‘Cruel’, the winning song by The Voice Australia winner Alfie Arcuri, has tumbled down the chart with second week sales of less than 500.
‘Cruel’ almost fell out of the Top 300 on this week’s ARIA chart, landing on a ledge at no 298 with just 482 sales.
Even worse, when you separate what people paid to download as opposed to just streamed, the song sold to just 310 fans. (These days the ARIA Chart weighs in bonus points for streams from paid streaming services such as Spotify. A calculation of somewhere between 140 and 250 streams equals one paid download for the ARIA Chart).
Alfie Arcuri’s winners album ‘Zenith’ will be released this Friday and is already available for pre-order at the bargain basement price of $9.99. However, with just days to go before release, industry sources suggest pre-orders to date are just over 100.
While viewers of The Voice were united in the choice of Arcuri as the 2016 winner the let down was the lead song ‘Cruel’. The song simply failed to connect with music fans.
People entering a show like The Voice need to be aware of the infrastructure at the other end if you are to become successful. The winner of a reality show may finish with a high profile but they are still totally inexperienced for what is to come. They are inexperienced in a studio, in a live scenario, in an interview situation and not accustomed to the sudden influx of fame.
For the predisposed management company who is assigned to take the winner the next step managing the expectations is as much a chore as managing the recording. Without proper direction at the other end you wind up with the mess Arcuri is potentially about to experience.
When Glenn Wheatley discovered Delta Goodrem he spent seven years helping her learn the trade before she released her first album. Delta was not an overnight sensation. She was trained for her journey by the time the ‘Innocent Eyes’ album was released.
Alfie Arcuri was given a pre-packaged backing track to sing over which became his first single released within hours of winning the show. Instead of a seven year wait for his first album ‘Zenith’ will be out on Friday, three weeks after ‘The Voice’ ended.
Alfie hasn’t had the luxury of development. He was thrown in at the deep in with an ordinary song as his Floatie.
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