Country Billboard Chart News July 17, 2014

Country Billboard Chart News July 17, 2014

In Brief:  Billboard Country Charts

Country Album Chart ** No. 1 (5 weeks; non consecutive) “Platinum” Miranda Lambert

Hot Country Songs ** No.1 (1 week) **  “Dirt” Florida Georgia Line

Country Airplay ** No.1 (1 week) ** Yeah’“ Joe Nichols

Country Digital Songs ** No.1 ** (1 week) ** “Dirt” Florida Georgia Line

In this easy-to-use format discover where your favourite acts songs and album are charting across the four Billboard Country charts. It is prioritized by the first column showing the Hot Country Songs chart frame standings for the week of July 26, 2014.

There are also separate rows highlighting Women of Country music.

Scroll down for further details on each of the individual charts.

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart News

Singer-songwriter Sia nabbed her first No.1 album on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart (BB200) — and her best sales week ever — as "1000 Forms of Fear" made a debuts atop the list. The new album, released on Monkey Puzzle through RCA Records, sold 51,612 copies in the week ending July 13, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Miranda Lambert’s PLATINUM dropped 7-9 (20,000 sales, down 20%) on the BB200 and logged its fifth week at #1 on Billboard Top Country Albums. The album has spent more weeks atop the country chart than any other album so far this year. It surpassed Luke Bryan's CRASH MY PARTY, which spent four weeks at #1 in 2014 and this week went past the 2X Platinum 2 million mark in sales in its 48th week. It’s the country hunk’s second studio album in a row to top 2 million. TAILGATES & TANLINES also achieved the feat, though it took nearly twice as long (93 weeks) to hit the 2 million mark.

In his second week on the chart Colt Ford with THANKS FOR LISTENING fell 10-28 on the BB200 (2-5 Country) with sales down 55%.

Blackberry Smoke with LEAVE A SCAR - LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA (Double CD & DVD) made a debut at No.128 on the BB200 (#17 Country) selling 2,400 copies. It was released on July 8 via 3 Legged Records. (>>Watch Promo Video)

The DVD features a full length concert shot live in North Carolina as well as rare footage of the band at home. Also included are the band members giving an exclusive look at their time off the road, behind the scenes footage from the bus and band in commentary of how it all came together, and special bonus features including the making of "Yesterday's Wine" which was recorded by Blackberry Smoke, George Jones, and Jamey Johnson, as well as talking movies and moonshine. The CD features a full length high energy concert recorded live in North Carolina. Included are fan favorites and a previously unrecorded, brand new song, "Payback's a Bitch."

 ‘Leave a Scar: Live in North Carolina’ is the band’s first-ever live album, capturing their trademark mix of gospel, bluegrass, rock, soul and Outlaw country. The track listing includes fan favorites like ‘Good One Comin’ On,’ ‘Testify,’ ‘Ain’t Got the Blues’ and ‘Leave a Scar.’

The accompanying DVD features bonus footage of the band at home, as well as the making of ‘Yesterday’s Wine,’ which the group recorded with George Jones and Jamey Johnson. “We’ve wanted to make a live album for as long as I can remember,” says lead singer Charlie Starr. “I think we really captured the essence of our show and the accompanying DVD gives fans a little more insight into life behind the scenes.”

“The audience adds an extra rush of energy at shows, that is not present on studio recordings,” adds drummer Brit Turner. “We are so excited to have captured this especially remarkable show in Carolina

It is available for pre-order on Amazon UK and UK iTunes and currently available at Amazon.com.

Outside the top 25 country albums chart saw Multi-platinum-selling country group Blackhawk, who signed with Loud & Proud Records, and released their first studio album released in 12 years titled BROTHERS OF THE SOUTHLAND debut at #44 Country.

The band (guitarist/vocalist Henry Paul and keyboardist/vocalist Dave Robbins) co-produced the album with Dale Oliver (Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman), and released the record July 8th, 2014. 

“Brothers of the Southland is the product of BlackHawk’s evolution,” says Loud & Proud Owner & President Tom Lipsky. ”It represents the band through the years and their many hits, the adversity they faced and Henry and Dave’s decision to continue their musical journey together.

