American Idol no guarantee of marketplace success

Here’s a report that American Idol finalists typically have poor record sales and that labels are hesitant to offer contracts to former AI contestants.

Of course, “poor record sales” can mean different things to different people:

Second-season singer, third-place finisher Kimberley Locke, has sold approximately 209,000 copies of One Love, but after her, the next-best loser is — tellingly — William Hung’s Inspiration (194,00).â€?? MTV also runs down the other losers’ album sales: “Tamyra Gray’s The Dreamer (122,000), RJ Helton’s Real Life (21,000), John Stevens’ Red (18,000), George Huff’s Miracles (17,000) and self-titled albums from Jasmine Trias (12,000) and Corey Clark (2,400).â€??

Dunno about you, but I’d be thrilled to sell 2,400 records. I would hope that some of these AI also-rans are doing everything they can to hang on to their fanbases.