Country Billboard Chart News July 4, 2013

Country Billboard Chart News July 4, 2013

R.I.A.A Certifications

Thompson Square - “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not” (2x Platinum)

The Grammy Awards nominated song was written by Jim Collins and David Lee Murphy and first released in July 12, 2010 by Stoney Creek making it to No.1 on Hot Country Songs.

The RIAA made some changes to their rules regarding certification of gold and platinum albums: “[S]ales of digital albums will become eligible for certification on their release date, instead of having to wait 30 days, as was previously required.

Sales of albums in physical format will still become eligible for certification 30 days after the release date. The 30-day rule exists to take into account potential returns of physical product – CDs, cassettes, vinyl, etc.—that could be shipped to brick and mortar retailers and returned.”

The RIAA says the re-examination of the digital album sales was prompted by the recent Jay-Z/Samsung promotion, in which the electronics company purchased one million digital copies of the rapper’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail” to give away to its customers. The deal stimulated industry conversation about the sale’s meaning and implications for the modern music business. Billboard did not count the one million units because they were free and therefore didn’t meet the $3.49 threshold.

In Brief:  Billboard Country Charts

Country Album Chart ** No. 1 (2 weeks) ** “Here’s To The Good Times” Florida Georgia Line  

Hot Country Songs ** No. 1 (18 weeks) ** “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

Country Airplay ** No. 1 (1 week) ** "Crash My Party" Luke Bryan   

Country Digital Songs ** No. 1 ** (19 weeks) “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart News

Rapper Wale claims his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart (BB200) this week, as his new release THE GIFTED debuts in the top position. The set sold 158,325 copies (Physical copies 63,686) in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Kanye West with “Yeezus” sold 64,501 copies and lost its grip at the top of the Billboard 200. This figures represent an 80.27% dip from the 327K units the record sold last week, therefore ranking West at fourth place among artists with #1 albums boasting the biggest second frame declines in SoundScan history (1991-present). Madonna’s MDNA which had a 86.70% second week dip on the chart April 21, 2012 (from 359K to 48K at #8) holds the first place.

Florida Georgia Line’s HERE’S TO THE GOOD TIMES rebounded from #8 to #6 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 30,805 (Physical copies 19,511 +  Digital albums 11,294 ), in its 30th week. This is its fifth week in the BB200 Top 10.

It returns to #1 on Top Country Albums for a second week, after being displaced last week by another red-hot debut album, Hunter Hayes’ Hunter Hayes which dropped to No.3.

“Here’s To The Good Times” is the first debut album to log two or more weeks at #1 on Top Country Albums since Scotty McCreery’s CLEAR AS DAY, which spent six weeks on top in 2011.

The Second Five: Florida Georgia Line’s Here’s To The Good Times rebounds from #8 to #6 (31K).

Blake Shelton with his BASED ON A TRUE STORY... album moved up to No.2 (#15 BB200). With total sales to date of 703,000 it’s the fourth US top-selling album of 2013. At #1 is Justin Timberlake (“The 20/20 Experience”; 2,037,000), #2 Bruno Mars (“Unorthodox Jukebox”; 985,000) and Mumford and Sons is at #3 (“Babel”;  884,000).

Taylor Swift's RED is the year's second best-selling country album so far, with 616,000 units sold. Although she released the album in Oct 2012 last year and it has sold 3,723,000  copies to date.

FGL’s “Here's to the Good Times”, also released in 2012, lands at No. 3 on the midyear list of top-selling country albums, with 610,000 units sold.

The Voice winner Danielle Bradbery last week’s Top 10 debut Complete Season 4 from fell down from 6-24 (19-102 BB200) . Digital sales were 4,017 (down 77%)  with a 2 week tally of 21,783.

Kenny Chesney with LIFE ON A ROCK held firm at No.9 with sales now in excess of 300K after 9 weeks at retail.

