Can an unsigned singer get a Top 40 hit on Internet sales alone?
A young singer by the name of Callaghan is aiming to get one of her songs into the UK Top 40.
The catch? She’s flying completely without a net – no manager, no record deal, no distribution and the bare minimum of promotion.
She makes the point that it only takes around 2,500 sales to break the Top 40 chart these days. Seems achievable, doesn’t it? The song – Look Around – is a pretty, acoustic ballad. With the power of a major record deal behind her, Callaghan would undoubtedly have a hit with this one.
The Campaign
Callaghan tells us that she wants to see if a single artist can chart without that major label backing. The single will be released via iTunes on 26th October 2008 and she hopes to sell enough copies to chart the next week!
And before you go crying about her profiteering – all proceeds from the single sales go to the Live Music Now charity.
The Drawbacks
On the face of things, 2,500 singles shouldn’t be too hard to shift. Callaghan needs to get enough publicity to shift those units, but there are some drawbacks in her strategy that she needs to address.
- The website is poor. There’s no biography, and not even an explanation of Callaghan’s first name or what else she’s done.
- There’s no link to MySpace – possibly the essential place to promote her music and her campaign. Presumably there’s no profile on Virb.com or Facebook either? How are you getting the word out to the web?
- There’s no link to the iTunes store, surely an important way to make sales, especially for anyone who heard the sample on her site and wants to pre-order?
- No bloody video! How you going to get TV coverage without a video?
On the upside, she’s keeping her news page updated with places she’s been featured and radio appearances, etc. What she needs now is some major coverage via TV or the newspapers.
Can it be done?
Over to you – can Callaghan make the sales needed to chart with her single? Moreover, if she does sell over 2,500 units, what should she do to ensure she continues to sell records and that the follow-up is a success?
Might she need that record deal in the long run?
Chat about this on the Unreality TV Forum »
Its absolutely possible for her to become a viral success, granted she knows how to network and promote herself. Seems to be that aside from having good music, the networking and promoting is a key factor in whether or not she’ll achieve her goal. Without using the tools available online to do what she supposedly intends, she is setting herself up for failure.
It is possible for an artist that is unsigned to get a number one via the use of all internet tools. I would also say that as there has been a downturn in the singles charts over the last 25 years with the exception of christms and whatever is being plugged then to succeed at other times of the year.
I’m not sure whether ‘I’ll be there’ the you tube edit will do it, but it is a nice a gentle number. Something tells me though that this number could do with orchestration to have any beef to it. But certainly i think she should go for it.
Maureen
Newcastle
It’s great to see more artists getting out there on their own and promoting their music. I dont understand a few points in the article though because I checked out Callaghans web site and it has her biography and myspace page on it (it’s http://www.myspace.com/callaghanspage). I love the single “Look Around” but agree that she would be more likely to get publicity with a video. I can imagine they cost a lot to make though so perhaps that’s why. I have seen she has a live video on her website (www.callaghaninfo.com) where she performs it on Sky TV which is a good alternative.
I hope lots of people hear about what Callaghan is doing and buy the single so she reaches her goal. I think she is a really refreshing new talent and it’s about time we had some real artists in the chart instead of people coming out of stage schools and TV talent shows!
I wholeheartedly agree, busybee. I contacted Callaghan about her project and pointed her to this article, and she’s made a few more changes to her website to promote her MySpace page – so it’s changed since I wrote this.
Doesn’t look like she made it….commiserations! HOw close did she come? HOw many sales did she get in the end?