Friday, June 6, 2008

Soul Fixin'

Legend Looking Forward to Third Release

Two albums deep into the game, John Legend is in the studio working on a third album, which is slated to be released in September. Legend describes the as-yet untitled album as more mainstream and radio friendly than his sophomore album, Once Again. "The last record was mellower, the production this time is a little more up-tempo and more pop sounding.." Legend's debut album, Get Lifted, has sold 2.1 million copies, while Once Again went platinum. Speaking of the decline in sales, Legend says “Once Again was difficult for people to digest because it wasn't any one radio format,it was between formats and there wasn't an obvious place for everything to fit. I’ve been successful without a huge radio hit up until now so I don’t think about the radio when I make songs. Artistically, Once Again was a great album, better than Get Lifted. I had a bigger tour on the second album and it set me up to be an artist that's around for a long time so I just have to capitalize on that.” John is embarking on a new direction in the marketing of his music. In hopes of coming up with new and unique promotional strategies, John has met with several advertising agencies.“I want to go beyond what the label machine always does and think of some cool ideas,” said Legend. “Labels get into a creative rut. I want an ad firm that launches other products to use their knowledge to launch my music. It'd be cool to get ideas from a firm that can still reach my marketplace. We're taking proposals now so as soon as we decide on one we can decide the launch date and direction.”

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