American Idol runner-up Jessica Sanchez has released her album, “Me, You and the Music”, this month and her fans around the world were thrilled. Reportedly, though, the album debuted only at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and sold only about 14,000 copies.
It is a good performance for a debuting singer and a new album, but it was not the expected output of a popular singer considered as one of the most amazing voices among the new batch of recording artists.
What may have happened? The following evaluations are based on observation and should not be considered as Bible-truth; they are the opinion of the writer.
Difficulty of fans to purchase online
It cannot be denied that numerous Jessica Sanchez’s fans are situated outside of the US; they’re all over the world, so purchasing online with the US currency (dollars) is difficult.
A concrete example is her fans in the Philippines; many of her fans find it difficult to purchase online because not all have the method of payment that online purchases require.
If the albums are in their hard/physical form, they would sell like hot-cakes – here today and gone tomorrow.
In other countries, it may also be the same case. Hence, thousands of her fans could not purchase online.
Some people want her ballads
For the not so avid fans, they want her to sing ballads. Jessica Sanchez should understand that some people want her to sing ballads. She was known on American Idol as such, and she is awesome with ballads. She should at least include one or two in her album. If any of these two ballads chart, then her album would make it to Top 10.
Sometimes, all it takes for an album to be in the Top 10 is one or two hits. An example is that of the rock band Journey. Majority of their album debuted in the Top 10 because two of their songs charted in the albums. A specific example was their album “Revelation” which debuted on Top 5 because two of the songs charted; “After All These Years” stayed for several weeks among the Top 10 in the Adult Contemporary charts, and “Never Walk Away” was a radio favorite.
To give a more similar example, American Idol winner, Phillip Phillips’ “Home” is the single that made his album sell well in the market.
Jessica Sanchez could capture the large country music audience if she includes one or two ballads or slow music in her album. Not all listeners are young.
These are all suggestions, and hopefully, someone out there would listen.
What about you? What do YOU think is the reason?