Idol Chatter has three different articles about how the Idols stand on Radio and Records year-end charts. Wait for You is #6 for the year in Top 40 (he's the top Idol in that category), #22 across all formats.

Elliott's artist ranking at Top 40 is #16 (compared to Daughtry at #3, but he had three different songs).

There's more stats there if you care to go and read. Elliott's year has been phenomenal. :elliottcap:

SWEET :rocker: :rocker: :rocker:

Well all I can say is it could not have happened to a better person....
He has worked very very hard for this....Congrats Elliott... :rocker:

Definitely read the whole thing, guys.

Elliott has attained amazing stats here, and is among only a handful of idol alums who have achieved anything in these top 100s at all. He's had a spectacular spectacular start to his career. And given how solid he is in every way, it's just going to continue. Wow and wow.

That's great! I totally agree that he is so deserving of this and he has had a phenomonal year. But I feel that the best is yet to come! :cheers:

Really great stuff! This and the Vibe rating are what it's all about. RESPECT at the end of what has been a really amazing year. In the scheme of things, OW's limited success up to this point is merely a blip on the screen.

And how many times did Ken Barnes make ooh-ah comments about Elliott? Methinks he has finally been completely won over. Whether he is crazy about his sound or not - he's got the total respect thing going on!

Very impressive numbers, especially when we're only talking about one song creating the statistics. WFY is such a successful song it is no wonder we're worried about OW's progress, it is hard to follow up that kind of success. Boy, I wonder how much it pained Ken Barnes to praise Elliott's success...maybe he's coming around to the good side....or maybe not. LOL

Also I can't wait til Mr. Clive Davis sees these #s.. :santarotfl:

:tisdseason: :xmascheerleader: :xmascheers:
Just WOW ELLIOTT!!!!

It's incredible to see how Elliott continues to garner respect and attention from many people and institutions within the music industry. It will definitely be awesome to see him evolve as an artist and the various music we will hear in the upcoming years.

all excellent news...

I'm sure Barnes must be pinching himself. "Elliott? Really???"

yes, Ken, REALLY.

I posted this to Ken Barnes yesterday on the story comment board about Elliott not getting a nomination. I posted about the Neilson survey , Elliott beat out every song Daughtry had for Airplay on Top 40 being the 6th most played song in 2007 and including Plain White Tee's song which Ken described as a mega hit or something to that effect.. and Ken expected PWT'S song to be nominated and win the Grammy.

Elliott had a monster hit and is still going on AC . So I am glad Ken posted this .Good for Elliott and his image. Can't deny the facts.

I think that he always liked Elliott and wanted him to succeed.
He seemed to be worried about Elliott's chances - but so was I.
At some point I was sure that Elliott's CD will not even sell 200 K. I was hoping for 1000 K but did not really believe even in 500K.

I remember some were saying that Elliott will be forgotten by Christmas.
Prediction from some experts were like this; the biggest chance to succeed has Taylor, then Kat, then Chris, then Kellie and Elliott was next. HEHEHE.
:santarotfl: :santarotfl: :santarotfl:

Chris outdid everyone.

Kellie proved country loves their Idols.

Even Mandisa has outscored Taylor Hicks.

As for Hicks, and McPhee, they have been outdone by #3 and #4 in the legitimate music world.

Elliott? Talent wins out, and America corrects her mistakes. :-)

Fantastic! He has had a great start to his career.

So happy and proud, what a giant first year this has been! :xmascheers:

No Idol contestant not signed by Clive has done this well on the radio. Only two or three signed by Clive have ever done this well or better. Great numbers for any artist but fantastic numbers for someone on an indie label. I wonder if another indie artist has every had this much Top 40 radio play.

I'll raise a glass to that! :xmascheers:

Wow! Great great news.

Will Elliott be included in Clive's ever famous "unit" tally during the upcoming AI season?

