Clay Aiken and RCA Part Ways

"Billboard" reported Friday that Clay Aiken and RCA have “parted ways.”

According to “Billboard,” Clay left the label a couple of months ago after his last CD, “On My Way Here,” sold only 159,000 copies.

You’ll notice I didn’t say this was sad news, because I don’t think it is. After all, I put the blame for those low sales squarely on RCA’s shoulders.

I think “Here” was Clay’s best CD yet, but you wouldn’t have known it from the lack of promotion the label gave it. And although “Here” was a beautiful song, it was the wrong first single. Plus, the timing of the release was atrocious. Because Clay was on Broadway he couldn’t give it the attention he needed to. And then all of the personal stuff broke. I think the label could have worked with Clay to come up with a better release date.

And let’s not forget that terrible decision to have Clay’s second CD (third if you count the holiday one) be a CD of covers. If “Here” had been his second release, I wouldn’t even be typing this right now.

I hope that Clay will be able to find a label that appreciates his talent and lets him make the kind of music he wants to make.

And one that convinces him to go back out on the road. He may no longer have RCA’s backing, but we still want to hear those songs…

Photo Credit: Eric Ogden/RCA