There was apparent resistance to this song, although I have no idea why.
It should have easily been a top 40 hit. WFY continues strong (almost 2400 spins already in December), and radio seems unwilling to give it up for OW.

Currently, if counting the song in recurrents, WFY continues in the top 32 songs being played in the nation on top 40, and is in the top 30 across all formats.
This song has had a life of its own, undaunted by time or yearly changing taste patterns.

Did WFY's success kill OW's chances? It shouldn't have, unless radio considers the songs too similar.

**Sometimes I wonder if we just shouldn't ASK the radio station DJs and PDs as to WHY they have turned a cold shoulder to the song.** Knowledge is power.

*Did it not test well? (NO. It scored high at AllAccess).
*Did it not fit their programming? (if so, why did WFY or any other ballad?)
*Did we fans overdo the requesting? (doubtful; there's only so many of us).
*Did Elliott piss them off someway? (I know there were rumors that he missed some interviews, etc. Is this enough to punish him, however?; the man is not some diva, and by all accounts, most stations love him).

---------------------------


we must ask ourselves if Sony/RED even fully supported the song? I'm sure by contract they were obligated to release a second single. Supporting it is another story. At the time, sales of the CD had leveled off to 3K-4K weekly, and the album fell out of the top 200. They may be content with 500K, which is above and beyond anything expected for an Indie act. Sales have rebounded to 5K weekly, and we have an apparently successful Christmas CD, so they may have seen the error of their non-support.

We must also ask ourselves if our own attitudes around here, our obsession with chart watching, and perhaps our fatigue after WFY contributed to OW's lackluster results.


This song deserved better. I hope that, if we see a third single, we don't act all "once bitten, twice shy", and go all out, and that Elliott and company put on all the stops to ensure a massive repsonse at radio. Whether that single is something on the first album, or a new song entirely, I know that all of E's fans will be there to TRY yet again, as fans do, for the sweet smell of success deserved.

------------------------------


WE continue with SUCCESS at Sirius, at VH-1, and in certain markets, like Wilmington and Atlanta. In NO WAY should we throw in the towel at any of these!!

people keep talking about good call out numbers. Where were these numbers? There must be a chart that I've not payed attention to.

I've been checking here http://www.hitpredictor.com/top40.php
I get the impression that many in the radio industry use this R&R Hit Predictor as a guide when selecting new music. Pretty much everything on this chart is what I hear on my Top40 station.
I've been checking for a couple of months now and OW has never been on this list. WFY is still listed in recurrents with good numbers.

link to read about Hit predictor
http://www.hitpredictor.com/news/

I thought it was listed on Hit Predictor awhile back, with a score of around 67???

Well, you've summed it up pretty completely. :)

I'd bet Sony/RED figuring that they'd done more than enough for one indie album is part of it. And the reluctance to let go of Wait for You is probably something too. ....

I think a very notable fact about WFY that was clearly missing on OW is: WFY started off with big-time support from Ryan's big-time, category-killer station. and OW didn't.

I'd say that's probably a little bit a "RED/ Croshal/etc didn't push hard enough to get some big shot to do this" problem;
partly the fact that Ryan (or anybody in his position) would be highly unlikely to make such a push twice in a row for one person;
and partly the fact that, no matter how hard they pushed, Elliott's still an American Idol alum and an indie in the first year of his career and it's next to impossible to find anybody else big time who would be willing to spend time and capital on somebody they deem that risky, when there are plenty of other people to push who can probably help *their* careers.

Anyway, we still like to hear Elliott singing, including One Word, so onward with requesting and voting and realizing that he's only just begun.

It scored a 66/67 at AllAccess. Someone else may have a link?

In an email I received from Croshal (I've only emailed them once) they expressed the goal was to make him Platinum selling artist.

I can't imagine that Elliott hired them, and they just decided not to support it unless I have no understanding about how this works...(which is not out of the question)...I mean, they work for him, right?

they do work FOR him, no doubt.
if they were focused, though, on eventual platinum, then OW needed a far bigger push from Croshal, Three Rings, and Sony ATV/RED.

Goals can change, of course; and - really - there is only so much they can do, and a lot they can't do when it comes to radio, I suppose.

