Is Capitol Records sleeping on LeToya?
by ControlFreak on Aug.02, 2009, under LNN FEATURES
Fans have been worrying about Capitol lately and they are right! Capitol is known for being one of the worse label ever. “Capitol” is basically the American name for EMI Music which is a respected British based company in Europe. They have a very strong European roster like Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue. (She’s Australian but signed in England).
In America it’s a different story. The same way you can consider signing with Puff Daddy a suicide for your carreer you can consider signing with Capitol the beginning of the end for you as well. LeToya signed with them because she thought that being the only female R&B artist of the label would’ve benefitted of their focus. Could’ve been a good move but in Capitol’s case it is….WRONG. The fact that they didn’t have a strong and established urban department should’ve gave her the hint. Their publicists don’t have good relationships with major radios (at least in the urban world)- which is the reason why your song might be boycotted if you’re an artist on that label. Miss Jones formely of Hot 97 admitted it was the reason why “Torn” didn’t get airplay on Hate 97. LeToya still managed to go platinum without the help of Hot 97. They are a lot of politics involved when it comes to a radio playing your songs with often blackmail negociations happening.
If you go to Capitol’s website LeToya is definitely not a priority to them. You can browse on the site and find that she’s only mentioned once. They were still very happy to release a worlwide press release in 2006 to announce that she topped the Billboard chart.
So why aren’t they supporting her? Simple. Capitol don’t support their urban artists. Capitol’s artists flop one after the other. Even if they have a great album and are not any less talented than Def Jam artists. The victims: Cherish, Avant, MIMS, Chingy, J Holyday, etc. All these names sounds familiar but were you aware they even had an album out? Probably not because Capitol didn’t bother promoting them. Do you think they’re treating LeToya any different? The answer is NO. Most of what LeToya is booking she books it on her own without help whatsoever from Capitol. They should all be fired. ACTUALLY THEY WERE ALL fired. But it seems like the new team is even worse!
I’m wondering why they still keep the urban department if they don’t feel like working on that seriously. ALL urban releases flopped in the past three years. (besides LeToya thanks to her own hard-work) and still they stopped supporting LeToya’s project when they had to merge Capitol records with Virgin Records fucking it up for her and thus an album with a lot more potential go to waste. LeToya’s wasn’t successfull thanks to Capitol but thanks to her fanbase. She has a huge following. I can’t name any other R&B chick who has such a dedicated fanbase. “Why does she have so many fans?” you gone tell me. Well, after she was kicked out of Destiny’s Child and sold 9 million album, these buyers people took sides. Some fans took Beyonce’s side and the others took LeToya’s. Others like me just kept following both with bitterness against Beyonce since she never apologised to LeToya publicly and acts like she doesn’t exist.
Capitol isn’t a professional company. It goes from simple details as not having a single cover for “Not Anymore” to not having a working official site. (It is just one page with a picture and a music player playing the album sampler) Also they are making major mistakes. Like putting the single on itunes even before the song is being played by radios and therefore spreading out sales. (making it impossible for the song to chart on Billboard).
The promo from the last album was somewhat on point. She had all the ingredients to make her album go #1. LeToya had visibility everywhere. She was on TV, magazines, radio, booked the Mary J Blige Tour and her singles were doing really good.
Unfortunately this time around this is a different story. There is MUCH MUCH LESS. Fans are still hoping “something will happen” around the release date. But if you look at the comparison graphic below you’ll see that the first time around all the promo was done way before the album ‘LeToya” (Torn Era) was released. The buzz created in 2006 was enormous. With the proper promo timing respected to make everything pick up like it should. We’re about 20 days left to the release date and still…. nothing. So 2 factors come into the equation: less promo + bad economy ≠ success . Since you can’t deal with the bad economy factor you have to double what you have control of. Meaning more and more media coverage… we are far from it. In 2009 she didn’t make any magazine cover at all (besides S2S) and her features are very limited. (1 page or so when she actually gets one). In 2006 she got an major endorsement with Cingular. This time…none. This doesn’t smell like success to me. Too many ingredients are missing. In my opinion I think they should push back the album until one song picks up and is a real hit. She would “benefit” of the Keri Hilson syndrome. This seem to be the new standard as singles after singles people must notice you at some point.
