Country Billboard Chart News July 3, 2014

Country Billboard Chart News July 3, 2014

In Brief:  Billboard Country Charts

Country Album Chart ** No. 1 (3 weeks; non consecutive) “Platinum” Miranda Lambert

Hot Country Songs ** No.1 (1 week) ** “Somethin’ Bad”  Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood

Country Airplay ** No.1 (1 week) ** “My Eyes” Blake Shelton (featuring Gwen Sebastian)

Country Digital Songs ** No.1 ** (1 week) “American Kids” Kenny Chesney

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 12, 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

Suffolk UK singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran earned his first No.1 album on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart (BB200), as "x" opened with 208,974 sales in the week ending June 29, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The set is Sheeran's second full-length effort, and was released June 23 through Atlantic Records.

Sheeran logged his best sales week, the largest debut for a pop album this year and the fourth-biggest opening overall in 2014.

He trailed only the arrivals of Coldplay's "Ghost Stories" (383,000), Eric Church's "The Outsiders" (287,668) and Brantley Gilbert's "Just As I Am" (211,288).

Britain's Got Talent!

Among pop sets, the last to open bigger was UK boy band One Direction's "Midnight Memories," with 546,000 sold in the week ending Dec. 1, 2013. Sheeran also claimed the largest sales week for a British male artist in nearly 10 years. The last time such an artist earned a bigger week was when Rod Stewart's "Stardust … The Great American Songbook Vol. III" debuted at No. 1 with 240,000 sold in the week ending Oct. 24, 2004.

Sheeran's "x" follows his first album, "+," which debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, selling 42,000 in its first week. It has sold 841,000 total. With Sheeran and Sam Smith's IN THE LONELY HOUR (66,889 copies sold) at Nos.1 and 2, the Billboard 200's top two rungs are occupied by British soloists for the first time in more than 20 years. That last happened in March 1993, when Eric Clapton’s Unplugged and Sting's Ten Summoner’s Tales achieved the feat.

Sheeran's sophomore album, x, also marked the first British male solo artist to send an album to #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K. in more than 20 years. The last to do it was Eric Clapton, who scored with From The Cradle in September 1994 (when Sheeran was just three years old).

Seven other British male solo artists have sent albums to #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K. Elton John (Don’t Shoot Me—I’m Only The Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou and Greatest Hits), John Lennon and Phil Collins have each had two transatlantic #1 albums. George Harrison, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney and George Michael have each had one.

Sheeran has worked and recorded with Taylor Swift (” Everything Has Changed”) and was her North American tourmate/ guest on the RED tour which included 58 shows in 45 cities and he was her special guest for her first night at the O2 Arena in London, England. Ed has said he would one day consider a country career, according to an interview with Yahoo! Music. The singer-songwriter famous for songs like ‘The A Team’ and ‘Lego House’, said that he wouldn’t rule it out in the future. “Country music is some of the best-written music in the world, so yeah, one day, I would keep my mind open to doing a country record. … ”

Miranda Lambert returned to the summit of Billboard Top Country Albums with her fifth album, PLATINUM, which rebounded 2-1 (falling 6-8 on the Billboard 200) in her fourth chart frame (29,000 sold, down 15%) after spending its first two frames at No.1, it has sold 305,000 so far.

Lambert is the first female artist to dominate Hot Country Songs and Top Country Albums simultaneously since Taylor Swift doubled up with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and RED, respectively, on Jan. 12, 2013.

“Platinum” is the first album by a female artist to top the country chart for three or more weeks since Taylor's Red logged 16 weeks on top in late 2012 and early 2013.

In his second week on the chart Willie Nelson with BAND OF BROTHERS fell 5-23 on the BB200 (1-4 Country) selling 11,000 copies (down 70%) .

Brantley Gilbert's JUST AS I AM slipped 10-12 on the BB200 but climbed back to No.2 Country (412,000 copies sold in 6weeks).