Mike posted it in this thread:

http://z4.invisionfree.com/Etrain/index.php?showtopic=14902

Well everyone seems to be counting One Word over and it has JUST been added to VH1's Top 20 countdown. Is it not still possible to get him up the chart there, and therefore influence radio play as well? Pictures of You didn't even start to get good radio play until it charted pretty highly and consistently on the VH1 countdown. At least not here.

It will probably not be the smash hit that WFY was, which I supposed was inevitable, but I still think there is life in it yet.

Were most areas already playing WFY before the American Idol appearance?

I know they were NOT playing it in my area until after he sang it on the results show.

Just wondering how much "TV" had to do with the success of WFY over OW.

Just remember, He hasn't sung OW on TV "at all ".....(no Ellen, Regis, Jimmy Kimble, Montel) like he did WFY.

Get on the television boy, and let's give this song a run!!

I still think there is a lot of life left in OW. If only stations would just drop WFY and start spinning OW!

And according to this: http://yaminions.com/index.php?itemid=594 we will most probably be getting a third single.

I wish that we could find out when/if KIIS will play "One Word". I wish we knew if the Program Director has authorized the DJs to play the song. I don't think that JoJo can play the song until the PD authorizes it, no matter how much we vote.

Do we even have any Los Angeles members here who can find out anything for us? I think KIIS and Z100 need to play the song in order to entice other large markets to play the song.

I wonder if they are waiting for the song to get in the Top 40 before they start playing it. Catch 22.

I wish that Elliott could get booked on Ryan's or JoJo's shows. *sigh*

but...

should he have to sing it on TV?
I don't think I've heard half the songs on the radio performed on TV.
I know it DOES help, but many programs have been resistant to having Elliott appear. Even after an NBC-produced CD for Target, "The Today Show" still says "no dice".

I think VH1 can help, but not entirely. We need movement and a slowdown in radio decline. Richmond and XM, especially, have hurt this song immeasurably. Again, being optimistic and pessimisitc are not my dichotomy of choice; I am trying to be realistic in trying to assess were the problem may lay.

Here is a link to KIIS's top songs, to give you an idea what songs this station plays:

http://www.yes.com/#KIIS?chart

I think another thing that helped WFY, aside from it having more TV appearances, is that Elliott did an extensive radio tour to promote it.

He definitely needs to do a radio tour again. One apparently wasn't enough to introduce him as a new artist. DJs must have short term memory or something. They must at least be reminded that Elliott's there and that he has a new single out.

And definitely we must continue to vote/request for OW like mad. Elliott himself said so. I don't think we should stop until we get word that we should be doing otherwise.

it won't hurt him..
but Elliott can't do a radio tour EVERY time a new single is released.
I don't see other artists doing this. I agree, the DJs have short term memories!!!

I suppose he should hit the big stations and big markets as necessary.

Richmond was the first to kill the bullit. Now it is XM . Dropped 25 or more spins in a week.. Elliott would have his bullit back today if not for XM. If you look at mediabase the top spin stations are adding spins. Xm has decreased and also killed some stations from playing at all.These numbers with bullits tell the Dj what the song is doing. Bad timing. Huge decreases by a few stations made this song a hard one to get off the ground. We can still hit XM with everything we got... and also Request and be persistent .. we can still get it off the ground !! It just had some bad turn arounds by a few stations.. we need ALL fans to keep requesting, phones, text messages, and e-mails.. we got a video up and mention the great video ! Refresh just as if it is your first time requesting .. keep the pressure on!!

Everyone, VOTE AND REQUEST! This song is faaaar from being over.

:rocker:

I would say that the answer to that is clearly yes. We've seen this be true at lots of stations.

[I]If Elliott sang this one word live on a major network the radio play would increase. I like one word but I think he sings it much better live. I keep going to his wfy video and posting for people to go take a look at his one word. I don't think a lot of people are aware that he has a new single out. Maybe a faster paced song should have been released like Alright or Movin On. What does everybody think?

We're not going to get one for this song, though. He said at the bloggers' event that he's planning an extended vacation in January, and I'm sure he needs it desperately, if for no other reason to get his health in good shape to withstand the USO tour and the push toward another album that will be coming up right after. Maybe he'll do another big tour for the third single.

