Reality seems to have come to roost.
There are tons of options available for people to spend their entertainment dollar.
And Jackie's shows are not reaching the masses and fewer and fewer people are willing to spend their money to see her. That is obvious.
She has a core fan base that has shrunk over time.
And presently little effective self-promotion is being done.
I was told Team Evancho would work with someone who they thought recognized that Jackie was at the beginning of a great career and was not thought of as trying to use Jackie's fame for their own benefit.
Of course, when Jackie works with a famous entertainer, she essentially is doing what Team Evancho claims they do not want to happen to them. That famous entertainer probably likes Jackie and appreciates her talent and thus is willing to help her. That famous entertainer has no true "need" to work with Jackie. But is willing to do so to give her some broader exposure.
However, Team Evancho can arguably be said to have done a terrible job of effectively building upon the opportunities that had been presented.
I agree that Team Evancho use of social media has been worse than abysmal. They wanted to present a certain type of image for Jackie and what they have done has failed miserably.
Here are Jackie's social media numbers:
- YouTube has 54.6K subscribers after over 6 years
- Twitter has 65K followers
- Instagram has 34.4K followers
- Facebook has 352.4K likes
On the surface these seem OK, but weak.
Let us look at some of the success stories of social media in the entertainment world. In all cases these people have worked their tail off both perfecting their art and self-promoting on the Internet. And these are only a small sample of dozens upon dozens of others who worked the Internet to self-promote and gain a big fan base.
(1) Peter Hollens
He is 34. Peter is a singer/songwriter, producer and entrepreneur. He has been involved with a cappella music since 1999 when he and Leo da Silva founded the University of Oregon's a cappella group, On The Rocks, known as the first official collegiate a cappella group in Oregon. He regularly releases new music videos to his YouTube channel. Peter records and produces from his home studio in Eugene, Oregon, and also has recorded for Sony and Epic Records. He recorded "Hallelujah" with Jackie which when first released became a worldwide trending YouTube video.
- YouTube has 1.47 million subscribers
- Twitter has 119K followers
- Instagram has 87.3K followers
- Facebook has 471.1K likes
(2) The Piano Guys
They are an American musical group consisting of Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, Paul Anderson, and Al van der Beek. They gained popularity through YouTube, where they posted piano and cello renditions of popular songs and classical music. Schmidt and Nelson's music is accompanied by professional-quality videos shot and edited by Anderson and formerly by Tel Stewart. Their first four major-label albums The Piano Guys, The Piano Guys 2, A Family Christmas, and Wonders each reached number one on the Billboard New Age Albums and Classical Albums charts. Their YouTube videos have over 1 billion views on their own channel alone. They posted their first YouTube in 2010, the same year Jackie was on AGT.
- YouTube has 5.11 million subscribers
- Twitter has 124K followers
- Instagram has 139K followers
- Facebook has 1.56 million likes
(3) Sungha Jung
He is a 20 year-old South Korean musician who specializes in acoustic fingerstyle guitar. Sungha creates acoustic covers and arrangements, typically by ear and/or by watching videos, and has original music, which he plays and uploads online. He was nicknamed the "Guitar Prodigy" and the "August Rush" in Korea, though he prefers to be known as a 'guitarist' rather than a 'guitar prodigy'. He practices daily for 1 to 2 hours when there is school and up to 3 hours daily when school is out.
- YouTube has 4.14 million subscribers
- Twitter has 271K followers
- Instagram has 210K followers
- Facebook has 1.33 million likes
(4) Lindsey Stirling
She is now 30. Was on same AGT 2010 show as Jackie losing out in the quarter finals. Piers Morgan said "You're not untalented, but you're not good enough, I don't think, to get away with flying through the air and trying to play the violin at the same time." Sharon Osbourne said "You need to be in a group. ... What you're doing is not enough to fill a theater in Vegas." She was devastated but subbornly continued using YouTube and the Internet to promote herself.
- YouTube has 8.56 million subscribers
- Twitter has 511K followers
- Instagram has 1 million followers
- Facebook has 3.69 million likes
(5) Pentatonix
They are an American a cappella group from Arlington, Texas consisting of five vocalists: Avi Kaplan, Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado, Kevin Olusola, and Mitch Grassi. Their work, which is mostly in the pop style, consists of covers of existing songs, sometimes in the form of medleys, along with their original material. Their music is defined by their own arrangement style, tight vocal harmonies, extensive vocal riffing, deep and steady vocal basslines, and a diverse range of vocal percussion and beatboxing. They were formed in 2011, a year after Jackie appeared on AGT. Pentatonix's official YouTube channel is currently the 13th most subscribed music video channel and the 44th most subscribed channel overall.
- YouTube has 11.17 million subscribers
- Twitter has 758K followers
- Instagram has 1.2 million followers
- Facebook has 3.01 million likes
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And the argument that these are older performers kinda gets blown out of the water by Sungha Jung who was a child when he began, and is only 4 years older than Jackie. Like Jackie, he was going to school. Yet look at his success, without the kind of support Jackie had available to her. He literally did it by pure hard work and just posting simple videos of himself sitting on a couch playing covers with his own arrangements. Admittedly fantastic virtuoso covers, but still simple videos from a self-taught instrumentalist located in South Korea.
Now, it is quite possible that Jackie was hog-tied by her Sony contract. She also got boxed-in as an "opera singer" when she was not.
However, being with Sony appears to not be true now.
Doing the "fancy" YouTube videos just are not working.
She does "Apocalypse" and has 830K views since 4/19. A pretty terrible result.
She got 879K views for "Writing's on the Wall" with a fairly sophisticated video. Again a pretty bad result. What have others done? Try 5.5 million for Sofia Karlberg just singing into an old style microphone. How about 1.2 million for Taps Mugadza also just singing into an old style microphone. And Connie Talbot sings into an old style microphone in her house and gets 1.2 million views (SIDE NOTE: Connie has 1.1 million subscribers!).
Jackie has 1.1 million views for "Safe & Sound" which seems not too bad. Again a decent video. But others with not anywhere near the video get 8.9 million views (Megan Nicole), 7.9 million views (Christina Grimmie), 13 million views (Jayesslee who have 2.1 million subscribers with truly bad voices), 6.9 million views (Madilyn Bailey who has 2.99 million subscribers and a Peter Hollens supporter), and on and on.
And the story is the same for Jackie's other covers. She puts together decent video covers and gets blown out of the water by the likes of Jayesslee (you must go to their Youtube channel and be shocked at how bad their vocals are and yet have millions of followers).
Team Evancho has seriously dropped the ball handed to them, multiple times. Hopefully the bleeding can be stopped and Jackie can build back a truly decent fan base before she ends up playing the 500 and smaller venues because no one will book her for the bigger venues.