I posted this in the Billboard thread and some peeps suggested I make a blog out of it. So here it is. It's just my opinion, but I hope it helps those who are angsting about the sales/chart position of Light On vs Crush. I modified it a tad to compensate for the lack of orginal context:

If it helps some of the worriers, my perspective as a person with a marketing/advertising background is that different "products" need to be handled, well, differently. There are a lot of radio stations of varied types. Those types play to different audiences. Each act has find its target audience, and those audiences have different radio habits and varying sources to find new music.

In other words, the people who buy acts similar to our "product" David (Lifehouse, Snow Patrol, etc) likely behave differently than people who buy product similar to the other David. (We all know that's what the worrying is about. The other David. LOL). The purpose of LO is to get DC heard by his target audience - AI watchers and alt rock/pop buyers. If you want to see how LO is doing, you have to see if it's getting play on the same kind of stations that play similar acts, and at the comparable levels. Who are the stations that play Lifehouse singles? How well do they chart there? You also have to look at where else those audiences find music. VH1 countdowns? Grey's Anatomy episodes? I-Pod commercials? You get the idea.

David Cook has to compete in THAT area. Not the Z100/top 40/pure pop arena. If you are looking for him to do everything that Crush and/or Archuleta does plus 10, you are barking up the wrong tree. He is no longer competing with Archie. His label probably expects him to get a larger share of a pop market than Snow Patrol because of Idol, but that's about it. He's not supposed to have multiple top 10 Billboard 100 singles because that's not what his kind of act does.

Do not judge his success by Z100 or radio spins. Look for him to dominate in the alt rock arena. Look for him to own the HAC charts and VH1 countdown, to sell lots of albums and pack medium sized solo shows and tour successfully with larger acts in his genre, to have songs turn up on Gossip Girl promos and car commercials, and coverage in Rolling Stone and Blender and Spin. If he becomes the hot "accessible" rocker of the moment and scores one solid hit on the pop charts in the process, RCA will be thrilled. Archie will have a succession of Billboard Top 100 hits like Jordin because that's how HIS "product" is sold. BUT COOK IS NOT ARCHIE. DC has to move a ton of albums and take over the formats where you usually find mainstream rock thriving.

Lets all take a deep breath! We can't do anything about what happens next anyway. Show some faith in the Cookie!