American Idol Will Kill Your Dreams…With No Evidence!

When you have a huge show like American Idol, it makes it harder for me to work with Music Industry School and get my point across to the people who deserve help. That show leads millions of people into believing that they can easily walk up to a door, audition in a room, and win a record deal – just that simple. It breeds stupidity. It breeds competitors. It gives people false hope.

Think of all the people American Idol turns away every year, every month, every day. But how many people out of those millions are actually worth listening to? How many actually sound good and would be worth signing? Almost none, that’s why there’s only room for 1 or 2 people to get a record deal at the end of the journey.

If I could tell all those millions of people to take the Music Industry School course, I guarantee there would be massive chaos. I would make it impossible for them to make a decision. Can I handle that headache right now – no.

If you look at things from a realistic and logical point of view you can almost guarantee that every season of American Idol, at least 2 or 3 people are going to walk away with Record Deals. Clay Aiken didn’t win, Rubben Studdard did. Jordin Sparks won, but why does Blake Lewis have an album. Diana Degarmo didn’t win, Fantasia did. Bo-Bice didn’t win, Carrie Underwood did. Kathrine McPhee didn’t win – Taylor Hicks did.

Are you seeing the pattern?

What you don’t see is how passionate the winners are about their music – they all have that one thing in common. America picks the winners – but they keep picking the same thing over and over again. They pick a person who reminds them of themselves. America picks someone who seems to fit in the trend of what’s current, what’s hot, what’s fresh, and what’s new.

You can guarantee that the labels are going to sign at least the winner and runner-up from every season…and God Help you if you are on that record labels roster when its time for them to release those albums. Obviously, you’ll probably get pushed back – or at the very least you can expect less attention. Why? Simple – because they know that they have a certain time window that they prefer to release the album before America starts to forget about the artist, PLUS they have to try to release the album before the next season of American Idol. They’re not just using the wimp marketing time, or the B listers, or the newbie producers and songwriters. They’re giving 110%

But this is what you’re competing against and you have to know that.

You’re competing against TEAMS of people at Record Labels who get paid anywhere from $10-$35 dollars an hour to make someone a worldwide music superstar…even though American Idol already made them a superstar.

So what do you do?

Be strategic because at least if you are being strategic you are kind of playing on the same field as they are. Record labels are good at some things, but they are bad at many things. Usually when they make album release dates, they are pretty firm about them… at least when they make those dates public at least. They have MORE than enough time to screw up, mix up, get confused, get back on track 3 times over. So when you know that Jordin Sparks is releasing an Album 7 Tuesdays from now, don’t bother with that. Unless you have 5000 fans who are definitely going to purchase that album and going to give you momentum to sell more at a later date.

If you know that Mariah Carey is going to release a Christmas album, do not get in the way of that. Oh yeah, how hard is it going to be to push out albums between October and November this year? Very hard – so if you haven’t already started building buzz, then you’re up a creek. Because don’t forget that this year will be presidential elections. I doubt even American Idol will try to get in the way of that – unless you are very savvy and have some SUPER creative plan that would BLEND in with the whole VOTERS hype.

You can expect for the landscape of attention seekers to change right around September, by then this season of American Idol will be over – the winner will be chosen and working or finishing their album. They might release it in August, but surely no later than September.

It sounds like you need a calendar that’s full of important dates, so you know how to schedule your project. It sounds like you need to know when to sell and when not to. The only way I could really tell you that you’ll have MAJOR success this year – is if your music is flawless and you already have somewhat a good idea of how to market. If by April you haven’t built any buzz, I personally would not even release an album this year. It would cost too much.

If you are thinking that you are good enough to be in the 1%, that 1% that continues to believe that you can get a record deal easily – then that’s fine. The only thing I want you to do is remember that 99% of people are trying to fit in that 1%. Think differently and be in the 1% of artists who chose to find 99% of the other ways to get your music heard, or get a record deal.