The Rural Rapper and A&E TV star Big Smo remained solid on the chart with KUNTRY LIVIN’ at No.9 Country (39-48 BB200) with  over 30,000 sales in the first 4 weeks.

Outside The Top 25 albums saw another country rapper Bubba Sparxxx with MADE ON MCCOSH MILL RD make a debut at No.48. Watch the >> title cut and May 2014 single ft. Danny Boone. Sparxxx is widely known across the country for his 2005 hit with the Ying Yang Twins “Ms. New Booty” (#3 Billboard Rap, #7 Hot 100) which was certified Gold. With this new album (affectionately titled after the area in GA that holds a key to the heart of his childhood memories.) it is a paradisiacal blend of Southern Rap and Country. There are collaborations from Danny Boone, D-Thrash of Jawga Boys, Redneck Souljers, Demun Jones and country newcomer JJ Lawhorn.

Allmusic (Rating: 3.5 STARS) Hip-hop has this format called the "street release," something that falls between a mixtape and album in terms of structure, size, and importance. They're

often aimed at the hardcore fan, and often offer underground thrills you just can't get from the official-official, so if the strain of rap known as hick-hop has something akin -- like a "backroads release" -- then rapper Bubba Sparxxx's 2014 effort Made on McCosh Mill Road is kin, and audiences can react accordingly... With Rehab member Danny Boone on the assist, the opening title track is a statement of purpose for this shorter, sharper effort, as "I'm talkin' 'bout cold beer, I'm talkin' 'bout a hot country girl/I'm talkin' 'bout John Deere, I'm talkin' 'bout my big cousin Earl" crack the seal on a party-keg worth of country rap....It's rootin', tootin' fun, as is the comedic rave-up "Good Day" ("My dog eats cow turds, it could always be worse/He could like my turds, end up in the toilet teeth first") and the sunshine-bright, Southern embrace called "Better Be Country" ("I got another one in West Hollywood/I love her tho, she act more Dollywood!").... A proud ballad and a heartfelt number slow it up, but otherwise, the release is the party flipside of his aptly titled 2013 release Pain Management, driven by that drunken-days-are-here-again bounce and some banjo-twangin', booty-lovin' examples of dumb fun.

Of note Mary Gauthier with TROUBLE & LOVE (which entered the UK Official Country chart at No.3) made a debut on Billboard Heatseeker Albums at No.31.

With 2014 half over, the soundtrack to Disney's "Frozen" leads as the year's biggest-selling album in America with 2,696,000 sales. The next biggest seller is Beyonce's self-titled set, with 702,000.

Eric Church's "The Outsiders" (#38 BB200, No7 Country) is the year's third largest selling album, with 642,000 sold in 20 weeks. It also tops the mid-year country albums list. Coming in at seven is Luke Bryan’s 2013 release Crash My Party (455,000 sold in 2014, 47 chart weeks), at No.13 is Brantley Gilbert Just As I Am" (412,000), No.14 Florida Georgia Line’s 2012 Here's To The Good Times (393,000 sold in 2014, 82 chart weeks) and Miranda Lambert’s 4 week release Platinum (305,000 sales) is the 20th best seller.

Music sales overall dropped 14% according to a recent Nielsen Report. This drop includes

both physical and digital sales of songs and albums. Even iTunes dropped by more than 10% according to the report. The big hit was CD sales dropping by nearly 20%. Who then survived? Streaming and the LP came out on top. In the first six months, streaming was up a clear 50% followed by LP sales up 40%. Streaming services are replacing radio and purchased media. Disposable and portable are in. The desire to have and to hold the music seems to be a dying trend. The listening fans just stream it when they want to hear it. There is no reason to purchase the music itself. The problem is that the purchases kept not only the artists but the labels and songwriters fed. Streaming royalty rates are no where near what physical media sales return.....The new listener isn't buying. That is a significant problem for the industry. Free is king but, free doesn't pay the creators of the music. Sales pay the creators. An entire generation grew up with the "music is free" model ....See more at: cybergrass.com