Just outside the Top 25 country slots at No.26 (No.129 BB200) is Alan Jackson with “Precious Memories: Volume II” . This week he became just the ninth artist to top 40 million in sales since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard. (This misses Jackson’s first year of success. Jackson’s debut album, Here In The Real World, hit the country and pop and charts in March 1990.) Jackson’s best-selling album is 1995’s The Greatest Hits Collection, which has sold 5,807,000 copies. How big is country music?

Four of the nine artists who have hit 40M in Nielsen SoundScan-era sales are country: Garth Brooks (68,634,00), George Strait (44,440,000) and Tim McGraw (41,599,000).

Billboard Top 200  Placings / Top 25 Country Albums

(Issue dated Chart week of July 13, 2013)

(Country Album positions #1 - #25)

(TW) This Week, (LW) Last Week, Co (Country Album Chart placing / Movement)

Top 25 Hot Country Songs (week of July 13, 2013)

On Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart - which blends:

a) All-format airplay, as monitored by BDS  b) Sales, as tracked by Nielsen SoundScan and

c) Streaming, according to BDS it results in:

Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” (Republic Nashville) logged a 18th week (over 49 chart weeks) (atop Hot Country Songs, the most for any title since Leroy Van Dyke’s “Walk On By” spent 19 weeks in the chart’s penthouse in 1961-62.

That’s seven weeks longer than the prior record for the most weeks among duos and four weeks shy of shattering the all-time record of 21 weeks atop the chart (held by Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow and Webb Pierce). The duo’s “Round Here”, in its 11th week on the chart earned the Digital Gainer nod on Hot Country Songs, where it jumps 21-17 in its 11th chart week (43,000 downloads sold, up 15%).

Brett Eldredge scored his first top 10 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs with “Don’t Ya” (Atlantic/Warner Music Nashville), which hopped 11-8 in its 21st chart week. The track also becomes Eldredge’s first top 10 in three attempts on Country Digital Songs, where it runs 11-9 in its 13th week on that chart, moving 50,000 downloads during the BDS tracking week. That’s the song’s best one-week sum, roughly 1,000 more than it sold during the previous period (June 17-23 tracking week).

Eli Young Band logged a career-high debut on Hot Country Songs, with “Drunk Last Night” (Republic Nashville), snaring the Hot Shot Debut at No. 23. The arrival surpasses the band’s previous best start with “Say Goodnight,” which opened at No. 49 last September.

That single peaked in February at No. 31 during a 24-week run on the chart. The group’s previous history on that list includes the No. 1 hits “Crazy Girl” (2011) and “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” (2012).

Instead of a drunk booty call, Eli Young Band’s “Drunk Last Night,” is a regret-filled, morning-after reflection on a late-night phone chat that ended with a guy in tears - “We set the bar high on these next set of songs, no pun intended, and we are thrilled to release our first single from those sessions ... the response has been huge out on the Kenny Chesney tour!” said Jon Jones, EYB bassist.

Listen to the track in full at Soundcloud

Top 25 Hot Country Songs:

Florida Georgia Line with “Cruise” stays Top The Chart #1

Blake Shelton with “Boys ‘Round Here” stays at #2

Hunter Hayes with “I Want Crazy” stays at  #3

Luke Bryan with “Crash My Party” is up one slot, #5 - #4  p

Darius Rucker  with former No.1 “Wagon Wheel” is down one, #4 - #5 q

Randy Houser with “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” is up one, #7 - #6  p

Tim McGraw & Taylor Swift with “Highway Don’t Care” is down one, #6 - #7  q

Brett Eldredge with “Don’t Ya” is up three, #11 - #8  p

Brad Paisley with “Beat This Summer” stays at #9

The Band Perry with “Done” is up two,  #12 - #10  p

Kip Moore with “Hey Pretty Girl” is up three places, #14 - #11  p

Carrie Underwood with “See You Again” is down three, #9 - #12   q

Jake Owen with “Anywhere With You” falls five, #8 - #13  q

Tyler Farr with “Redneck Crazy” is up one, #15 - #14 p

Zac Brown Band with “Jump Right In” is up one, #16 - #15  p

Florida Georgia Line with “Get Your Shine On” is down three, #13 - #16  q

Florida Georgia Line with “Round Here” moves up four, #21 - #17 p

Easton Corbin with “All Over The Road” is down one, #17 - #18  q

Keith Urban with “Little Bit Of Everything” is down one, #18 - #19  q

Miranda Lambert with “Mama’s Broken Heart” is down, #19 - #20  q

Billy Currington with “Hey Girl” is up four, #25 - #21 p

Brantley Gilbert with “More Than Miles” is up two slots, #24 - #22  p

Eli Young Band with “Drunk Last Night” debuts at #23  NEW

Thomas Rhett with “It Goes Like This” moves up, #28 - #24

Lady Antebellum with “Downtown” is down two slots,  #23 - #25  q

Hot Country Songs

** No.1 (18 weeks)/ Airplay Gainer &  Streaming Gainer  **  “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

** Hot Shot Debut **  No.23 “Drunk Last Night” Eli Young Band

Debut No.33 “Tie It Up” Kelly Clarkson

Debut No.36 “Drinks After Work” Toby Keith

Debut No.50 “The Booze Cruise” Blackjack Billy

Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of July 13, 2013

Luke Bryan crashed in atop the Billboard Country Chart with his latest single, “Crash My Party.” The song only took 12 weeks to reach the summit.

Luke has enjoyed watching the song move up the charts from week to week - “You never can anticipate a song climbing this fast, and it’s certainly fun to look at the charts every week and be like, ‘Omigosh!’” he said. “It’s hard to believe that a song can go up the charts that fast. You just say your blessings and be thankful that radio responded to it and fans love it that much. We knew the song was really, really special and good, and it was certainly the right thing to lead with off the new album.”

“Crash My Party” is the lead single from Luke’s new album, CRASH MY PARTY, set to drop on August 13.

First released on April 7, 2013 by Capitol Nashville the song is penned by Rodney Clawson and Ashley Gorley and produced by Jeff Stevens. Bryan was soon to debut the song at the ACM Music awards in April.

It made its bow at No.28 on the Country Airplay chart for the week of April 27, 2013.

It becomes Luke’s seventh Airplay leader and his quickest chart-topping climb as it stepped 2-1.

The Georgia native has consistently improved his pace to the summit, having most recently appeared there as a featured artist alongside Eric Church on Jason Aldean’s “The Only Way I Know,” which reigned in its 16th week on the chart dated Feb.16. That bettered Bryan’s previous best solo ascent, an 18-week climb to No. 1 with “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” which spent the first of two weeks at the summit on the Nov. 24, 2012, chart.

Bryan also spent two weeks at No. 1 a year ago with “Drunk on You,” which needed 19 weeks to peak. His first three Billboard Country Airplay leaders were “Rain Is a Good Thing” (27 weeks to No. 1 in July 2010), “Someone Else Calling You Baby” (29 weeks to No. 1 in February 2011)  and “I Don’t Want This Night to End” (20 weeks to No. 1 in February 2012).

“Crash My Party” drew a 43.752 million audience (+1.039), receiving 6,522 plays (+153)

Top local audience penetration during the June 24-30 Nielsen BDS tracking week is 1.3 million impressions at WUSN Chicago, followed by KKGO Los Angeles (1.2 million), WNSH New York (866,000), KPLX Dallas (853,000) and KEEY Minneapolis (829,000). Concurrently, Bryan’s track steps 2-1 on

Country Digital Songs, “Party” has risen as high as No. 2 (April 27 chart), and has sold roughly 900,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Watch the official video  , its available to download on US iTunes

Randy Houser scored his second straight top 10 (his third overall) with “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” (Stoney Creek), which gains 3.8 million impressions and hops 12-10 in its 20th chart week. That’s Houser’s fastest top 10 climb so far, one week quicker than “Boots On,” which reached the upper tier in its 21st week four summers ago. That track peaked at No. 2 seven weeks later (Sept. 12, 2009, chart). Houser’s new top 10 follows his lone chart-topper, “How Country Feels,” which crowned the Billboard Country Airplay list in its 39th chart week back in February.

Jason Aldean picked up both the “Most Increased Audience”, and “Most Added” trophies as “Night Train” (Broken Bow) flew 25-27 in its sixth chart week. (Due to unsolicited album play, the track spent its first three weeks on the lower end of the chart in February.) The title track from his fifth studio album gained 4.152 million impressions (8.088 million total impressions during the tracking week), with spins at 121 of the 134 panel stations. It received 1,340 radio plays (up by 720) thanks to 50 new airplay commitments (ADDS) .

The Hot Shot Debut cup went to Tim McGraw  with his new radio single "Southern Girl" which landed at No.57 with 78 fresh airplay spins.

Country Airplay

*** No. 1 (1 week) *** "Crash My Party" Luke Bryan

** Most Increased Audience / Most Added **  No. 27 "Night Train" Jason Aldean

** Hot Shot Debut ** No. 57 "Southern Girl" (Big Machine) Tim McGraw 

Debut No. 58 "Everybody's Got Somebody But Me" Hunter Hayes Feat. Jason Mraz

Debut No. 59 "Crazy" (Redneck)  Gretchen Wilson

Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of July 13, 2013

Florida Georgia Line  with “Cruise” dominates for an 19th cumulative week on Country Digital Songs. Sales of 204,106 were down 16% (55 week total 4,747,826) and it fell 2-3 on the all genre Digital Songs chart. FGL’s latest single “Round Here” entered the Top 10 (17-10) in its 6th week at retail.

“Cruise” with 3,112,000 sales so far in 2013 is the #7 US top-selling song of the year (#1 “Thrift Shop”, 5,558,000) Taylor Swift’s pop crossover “I Knew You Were Trouble” is #9 on the list with 2,455,000 sales.

Of note on the Digital Songs chart  Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop" saw a 30% increase in sales, jumping from No. 6 to No. 2 with 209,052 downloads (4 week total 676,744)

The top 4 country placings remained the same with Luke Bryan’s Airplay #1 “Crash My Party” moving into the top 5 (6-5) .

Randy Houser’s “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” moved up 9-6 and at 540,409 copies sold it passed the RIAA Gold certification eligibility.

The Eli Young Band made their bow at No.7 with their latest hit “Drunk Last Night” selling nearly 53,0000 copies.

Brett Eldredge broke into the Top 10 with “Don’t Ya” for the first time in his career.

Kelly Clarkson debutted with her single “Tie It Up” (see review) at No.18  (29,000 copies sold) and Toby Keith “Drinks After Work” landed at No.25 with digital sales of just over 20,000.

Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music (published July 3, 2013)

 (LW) Last Week  (TW) This Week 

 *Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000^th

Billboard Boxscores (Selective Country concerts)

Rank Artist: #6

Event Venue City/State:

Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Eli Young Band, Kacey Musgraves Heinz Field Pittsburgh, Pa.

Dates:  June 22, 2013 Gross Sales:  $3,693,793   Attend: 49,043 / 51,186

Capacity Shows: 1/0   Sellouts Prices: $225, $125, $59, $29

Promoters: The Messina Group/AEG Live   

Clean Up Bill? !!! Unknown see pittsburgh.cbslocal.com

Rank Artist: #217

Event Venue City/State:

Randy Rogers Band, Wade Bowen Knitting Factory Spokane, Wash.

Dates: May 4, 2013     Gross Sales:  $4,914    Attend: 378 / 1,420

Capacity Shows: 1/0   Sellouts Prices: $13, $8 Promoters: Knitting Factory Presents

Rank Artist: #222

Event Venue City/State: Blackberry Smoke Knitting Factory Spokane, Wash.

Dates:  Jan.13, 2013   Gross Sales: $4,590  Attend: 520 / 1,420

Capacity Shows: 1/0   Sellouts Prices: $13 Promoters: Knitting Factory Presents