I am a little worry for the future of this album. All we can hope now is that the fans are doing their part and request her since we can’t count on the label to do their job. They are pushing wack ass artists that I never heard of. It pisses me of that they don’t see the potential in her. They have a star right there who can sell platinum and who went #1. I thought that since they lost Janet Jackson they would’ve put that money and energy into LeToya since she’s their only R&B female artist with crossover appeal left.
Labels like Interscope and Jive are totally different and push their artists to the limit until it works for them. (Look at Keshia Cole and Ciara). If “Lady Love” don’t succeed like it should I will advise LeToya to move away from Capitol and go with a label that diserves her and that can expand her horizons. Hell if Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson left them there must be a reason to that! She might even consider going independent. Why EMI Music should keep most of the royalties money when LeToya is doing everything on her own?
33 Comments for this entry
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LeToyaNews.com | LeToya News Network - Get the latest LeToya Luckett news here
August 9th, 2009 on 8:56 pm[...] post: Is Capitol Records sleeping on @LeToyaLuckett? http://www.letoyanews.com/?p=1098 [...]
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LeToyaNews.com | LeToya News Network - Get the latest LeToya Luckett news here
August 27th, 2009 on 1:12 pm[...] I warned you. Not only they messed up LeToya’s promotion but they are fucking up with the distribution as well. We’re receiving lots of tweets from people complaining about the album’s availability. Lots of stores are sold out. “Sold out” HUUMM Sounds like a good thing right? Not when the album is expected to sell only 25k. (Call me in denial I still don’t believe that number) We understand that Capitol just didn’t bother shipping enough copies. Our sources inform us that some locations received only 20 copies of “Lady Love” while these same stores got 500 of Colbie Calait. WTF right?! So how you gone sell more if people can’t buy the product? (If you come accross a store that is sold out, get at us thru the contact form on the lower right side of this site so we can make sure they are re-stocked) [...]
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LeToyaNews.com | LeToya News Network - Get the latest LeToya Luckett news here
September 27th, 2009 on 2:54 pm[...] thing is, they want to get rid of her but it’s their fault the album is not performing as good as hoped. There is big drama behind this situation, which [...]
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LeToya dropped from Capitol Records. « Welcome To The Fake Industry
September 27th, 2009 on 3:08 pm[...] thing is, they want to get rid of her but it’s their fault the album is not performing as good as hoped. There is big drama behind this situation, which [...]
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August 2nd, 2009 on 11:05 pm
damn! Yes I agree. We need to request!
August 2nd, 2009 on 11:05 pm
Never been a fan of Capitol Records. I hope more promo is coming up.
August 2nd, 2009 on 11:07 pm
It’s kind of sad. I hope she can make it to #1 anyway
August 2nd, 2009 on 11:11 pm
yea capitol best artists flop but is still hope ya’ll maybe she will do big shows the week the album drops, exspecially ellen & tyra cuz they give the artists albums out to the whole crowd
August 2nd, 2009 on 11:14 pm
I LOVE THAT PICTURE!!!! AND YEAH FUCK CAPITOL!
August 2nd, 2009 on 11:38 pm
i EXPECT HER ALBUM TO GO #1 & SELL LIKE 200+k THE 1ST wEEK, hER 2 SOngs are good & the track listing look good also.
August 3rd, 2009 on 6:55 am
Excellent reporting. Your site is informative and the breakdown seems quite accurate.
Her fan site has a lot of bickering this go round. seems like it’s out of control, no consistent focus, just blah blah blah blah blah from them, including moderators.
