Why Tessanne Chin’s Count on My Love isn't selling – Streaming is now King as she needs to Experiment with Writing her OWN Songs

Tessanne Chin has released her debut album on Apple iTunes Count On My Love and from all counts, the response has been rather lukewarm as reported in “Tough love for Tessanne”, published Sunday, July 13, 2014 By Kevin Jackson Observer Writer, The Jamaica Observer. In fact, her album sales for Count On My Love are the lowest for any past Winner of NBC’s The Voice, albeit their album sales are pretty low overall!

Released on Tuesday July 1^st 2014, it coincided, rather interestingly, with the VoIP Blockade by Telecom Provider LIME and Telecom Provider Digicel as I'd pointed out in my blog article entitled “LIME and Digicel blocking all VoIP Services - How Telecom Providers can make money from Regularizing Paid VoIP Services”. This coincidence is rather interesting as well, for reason that’ll become apparent as I go on throught the article.

Her album Count On My Love which sells for US$9.99, was produced by some people unfamiliar to me, as I'm not in the business of Music, just a Statistics Analyst:

1.      Jerry ‘Wonda’ Duplessis,

2.      Mark ‘Exit’ Goodchild

3.      Norwegian songwriting/production team Stargate

4.      Shama ‘Sak Pase’ Joseph,

5.      Shauna ‘Sting International’ Pizzonia.

She apparently didn't write some of her songs either, as she had a team of writers to do that too:

1.      Chuck Harmony

2.      Grammy winner Diane Warren,

3.      Johnny Black

4.      Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic

Count on My Love – Good album but the Sales Count means she’s getting Tough Love

So with this level of star power, how did it go?

Republic Records, a division of Universal Music that launched her album, has returned some rather lacklustre results thus far for the first week of the launch of her debut album Count On My Love:

1.      6,623 copies of her album sold

2.      4,986 digitally copies of her album sold

3.      1,637 copies of her album sold at Walmart stores

Count On My Love came in at No. 20 on the Billboard’s Top Digital Album. Worse none of her singles, which were released prior to the album, such as Tumbling Down and Everything Reminds Me of You, are yet to make Billboard. Again too, there are those producers to list again:

1.      Grammy-winning Supa Dups

2.      Mitchum Chin

3.      Willy Chin

So with this Dream Team of Producers and Songwriters, what’s the reason for the lacklustre performance of her much touted Album, Count On My Love?  Was it because it was delayed after she had to backtrack by a week on a planned Tuesday July 24^th 2014 Launch date as stated in the article “New date for Tess's album”, published Saturday, June 07, 2014, The Jamaica Observer, resulting in a blockade by expectant fans?

Or is there some other factor at play here?

Tessanne Chin After the Voice – Despite Success still living in the Voice’s shadow

She made history by becoming the first Jamaican and Caribbean National to win Season five of the  NBC Singing Competition “The Voice” on Tuesday December 17^th 2013 as I’d chronicled in my blog article entitled “Tessanne Chin is the Winner of the Voice - Princess Kitana #BreadandButter work begins as March 2014 deadline for Universal Studios album from Mona Tessanne”.

After Telecom Provider Digicel had her flown in on the company’s private Jet to a rapturous welcome at home, they’ve decided to make her their Regional Brand Ambassador as stated in “Digicel makes Tessanne new brand ambassador”, published Saturday June 7, 2014 by Shereita Grizzle, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner and “Tessanne is Digicel's regional brand ambassador”, published Thursday, June 05, 2014 5:45 PM, The Jamaica Observer. 

Telecom Provider Digicel, apparently super-eager to try out her singer super-powers, immediately included her in their Summer Up, Up, Up promotion that ran from Friday June 20^th, 2014 to Thursday June 10^th 2014, rewards loyal Digicel customer with a boat load of prizes for purchasing a Data plan, upgrading to a smartphone or top up with $200.

One of those prizes included the so called  Ultimate Sumfest Experience, where along with winning a boatload of cash, you also get the chance to meet Tessanne Chin backstage when she performed at Reggae Sumfest as “Digicel launches big summer promotion today”, published Friday, June 20, 2014, The Jamaica Observer and “Digicel launches summer Sumfest campaign with Tess”, Published Friday June 20, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Now three (3) months after the March 2014 deadline to launch her debut album Count On My Love as per contract with Universal EMI, her launch was preceded by a whirlwind of Singing Engagements and Goodwill intent. 

I’d love to go into details, but that’s distracting from the point. Plus I had all opportunity to write about it; I didn’t, opting instead to await the arrival of her Album, so I could at least download it and listen to it. After all, if I did, it would just be another hit parade of people trying to ride on the Tessanne Chin Voice Train.