So glad to see this!
Elliott has worked SO hard for this. So hard I've worried about his health.
I'm proud to be a "rabid" fan of this man.

yes... these are great news to celebrate.... :elliottski:

That's my favorite part... " even if she was overshadowed by the two Idols who finished just beneath her in Season 5 -- Katharine has something to celebrate, as Over It finishes at 98 for the year."

I cant help to drop an evil... "Overshadowed? yes u are!!" !! lol

Oh... and it's very clear to me that he likes Elliott, or at least he respects his success... " I'm kind of disappointed Elliott didn't make it, though, but he may have faced similar problems of not sounding fresh to the voters' ears."

Well, Elliott sounds fresh and stunning, the voters just have hearing pbs!

Yeah, that's what I want to know, too. You'd think somebody would be writing about this, but I know the Idol connection and the big-label publishing contract hurt his standing in the indie world. He gets called "faux-indie" a lot, I've noticed, so I suppose there will be some reluctance to talk about this as an indie triumph.

It's not like Elliott is the first idol alum to go indie though.... granted, he is the first one to be this successful, but so what? Because he's had some success, he's "faux-indie"? It's as if their attitude is when you're one of us, you can only achieve a certain level of success... craziness (shakes head)

"faux-indie"?? LOL

the term "indepedent", in the music industry, typically means you've put your own money upfront for the production of your product, without advance, and that you aren't part of a corporate network of artists. You also must contract out any services that a major label would automatically include (distribution, for example).

He is "quasi-indie" in that Sony ATV is a part of a larger corporate entity, but - by agreement - must remain separate from Sony BMG itself. Remember when Elliott was so successful in sales his first week and Sony BMG wanted a cut? They couldn't have it, because of conflicts with Yamin's arrangement with Sony ATV.

Elliott has went Gold with his first CD. For an indie, that is a rare, rare thing. The Shins, who have been around for years and have had several albums, just achieved their FIRST gold record. True, Garth Brooks and The Eagles have also achieved Gold as indies, but this is well after their sales at major labels were secured.

It's quite an accomplishment!

Well, it's not the success that they call "faux-indie." It's the initial sales boost from having an Idol fan base, plus the fact that he has a publishing contract with a major company.

I agree with them that the initial sales boost from Idol does make Idol album sales something different than anybody else's, actually. They have something to depend on for initial sales that other indie people don't have and that does sort of give them an initial major-label-type boost, seems to me, although I also think it wears off very quickly.

But the publishing contract doesn 't do anything -- or much, anyway -- for his album sales or his radio play. So that's kind of a red herring to me. It gets brought up as the second faux-indie element sometimes, though.

If it were just success, I think people would be thrilled to claim his as "full indie," not "faux," and of course some are thrilled, too.

If he didn't have those two things, his success would be considered a pure indie triumph.

Most big labels have an indie under them, the reason is to please the RIAA. There were a lot of accusations of payola and illegal practices for years and this was one way of saying "we love everyone equally".

Very few groups are solely indie, especially if they are successful. It is almost impossible to distribute and promote by one or two people. You need to have some kind of managment in order to be a success. The groups on myspace solely and that don't sell in retail are true indie but they also don't have any success. Some indie labels are better than others but what makes them indie is the lack of big dog support.

Elliott has like a handful of people working for him, where Sony BMG he would have hundreds. He also needs to find his own promo team (Croshal) which is not affiliated with them. Major labels provide the whole shebang.

well, too bad for all the other Indies, I guess.

Elliott and his team were just smarter. ;-)

That, definitely, ... and he had Idol. ... Had he not had Idol, most of us would have no idea who he was, and his fanbase-building would take far far longer than it has.

I also remember reading or hearing him say in some interview or other that they weren't originally going to rely much on radio to built his career, but when they were able to get the Stargate songs, the strategy changed. Taking those songs was smart business, but if they hadn't gotten them, we wouldn't have all the fantastic and amazing radio news we've had this year, which is the big coup he's pulled.