Adam Lambert’s debut album is coming out much earlier than planned, some time this summer.
That’s great news for fans of the “American Idol” runner-up, but it could be a big headache for some of the major corporations behind the talent show, who have been beaten to the punch by a pair of small, indie labels.
Before he became a household name, the flamboyant singer spent three years recording songs for Los Angeles-based Wilshire Records. The label has joined forces with Hi Fi Recordings to release the 11-track album “On With the Show” this summer. An exact release date will be announced shortly.
The first single, “Want,” went on sale at digital music retailer iTunes on Tuesday. Lambert co-wrote nine of the songs, working mostly with Madonna’s guitarist, Monte Pittman.
“American Idol” producer 19 Entertainment issued a brief, businesslike statement attributed to Lambert in which he is quoted as saying, “The work I did back then in no way reflects the music I am currently in the studio working on.”
“It doesn’t surprise us, but it doesn’t make us feel good,” Hi Fi Chairman and CEO John Hecker told Reuters on Tuesday. “For some reason it’s scaring Goliath, and I don’t know why.”
He said Lambert attended a post-production session last month, as “American Idol” reached its climax, and that the singer was “blown away” by what he heard.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this in the highly controlled “American Idol” organization. The winner and the runner-up from each season, along with some other finalists, score deals with a Sony Corp label through 19 Entertainment, which is owned by media firm CKX Inc.
Their albums are released with great fanfare in the fall. If they’re lucky — and the odds are against them — the stars will go on to enjoy Grammy-winning success like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
In Lambert’s case, the stakes are high for both sides. The openly gay singer is one of the more colorful performers to emerge from the teeming “American Idol” pool of wannabes. His shock defeat at the hands of Kris Allen this past season that ended in May only added to his mystique, while a Rolling Stone magazine cover story gave him a hint of credibility.
Hecker denied some fans’ assertions that Lambert was being ripped off, saying the singer stands to make “a ton of money” through a royalties arrangement commensurate with deals for major artists. Lambert will not only receive songwriting royalties, but he also co-owns the copyrights with Wilshire, Hecker said.
But wait, there’s more. Hecker said the recording sessions yielded enough material for a second album, which will also see the light of day eventually,
so now he will be making money from the royalties… and im sure he got paid before doing it as well so while adam and idol producers may not like it, it doesnt sound like he’s getting screwed here. too much drama around this though, let it happen, if the music is good people will buy it and apparently adam will make money, if not then we can brush it off and wait for his new album. either way i think it’s clear now with all the coverage that this isnt his real album release post-idol so we shouldnt get our hopes up.
Can’t believe anything HiFi/Wilshire. They underestimated the brains of ordinary people who saw right through their scheme, so now they get more desperate every day and have to come up with bigger lies. First they tried to sell us a NEW single from Adam’s NEW debut album. This did not fly as some fans recognized Wand as a record by Dublyn Jones, except that in the case of Dublyn Jones it was called December. OK, now they admit that they have dusted off some demos Adam did for them years ago. First they declared that Adam was creatively involved, but we know that demo singers do not have creative input. They sing somebody else’s material. The demo is then used to shop around for some “real” artist. So now they claim that Adam co-wrote 11 songs or so. Well, check ASCAP. Surprise, Adam is listed as performer and co-writer of 5 songs only. These 5 are the Citizen Vein songs. Somebody who is not listed as writer or co-writer has no rights to royalties. HiFi/Wilshire is not paying Adam. They use double-talk like “Adam will share in the success” and “Adam will make tons of money” – of course Adam will make tons of money, but not from the sale of his old demos. HiFi/Wilshire owns the legal right to the demos, there is nothing anybody can do about it. I know they did not sign Adam, I know they did not sighn Citizen Vein, I know they did nothing to further his career, consequently I will not support this blatant exploitation of Adam.
Adam is not talking, and that’s good because now HiFi/Wilshire have to do all the talking. What are they going to say? That they are sleazebags trying to get rich fast? The more they talk the more they expose themselves as the liars and bottom feeders they are.
Link to ASCAP:
http://www.ascap.com/ace/search.cfm?requesttimeout=300&mode=results&searchstr=ADAM%20LAMBERT&search_in=a&search_type=exact&search_det=t,s,w,p,b,v&results_pp=30&start=1
It truncated, please just do a search for Adam Lambert