You've got to love the Australian Music Industry. Platinum selling artists from reality TV shows? They must think we were born yesterday. This year's Idol winner Damien Leith is a platinum selling artist according to this weeks Aria chart, although the song sold less than 17,000 units.
Here we go again. Another Idol, another farce. Australian Idol is stardom by perception.Leith's single 'Night Of My Life' sold around 14,000 physical singles with about another 1700 downloads giving it told sales of around 16,300 units.
The song was certified PLATINUM. Platinum is Australia is awarded for sales of 70,000 units but the sales for the music industry is what sells into stores, not what sells out of stores to the general public.
Idol artists are notorious for having their CDs over-sold to stores by their label. The label then claims the prestigious platinum award which ARIA cheerfully hands over. Then after a few months when the CDs have gathered enough dust in the stockroom of the store, the store returns them to the label for a refund.
While this charade takes place, ARIA has no reverse policy for taking back the award. Look at Casey Donovan as an example. The poor kid was under the illusion that she was a multi platinum selling artist. Who wants to be the one to tell her the truth?
Luckily, the gap between the number of downloads sold vs physical CDs sold is closing fast. When the CD becomes obsolete, record labels will no longer be able to bullshit the fans with perception. They cannot presell a platinum load of downloads like they can do with the physical CD.
With the momentum of the download sale catching on fast, it will be a lot harder to fool the public with the Idol winner of next year. Damien Leith may very well be the last of the false idols.
