Member Since: 4/27/2010
Posts: 1,160
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So I was going to post this in a thread that just closed, but this is probably a better place anyway.
On why Taylor sold so much more than Katy:
Two number one singles, three platinum (or more) singles, one gold single, over 1.5 billion YT views....I would say she's doing pretty well so far.
As for why:
(1) Taylor had the biggest Clear Channel deal in post-FCC giving a **** about payola history--not for the first single, but for the first single, the album, and the second single. Prior to that, Monte Lipman at Republic buttered up MDs and PDs at Pop radio (all conglomerates) even more so than he did for Ariana.
(2) Big Machine handed a fat check over to Eddy Kue at iTunes to take up the entire front page ad-space (can't compare it to Beyonce, because she gave iTunes the exclusive).
(3) Taylor "partnered up" with Coke (television)
(4) Taylor "partnered up" with Target (television)
(5) Taylor "partnered up" with American Express.
(6) Taylor "catered" to her stans. The whole including different polaroids in different deluxe edition physicals thing was far more "really?" than Katy or Mariah ever releasing a remix of a single with a rapper.
Simply put, a **** ton of money went into securing Taylor's sales--slightly more than Timberlake, definitely more than Beyonce, and a hell of a lot more than Katy (or Lady Gaga). I wonder if Big Machine has even seen a return yet, honestly.
Plus, she saturated the entire market. The hype was insane (and all manufactured). The album is good, but it's not a masterpiece.
Katy had a short Walmart ad the week of release and a Chase Bank commercial to promote her tour. "Roar" and "Unconditionally" had one day Clear Channel deals (Taylor had one week deals for both, in addition to every song on the album being played, as stated above).
Taylor released a better second single.
Katy's fans can blame her team or her label, but the truth of the matter is, she didn't want to saturate the market like Taylor did. She knew the success of Teenage Dream couldn't be replicated, and even more so, she didn't want people in the industry thinking her success was due to factors other than her music and popularity as a pop star. She sent a few cakes to radio stations. Literally....some cakes. That was her way of saying thanks for your loyalty. There were no extraordinary deals. She didn't take down the poor vocal performances of "Unconditionally." Meanwhile, what happened to "Blank Space" live at the Clear Channel concert? A day after it aired, it became a 30 second snippet. Her "extracted" vocal from the VMAs went away more quickly than BEYONCE links the night her album dropped.
Just like every other artist, though, something is going to happen eventually (it always does when you achieve that level of success), and sales will inevitably decline as she ages. She should enjoy it while it lasts. There's a lot of screwing over in the industry due to labels suffering, egos being more inflated than ever (artist and label), and artists' teams operating like PACs and not always taking the high road.
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