August 3rd, 2009 on 1:49 pm
I think what Temptress said is relevant:
2009, 2006, 1958…who cares. If you’ve got fans and people like your shyt, then you will sell. Maxwell resurrected out of the depts of oblivian since like 99′ or some shyt and sold over 300k first week, and no one expected it and were steady saying that R&B is dead and that he would flop, and he ain’t on nobody’s z100 or MTV. Not saying that Toya is gonna do the same. But albums are still selling, if your shyt is good and people like you then they will buy it. We all know that Capital records is like the worst record label ever made when it comes to promoting their artist, but shyt they are also not the only ones who make or break their artist. Their fanbase does. Coldplay can release an album tomorrow without a press release or any support from Capital, yet they will still sell like it ain’t nothing. Corrine Bailey Rae didn’t get any support from Capital, yet she was a Grammy staple the year her album came out. Katy Perry is on Capital, didn’t have any support from the label from the jump, her first single “Ur so gay” flopped, she sold like 10 copies her first week then her second single about kissing girls helped her sell, and to this day she’s actually only sold about 850,000 copies or something. And still Capital ain’t doing shyt. Cherish only did good with their debut cause the whole ATL “lean wit rock with it” craze was happening. Other than that, where are their fans? Cause I know that album still flopped. J. Holiday and Avant flopped cause nobody really cares. How many fanboards do they have where people are jumping at each others throats about single choices, and promotion and what not? I know they definately don’t have it like Toya does. So blame the label all day, but there are many more factors than the “label” not promotin’. I mean yea, a couple of payola checks would be nice, but we just gotta deal with what we got I guess.
August 3rd, 2009 on 1:50 pm
And this also:
And unless some of ya’ll are living under a rock or something….Capital didn’t do that much shyt for LeToya on the first album. What did they do? It was her and Terry hustling for the reality tv show spot on BET, it was her and terry hustling on the radio tours, it was her and Terry hustling for CD: USA and Soul Train…which both of those shows are now dead and they let anybody come on and sing if you got an album coming out. Capital ain’t do shyt then, and they ain’t doing shyt now. But we still got her to #1 and we still pushed “Torn” to the limit. It took some months, but we did it.
August 3rd, 2009 on 3:36 pm
Coldplay’s commercial with Itunes sold their album & made it a success & their from the UK so they have a STRONG European following! LeToya got success but it was mainly because of the success of Torn, none of her singles has caught the masses like Torn did!
August 6th, 2009 on 10:37 am
Promo is limited for a lot of artist. Word of mouth and the internet seems to be the main source for a lot of urban acts
And once again with the label comparisons. With every success, there’s a flop.
August 6th, 2009 on 10:38 am
Most of the stuff they said in that was true and I agree with most of it.
LeToya hasn’t been on shows getting interviewed or performing on, neither has she been on Magazine covers or even had a little bit of promo from Capitol, and I always did think it was jacked up how she’s not really on their website, they could at least promote her on their site or even open up her official site. Also I do believe the statement that some stations boycott her music because of politics, because as much as we’re requesting and voting, we’re not seeing that many results, we might see some soon, but it just added fuel to the fire when a station responded back to somebody on here about how they just weren’t playing the song, and you could ‘Request another one’…That’s just crazy.
August 6th, 2009 on 10:38 am
I will personally support LeToya with all of my effort, like I am now…But her label and team does need to step it up, we can’t do everything, and shouldn’t be expected too.
If they don’t do something fast, who knows how this album is going to do.
August 6th, 2009 on 10:40 am
Mixtape? YT Studio Sessions? Q&A with Letoya?
I wish that more was done so that we could see her. I also wish she would do some youtube videos, and show us some studio sessions. I mean if she’s not getting a reality show on BET then maybe they could get some footage together and post it on her website or her myspace…I think us as fans need more motivations from her.
August 6th, 2009 on 10:41 am
There’s always been “politics” in this industry. It’s just that now, it’s coupled with a bad economy which makes it even more challenging for artists, especially urban artists like Toya who struggle to reach broad/diverse audiences. However, as many of you have already said, we just have to ensure that we do our parts as LeToya’s fans regardless of Capitol’s promotional shortcomings…I try my best just about every day to support LT and get the word out whether it’s by mouth (telling family and friends about Toya and encouraging them to buy her album), through facebook, voting for the videos, requesting the songs, etc. Whatever you were doing before to support Toya, don’t stop doing it…Instead, go harder with it in these few weeks leading up to the release! This is NOT the time to get discouraged …It’s time to get fired up or perhaps even more fired up than ever before to take our girl to the TOP!!!
August 6th, 2009 on 10:41 am
Yeah they need to promote her alot more than that in this era. She deserves much better.
