Lee DeWyze will get paid for pre-Idol albums - "Slumberland" and "So I'm Told"
Lee DeWyze is getting paid! Woohoo!
Lee's former record label says that his pre-Idol albums "Slumberland" and "So I'm Told" have earned enough to pay for the cost of making the albums, and will pay Lee his share of the profits.
This story is a bit like the Adam Lambert situation from last year - except this time Lee is not entirely disowning his previous albums - and he shouldn't! The songs on Slumberland are really good!
Personally, I believe that Lee's excellent recording voice as heard on Slumberland (and his iTunes tracks) is the reason why he won American Idol this year.
From Morning Call:
But DeWyze further slowed the process by requesting that the CD cover be made of recycled hemp paper with plant-based dyes, a process that added six weeks to the manufacturing process.By the time “Slumberland” was released in January, the show had already premiered, and WuLi had released DeWyze from his record contract to participate in the show.
The contract DeWyze signed stipulates that money made from sales of the albums first goes to pay off recording and manufacturing costs, which McGuire put at $55,000 to $60,000 for DeWyze’s discs.
That, McGuire says, means 5,500 copies of a disc have to be sold to break even. That’s the standard details of any recording contract, McGuire says.
Since DeWyze was on “American Idol,” Wu-Li has gotten a distribution deal for the albums – they’re even being sold at Wal-Mart -- and after DeWyze was proclaimed Season 9 winner on May 26, “Slumberland” even hit the Billboard charts: No. 7 on the Heatseekers chart and No. 39 on the Independent chart.
As of two weeks ago, Neilson Soundscan reported sales of 11,000 total copies of “Slumberland,” though it was back to selling fewer than 1,000 a week.
“He’s obviously going to make money off this,” McGuire said. “I look forward to paying Lee. That was always the intention.”
While still under the three-record contract, DeWyze recorded more than a dozen songs for the third disc, and McGuire said Wu-Li intends to release it.
Source Morning Call
Via MJ's Big Blog
Lee Dewyze's pre-Idol albums: "Slumberland" and "So I'm Told" are still available on iTunes!