2014 Country Album sales Year-To Date:

15,302,000 (Physical sales 10,088,000 (down 9%) + Digital sales 5,214,000 (down 13.0%)) which is 21.7% down at the same point in 2013 (19,544,000 sales)

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Placings

(Issue dated Chart week of July 12, 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 12, 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:

Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood vaulted 18-1 in its sixth week with top Streaming Gainer honours with “Somethin’ Bad” (19/Arista Nashville/RCA Nashville). The track also flew to the top of Country Streaming Songs (11-1) with a 506% gain to 4.2 million U.S. streams, according to Nielsen BDS, after its official video premiered June 26 (6.77 million YouTube views to date).

While streaming accounts for 50% of its Hot Country Songs chart points, “Bad” also gained in sales and airplay. It bounds 10-4 on Country Digital Songs (60,000 downloads sold, up 86%), marking its best rank and sales sum since it debuted atop the sales tally dated June 7 after Lambert and Underwood premiered the duet on the Billboard Music Awards (May 18). On Country Airplay, “Bad” bulleted at No.25 (15.4 million audience impressions, up 12% with 2,362 radio plays up 384). On the alternative Mediabase Country Airplay chart it moved 27-25 logging 2,364 radio spins (+500, 19.12 million audience impressions).

Somethin’ Bad” has been up and down the chart like a fiddlers rotten elbow! It first made Hot Shot Debut at No.5 (No.1 Country Digital) then plummeted to No.25 followed by a 13 place climb to No.12 (710,000 total U.S. streams, up 69%) then, 19, 18 and this week the two superstars hit the summit.

“Bad” is Underwood’s 13th Hot Country Songs No.1 and Lambert’s fifth. Two solo women teaming up for a Hot Country Songs #1  has happened only twice since Billboard launched its first multimetric-based country chart in October 1958: Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris led the May 16, 1987 list with “To Know Him Is to Love Him” and Reba McEntire and Linda Davis (the latter the mother of Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott) spent a week at No. 1 with “Does He Love You” (Nov. 6, 1993).

• Kenny Chesney charged 17-6 with “American Kids” (Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville), the chart’s top Digital Gainer. It roared 7-1 on Country Digital Songs (74,000, up 87%) after its first full week of retail availability. “Kids” is Chesney’s 45th Hot Country Songs top 10, pushing him past Tim McGraw (44) for the most among all acts since Chesney’s first week in the tier (June 24, 1995).

Top 25 Hot Country Songs:

Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood with “Somethin’ Bad” leaps up, #18 - #1 p

Jake Owen with “Beachin’” stays at #2

Luke Bryan with former #1 “Play It Again” falls two, #1 - #3 q

Florida Georgia Line feat Luke Bryan with former #1 “This Is How Me Roll” fell, #3 - #4 q

Dierks Bentley with “Drunk On A Plane” held at #5

Kenny Chesney with “American Kids” jumps up eleven, #17 - #6 p

Blake Shelton featuring Gwen Sebastion with “My Eyes” slips three, #4 - #7 q

Lady Antebellum with “Bartender” drops two, #6 - #8 p

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

Joe Nichols with “Yeah” is down one, #9 - #10 q

Chris Young with “Who I Am With You” retreats three, #8 - #11 q

Tyler Farr with “Whiskey In My Water” is down one, #11 - #12 q

Tim McGraw feat Faith Hill with “Meanwhile Back At Mama’s” is up, #16 - #13 p

Brad Paisley with “River Bank” floats down two, #12 - #14 q

Billy Currington with “We Are Tonight” drops two, #13 - #15 q

Dustin Lynch with “Where It’s At” (Yep, Yep) is down two, #14 - #16 q

Craig Campbell with “Keep Them Kisses Comin’” slips two, #15 - #17 q

Chase Rice with “Ready Set Roll” climbs one, #19 - #18 p

Eric Paslay with “Song About A Girl” rises three, #22 - #19 p

The Band Perry with “Chainsaw” stays at #20

Brantley Gilbert with “Small Town Throwdown” is up two, #23 - #21 p

Cole Swindell with “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight” climbs two, #24 - #22 p