August 6th, 2009 on 10:42 am
Capital ain’t about sh*t and hasn’t been about shyt for a while. But I wouldn’t say that they just don’t care about their urban artist, cause they also don’t care about their mainstream pop/artist either. It’s just that their fans are dedicated and buy/support their music. So while WE, the LeToya fans are stuck like a tire in mud, the same still stands. We can only promote and request as much as possible. Fukk Capital today, and fukk em’ tomorrow. We did the damn thing on our own the first go round not Capital. So its up to us to do it again this time. And just cause the album is coming out in a few weeks don’t mean its the end, this album has potential to last for at least a year. “Torn” didn’t grow overnight, took like 6 months.
August 6th, 2009 on 10:42 am
That’s messed up. That’s why I say, Toy as HUSTLER! A true DIVA! F ALL YA HEARD!!! That’s why it ticks me when ppl say she slept on this album or that she hasn’t really been working on it for the past 2 years because that’s not true. Toy been GRINDING since day 1! I know I may not be like alot of fans with the promo because honestly, I don’t know what the hell I be doing but I do all I can.
August 6th, 2009 on 10:43 am
I’m really upset with that, it reminds me Debelah Morgan, she passed through the same situation, her fans helped her more than label, it is also very frustrating, coz it is happening almost the same thing that happened to Michelle Williams, she had a hot album, but not enough promotion, well I pray for LeToya, and I’ll do the best as I can to make her succeed.
22 days, it flies
August 7th, 2009 on 12:38 pm
honestly? There are several factors that corroborated to NA’s failure and SAG’s media acceptance, first of all, the same ol drama about DC, I told y’all she needs to step up about this, be gently, but killa “What about DC”, “Just fine, but we gotta move on”, but I must admit someone is boycotting her, seriously doesn’t make sense, because she is coming hot, but she isn’t charting, NA charted in hotR&B, but subsequently failed hard, like it was being dropped, also lack of tv performances, she needed to perform at least once, so it would increase radio’s interest on her and even interest from other broadcasting channels, but she performed in 3-rated clubs and C-rated parties, also LABEL, Capitol didn’t anything at all, only two videos and only one magazine cover, damn, I mean really what the f*ck with them? If she succeds they will get the investment back, right now I’m feeling that they are thinking that it was a wrong investment BUT IT WAS NOT!!! IT ISNT! They are not promoting her right way, and if she fails they will fail as well, but the main reason for the lack of promotion? KATY PERRY, they are focusing on her so hard, because she brought them so far a platinum album within 1 year, and 6 successfully charted singles.
Capitol Records (through TR) mentioned a lot of things, and that they were pulling her hard as they could and that they would make her the season movement, but so far we didnt see anything, no reality show series, no tv performances, no popular and mainstream magazine spreads (no cover, feature, appearance), yes I’m complaining, is the best I can do right now (here) for her, I’m promoting her as much as I can, I’m planning on buyin 10 copies and I know many of y’all are as well, but we have nothing left to do else than complain and reclaim some replies from them.
Oh I wish she’d come back harder, I know that this would happen, things never change, if she performed live in a stadium (in any sport game), then appear at any sitcom, or any high rated show, it would be different.
August 7th, 2009 on 8:40 pm
Who’s to say the situation wouldn’t be the same if Regret was chosen as the single…
SAGSOM started off great, took off faster than any other single from her and still has the potential to rebound. I feel like the main reason the song is falling is because it’s being neglected, NOT because people aren’t feelinf it, or because it’s a “pop” song, or because it’s not a good single choice for her.
The most confusing part of all this is that LeToya is not performing SAGSOM as much as Regret, so it’s like she says the single is one song but her performances showcase the other. Audiences can’t latch on to the song if they don’t hear it. And yes, I realize the whole SAGSOM is “pop” and Regret is “urban” argument, however, I feel like if you’re bold enough to step out of the box and choose SAG as the single, then be bold enough to make that song first priority and perform it no matter who the audience is.
As for the dual single idea…I would love to see that happen, but I don’t see that working especially if Capital ain’t putting in the money to promote even 1 single.
August 7th, 2009 on 8:41 pm
Sadly Capitol and dem’ are setting toya up to flop, that’s the last thing I want her to do, considering how hard she worked and how hot the songs are.