USA TODAY: Premiere: BlackHawk's 'Brothers of the Southland'

15 Tracks/ Time: 59:59 CD - MP3 - Amazon.com

Overall album music sales in the past week (ending July 13) totaled 4,046,000 million units (1,760,000 Digital albums + 2,286,000 albums were CD/ Vinyl/ Cassette albums). That’s the lowest weekly sum in the Nielsen SoundScan era which began tracking sales data for Nielsen on March 1, 1991. Weekly sales volume didn’t slip below 5 million until May 2010, when sales dipped to 4.9 million.

People are still buying albums -- millions of them each week -- but new releases are accounting for a smaller percentage of those sales. Looking at the last five years of album sales, current release sales have fallen 38.1% while catalog sales have dropped 22.4%, according to Billboard analysis of Nielsen SoundScan. This disparity in rates of decline has meant catalog sales account for a greater share of total sales than five years ago.

• Albums are increasingly the domain of older songs by older artists.
• Tracks are increasingly the domain of new songs by younger artists.

These trends have dollar-and-cents implications. Much of the conversation about album sales revolves around new releases and the ability of labels -- especially smaller labels -- to recoup their investments. The statement "It's more difficult to put out new albums because album sales have dropped 31% in the last five years" is factually wrong. It's worse: new album sales have fallen 38%, not 31%. In other words, it's harder than you might think to recoup expenses through album sales (Source Billboard )

  

2014 Country Album sales Year-To Date:

16,347,000 (Physical sales 10,794,000 (down 9%) + Digital sales 5,553,000 (down -12.8%)) which is 21.3% down at the same point in 2013 (20,781,000 sales)

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Placings

(Issue dated Chart week of July 26, 2014)

(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 26, 2014)

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, (tracked by Nielsen BDS from such services as Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and Xbox Music, among others) according to BDS it results in:

• Florida Georgia Line with “Dirt” (Republic Nashville) rocketed 40-1 and made the biggest vault to No.1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart since the list’s ranking method switched from covering core country radio audience to a sales/airplay/streaming hybrid almost two years ago. The midtempo track, FGL’s fourth Hot Country Songs No. 1, surpassed the 35-1 leap that Luke Bryan’s “That’s My Kind of Night” took last summer (Aug. 31, 2013). The lead single from the duo’s arrived atop Country Digital Songs with 182,929 first-week downloads sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It also made a bow at No.1 on Country Streaming Songs with 2.2 million U.S. streams (74% from Vevo on YouTube). “Dirt” added Airplay Gainer stripes with 18.8 million audience impressions stormings Billboard Country Airplay at No.16 which marked the act’s highest career launch. Following party anthems like “Cruise” and “This Is How We Roll,” “I think it’s a good move for Florida Georgia Line to come back with more of a ballad,” says B-Dub, assistant PD/music director of KUPL Portland, Ore. “It shows maturity and diversity as artists. Listener reaction has been great so far.”
• Keith Urban drew Hot Shot Debut applause at No.42 with “Somewhere in My Car” (Hit Red/Capitol Nashville) as his FUSE album spiked 28-20 on Top Country Albums (2,000 sold, up 30%). “Car” is the fourth single from Fuse, preceded by “Cop Car,” which peaked at No. 4 on Hot Country Songs in March 2014. Second single “We Were Us” (with Miranda Lambert) spent three weeks at No.1 in the Autumn of 2013.

Top 25 Hot Country Songs:

Florida Georgia Line with “Dirt” enters the chart at #1 NEW

Kenny Chesney with “American Kids” stays at #2

Dierks Bentley with “Drunk On A Plane” stays at #3

Jake Owen with former #1 “Beachin’” falls three, #1 - #4 q

Lady Antebellum with “Bartender” is up two, #7 - #5 p

Florida Georgia Line feat Luke Bryan with former #1 “This Is How Me Roll” fell, #5 - #6 q

Lee Brice with “I Don’t Dance” climbs two, #9 - #7 p

Joe Nichols with “Yeah” sticks are #8

Luke Bryan with former #1 “Play It Again” falls five, #4 - #9 q

Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood with former No1 “Somethin’ Bad” falls, #6 - #10 q

