Idol Chatter & Voice Views

When I interviewed Ruben Studdard a couple of months ago, he said artists were struggling with ways to combat lagging album sales.

Apparently, a growing trend is to release multiple versions of the same album, with different bonus tracks on each one. That way, hardcore fans have to buy multiple CDs or downloads to get all of an artist’s new music.

Ruben did it with his new album, “Love Is,” with different versions available through iTunes, Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.com. Check it out. The only way you get the bonus songs is to buy the entire album, over and over.

Looked like Daughtry was going to try the same ploy with its second album.

But maybe not. The band posted a notice last week clarifying the fact that most of its bonus material will be available a la carte.

In other words, you won’t have to buy a full CD to get the bonus songs. Nice touch, guys.

Apparently, there will be several versions of “Leave This Town,” set for release July 14.

The digital deluxe album available online will include the bonus tracks “Still You On the Inside” and “What We Have Become.” The iTunes version will have the bonus track “Traffic Light.” The Wal-Mart version will include “Get Me Through.”

Target will offer a bonus version with six videos, including the band’s latest hit, “No Surprise.” And the version available through the band’s Web site will include “Long Way” and “One Last Chance” as bonus tracks.

That’s an awful lot of different versions of the same album, but I somehow doubt Daughtry fans will mind.

The only bonus song not mentioned as being available a la carte is the iTunes bonus track, “Traffic Light.”

Here’s a link to the track list for all the versions.

The band has also released a list of August tour dates. Nothing local so far.