American Idol has to name a winner each year, even if the winner is not marketable. Melanie Amaro WHO? She won the first year of X Factor and she was supposed to get a $5 million recording contract. She did not release any music.

The amount of money that record companies invest in a recording artist for musicians, producers, studio time, writers, promotion, and getting radio play is enormous these days. The record label fronts the money and it recoups it from records sales and mostly from touring. If a label doesn’t believe that their artist will achieve the status that will allow that artist to have a hit song and to tour, it is better to cut their losses and drop the artist. Adam Lambert had to leave RCA because they wanted him to do an 80’s cover album. He declined and left RCA. He was scooped up by Warner the next day.

Interscope made a deal to sign an artist to a contract sight-unseen, based on the hope that the Idol winner would be a marketable artist. Most of the Idol winners and runners-up were not marketable artists. Actually, The Voice has betters singers and performers, and they have not been able to get one of their winners or finalists a hit song.

Record companies only care about the 18-29 demographic. Rock music is not popular with this age group. They want dance music. I don’t hear a lot of new music today that is in that genre. That would make Caleb not as marketable as an artist who makes dance music. Most of the songs Caleb sang on Idol were older songs because there is not much new music in the rock genre.

I admire what Caleb is doing by doing it on his own. I wish him well. Unfortunately, an indie artist is fighting an uphill battle without a record company behind him.