via FOX press release:
HOT FROM FOX…
“GLEE” RULES THE iTUNES CHARTS WITH ASTOUNDING 1.1 MILLION DOWNLOADS
TEN SONGS FROM HIT SERIES NOW ON iTUNES TOP 200
CAST MASH-UPS OF “IT’S MY LIFE/CONFESSIONS PART II” AND “HALO/WALKING ON SUNSHINE”
AMONG SONGS FEATURED IN “GLEE” WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, ON FOX
With only four episodes broadcast this season, GLEE is proving to be not only a ratings smash but also a music powerhouse. Downloads of the musical selections from the hit series have now surpassed the 1 million mark, with every song entering the Top 200 upon release. GLEE currently boasts 10 songs on the iTunes Top 200, including cast versions of Queen’s “Somebody To Love,” Heart’s “Alone,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Maybe This Time” from “Cabaret,” Céline Dion’s “Taking Chances,” Rihanna’s “Take A Bow,” Carrie Underwood’s “Last Name,” Jazmine Sullivan’s “Bust Your Windows,” Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” and REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling.”
Additionally, Columbia Records and Twentieth Century Fox Television today released select songs featured in this week’s episode of GLEE, including GLEE cast mash-ups of Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” with Usher’s “Confessions Part II” and Beyoncé’s “Halo” with Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking on Sunshine.”
In this week’s episode, which airs Wednesday, Oct. 7 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX, WILL (Matthew Morrison) challenges the kids to a healthy dose of competition with boys against girls in a mash-up showdown. Meanwhile, TERRI (Jessalyn Gilsig) takes a job as the school nurse, despite having no medical experience, to keep an eye on her husband.
On Tuesday, Nov. 3, Columbia Records and Twentieth Century Fox Television will release “Glee: The Music, Volume 1,” the first in a series of soundtracks that feature music heard in the first season of the critically acclaimed series on FOX. “Glee: The Music, Volume 1” will feature spectacular renditions of several chart-topping hits, including Avril Lavigne’s “Keep Holding On” and Jill Scott’s “Hate On Me.”
GLEE, the genre-defying new musical comedy series, follows an optimistic teacher who – against all odds and a malicious cheerleading coach – attempts to save McKinley High’s Glee Club from obscurity while helping a group of aspiring underdogs realize their true star potential. Starring Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Jessalyn Gilsig, Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Matthew Morrison, Amber Riley, Mark Salling and Jenna Ushkowitz, GLEE is produced by Ryan Murphy Television in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan are co-creators of the series. Murphy, Falchuk and Dante Di Loreto serve as executive producers, while Ian Brennan serves as co-executive producer.
Ok, so now we have a better idea of how much money iTunes brings in. That’s over $1 mil (which is the cost of about a half? a third? of an episode) after four episodes. (Five if you count last season.) We don’t know how much of that goes to Fox, but I think we can safely conclude that if Glee weren’t doing well on its own (which it is) the iTunes sales wouldn’t save it. Correct me if I’m wrong in assuming that. If it were doing $1 mil in sales per episode, that would be another story.
Julia, I don’t read these numbers as making much of a difference for anything other than a press release. But not nothing either. ~250,000 downloads per episode, but they don’t get $1/download, but rather a fraction of a dollar (what fraction, I’m not sure). It’s probably somewhere in the neighborhood of the revenue value of having one extra thirty second spot. That would be roughly a 3% increase to revenue on a per episode basis.
Oh, yeah, not saying it’s unimpressive. I’m sure Columbia Records enjoys it a lot, as well. But if the show were getting low 2’s in the demo, the fans would be wailing about how iTunes is enough to save it. Seems like it wouldn’t be.
The upcoming album should also sell decently. I don’t thing these sales alone would save Glee if the show’s ratings were lousy, but the extra stream of revenue certainly doesn’t hurt.
I expect a CD release for the Xmas season.
FOX makes more money on Hulu viewings than on iTunes music downloads.
I think this will play an important part in renewal descisions – it shows franchise potential, spin-offs, dvds, CDs, downloads, dolls, movies. Fox could make a lot of money out of this, if they play it right.
gleeks unite
Jack, “FOX makes more money on Hulu viewings than on iTunes music downloads.”
I’d love to see backup for that. Got some internal Hulu documents you want to share?
@Robert
Download revenue will be about 40c-50c per d/l to Fox. However they’ll have to pay royalties of about 5c per d/l.
I don’t know whether the actors will get ‘extra’ revenue from the sales, likely it’s included in the show appearance contract.
As I stated earlier in another thread though I suspect that certain music publishers will do ’sweetheart’ deals with Fox as any song on Glee will also boost downloads of the original artist version.
I think you could say with a reasonable degree of certainty that Fox are getting 40c per download and perhaps a few pennies more.
The musical parts on Glee are truly outstanding so far, but the rest is pretty stupid
ooooohhhh……here she comes…….don’t you smell her?
emily24? where are you????
can’t wait to see what spite/rage/rant will spill from your lips on this news!!!
hello? emily24???
Rob brings up a very interesting point I was going to make myself: I know of fans who only watch this show for the music and don’t think the show itself is good at all (cliched or cartoonish characters, inconsistent characterization and storytelling, etc.). Fox did a smart thing by doing the iTunes thing – even if the money from downloads won’t save the show, it’ll help to keep people tuned in just to see the music on the show.
Someone should tell Emily….
Simply put GLEE is the freshest new comedy/drama in a long time. A nice change from all the cop and hospital shows. It’s getting great numbers in the demos….I think it will be here for awhile.
While the writing and characterizations might not be stellar, Glee is without a doubt the most fun hour of Television hand down.
I love Glee only family show household can agree on. Ratings only do households which can be more than or 5 like in my household. I know sveral families that watch this show together. If it is getting lousy ratings the DVR factor raises the ratings and more than one person in a household watching should count toward that too. I don’t believe in the naysayers and people who post negatively about show either don’t watch it or bring it down because its not in their target demo. I am a Gleek and proud of it.