From Idol Chatter:
Elliott sold 1,700, down from 2,400, to bring his total to 486,000. (I've dropped the Christmas albums for the time being, but Elliott's, I accidentally discovered, sold 1,800 more copies last week, way off the 23,000 it sold the previous week, but enough to boost it to 81,000 total.)



Who's still buying the Xmas album and where are you finding it? Okay 14,000 to 500K.

Elliott needs another single!

I know it's been mentioned about putting EY's CD on sale at Target. If that's going to happen, I hope it's in time for Valentine's Day and that it gets highlighted in the Sunday Target insert.

BTW, sort of off-topic a little, but my local Best Buy has about seven of EY's CD. Is it just my local Best Buy, or do they arrange the CD's in the weirdest way? Elliott doesn't even rate a header card, it's just a blank in the "Y" section.

Ouch. I didn't expect much of a drop.

He's got a header card at my Best Buy. I was just there this past weekend, and they were fully stocked with his cds. I'd say they had at least 10 of them. My Target had about 4-6, but they were displayed across four different sections, so he had a pretty good display.

I checked the K-Mart in my area , no Elliott CD's there to buy. I checked Walmart and I found one hiding way behind other CD's .. only one left and I displayed it eye level in the highest row where is was very prominent to view. :drool: One lucky person will be happy!!

His album is just too expensive right now. Can't management do something about pricing?

I would like to understand distribution a bit more. If they even have a choice I would skip FYE altogether. Elliott's CD was at full retail when I was there before the holidays.

There were at least eight of Elliott's CD at that one location in Burbank, CA.

I'm surprised that there are more holiday CDs around to buy.

Elliott has been nearly silent for months. The one thing that the top sellers have in common is that they communicate with their fans. I don't understand the silence. It only takes a few minutes to post something on MySpace. Oh well.

I hope that the self-titled CD gets a sales boost now that Idol is back. A price cut would help also. I don't buy CDs for $14.99. Thank goodness some people do.

It's great that the CD is only 14,000 shy of selling Gold. It's amazing.

:amen:

I know he is resting, and I'm glad, but it sure seems like a looonnng time since we've heard anything.

We need a "I miss Elliott" sign...

it's the January crunch. it was expected; you'll see some rebound, but the album is about to go 'catalog', it appears.

What doe "cataloged" mean? Is it good or bad?

once an album falls to a certain sales point, retailers will not place a re-order on a regular basis for the album. The album becomes 'catalogued', and is put on a special order/"as needed" re-order status. For example, instead of carrying 6-8 copies at a time, Wal-mart may choose to carry only one copy, and/or only one copy will be placed by their CD team. E's album has sold well enough to insure some continued re-ordering through the second quarter of 2008.

This is better than going into the discount bargain bins, where we now see Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee at many stores(subject to NO re-orders; you'll have to get them at Amazon.com). Retailers have the option of returning the albums to the label's distributor, as well. This is the kiss of death, and is probably why we saw Hicks and McPhee lose their contracts, as the losses mounted for all the returns those artists received. My Wal-mart for example, went from 12 copies of Hicks' album to just 2 in a matter of days. It's obvious those were pulled and sent back. It was a few weeks later that Hicks was booted. I truly believe Wal-Mart's returns of the album (they were Hicks' largest retailing partner) to the distributor proved his demise at Sony BMG.

Thanks for the information, Ohioguy. I appreciate have it explained.

Okay, I'm really confused about this. ...

When we heard that Taylor had been certified platinum, even though he'd only scanned to end customers a little under 700,000 copies, I thought we understood that they could certify him because enough *nonreturnable* albums had been shipped to retailers, chiefly Wal-mart, since they had ordered a lot and had a sort of special relationship with Taylor. ...

I believed this, because the returnability of many albums shipped to retailers is apparently what kept Fantasia from getting the final platinum certification for her album even though she'd scanned quite a bit closer to the million than Taylor had. In Fantasia's case, supposedly, the retailers had 'em, but shipped 'em back, so no platinum for her there.

But now you're saying that Taylor's albums, too, were returnable, even by Wal-mart.... So if that's true, how come he could get a platinum certification? Or do you think that these albums that Wal-mart has now returned were *beyond* the first million and shipped on a yeah-you-can-return-them basis. ... That seems strange to me, too, come to think of it, since I'd understood that even Wal-mart hadn't sold out their first reportedly nonreturnable shipment. So why would they order more?

What am I missing here?

applesauce I didn't realize he went platinum. (he's listed on the RIAA site). Seems like they would have done more to push him, than to possibly piss off Walmart the largest retailer (isn't that right) with the low numbers and non returnables.

Yeah, it does. It's all kind of mysterious to me....

I still wonder whether his split with the label is a little less final than some other people's splits. In some quotes, they've seemed to imply that he's welcome to make his next album on his own then shop it to them and they'll take a look.

