Kelly Clarkson has been one of the most successful of the past American Idol Winners being totally accepted by the American music audience, her CD Albums are consistent top-sellers.
The music business is changing though, in the past the top artists Mariah Carey and groups like U2 have been able to sell millions of CD's of their latest releases. (Mariah Carey reportedly moved 5 million "Emancipation of Mimi" CD's.)
That maybe the last of the big sellers of physical product though, as downloads to personal players comes to be the method by which listeners build their personal "playlists".
There are still employment opportunities in the recording business as artists still need to work with recording engineers to further refine their tracks and smooth out the chord changes during the recording process, improving the singers and groups finished product.
Dan Weigleb is a recording engineer, as well as an accomplished singer and guiter-picker. He has written several songs, Crumbling Underneath "There must be a reason for going on..." is the fourth-one-down on the tune-selector at this link, no special "Media Player" needs to be downloaded, http://www.myspace.com/danweigleb