A couple of months before the release of The Beautiful Letdown they released a single called "Meant To Live". They even gave it away for free for Christmas in 2002 as an MP3 on their web site. They'd recorded a live video at The Roxy in Hollywood but it hardly got played at all. Once the album was released they began two years of marathon touring to support the album. In the summer of 2003 "Meant To Live" started getting some air play. Switchfoot then did a concept video for the song and it started getting played on Fuse, VH1 and made it onto MTV in the fall of 2003. The song was able to get the album back into the Billboard Top 100 Albums. The follow-up single, "Dare You To Move" helped The Beautiful Letdown top out at number 16 on the Billboard Top 100 Albums. At the end of two years the band went on four full tours and sold over 2.5 million copies of The Beautiful Letdown.
As they toured in 2004 they started writing and recording songs for the follow-up album. During this time Switchfoot began undergoing some criticism from Christian circles that they'd sold out to Sony and weren't up front about their faith. The new album, Nothing Is Sound was released in September of 2005 and more criticism came. The album had a lot of darkness to it focusing on issues such as loneliness, contentment and worthiness. This was not a "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" type of album but it was fantastic. Something else occurred during the making of this album, Sony went and added a bunch of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to the CDs to try and prevent piracy. Although the album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard Album charts it quickly stalled out. A lot of folks blamed the band for the DRM issues but it wasn't their fault. The album did not live up to expectations and only sold a little over 500,000 and I believe this is when Sony started to sour on Switchfoot.
Article comments
1 - Mike
I don's get it, did Switchfoot leave Sony or did they get dropped? The announcement on their site kinda makes it sound like they left on their own, but common sense would say they got dropped, since bands rarely walk away from a major label and their lousy sales since The Beautiful Letdown would certainly warrent it from Sony's point of view.
Good post, by the way. This is the first time I've checked out this site and I'll probably be back now.
2 - Janet
Mike is right, this is an excellent post.
You made the comment "This was not a "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" type of album but it was fantastic." Perfectly said. I know that the majority seem to prefer "Beautiful Letdown", but for me, I can't get enough of either of them. In fact, I don't think I could put an order of preference on their CDs.
They have a very loyal fan base, (not in small part because they are loyal to fans) and I think they will do well.
3 - Emily
I think it was a mutual agreement between Switchfoot and Sony in cutting ties.
"The record companies have truly lost their way and it's up to the artists now." How true and unfortunate it is! You're right.
You know, Switchfoot will do great without Sony controlling them, and I can't wait to see what they come up with in the future.
Thanks for your post, loved it.
4 - Anonymous
"I don't believe Sony knew what to do with a band made up of five guys who are happily married, live clean and want to live for something more than money and fame."
Perfectly said. That was a great article. I am personally very glad that Switchfoot left Sony, and I think they'll be making much better music on their own. But I'm still curious as to whether Switchfoot left Sony, Sony dropped Switchfoot, or they both just agreed on it.
5 - Tim
The author here, it turns out I got a fact wrong. Oh! Gravity was released in December 2006 not September. Brain freeze!
6 - krys
switchfoot i believe are ones who left sony. thats at least what i gather from reading jon's blog about it. he mentioned something about how they had been trying to make it work for a while but sony had a different vision for the band than they did. i really think this will be great for them. in my opinion they always seemed way too restricted on sony. i can't wait to see what comes next from these guys now that they are in complete control.
7 - cleveland
jon's solo albums are amazing. i think the freedom that comes with turning indie is only going to help the band -- maybe not in sales, but in the quality and sincerity of their music...which is great motivation for loyal fans like me to go out and buy everything they release.