Good question if Taylor's albums were returnable. I think I read there was something exclusive about the Walmart album (don't remember what). If that's true, they couldn't return them although they probably pulled them from the shelves to make room for other artists.

There are at least 300,000 Taylor Hicks albums somewhere though - at the retailers or back at the label.

I saw one Hicks cd at my local Walmart. I wonder where the other 299,999 are?

I haven't been to Circuit City since right after Christmas, but every time I went they had 5 or 6 copies of Elliott's CD. I always rearrange the "Y" section to make sure Elliott is in the front. I don't care about Taylor Hicks. I always thought he was more show than substance, so I'm not surprised his label dropped him. I want to concentrate on doing what we can to keep Elliott selling. I know he's on a much needed and well deserved break and in fact has probably by now started work on his next CD, but it would be nice to hear something from him!
:elliottcap:

I guess nobody's looking for them very hard. :whistle:

Acutally, I suppose my guess is: pulled from the shelf but not sent back ... Because if they could send them back he wouldn't be certified platinum. ... Maybe they pull it from the shelves before they make it a bargain-bin product?

Elliott made the statement in his interview that he was going to work on his new album in January so I know he has to be drained... I hope he gets enough spirit and energy to work on this next project. Elliott has to be completely drained at this point because he poured everything he had into his concerts and greeted many fans. Take a breather Elliott. We will WAIT FOR YOU!!!!

disagree; betting sent back, look for them at a Big Lots near you. My Wal-Mart didn't sell that many Hicks CDs in 2 weeks time.

If you see any CD with a Jewel case cut at retail, it's either promo or re-sale.

certification is based on shipments, minus returns. They could easily de-certify, but that never happens. The label could always stockpile to have them on hand for special orders or Amazon re-fresh; they may also dump them on the foreign market.

They could also use them for kindling. ;-)

Okay -- the "never happens" on decertification is the piece that I was missing. ..

So the deal is -- If they get returned before the label applies for certification, you're doomed. But if the label gets out ahead of the game and applies for certification early on, and *then* your stuff is returned, you're able to go down in history as a platinum (or gold) artist even though, in reality, you didn't even sell nearly enough wholesale, on net?

Boy, talk about unfair.

Do you know who'd have to initiate decertification? ... I suppose it never happens because the certifiers are too busy certifying and too loath to annoy the big record companies to worry about this?

I agree that the not-returned thing doesn't make a lot of sense, given that I'm sure the label wants to continue to make nice with Wal-mart. It's just that, usually in the business world you're stuck with stuff you erroneously order on a nonreturnable basis!

No, I don't think that album's ever going to catch fire.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Nice one! Hahaha!

yep, good stuff there!!! :rotfl:

I know the material a singer sings is important. I heard Taylor singing a few songs and saw with the right song Taylor can make it happen. Top 40 was not his format with the style he sings. I kind of knew Top 40 radio was not going to give Taylor airplay on his southern style music.

I know that Taylor was really good to Elliott giving the use of his band in Richmond.. so Taylor is all right with me. :elliottcap:

Just my opinion about Taylor - I''ve seen his live show and he puts on a good one. I've also heard his cd and I didn't like it. A lot of what he sung in his live show was on the cd. So for me Taylor is someone I have to see to enjoy. Just listening to his recorded voice? No thanks. Taylor is a great performer but, he really isn't a great singer. He'd be better off trying to sell DVDs of his show.

Taylor always appreciated Elliott's talent and he was one of the reasons the entire season 5 was so much fun, IMO. I think Taylor will be able to make a nice living performing live and actually couldn't care less about having a high-profile career. Even though I am not really a fan of his, I still wish him the best and I think tptb at American Idol treated him disgracefully. Elliott performing after some of the tour shows with Taylor and his band were so much fun to watch and Elliott was obviously having a ball. Never hear a bad word about Taylor from me.

:yeahthat:

Yes, I will wait for Elliott, because "I don't know what else I can do ". It's a good thing I found this site so I can keep up with what's going on while Elliott is being very quiet. :newhere: As I said, he works so hard, if anyone deserves a break, it's Elliott. Guess I'm experiencing "E withdrawal symptons". I should listen to his CD. That always helps!

Welcome, riding! I can't take E's CD out of my car and listen to it endlessly. Everytime I think about putting something else in, I'll pause and say, "naaaahhhh."

So glad to find others with an "E-obsession". I have a Cd for the car, 2 for the house (1 up, 1downstairs) and a few extras in case one wears out or gets damaged! iI also give them to people in need of E tunes! :worship:

Obsession?No one here has an obsession!!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Yea right!!!

I have every song I could find that Elliott has sung including his radio interviews, American Anthem from games and American Idol songs, made cds of them and have them in my car to listen to as I drive. I can go hourslistening to his songs and never tire of them. :awe: