Do you miss the studio recordings? (Poll)

[Bouli]

Just curious to know what people think about the show no longer making iTunes studio recordings of performances.

 

A quick rundown:

 

As far as I know, iTunes studio recordings were a thing from Season 1 through (I think) Season 21. Artists would record studio versions of the songs they would perform; in the earlier seasons (I think from s1 to s14), artists would record every single performance, but starting in (I think) s15, they only recorded their live show performances.

 

In Season 3, they added an iTunes bonus multiplier, multiplying the number of votes an artist would receive by either 5 or 10, if a song reached Top 10 of the iTunes charts (and I'm pretty sure this continued from s3 to 19 – correct me if I'm wrong!).

 

I also know that at some point, they stopped counting if a song reached the Top 10, and only started giving a bonus to the artist who had the most iTunes sales or Apple Music streams overall. (I at least know this system was in place for s16 and s17, when Maelyn Jarmon and Jake Hoot respectively won every bonus [and both won their seasons]).

 

So what are your thoughts on any of that? Did you enjoy the recordings? And do you miss it? Do you wish they'd bring the recordings back?

[Discovolcano]

I tunes multiplier didn’t seem fair. Especially in later rounds like semi finals 

Edited December 11, 2024 by Discovolcano

[AliXRose]

1. Indifferent tbh the ones I listened to I liked the "live" version more (I'm talking blind auditions)

2. It depends, I liked it when my favs benefited from it lol

3. None

[Kenneth96]

As a fan who has watched the show since season 3, here are my thoughts:

 

The iTunes studio recordings really became a thing starting from season 3, and have impacted the voting heavily since that time to S14. From S15 to S17 it changed to streaming and only one artist received the iTunes bonus. From S18 to S21 (aka the COVID time), it didn't really mean a thing. Some coaches (Adam and Blake mostly) were strategic about it, they created new and fresh arrangements for overused songs to push the song on iTunes chart knowing if the song reach the top 10 on the chart, their artist will be safe. 

 

IDF used to listen to previews of the songs about 4-5 hours before the show (the time it was published on iTunes) and can predict the outcome of the week based on that (the live performance still decide if they get votes or not). By that way we knew the song choices for the week earlier.

 

After S21 they ditched iTunes probably to save more money and due to the fact that the songs aren't dominate the chart anymore, they went from S9 where 7/10 of the top 10 on the chart were songs from the show, to S21 where only GNT managed to crack the top 10. The problem is, since ditching iTunes, they began to use overused songs again and we don't have fresh arrangements anymore. Some masterpieces from the show like "No One" by Sundance Head, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Madi Davis are nowhere to be seen now.

 

So based on the current show, I think it'll be indifferent to be able to purchase songs on iTunes, it will be just an indicator. Mostly I'm ok with the multiplier if they have a good performance (except the only time when iTunes was responsible for sending Chris Kroeze to the finale and push him to the runner-up position).