We probably should also remember that lots and lots of the stations he visited still didn't play Wait for You until long after he visited them. He made at least one and maybe two visits to Hot 99.5 in DC, for example, and at least the first one was two or three months before they played Wait for You at all. This was true of most of the big-market stations, as I remember. So the radio tour is a good thing but it doesn't necessarily get you play.

His career is just going to have to build gradually. And given that he had no career at all a year and a half ago, things are looking okay to me.

yeah...very strange there...
the top spin stations ARE adding spins of this song!

excuse me, but , for me, it's another WTF? moment!!!!

if the top spinning stations are adding spins, then I say there is still life in this song. Oh, if only PD"s would give it a chance , I know it would catch on......

I don't either. Virtually no publicity for the general public to even know about it.

At the very least the video of OW should be on his myspace page.

Anyone know how to check the single download numbers on itunes? That would be a good indicator as to how many people even know that it's the next single.

I would love for OW to become a hit but when I listen to some of the songs that ARE being played on the radio......well, I must admit I have absolutely no idea about how the music business works. It does seems that the right connections play a big part in radio play and getting tv appearances. My consolation is that I do believe that Elliott is making a nice living doing what he loves.

It is all very WTF. But I'd be surprised if it didn't happen just like this with lots of songs, especially new artists' songs whether they're indie or big label.

When you think how many artists and songs there are and how many actually have some kind of steady rise to the top 20 or above, there is clearly a lot of strange up-and-down bouncing going on for lots of stuff. Every non-big-hit doesn't just arrive on the chart, go up for a bit then drop like a stone.

Even a song like Wait for You that does have a steady upward trajectory -- there are people adding it to their playlists *now*, for heaven's sake. Where were they earlier? That's kind of WTF too, really. And I'm sure it isn't just Elliott's stuff that behaves so weirdly.

Didn't we just have this discussion/anaylsis last week? Has anything changed that we have to rehash it all over again? I just find that this continual speculation and discussion very discouraging and may cause fans to think "Well, if the song is dead, why should I request." I think we tend to forget the hard work on WFY and it wasn't always a rosy picture there either. I guess my point is that it is mostly just speculation and assumptions on our part a nd I question if that is healthy for the songs future. JMO....

Keep requesting, voting, clicking, dragging...

No, I 'm actually glad that we discuss that because I keep wondering about it a lot.

Please, let's just request our butts off!

The discussion does help me, as long as it is not all doom and gloom, and I don't feel that this time. There are several encouraging points made, and I have so many questions racing around my brain concerning this song. I think people are just trying to get a handle on what's happening, and how to move from this point.

eta: and yes, I agree with Benito....let's continue ot REQUEST our butts off!!! :)

Don't shoot me for this comment..........


Do you think that because there were a lot of fans predicting another big hit, that Elliott convinced his team to release it so as not to disappoint?

I know that it was probably evenly matched on this site over who thought OW should be the 2nd release and who thought something more upbeat should be.

So, that being said, do you think his team might have had something else in mind, but bowed to Elliott's request on behalf of some of his fans????

Maybe that is why it appears not to have the same support from his team as WFY? Who knows, maybe they have something up their sleeves, like he said, but now is the time to pull it out if that is the case.

Otherwise, after the Holidays, it might be too late to get this song moving up.
Maybe they figured they would let Elliott and some of his fans have their way, and if it didn't rise fast enough, no harm done, they could just release another song? I don't really know, this is just speculation, but it makes about as much sense as anything anyone else has been speculating on.

I think Elliott should have a gold record for all of his songs, but, the general public has yet to hear what we all do. Slowly but surely wins the race............... :hapiholidays:

I doubt it. For one thing, there was a *huge* fan split over whether it should be the next song. So there was no mandate at all. Plus, they didn't just release it, they made a video.

Also, Elliott has said he really loves "One Word" as well. Plus, it's a Stargate song -- the hitmakers of hitmakers (and we do have them to thank for at leats one spin in DC recently.)

Plus, this is business. They're not going to release something as a favor to the artist, the fanbase or anybody else. They're going to do what they think will work. And I think what they thought was -- Stargate; that'll work. Maybe they even thought, Stargate; that'll work and we won't even have to spend a lot pushing it.

