It hasn’t even been 24 hours since Lee DeWyze was crowned this year’s “American Idol,” but already he and his runner-up, Crystal Bowersox, have signed their record deals.
DeWyze is signed to 19 Recordings Limited and RCA Records, while Bowersox is signed to 19 Recordings Limited and Jive Records, a source confirms exclusively to Billboard.com.
DeWyze joins Daughtry and Adam Lambert at RCA, while Bowersox can now count past “Idol” winners Jordin Sparks and Kris Allen, and 2009 finalist Allison Iraheta, as her labelmates.
If 19 and Sony Music stick to the release schedule of past years, fans can expect DeWyze and Bowersox’s debut albums to be released in the fourth quarter, as “Idol” albums are typically targeted for release around the holiday season. Last year, Allen’s self-titled debut and Lambert’s “For Your Entertainment” were released on Nov. 17 and Nov. 23, respectively.
In the meantime, the pair’s debut singles and released to iTunes and radio today. DeWyze’s single, a cover of U2’s “Beautiful Day,” has, between midnight and 2 p.m. CST today (May 27), received 27 all-format spins, while Bowersox’s version of Patty Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain” has received 5 all-format spins, according to preliminary data provided Nielsen BDS. Adult Pop Songs reporter WPST/Trenton, N.J. is leading the DeWyze charge, playing the song three times already. Adult Contemporary panelists WQAL/Cleveland and WWWM/Toledo are two of the five stations that have played native Ohioan Bowersox’s song.
It’s too early to tell how many downloads “Beautiful Day” and “Up to the Mountain” may sell in their first week. However, industry sources contacted suggest looking to how the past few seasons’-worth of first and second-place finishers have fared with their debut singles in the week after the finale in order to forecast how DeWyze and Bowersox might do this week.
Last year, winner Kris Allen sold 134,000 downloads of the original tune “No Boundaries” in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while runner-up Adam Lambert’s best-seller was his rendition of “Mad World” with 115,000. And two years ago, champion David Cook moved 236,000 of “The Time of My Life” while second-placer David Archuleta’s biggest single during finale week was his cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” (71,000).
Label sources caution that there may be less interest in both DeWyze and Bowersox by the general public, so their first-week sales may not approach the heights of the past few seasons’ top-two. A 100,000-start for DeWyze’s “Beautiful Day” seems attainable, but that number could go higher or lower, depending on how the rest of the week shakes out. As for Bowersox, a logical forecast for “Mountain” might be somewhere between Archuleta’s first-week with “Imagine” (71,000) and Lambert’s bow with “Mad World” (115,000).
Additional reporting by Alex Vitoulis and Rauly Ramirez.
