Crystal Bowersox dropped by RCA
American IdolTVLine reports that Crystal Bowersox has split with her label RCA/Jive. So Season 9 is officially a bust for American Idol as far as record sales as the top two finishers are no longer with major labels. Third place Casey James is still with Sony Nashville but still no album released.
Crystal is still the highest selling artist from Season 9, so that affirms that she was one of the big stars of that season. Unfortunately, she’s not interested in selling records as much as making music that she wants to make. It sounds like she wanted to go the indie route from the get go.
From TVLine:
Hot on the heels of American Idol Season 9 champ Lee DeWyze being dropped by RCA, runner-up Crystal Bowersox has also split with the RCA/Jive label, her manager confirmed exclusively to TVLine.
Speaking today about her role on next Tuesday’s episode of Body of Proof (ABC, 10/9c), Bowersox told TVLine that she expects her sophomore album to be an independent release, especially in light of the fact that RCA announced earlier this month plans to shutter its Jive, J, and Arista labels, and bring only some of those label’s artists into the RCA fold.
“I’m not worried about where I’m gonna be,” said Bowersox. “I’m gonna be making music if it’s on my own label or if it’s with somebody else. I’d love to work with ATO, Dave Matthews’ label. We’ll see what happens.”
Despite the new direction for her career, Bowersox said she remains philosophical about her time at Jive, where her album Farmer’s Daughter sold 58,000 copies in its first week of release (in December 2010), and has now gone on to total sales of 210,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (By comparison, DeWyze moved 146,000 copies of Live It Up.) “For not having any radio play and any great promotion, I think I’ve done pretty well on sales,” Bowersox said. “I’m able to provide a good, comfortable life for my family, and that’s what I wanted out of it.”
Bowersox said she had to make some compromises in the recording process for Farmer’s Daughter, but so did her label. “Jive was great working with me. I’m a little hot-headed sometimes, but all in all, they’ve been really good to me,” she said with a laugh. “And I continue to do this for a living. There’s nothing better.”