The thing is, you can't predict business conditions totally. There are a lot of songs fighting for airspace right now and a lot of desperate music labels pushing like crazy. Any song could get caught up in that maelstrom and perform less well than expected, and I'm sure that lots besides One Word have!

I don't think that a good team would let itself to be convinced about anything because of what the fans say. Fans always say crazy things and they are not objectve. The team may count on our help but I doubt if they would say "the fans will do the job so we can just sit and wait". Look at Kat's fans. They were really active but it did not help much.
So, no, I don't think that we have hurt the process.

well, I'm certainly not all doom and gloom.
I continually say to REQUEST, VOTE, REQUEST, VOTE....
and CERTAINLY focus on those stations and other media formats already
supporting the song.

I'm wanting us to remove the constant MediaBase intrusion into the discussion.

we had a similar discussion, but it WAS an " end of the world" type scenario.
I didn't see any analysis, and I think we need that going further.

what can we do to help this song or the next single?
what mistakes were made?
what's the next plan of attack?

sweeping it under the rug doesn't make it go away, and only harms us in the long run.

I guess this was sort of my point, I felt the "end of the world" discussions were counter-productive to our posts of request and vote.

I think we all agree we'd love to know what the plans are for this song but it isn't info we are privy to or ever will be. The unkowing is frustrating for all of us and I guess this is where these discussions originate, is the frustration.

I think that we need Mediabase info because we need a reality check.
The first thing I do every morning is to check if Jamie (thanks Jamie) or someone else posted already on Etrain songs's Mediabase status. If not - I look for it myself.
That's how we know that the song (and I) is doing OK, or not.
It motivates me and gives me the feeling that my efforts are not in vain.
Even if then song starts going down I'm sure that because of my requests it went where it was (at #48 or 47?).

I think these discussions are helpful. They bring fresh perspectives. I have now started to dig further when I check the mediabase chart - I'm looking to see where the spins are decreasing, and where they are increasing. There are still stations increasing spins.

The difference in this discussion is that the panic is gone, and we are able to see that there are good, solid reasons to support the song however we can. Let's keep at it.

I can't speak for Sony/red but some people here didn't like the idea of OW as a second single back in August. (Not me), I like it but it might be too "soft" and "positive" for Top 40 play. It's more pop and less urban than WFY (jmo) and I'm not 100% surprised it met resistance. I still think with more promo it would do well. Maybe they should do a remix or release it as a duet?

I think WFY has done the job of two singles (getting the album gold) and still gets huge radio play. So maybe OW got less push for that reason.

I think it's way too early to give up on OW. Lots of songs take a while to gain momentum, especially if they haven't been getting much promotion (and Elliott has yet to sing the song on a national TV show).

There are two songs in particular that I have been watching for months that are only now starting to pick up momentum. "Best Days" by Matt White was hovering in the 100s on Mediabase since late last spring/early summer, bouncing back and forth from a positive to a negative bullet all the time. Now it's at #54 with a bullet of 53. And "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles debuted on the chart last July, but it was stuck in the 100s until the end of November, often going from a positive to a negative bullet and back again. Now it's at #73 with a bullet of 86, and I had given up long ago on the possibility of this song ever cracking the top 100.

And then there's that song that we all must know by now - "Bubbly," by Colbie Caillat. If you look at the Mediabase Top 40 Year to Date chart, you'll see what a slow start that song had. 9 spins in April, 32 in May, 87 in June, 280 in July... and 42,526 spins in November!

So the bottom line is that some songs take off slower than others, and there's no reason to give up on OW now. I think if Elliott performed it on a national TV show, sales would increase and radio might give it a chance. Remember, WFY didn't really take off in full force until Elliott performed it on AI.

Thanks for filling in detailed examples on the Lots-of-songs-take-slow-and-strange-trajectories-and-still-get-somewhere idea.

I wonder if he'll sing One Word on In the Loop. I'm betting they want a holiday song instead, given that they have Kim Locke, Miss Holiday Song herself, on today, but I'm still hoping for One Word. Every bit of exposure helps.