August 7th, 2009 on 8:42 pm
boycott, that is what happening, we have enough heat going on, but someone or something is trying to surpress her
August 7th, 2009 on 8:47 pm
Personally I feel like this era started off wrong with them releasing NA and then not promoting it at all…IF you’re going 2 release something like that, at least promote it. Then they had a chance to promote SAG, and this song is horribly promoted so far, and I can think of many ways they could’ve promoted this, I mean we had bootleg promo back in the day, she had flyers everywhere, mixtapes out, even a “LeToya” promo truck….NONE of that this era. LOL.
August 7th, 2009 on 8:48 pm
WOW, I have to some what agree with some of the stuff Richard said.
I just wish we could get an explanation on what’s going on…
Like the mixtape and the rest of the promo.
August 7th, 2009 on 8:49 pm
Exactly….they may not notice but they owe it the fans who have PATIENTLY WAITED for 3 YEEARRRS for her to come out with another ALBUM only for them to seemingly f*ck HER OVER!!! Are you kidding me?? Their asses need to be exposed and they need to GET RIGHT!! Because LeToya has been through some HARD times and deserves eons better. She seriously needs to become their priority in the Urban division and get these singles heard and caught on @ radio by August 25th or ELSE! Seriously Capitol is gonna have to pull a couple all nighters to make this sh*t work.
August 7th, 2009 on 8:50 pm
Really LeToya nor Capitol really owe us anything. We support LT because we love her music…with that said we just need to do our best to support her.
August 7th, 2009 on 8:51 pm
I mean I feel like they do sort of owe us something, I mean we are the ones who by the records and go through hell requesting and promoting her.
August 7th, 2009 on 8:55 pm
I think they do (Captiol) owe us the fans…the effort to promote her to the fullest extent to the masses. They have the means, they should just do it. If somone is boycotting LeToya it is someone on her own label. I don’t think they are putting in enough effort into her project. She should have been on TV already and getting ready for other appearances in the upcoming weeks. What I don’t want is for them to “step it up” the week before the release. That is B.S. I want her to debut strong and remain strong. Did you know Solange’s album was #25 last week on the R&B charts? After 1 whole year! I want Toya’s album to be like that but with STRONGER numbers But still…to me, they are not trying hard enought. LeToya is doing her part, and she can only do so much. She is only one person. She can only travel to places one day at a time and promote. Hopefully where she does visit will have it in mind to buy the album. I am scared that they made a video for SAG now cause if she has 2 videos for this album already..they won’t push for at least 2 or 3 more videos for this album. They betta get in!
August 7th, 2009 on 8:56 pm
I agree with richardba!!!!
We were told there were big things planned for this era, yet we’ve seen nothing major?!?
I am glad they gave her a second single quicker than the 1st era but thats really it…
I mean what happen to the BET series that was in the works?
I mean where is all the promo on capitals part?
As fans we can only do so much…
August 7th, 2009 on 8:58 pm
Everyone who has Twitter needs to get on @CapitolRecords asses and let them know we demand some more LeToya Promo!!!……. Irish already chewed out EMI on Twitter , but we honestly need to get our voices heard…..
Being that it’s close to the album release……. LET’S MAKE SOME NOISE!!!!!!
OH……. And “SAG” would be a Top 10 by now if it was marketed to it’s full potential (and if it had a better video) but either way, it’s a hot song, and I hope the promo on it picks up!!!
August 8th, 2009 on 7:57 am
I just hope they don’t do to “Regret” what they did to “Obvious.”
EVERYBODY loved “Obvious.” I was living in my hometown back then, you could not go 30 minutes or an hour without the radio playing that song, and they didn’t ever play sh*t!
To this day I am still enraged that “Obvious” was not pushed as a single with a video and promo. I can’t even listen to the song because I get so angry thinking about what could’ve been.
“Obvious” would have been that single that solidified Toya as an incredible artist, and not the girl that used to be in DC. That song would’ve ended all this lack of promotion and failure to recognize greatness.
August 12th, 2009 on 10:43 pm
It was in the 20K’s….it wasn’t exactly 20K his first week. That is what I am saying this promo is not good….I mean she is getting the . buzz & she is doing the right thing by taking calls from fans. Seriously, I KNOW that CAPITOL can do SO MUCH BETTER with this PROMO. To me they should have this promo in OVERDRIVE right about now to make these people go out & buy this album. Hopefully, they have all types of tricks to pull within the next week or so. I believe they still have some time 2 do some big things tho….they need to hurry tho.