16 October 2009 — Damien Leith and the Post-Idol Struggle
There's an article in The Age today about former Australian Idol winner Damien Leith, which you can read here. I have watched very little Idol over the years, but I vaguely remember Leith, who was probably most known for his falsetto, and his cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game".
A lot of the things that seemed to have happened to Leith as a result of being in Idol are what that many people were afraid of happening, and certainly what precluded a lot of talented musicians from auditioning. It's been three years since he won, and he is only now releasing an album of originals, having been pigeon-holed as a covers act by both his audience and, apparently, his label. But it's the quote further in that must raise a few eyebrows:
(Leith's) debut album The Winner's Journey sold hundreds of thousands of copies but a complicated deal with the show's producers meant he did not see a cent of it.
Now, this is a fairly alarming prospect. Few artists are ever lucky enough to sell that many copies of an album, and fewer still are able to do it more than once. While "hundreds of thousands" of album sales is never going to net a musician a huge amount of money, it would be nice to think that it would be of some financial gain. Of course, the wording is deliberately vague. What is considered a complicated deal? I wouldn't be surprised if it was simply a case of so much money being spent on recording and producer's fees (which all gets recouped by the label out of the artist's share of the profits) that they simply didn't sell enough copies for the album to start generating profit for Leith himself. This is common with big-budget recordings, and it highlights what a difficult situation Idol winners are placed in. I doubt Leith himself had any say in the recording budget, or who would produce the album, so he didn't have the option that indie bands do: of making low cost recordings that are paid for upfront.
On the other hand, a lot of my concern about the Idol phenomenon is that it seems designed to create stars with no potential for lasting success. However, is the period of popularity an Idol winner enjoys any shorter than the average hyped indie rock band, who often disappear without a trace a year after their debut album, with even less money to show for it?