2.19.12 - 2.25.12 Numbers Thread

Given that he had big bullets last week and syndicated spins last weekend that he didn't get this weekend it is not at all surprising that the song is plateauing. There were many occasions during both WWFM and IIHY runs that the songs were declared dead in the water due to similar updates and yet they rebounded and continued up the charts. Since the decision to delay the album was obviously JUST finalized in the past week I would say that they are busy retooling the launch and any radio push would probably be held off on until they have reworked the plans. Nothing wrong with just letting things go for now. The video is just starting to get play and there have been small bumps each morning consistant with the video play and the song will be hitting some of the video countdowns soon so they could let that carry it a little until they see where they are on the album.

If the Sonisphere announcement is about Adam performing with Queen he will get HUGE press with that and to be perfectly honest I have never been convinced that RCA considers radio a career make or break with Adam. Of course in a perfect world they would want great radio response but the music industry is in such flux and Adam has a strong brand even without radio so I think they are actually concentrating more on international promo and visually based media. We talk about the reality of payola existing regardless of the laws against it and when Adam commented recently about not getting a lot of freebies because he was more interested in paying his own way my thought were that this could also extend to what he is willing to do with respect to radio. He is more than happy to do the visits and interviews but from comments from DJ's it seems that the M&G opportunities are something he actually insists on so that part of radio promo is fine but we all know that there are other ways that money gets dumped into pushing songs and maybe Mr. Executive Producer is not willing to dump a lot of cash in what amounts to nothing more than bribes for radio play. Remember that all that money comes out of the project budget and Adam might not have the only vote but I'll bet he has a good bit of input on exactly how that promo money is spent.

Comments have been made about Adam's promo being more about the album than it is about the song BTIKM and I agree but this is really no different than FYE era. Adam always was more focused on promo for the album rather than any particular song. Sure the performance was the song of the moment but he always steered the talking points more heavily toward his album than to whatever song he was pushing.

It could well be that they are looking for the Queen association to actually be more responsible for breaking him in the UK than any particular single. Adam seems to be a strange kind of hybrid artist rather than the typical pop star. Pop stars usually are better know for their singles rather than their albums but Adam seems to be more of an album artist more like a rock star than a pop star.

Bottom line is that Adam himself is SOOOO excited this round and much more so than when talking about FYE so I am not inclined to doom and gloom regardless of what the day to day numbers are showing. People say you can't be a pop star without radio but who knows maybe Adam with his strong brand and visual appeal are going to change that. Since streaming is monetized the fact that the BTIKM video is performing much stronger than the previous era videos is surely a good sign. I trust Adam as an artist AND he has both the drive and the ability to sell himself to the public so I just can't envision a Cook level flop. After three years of watching Adam turn straw in to gold I have FAITH in the long term. For me it is not a matter of how high the highs or how low the lows but of how long the ride continues and I truly think this will be a virtually endless ride. I'm buckled in for the long haul.