[Justin Boland]

Endless LULZ from the herd marketers...we get something to chuckle about every day so I guess human ignorance isn't all bad.

Hopefully Estelle is a smart enough hustler to get herself a Tunecore account and start making duckets on the side!

[Clyde Smith]

She should burn her own cds and sell 'em on tour!

[Stone]

I think hypebot put it best:

Even though I can't stand Kid Rock, he's an established artist, with an establsished fan base. Estelle is still trying to get a fanbase of support and her audience skews younger and are probably more likely to use iTunes.

This is sad because she's finally getting radio airplay in my area (DC) so she should def. look into lawyering up!