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?