Latest news with #DanielPowter
Daily Record
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Singer's life spiralled into cocaine, booze and loneliness after massive noughties hit single
Daniel Powter's hit Bad Day was the anthem of 2005 - but the Canadian singer's life spiralled out of control in the years that followed as he battled addiction and personal turmoil Bad Day, the track that had everyone humming along and became an early 2000s pop culture staple, was the creation of Canadian singer Daniel Powter. It dominated the airwaves in 2005, claiming the number one spot on the US Billboard Hot 100, securing second place in the UK charts, and became intertwined with American Idol's elimination rounds. However, the swift ascent to fame brought Daniel Powter struggles marked by addiction, loneliness, and inner conflict. Interestingly, Bad Day was recorded years prior, in 2002, yet was initially rejected by record labels. The turning point occurred when the tune featured in a French Coca-Cola commercial in 2004, leading Warner Bros. to snap him up. Upon releasing his self-titled album, Powter enjoyed over a million sales globally, but subsequent singles didn't achieve the same impact, reports the Mirror US. His second single in the UK, Free Loop, suffered charting complications due to the inclusion of Bad Day as the B-side, inhibiting its potential popularity. By 2008, Powter's follow-up album Under the Radar regrettably didn't live up to expectations, and his presence in the music scene dwindled. The weight of sudden fame was burdensome. "It was very lonely and I felt isolated," he admitted to Metro in 2012. "I was travelling and spending all my life alone in hotel rooms. You don't always meet people with the best of intentions in the music business... It was quite dark. Some people deal well with it and I didn't." Powter succumbed to substance abuse; alcohol and cocaine became destructive companions. "I became a slave to it and ended up managing my life around it," he confessed. What began as a mere escape from pain soon escalated to full-blown addiction. "It wasn't a problem for the first year and a half, but as the years went by it got worse until I couldn't remember what was happening", he revealed. After a long struggle with substance abuse, he achieved sobriety in 2010. Sobriety might have brought him face-to-face with stark realities, yet it also offered tranquility. Sharing his newfound sense of time, he mentioned: "The strange thing is how much time you have in your life when you stop." He added: "You don't have to spend time worrying about who you've been lying to. I suddenly had hours in the day where I wasn't messed up." While his marriage succumbed to the turbulent years, Powter eventually made his way back to the realm of music. In 2010, he crafted a Best of Me compilation, followed by the release of his fourth studio album Turn on the Lights in 2012, which reached a modest peak at No. 109 in the UK charts. In 2018, Powter stepped out with fresh singles such as Do You Wanna Get Lucky, Survivor, and a reimagined Perfect for Me specifically targeting the Asian audience. These tracks culminated in the December 14 unveiling of Giants, an eclectic mix featuring new melodies like Delicious and rejuvenated renditions of early hits like Bad Day and Free Loop. The collection also boasted a festive remix of Do You Wanna Get Lucky. Despite not reaching the commercial success of his first album, Giants revealed a more down-to-earth and personal artist. In 2020, he collaborated with Chinese pop band The Untamed Boys on Just Isn't Me, performing it - along with Bad Day - during a tour stop in Bangkok. That same year, he participated in the MOSHIMO Project, and in 2021, he was featured in Save Your Life, a duet with Japanese pop singer Ayaka Hirahara. In 2024, Powter made an unexpected comeback to Canadian television when he auditioned for Season 4 of Canada's Got Talent - marking his first significant televised appearance in his homeland. Today, Daniel Powter resides with his wife Christina in Portland, Oregon. He is a father to three children - two daughters and a son - and expresses that he now appreciates life away from the public eye. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
$6 million cost Coles and Woolworths pay that Aldi refuses to cave on
Shopping through the aisles of Aldi, Coles and Woolworths is largely the same experience. While the products and shelves might look slightly different depending on the supermarket of your choice, it's still the same act of pushing your cart, picking an item, and finding the next on your list. However, there's one big difference that you might or might not have thought of: music. Aldi doesn't have Daniel Powter's 'Bad Day' or Endoor's 'Pump It Up' playing over the speakers and a spokesperson told Yahoo Finance there are no plans to change that any time soon. But what's wild is how much this actually costs supermarkets and what they get in return from it. Aldi beats out Coles, Woolworths to win best supermarket in 'unprecedented' move: 'Cheaper' Coles shopper 'flips out' after supermarket accusation as Aussies live with self-serve checkout lie Tax, HECS, Medicare: All the major cost-of-living relief coming for millions of Aussies If you're a business and you want to play music