Tuesday, August 7, 2012

David Archuleta's BEGIN. in stores today!

21-year-old singer David Archuleta's 5th pop album (7 total), "BEGIN.", is in stores today! This is a cover album with 1 original song, Broken (lyrics: Jon Hunt music: David Archuleta). Here are some places where you can purchase it:
Amazon (online)
Amazon MP3 (online- digital)
Astroplus (Philippines, in stores)
Barnes & Noble (online/in stores)
Best Buy (online, free shipping)
books.com.tw (Taiwan, online)
Costco (in stores)
DeepDiscount (online)
Deseret Book (online/in stores)
Discópolis (Spain, online)
Ensign Books (in stores)
Fry's (online, free shipping)
FYE (online/in stores?)
Gramophone (Singapore, in stores)
Harvest Books (in stores)
iTunes (online- digital)
J&R (online)
kmart (online)
MyMusic Store (Philippines, online- digital)
Newbury Comics (online)
Overstock.com (online)
Seagull Book (online/in stores)
Sears (online, $0.99 shipping)
Speedy Video (Malaysia, in store)
Walmart (online/in stores)
WOW HD (online, free shipping anywhere)

The Taiwan edition of the album comes with 4 additional postcards while supplies last. Sold in Taiwan and Hong Kong!
~ If you can't afford to buy one, please see my last post for suggestions on how to get one gifted to you! Illegal downloading is NEVER the answer.

Haven't decided if you want to buy it yet? Here are some reviews for the album that might help you make up your mind. This list will be updated as more reviews roll in:

Creative Disc (Indonesia, reviews the song Broken) Rating: 9/10
Idol Chatter Rating: B-
MUSIC IS MY OXYGEN WEEKLY Rating: 3.5/5
The Washington Times Rating: 2/5
Entertainment Tonight Rating: Positive
Jacob Elyachar Journalist Rating: A-
Elizabeth Rosalyn Rating: Positive
AllMusic Rating: 2.5/5
Salt Lake Tribune Rating: C

Book Giveaways Rating: Positive (enter to win a copy!)
HPfanRinnie's Rambles Rating: A-

Soul David Rating: Positive
Deseret News Rating: Positive
Dear Music Appreciators Rating: 4/5
Teen Ink Rating: Positive
Tuned In Rating: 3.5/5
The Preston Citizen Rating: Positive

Inquirer Entertainment (Philippines) Rating: Positive
Manila Bulletin (Philippines) Rating: Positive
Some of the reviews claim a lack of emotional connection (& even contain some personal attacks), which, if you're familiar with David and his singing in general, is almost never true. And believe me when I say, his voice easily soars over the production :)

For a special message from David regarding the release, click here.


For more information such as snippets, what David himself says about this album, and tracklist, see this post and the links below. Thank you guys for supporting!
David Archuleta's Official Site
Official Twitter
Kari's (manager) Twitter
Official YouTube
Official Facebook
Official Myspace


~Rinnie

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Supporting David Archuleta's New Album BEGIN.

Hey everyone! BEGIN. is coming out in 5 days! So exciting! I was going to put this with the last post, seeing as that one was all information on BEGIN., but I'm sure it would make that post way too big and hard to navigate. So I guess, branching off of that...

First:
Just wanted to remind you all to support David by legally obtaining BEGIN.! I know it might not be possible for everyone to afford one, since I myself could just manage to pre-order 1 copy! However, this does not make illegal downloading the answer. This is a very wonderful fanbase (more like a huge family!), and there are many generous fans out there who have extra copies or can afford to buy more and are delighted to help you out! So ask around on Twitter, Facebook, fan sites, etc. Here's a list of fan sites, just to name a few:

Fans of David*
FanScene*
The Voice
David Beyond Borders
SnowAngelz (Canada)
Archuleta Philippines
And don't worry if you don't live in the same country as your donor! Many fans are willing to gift anyway! They can also gift through iTunes if your iTunes accounts are from the same country. So depending on where your donor is from, getting an account from that country if you can is probably a good idea. If you want to be a donor, even if it's just 1 copy, e-mail Fans of David at fodfrontpage@gmail.com or FanScene at janeySA79@gmail.com.

*known gifting program available

Second:
In addition to getting a legal copy of the album, there are additional ways you can help! As you know, Broken is already available on the U.S. iTunes store and people have already posted it on YouTube. Though some posts might say "do not download," that would not stop anyone determined enough. So please leave a comment and message these users by politely asking them to remove their video or replace it with an incomplete version. If people want the song, they have to go buy it! The same goes for all the other songs when the album comes out, since there will surely be videos of those as well!
UPDATE: 
Some even have posted download links for the entire album on their YouTube videos, and those need to be removed! Please ask them to do so politely and explain why. They need to understand!  

Third:
PROMOTION! This is an essential part of sales. I know David doesn't really care too much, but he really deserves all the success and more. Remember when The Other Side of Down came out and half the fans didn't even know about it until a year later? Let's make sure that doesn't happen again! Deseret Book and Kari have already done an amazing job with the promotion, but we can do our part too. Post about the album on social networking sites, work it into a conversation with someone (I did!), and if you have a twitter account...twibbon! It adds a little logo to your avatar to show off your support. Click here to add one created by AnnieDAFG!

That's all for now and thank you all for reading! Can't wait for to hear the full album after August 7!! This post will be updated regularly.

~Rinnie