Well, my new single "Whatever You Like" came out exactly two weeks ago, and there was good news and bad news surrounding its release. The bad news was that iTunes, in what I can only assume was a drunken stupor, neglected to include my single with the rest of their new releases that Tuesday and wound up releasing it an entire 24 hours late, causing rabid fans around the world to
lose their freaking minds. The good news, of course, was that the DOW dropped a thousand more points that day, bringing us ever closer to the brink of a devastating financial apocalypse… and thereby making my song that much more topical! Yay!
The song debuted at number 104 – "bubbling under" the Hot 100 chart. Not great, but – considering the delayed release, lack of iTunes promotion and absence of a music video – not terrible either. It also was on the Pop 100 chart (!) at number 67, and came in at a respectable 56 on the Hot Digital Songs chart.
As to why iTunes has the single listed as "Pop" instead of "Comedy"? You got me there. I asked them to change it a week and a half ago. But you know, changing stuff is
hard.
So… What I Learned From All This So Far:
Overall, I'd have to say that the digital experiment was a success. It was very gratifying for me to be able to put a parody out while the original song was still at its commercial peak – and it seemed to be gratifying to the fans as well.
I probably won't be as inclined to announce new singles in advance, though. I've learned from hard experience that iTunes is not able to guarantee a time – or, apparently, even a
day – that a song will go live on-line. So perhaps it's best for me to wait until a new song is actually available, and THEN announce it.
Also, I'm not sure that I'd agree to give iTunes any kind of an exclusivity window in the future – it seems like the amount of publicity I received from them didn't really compensate for the sales I lost by not also having my song available elsewhere.
Speaking of which… My 2-week exclusivity window with
iTunes is now officially over, so for all you Apple-phobic people out there, the new single is currently available on
Amazon,
Rhapsody,
Napster and pretty much everywhere else that digital downloads are sold.
Or if 99 cents would place too much of a burden on you during these difficult economic times, please don't hesitate to listen to the song for free on my
YouTube page.
Many thanks,
Al