to your customers, you most likely will have to purchase a license to do so. Musicians and artists own the copyright to their content and businesses who try to get around the rules could be hit with copyright infringement. OneMusic licenses can be purchased from Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), with more than 100,000 businesses signed up. Last year, APRA AMCOS paid $132 million in royalties to artists purely from businesses playing their music.A spokesperson for APRA AMCOS told Yahoo Finance that the fee for a retailer like a supermarket is calculated on the floor space where the music is hear and the type of device they're using to broadcast the music. "[It] ranges from $97.72 a year in a small space with a radio playing to $6,045.06 a year for a large space where a digital music streaming service is being used to play music," they said. The group told Yahoo Finance that each Aldi supermarket would have to fork out around $230 to $1,600 per year depending on how big it is for a license. While APRA AMCOS couldn't say how much Coles and Woolies spend each year on music licenses, they have around 850 and more than 1,100 locations, respectively. Imagine if each one paid the maximum, the two supermarkets would be forking out between $5,138,301 to $6,649,566 per year in total just to give you those sweet, sweet tunes while you peruse the aisles. You might think that paying $5-6 million a year to play music from open to close is a steep price. It's also a question of whether that annual cost filters down into how much you pay for your groceries. But tunes can actually play a really interesting role in the way you shop. A world-first study published this year found that music can cause an 8 per cent lift in customer spending at retail and a 5.4 per cent increase when dining out. Just as an example, Coles made $43.57 billion in revenue last year, while Woolworths pulled in $67.92 billion. An 8 per cent lift in revenue would equate to $3.48 billion for Coles, and $5.43 billion - no small chunk of change and blows that $5-6 million cost of playing music out of the water. But that also means the consumer ends up spending more without even realising. A study from the University of Bath in 2023 found that your grocery shop could end up being 10 per cent more expensive if you shopped from Monday to Thursday. 'During the week, people are short of time and many get their grocery shopping done after a full day at work,' Dr Carl-Philip Ahlbom, from the University's School of Management, said. 'Pleasant music appears to have a mentally soothing effect, which impacts the way people shop. At the weekend, people are essentially happier, and so the positive power of music is less noticeable. "In fact, playing music at the weekend may even mean people buy less, possibly because it's an additional stressor in an already busy environment.' But it's not just the day of the week that matters, but also the sound. Professor Adrian North did an experiment back in the 1990s at a university cafe. One day he played classical music, the next he played pop, and the third he played elevator music that didn't really stand out amongst the hustle and bustle of the busy cafe. While students responded most to the pop music, they ended up spending up to 20 per cent more when classical music was played. A separate study confirmed people are more likely to purchase luxury items when they hear classical music at the supermarket, but are more inclined to make practical purchases or "must-haves" if they hear country music. You can even push shoppers to certain products. Another bit of research found when French music was played, shoppers bought more French wine. When researchers played German music, more German wine was purchased. Interestingly, when the participants were asked why they chose that particular bottle, many were unaware of the music being played. A 1982 study in US supermarkets found if you play fast-paced music, shoppers tend to walk around the aisles faster than normal. The same was found when slower tracks belted out of the speakers, and they ended up spending more money. Here are some other wild stats: When music is played, 21 per cent of customers recommend the business to others 31 per cent of all people return to a store when music is played 90 per cent of people in the UK would select a shop playing music over one that was not 62 per cent of people are more likely to stay longer in a store that plays good music 14 per cent of people acknowledge they buy more when music is played, but they in fact buy 77 per cent more Catherine Giuliano, director of OneMusic, told Yahoo Finance that Aldi could be missing out by not playing songs at their supermarkets. 'Like many Australians, we would love to have music playing throughout the almost 600 strong Aldi network," she said. "In fact, we would love music playing in every venue. "The atmosphere created by music that makes customers return to a business, recommend to their friends and buy more is many multiples of the cost of a OneMusic licence." Aldi is already seen as the low-cost supermarket compared to the likes of Coles, Woolworths and IGA. So whether it wants to increase their revenue and squeeze shoppers of their cash is up to while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data
