Nearly one year after the lead single from Adam Lambert’s The Original High was released, “Ghost Town” has definitively obtained the status of “international hit.”
“Ghost Town” today passed the 115m spotify streaming threshold, but that is just one more egg in its success basket.
Last month, the RIAA certified “Ghost Town” gold, representing 500,000 sales or sale-equivalents in the United States. “Ghost Town” has also been certified gold in Germany, platinum in Denmark, double-platinum in Australia, Poland, and Sweden, and triple-platinum in the Netherlands, collectively representing sales or sale equivalents of at least 1,110,000 units worldwide.
“Ghost Town” ranked as one of the top 50 year-end singles in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland, lead by a #13 year-end finish in Poland. “Ghost Town” charted in the top 100 of singles charts of at least 20 countries worldwide, including notable peaks of #2 (for 2 weeks) in Australia, #1 in Poland, #11 in Germany, and #64 in the United States.
“Ghost Town”‘s music video has earned 59.5m views, and is still getting about 150,000 views/day.
Forbes recently named Adam Lambert as the top-earning American Idol alum of 2015, with a presumed salary of over $10,000,000.
Adam Lambert recently admitted insuring his voice for $48,000,000.
Adam Lambert was recently drafted to star in Fox’s remake of the cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
… And the list goes on.
“Ghost Town”‘s Success is All the More Meaningful Because of the Background it was Set Against
After blowing audiences away and coming in a close second on his season of American Idol, Adam found more commercial success with his debut album than did that season’s winner, as For Your Entertainment sold almost 900,000 copies in the United States and over 2,000,000 copies worldwide, and spawned the #10 US hit, “Whataya Want From Me,” and the #30 US hit, “If I Had You.”
Although his second studio album, 2012’s Trespassing, was critically acclaimed and managed to become the first album by an openly gay male artist to hit #1 on the Billboard 200 when it debuted in a slow week, lead single “Better than I Know Myself” failed to chart for more than a single week on the Hot 100 at #76 (due to its initial sales bump). Not spurred by a strong single, album sales quickly evaporated. Second single, “Never Close Our Eyes,” peaked at #10 on the Bubbling Under chart.
After Trespassing, it looked as though Adam Lambert was falling into the same trap that had ensnared many prior alumni of American Idol. They enjoy a moment in the spotlight, but once its gone, they fade into obscurity, vocal talent be damned.
“Ghost Town”‘s #64 peak on the Hot 100 may not superficially LOOK that much better than “Better Than I Know Myself”‘s #76 peak, but it was not driven by the initial buzz sales bump. “Better Than I Know Myself”‘s sustained, radio-driven peak was below the bottom of the Hot 100. By contrast, “Ghost Town” spent months rising through the ranks of the Hot 100 before reaching its peak. “Ghost Town” also reached a level of international success not seen since “Whataya Want From Me” and “If I Had You.”
In fact, “Ghost Town” outperformed “If I Had You” in Austria, Germany, and The Netherlands, and it outperformed ALL of his previous releases in Australia.
Best of all? “Ghost Town” has now amassed BOTH more YouTube and Spotify streams (worldwide) than ANY of his prior hits, and, in the case of Spotify, “Ghost Town” has more streams than all his prior singles PUT TOGETHER.
Now…
Adam Lambert should get to work ASAP promoting “The Original High” to pop radio soon, so that it will have time to build airplay in time to be a legit summer 2016 hit.
;P
Music Industry Sandbox 