Chris Young with “Who I Am With You” stays at #11

Tyler Farr with “Whiskey In My Water” is a non-mover at #12

Brad Paisley with “River Bank” levels at #13

Blake Shelton featuring Gwen Sebastion with “My Eyes” slips four, #10 - #14 q

Tim McGraw feat Faith Hill with “Meanwhile Back At Mama’s” is down, #14 - #15 q

Billy Currington with “We Are Tonight” is down one, #15 - #16 q

Sam Hunt with “Leave The Night On” rises two, #19 - #17 p

Dustin Lynch with “Where It’s At” (Yep, Yep) slips two, #16 - #18 q

Chase Rice with “Ready Set Roll” is down two, #17 - #19 q

Eric Paslay with “Song About A Girl” is down two, #18 - #20 q

Cole Swindell with “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight” is up, #22 - #21 p

Brantley Gilbert with “Small Town Throwdown” falls, #21 - #22 q

The Band Perry with “Chainsaw” is down three, #20 - #23 q

Eli Young Band with “Dust” is up one, #25 - #24 p

Frankie Ballard with “Sunshine & Whiskey” lifts one, #26 - #25 p

Hot County Songs

** No.1 (1 week)/ Airplay Gainer ** “Dirt” Florida Georgia Line

** Digital Gainer ** No.17 “Leave The Night On” Sam Hunt

** Streaming Gainer ** No.34 “Feelin’ It” Scotty McCreery

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.42 “Somewhere In My Car” Keith Urban

Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of July 26, 2014

Joe Nichols nabbed his fifth career leader and completed his first set of two straight No.1s on Billboard’s Country Airplay tally, as “Yeah” (Red Bow) vaulted 5-1 in its 27th chart week.

The song written by Ashley Gorley and Bryan Simpson was first released on January 27, 2014 as Joe’s second single from his eighth studio album, CRICKETS.

In the tracking week July 7-13 the song logged 44.798 million audience impressions (+3.771 million) and received 6,898 radio plays (+538)

The new leader follows “Sunny and 75,” which capped the Dec.14, 2013 list. Previously, Nichols’ quickest return to the summit spanned 33 months between his first and second leaders: “Brokenheartsville” (March 29, 2003) and “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” (Dec. 17, 2005). He scored his third No. 1 when “Gimmie That Girl” spent the first of two weeks at No. 1 on May 8, 2010. Nichols’ 5-1 jump with “Yeah” is the biggest chart-topping leap in almost a year: Randy Houser’s “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” bounded 5-1 on the Aug. 10, 2013 chart.

Top local audience tallies for “Yeah”: KKBQ Houston (1.7 million impressions), WNSH New York (1.1 million) and WUSN Chicago (1.1 million).

• Tim McGraw and Faith Hill padded out their respective top 10 counts on Country Airplay with “Meanwhile, Back at Mama’s” (Big Machine), which stepped 11-10, marking McGraw’s 51st top 10 and Hill’s 23rd. Dating to the chart’s Jan. 20, 1990 start, McGraw ties Alan Jackson for the second-most top 10s; George Strait leads with 61. Among women, Hill trails only Reba McEntire (36 top 10s). “Meanwhile” is McGraw and Hill’s fifth top 10 duet. Faith last reached the region on her own with “Sunshine and Summertime,” which peaked at No. 7 on Sept. 2, 2006.
• Florida Georgia Line set a career-high bow on Country Airplay, as “Dirt” (Republic Nashville) debuted with Hot Shot Debut stripes at No.16 — the chart’s highest launch this year. The duo’s previous best start was No.45 with previous single “This Is How We Roll” (featuring Luke Bryan) (Feb. 1). The song logged 18.768 million new audience impressions at 121 of the 145 stations monitored for the chart, receiving 2,193  radio plays thanks to 92 fresh radio commitments (ADDS) as “Dirt” cleaned up also bagging Most Increased Audience and Most Added honours. The track is the lead single from the pair’s sophomore studio album, due out this Autumn. The twosome premiered the song on July 8 on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and performed it the following day on ABC’s Live! With Kelly and Michael.

