Friday, July 27, 2012

Why Won't Interscope Release Pia's Album?


If you know me at all, you understand that I'm a know-it-all with theories and opinions on virtually everything. Yes, they may often be inaccurate and ridiculous, but that's beside the point.

That said, I cannot begin to comprehend why the hell Interscope records won't release my twitter girlfriend Pia Toscano's album.

Therefore, let's walk back In Time (pun intended) together and see if we can somehow figure out WTF they could possibly be thinking, because I really can't stand being stumped like this.

Early on in Season 10 (2011) of American Idol, Pia was widely considered to be a lock for the finals. She had the whole package: Gorgeous looks, huge voice, girl-next-door charm, and she carried herself with the class and professionalism of a champion.

However, after a several weeks of crushing huge pop-ballads, the retarded judges started getting on her to show she could also be a dance-pop girl, not just a power vocalist. This ain't Pia, but she gave it her best shot dancing around to Tina Turner's Mountain High, River Deep during rock & roll week.

Result: Judges were critical that she didn't seem in her element dancing around the stage singing.

Next result: In a stunning development, she was eliminated in the Top 9.

Well, the uproar from fans and media alike was tremendous, and after seeing this tidal wave of attention Interscope records jumped to sign her in June, and quickly released her debut single This Time in July while she was still on the American Idol tour. She would go on to perform the song as part of her concert set.

The song did OK in sales, not a hit, not a bust, but, oddly enough, it never got released for adds to radio. It got some airplay from stations picking up the song on their own, but without an official release and push by the label the song was dead-in-the-water for airplay.

Also hurting her was that she was on tour with the Idols and could not do a radio promo tour to support the song. Therefore, when the tour ended in September she had no established relationships with radio stations to build on, and the song had already run its course.

Her expected fall album and 2nd single then got put off until January, and then put off again until "the spring", which then turned into put off indefinitely. Meanwhile, Pia co-wrote and recorded an entire album for Interscope, and co-wrote a song (Wrecking Ball) that was released as a single by Aubrey O'Day.

Yet, Pia still remains conspicuously shelved.

She's very active on twitter, and has roughly 207k followers (remarkable considering she's had no new music since her unpromoted, unreleased-for-adds single back in July '11). She also has had high visibility national anthem performances across the country, most notably as the "good luck charm" for the LA Kings in their Stanley Cup winning playoff run this past season.

So, as I look at this bizarre set of circumstances I'm stuck scratching my head and asking myself WTF is Interscope records thinking? Why are they letting her die on the vine when she has done everything right from the beginning and has a big fan base?

I can only think of one possible answer: Interscope records only wants to invest promotion in one of my beautiful Season 10 alumni girlfriends at a time. Since they're now promoting my Haley Reinhart and her album Listen Up!, they are holding off on my Pia until Haley's has run its course.

So, playing the timeline out, since Haley probably still has a 2nd single and fall tour coming, I would guess Pia will likely get her turn for a real single to drop in January, and an album release in March.

Wait, so does this mean I now actually have a theory to work with? Whew. It's just baseless speculation on my part, of course, but at least it's something! Besides, I've jumped to form opinions with a lot less to go on than this.

What say you?

3 comments:

  1. Gosh Ken- I love a well written blog post.

    I do think there is a good deal of logic to what you've stated here. I'll take it one step further- it's almost like Interscope is not capable of promoting more than one artist at a time. Personally, I think Pia was screwed from the second that they signed Madonna- and what an abysmal failure that has been. Their promotional dollars would have been better spent on Pia if you ask me.

    Here's the one thing that bothers me about your theory though. You say that perhaps her next single won't drop til January, which could be possible, although I certainly hope not. My concern is Jessica Sanchez, whose album will supposedly drop in November. I hope that they don't switch their promotion strategies to her and bypass Pia.

    I'll end with this- I know Pia since she's 11 years old and it breaks my heart that this is happening to her. I completely admire her perseverance and wonderful attitude through her journey thus far, and I will never give up promoting her until she achieves the success she so richly deserves.

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    1. I didn't know you knew Pia personally. That's really cool. Sucks that she's been shelved like this, but Karma is due to come around and give Pia a big kiss.

      You know anything about this "shatterproof" stuff, btw? Saw some cryptic tweets and I don't know if it's something album related.

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  2. I know nothing about "shatterproof"- but I thought it was a good sign when she tweeted that. What I will say is this- her father has been out in LA with her for a couple of weeks now- I'm hoping that he was out there to make sure Interscope does right by her this time (no pun intended) and there is a single at the very least ready to drop shortly.

    Here's the thing, I forgot to mention in my last post- she does have a good relationship with radio stations- during the tour last year, while the rest of the Idols were sleeping in, she was hitting radio stations at 6 and 7 am most mornings. With the proper push from Interscope, she could have done much better with This Time than she did. You'll hear me screaming all over Twitter if they don't give her next single an adds date.

    Let's hope- if anybody deserves that good Karma, like you said, it's Pia :)

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