Wednesday, July 14, 2010

the campaign is a little messed up

I'm not very happy with how Fascination are handling Sophie right now. Someone on PopJustice once posted that there was going to be a strange release strategy for the new album. Back then nothing was revealed. First Fascination decided to include the Freemasons single on the album. Next they made Not Giving Up an Armin Vs. Sophie track. They will also release the Junior Caldera track in UK. Lets add two and two

1st single - Freemasons feat. Sophie - Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer
2nd single - Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Bittersweet
3rd single - Armin Van Buuren Vs. Sophie - Not Giving Up
4th single - Junior Caldera feat. Sophie - Can't Fight This Feeling
album released after this

No wonder they didn't let Roger Sanchez use the Sophie/Nervo track which he made for his album. Fans would be confused if it's a Sophie release for her album or if it's just a Roger Sanchez release.

If it goes this way, we can all say bye-bye to b-sides. I don't think any DJ would want to release a Sophie-only song produced by someone else on their single as a b-side. We'll just get some more boring remixes.

The whole campaign seems like a desperate act to save Sophie's career after Bittersweet's flop. Banking on the DJ's goodwill to release a single so they can get an easy hit. I mean, if all this is just to score hits, why not make a collaboration with David Guetta (as much as i hate the idea myself), cos anything with his name is a hit somewhere in the world. They should also let Roger use the track for his album and stick it at the end of Sophie's album as a bonus track or whatever. Roger is huge. Why aren't they using his name!?

If both Not Giving Up and Can't Fight This Feeling end up in the top 10 and top 20 respectively, then maybe we'll have a Sophie-only single after the album release. Maybe Starlight or Revolution or Off And On.

What are your thoughts about this?

12 comments:

Fran said...

As I said in other post, this is a bit frustraiting. Fascination has no idea how to do a proper album campaing/promotion. What about if "Not Giving Up" & "Can't Fight this Feeling" don't reach the top 20?? Perhaps they should stick with Sophie's own tracks, cos' with a little bit of promotion on radio stations, such as BBC Radio 1, that material could be easily a top 10 hit, & wouldn't be necessary to release a "DJ feat. Sophie" single.

Anonymous said...

I think this constant undecidability on what releasing next and when, will hurt the success of the album. It's clear from interviews that Sophie does not have a lot to say about what to do next. It's always something like "My record company is not sure...". Why not let Sophie decide for herself for the sake of the music itself and not in the first place to release a monster hit? Although I think the album will be great, I don't think it'll be better or as good as Trip the Light Fantastic. Fascination also failed to promote that album, but at least it wasn't about "We'd better release another featuring song, because maybe it'll rank higher in the charts". It was a real Sophie Ellis Bextor album. I do not mind some collaborations, but it shouldn't overshadow the fact that Sophie is a genuine solo artist capable of making amazing songs and performances by herself.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if her heart is still in it at the moment. And you're right, all these dj collaborations are diluting her as an artist.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the album probably won't be a cohesive one. I think they've overdone it with the collaborations. In general, I prefer just the Sophie sound instead of hearing the Freemasons or some other DJ with it. I like 'Can't Fight this Feeling', but you can't say it's an unique Sophie song.

Eden said...

Her album will have a lot of potential hits and singles if they were smart enough! unfortunately, they're not!
As I said in the previous post, they are so desperate to get Sophie's success in the UK!
As for NGU, Armin has a HUGE fan base all over the world. Dance music and trance music are very popular and a lot of festivals worldwide take place frequently!!!
So it's just a desperate measure to save Sophie!! the sales will be very influenced by the Armin's fans base! which is worse, cos if the song scores well, her label will think that they are smart and am afraid that the next step they'll do will only affect Sophie's image in the music industry labeling her as a big flop!
And Kau, yes, working with David Guetta will be enough for Sophie to claim her place back! He's a genius and I have a lot of his songs that are not very famous and that leaked over the internet!!! just amazing! if you want, search for David Guetta feat. Bruno Mars - world goes on, or their other song called "first time" (not our first time, it's a different slow song for Bruno), D.G. feat. Blero - You & Me, David Guetta Feat. Katie Ann-Marie - Nothing Else Matters, ....
Such tunes would work perfectly for Sophie!

Eden said...

just another chart update:

CFTF is climbing and now @ #12 on www.nrjlebanon.com

(the reason that it is still there on the chart, is that they added it late to their playlist, so I expect that it will reach higher places soon)

Boring-of-Sophie said...

For me Soph label should release NGU first, cause Armin is big name in music world. But remember, Sophie is own artist, not featuring. She should release her own songs. It's boring to hear about another her DJ collaboration. Why Catch You or Murder wasn't made with "big Dj" and it were huge hits? :x

Mathew said...

This saddens me, because Fascination have gone and missed on an opportunity to make this album a big seller. I'm not sure why they've decided to mess around with the release schedule so much that it now looks like Sophie is releasing an album as an afterthought to all of these 'collaborations'. Just because it's a 'dancier' album doesn't mean Sophie should get promoted like some one-off house music singer, she has an established pop career already. Plus the gap between singles is ridiculous! People are going to forget about any forthcoming album if the single release is 6 months in advance!

I think Soph should ditch Fascination after the greatest hits. They're obviously not doing her any favours.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more. It's always this way: new single gets released and Sophie appears on lots of tv shows and radio station to promote the song, then...nothing!, after that: new single but people have forgotten Sophie is back in action and that she's about to release a new album. During all of this the release of the album gets postponed a couple of times. It feels as if Sophie isn't really present in the music scene.

I'm sure there are better record companies than Fascination who'll be more than happy to work with Sophie.

M. said...

"Fascination" should call themselves "Mystification". Their marketing strategy is so secret and confusing no one can understand it!

Makke said...

@M. Couldn't agree more..xD

Anywayz, 'Not Giving Up' is finally on YouTube!

Anonymous said...

This is actually a good idea, having the whole DJ single featuring Sophie Ellis Bextor. This is how she had her biggest hit, "Groovejet." Sure, it puts her as the featuring artist, but it gets her songs played on radio. It's just another marketing move if she wants to keep recording. It's still her recognizable voice on all these tracks.

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