Tessanne Chin’s Music – Too many cook spoiled the Broth as Everyone tried to ride the Voice Train

So why is her debut album on the road to flopping? For one, Digital Music Piracy, which is as easy as one person buying her album, ripping the music and then posting it online on KickassTorrents for downloading as explained in my blog article entitled “How to download High Quality Music via torrenting - The Mortal Instruments City of Bones used to get Free Music”.

Worse, you can get the list of songs on her album and then download them using the Google Search Terms as described in my blog article entitled “How to download Music using Index Query in Google Search Engine - Google Search Engine sniffs out indexes loaded with Music”.

Then there is the lack of an authentic Tessanne Chin sound. The entire album was produced by a laundry list of people unknown to me and possibly to the new-born Star Tessanne Chin, all eager to ride on her Voice Train. To this end, they did and collected their paychecks from Universal EMI, but left her album so disjointed with so many dissimilar moods as to make the Album sound more like a patchwork quilt than a progressive transition from Song to Song.

At least, that's what it sounds like to me when I listen to it, as by themselves the songs are great, easy listening but not exciting to listen to. Neither are they cutting edge or raking up new ground.

There is more of the producers and their fingerprints all over her songs and very little of the Hideaway Artists own DNA hidden within the makeup of the songs and the structure of the album. It sounds more like a case of “too many cook spoiled the Broth” and this broth, while having good ingredients, didn't come together in the final taste.

Tessanne Chin’s Music – Streaming is now King as she needs to Experiment with Writing her OWN Songs

The serving of said Tessanne Chin Soup was also botched. Had the Music producers being following the Trends or even my blog articles, they'd have realized that the trend was slowly moving away from Downloading of Songs to Streaming.

This based on Nielsen Stats comparing Music Sales within the period January to June 2014 as stated in my blog article entitled “Nielsen Stats record continued decline in Music Downloads - Developed World Streaming will catch on in Developed World once we get 4G LTE”.

It especially becomes obvious when you examine the Success of past Winners of “The Voice” under a Statistical Microscope:

It’s clear what’s going on here. Disregarding the time between each album launch up to the present date, the declining sales can also be explained not only in terms of increased Digital Music Piracy but also in terms of Streaming. Count On My Love is a Digital Album that was released on Universal Music Distribution partner Apple iTunes.

In essence, in order to listen to her music, you’d have to endure downloading her entire album and then synching it to your Apple iPhone or other device for playback. Given the trend towards Streaming that forced Apple to buy Beats Audio for a cool US$3.2 billion just to get into the Subscription Music Streaming business as I’d described in my blog article entitled “Apple officially confirms Beats Audio Purchase - US$3.2 Billion as Apple gears up for Subscription Streaming and improved Headphones”, Apple just wasn’t the right platform for her to release her album, contractual obligations notwithstanding.

Apple’s even having problems right now selling their Apple iPod Line, having recently spruced it up and slashed prices across the range as reported in my blog article entitled “Apple iPod Touch gets Price Drop as Apple Acquires Beats Electronics to jumpstart Streaming”.

So the solution? The damage has already been done, as this album’s off to a bad start. However, never say never folks! Tessanne Chin’s Team needs to have her album placed on Subscription Streaming Platforms so that subscribers on various media can pay to Stream her Music. 

Popular platforms such as Pandora, Apple iTunes Radio, Amazon Cloud Music and even Samsung Milk, being as they’re the largest user base of Cloud Streaming that’s exclusive to Samsung as stated in my blog article entitled “Samsung’s Milk no longer free as it’s paid for by Commercials and sports US$4 Premium Streaming” are highly recommended.

Apple iPhone, though popular in the US of A, isn’t exactly getting as much love worldwide, despite making more money per customer than Google Android thanks to Apple iTunes as stated in my blog article entitled “Google Android Top Dog in Mobile Ad Marketshare in First Quarter of 2014 – Apple iOS STILL more efficient at Mobile Advertising powered by iTunes”. The shift to Streaming and Apple’s slow response thus far makes them highly unpopular for new artistes to launch music

Finally, on her second album, as not much beyond increased promotions outside of the US of A and Streaming Subscriptions can generates album Sales, she needs to write all her songs herself.

And avoid the famous producer “cooks”; after all, they may have won Grammy’s or produced or be producing for super Stars, but how many of them have multi-platinum recording artistes in their stables? Or even have an understanding of Reggae Music and how this translates in Tessanne Chin’s Style?

While her Management team twiddle their thumbs, here’s Tessanne Chin’s album:

Count On My Love