From the figures I've seen Kate's album has only sold about a third of what Casey's first album did which wasn't seen as a big success.

Although I'm primarily an Emily fan I liked Kate and expected her album to do well. I haven't heard the album but from reviews I've read in the paper and on the forum it sounds like the album is much better than the sales would reflect.

So why hasn't Kate's album sold better?

Is it SonyBMG's (lack of) promotion?

On the SonyBMG site Kate's rarely mentioned in the 'More news on' section. (Lee has been there constantly and he doens't even have an album out.). Likewise Lee is in the 'Tours' section but not Kate. Her album & single are no longer in the 'New Audio and Video Clips' section either.

Is it because of the show's popularity?

A lot has been made about Idol's sagging popularity this year but the voting set a record which reflects an audience that's willing to spend money. Many spend enough on voting in one week to buy the album and they got millions of votes. Also Lee's doing quite well with his single so it's not just an Idol thing.

Did rush job make it hard for Kate to put her signature on it?

Unlike Guy, Shannon, Casey, Anthony, etc. it doesn't look like Kate spent years doing all kinds of gigs to get comfortable in her own style. Doing an album with a variety of much in such a short period must have been really challenging artistically. I wonder if her lack of experience performing and the short period of time she had were too much to overcome.

Has her lack of a signature song on Idol or a clearly defined style make it difficult to market her?

Much has been made of Anthony's The Prayer, and all the Idols mentioned above have a clear style of their own. To me it seems like Kate is still feeling her way artistically. This must make it more difficult to 'package' her as it's unclear how to 'brand' her. From the little I've seen from SonyBMG it doesn't look like they have even tried to create a specific image for her.


No matter what the reason, I wouldn't be surprised if the 'one week special' first album is dropped next season, especially if Emily's album does well. In the US the winner's debut album wasn't a rush job.

What do you think?


Know1

I think that Kate, through no fault of her own, was the victim of 'Idol Back lash'.

There has been a real anti idol sentiment in the industry and I think that anyone would have faced similar sales.

People forget that if a non idol had sold as many as Casey did they'd be proclaimed a huge success.

People say that Lee has been so successful...and 4 weeks at no.1 would seem to indicate that, but truly, compared to Guy, Shannon, Casey and Anthony's first singles, which were all multi platinum by the second week, Lee's actual sales have been by, idol debut standards, not as successful as would have been hoped for.

Yes and its also true that Sony isnt doing Jack to promote Kate at all, they are too busy signing and promoting other idol hopefuls..
Which is royally unfair to any idol winner if you ask me, i mean whats the point of having a competition where we vote for the winner?

They really arejust money hungry.
Yhey promote where they think they can make quick bucks. No thought to the idols that won.
They did the same to Casey with Anthonys The Prayer last year. Releasing it just before Christmas, that was really rude to casey.

And to all the Anthony fans dont take that the wrong way, I rushed out and brought a copy straight away too.

I dont think anyone would begrudge any of the other idols a contract however, it gets back to why do we all waste our money voting for a winner in a fake contest? cuz you know everyone is going to get a deal anyways..

This is not certain but has proven to be true time and time again and yes its so unfair and is a total disregard for the actual winner of the competition.. TO be fair it should be that no othe idols cant be signed for at least a year so that the winner has a chance to establish themselve to the populas.. Also this would greatly improve their chances of making this a long term venture, cuz if they continue to overwhelm the public at this rate, IDOL will be down the tubes real fast if it isnt so already..

Well thats my 2 cents on it hehe

Yeah, I totally agree with the above comments...and it only goes to prove Sony is making Kate's life harder by releasing her next single in March! Like that is so late...I hate to say this cause I reckon Kate is the best by far- but Sony seems to be jumping on the 'Lee cash cow wagon' and it sucks...
Kate is still busy doing plenty of promotions, like with the Australia day concert and the Australian open tennis- but if it's true Sony has take Kate stuff of their web site- well that totally sucks...
Like someone says- they rush the album in 6 days then take so long to release the 2nd single...like...if I was some record producer I'll be getting Kate's single out by early Feb (BEFORE Lee's CD...), considering "Faded" is already being played on the radio...gee, don't want people to lose interest- considering how many non-idol people like it...
I do see it as a bit of 'Idol backlash'- and that's what's so frustrating- cause Kate's album is soooooo different to anything she ever did on idol...
Kate always said she wanted to do 'pop/rock'- I don't see how that would be difficult to market...anyway, it seem you have to be a instant success when it comes to anything Idol or the media hounds you- considering the lower Idol audience and the fact this is Kate's first time in the studio- she done great considering other artists trying to break into the market.
Maybe Tonight single is still in the top ten after something like 6 weeks, that's nothing to scoff about...but like Kate has said- "This is my journey. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon." Instant success is what the public or media seem to crave for these days...maybe the whole concept of Idol is wrong...

As you can see, I'm not too impress with Sony/BMG's handling of Kate at the moment... :angry:

I checked out the SonyBMG site- and they seemed to still have Kate stuff on their home page- promoting her album with a pic- but no video clips-they have this thing where you can rate artists- like from 0-100...and I put like a 100 for Kate...I meant it too..ha, ha...I noticed they had her audio up for Maybe Toight- but I don't know if that was there before or after I did the rating...