Women of Country 2014 Watch:

There were no solo female artists on the Top 30 Country Airplay songs Miranda Lamberts’ duet with Carrie Underwood Somethin’ Bad” held at No.21 

Cassadee Pope #33, Kacey Musgraves #41, Jana Kramer #43, Danielle Bradbery #50, Sheryl Crow #51 and RaeLynn #53 were the six solo females in the remaining 31-60 slots, to make it just 10.0% of the entire Top 60 chart.

Country Airplay

*** No. 1 (1 week)*** "Yeah" Joe Nichols

** Hot Shot Debut/ Most Inreased Audience/ Most Added ** No.16 "Dirt" Florida Georgia Line

Debut No.56 "Mean To Me" Brett Eldredge

Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of July 26, 2014

Florida Georgia Line with "Dirt" (Republic Nadhville/ BLMG) secured the Country Digital Chart Hot Shot Debut coming straight in at No.1 and No.2 on all genre Digital Songs selling 182,929 downloads in their first week.

That's the largest sales week for a country digital song in a year, since Florida Georgia Line's own "Cruise" sold 193,000 downloads in the week ending July 7, 2013. "Dirt" tallies the biggest debut for a country song since the week ending Oct. 7, 2012 when Taylor Swift's "Red" started with 312,000.

Additionally, “Dirt” scored the #1 spot on both the all genre Digital Songs and Country charts in Canada. The lead track from their forthcoming sophomore album on Republic Nashville shot to #1 on both the iTunes all genre and Country charts in the US and Canada, while also sitting atop the Country chart in Australia shortly after release.

"’Dirt’ is arguably the country duo's most sentimental — and definitely the most traditional — song to date. It connects dirt with everything from birth to death to falling in love...” Rolling Stone

“Country music's party boys start thinking about settling down […] a plot of land tugs hard on Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley’s souls in this pensive ballad…” USA TODAY (“Song of the Week”)

Dierks Bentley’s “Drunk On A Plane” has now hit GOLD certification. It shifted another 66,000 copies to scan well past the 500,000 mark with a new 11-week total of 555,000.

Sam Hunt’s “Leave The Night On” moved 14-10 having sold 110,000 copies in the first 4 weeks on the chart.

Women Of Country Watch

There were no solo female artists on the Top 30 placings as Raelynn fell off the chat from her first week No.22 debut.

Miranda Lambert’s “Automatic” a non mover at No.34 is the ONLY solo female song on the Top 50!

Dropping off the Top 30:

17 - Off the Top 50 chart Lee Greenwood “God Bless The USA”

22 - Off the Top 50 chart Raelynn  “God Made Girls”

30-31 Justin Moore “Lettin’ The Night Roll”

Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music (published July 17, 2014)

 (LW) Last Week (TW) This Week

*Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000^th

Country Aircheck/ Mediabase chart

Tyler Farr landed the No1 on Mediabase with “Whiskey In My Water’” (Columbia) which moved 4-1. The song logged 7,352 radio spins (+550) and 55.177 million audience impressions (+3.227 million) from 149 tracking stations for the tracking week July 6 to July 12, 2014 and published chart July 14th.

Congratulations to Columbia Nashville’s VP/Promotion Norbert Nix, Dir./National’s David Friedman and RJ Meacham and the entire Columbia promo team for scoring the week’s #1 spot on the MEDIABASE Country singles chart with Tyler Farr’s "Whiskey In My Water." This is Farr's second consecutive chart-topper, following "Redneck Crazy," which went #1 in October 2013.

Congratulations to Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) EVP Jimmy Harnen, Republic Nashville VP/Promotion Matthew Hargis, and the entire Republic Nashville promotions team for earning 127 MEDIABASE Country adds with Florida Georgia Line's (FGL) "Dirt." Those adds give FGL the "Most Added" title for the week The song now holds the record for the highest-ever one-week add total at Country radio, breaking the record previously set by Taylor Swift in August 2012 when she earned 116 adds for "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" from her RED album

Bagels were due to be delivered to the Republic Nashville offices (July 15th) to congratulate the staff on their achievement.

For a detailed report check out Country Aircheck Weekly Issue 405 - July 14, 2014 [PDF File]

For the very latest up to the minute Mediabase Chart (Past 7 Days) go here - www.mediabase.com