Nielsen Media Research has a fascinating new report called "The Impact of Television on Music Consumption." Naturally, it includes a lot of information about American Idol. Some of the more interesting tidbits in the report:
• A performance of a song on American Idol has a positive sales impact on the original for eight weeks after the performance.
• American Idol contestants have sold 42 million albums over the past 6+ years; two acts (Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood) have accounted for 19 million of those sales.
• American Idol albums have doubled their sales impact since 2003, when they accounted for 0.7 percent of overall album sales. In 2009, they made up 1.5 percent of album sales. Their best year was 2007, when they accounted for 2.1 percent of album sales.
• Eighty percent of the people who watched the American Idol season finale in 2009 were 35 or older.
Also, look for a jump in album sales next week after the Grammys. (Those will be the SoundScan figures we report a week from Wednesday.) Last year after the Grammys, week-over-week album sales increased 17 percent overall, with country and alternative music seeing the biggest percentage gains.
at Kelly and Carrie selling almost half of their sales combined!!! 