Miranda Lambert with “Automatic” falls two, #21 - #23 q

Sam Hunt with “Leave The Night On” climbs two, #26 - #24 p

Eli Young Band with “Dust” stays at #25

Hot County Songs

** No.1 (1 week)/ Steaming Gainer ** “Somethin’ Bad” Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood

** Digital Gainer ** No.6 “American Kids” Kenny Chesney

** Airplay Gainer ** No.10 “Yeah” Joe Nichols

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.47 “Payback” Rascal Flatts

Debut No.49 “Tattoo” Hunter Hayes

 Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of July 12, 2014

Blake Shelton tied a much praised Country Airplay chart record, and extended another that he already owned, as “My Eyes” (featuring Gwen Sebastian) (Warner Bros./Warner Music Nashville) lifted 2-1 in its 12th week.

First released on April 14, 2014 the song written by Tommy Lee James, Josh Osborne and Andrew Dorff logged 48.459 million audience impressions (+3.334 million) and received 7,582 radio plays (+624) this chart frame.

With the advance, Shelton scored his fifth No.1 from his latest album, BASED ON A TRUE STORY …, tying Brad Paisley’s record for the most No. 1s from a single set. Shelton first led with the album’s first four singles: “Sure Be Cool If You Did” (two weeks at No.1), “Boys ’Round Here” (featuring Pistol Annies & Friends) (one week) and “Mine Would Be You” (three weeks), all in 2013, and “Doin’ What She Likes” (two weeks, beginning April 12, 2014). “Eyes” is Shelton’s 17th No.1 overall.

Paisley established the mark with five Country Airplay leaders from his aptly titled 5th Gear in 2007-08: “Ticks,” “Online,” “Letter to Me,” “I’m Still a Guy” and carry over track from previous set “Waitin’ on a Woman.” (He approaches the top 10 this week with latest single “River Bank” (Arista Nashville), which climbed 12-11.

Shelton also extended his mark for the most consecutive No.1 singles in the 24-year history of Country Airplay, as “Eyes” becames his 12th straight leader (counting only promoted, non-seasonal singles). Shelton moves further ahead of Paisley, who logged 10 consecutive No.1s (including the five from 5th Gear) in 2005-09.

Shelton’s streak began with “Hillbilly Bone” (featuring Trace Adkins).

The 12-week ascent to No.1 for “Eyes” ties for Shelton’s third-quickest climb to the top. “Honey Bee” flew to No.1 in 10 weeks (2011) and “Cool” needed 11 (2013); “Boys” also took a 12-week route to No.1.

Meanwhile, Gwen Sebastian celebrates her first Country Airplay No.1. In her lone prior visit, she peaked at No.58 with “Met Him in a Motel Room” in 2012. She competed on the second season of The Voice that year and has toured with Shelton and his wife, Miranda Lambert. She is the first contestant from The Voice connected to a Airplay chart topping hit although Cassadee Pope scored a Country Digital Song No.1.

Top contributors for Shelton’s latest leader during the tracking week ending June 29 were KKBQ Houston (1.7 million audience impressions), WUSN Chicago (1.5 million), KKGO Los Angeles (1.2 million) and KPLX Dallas (1.1 million).

• The Band Perry notched its eighth Country Airplay top 10 (all in a row), as “Chainsaw” (Republic Nashville) buzzed 11-10 in its 19th week. It’s the fourth top 10 from the sibling trio’s sophomore full-length album, PIONEER, following the No.1s “Better Dig Two” and “Done.” (2013) and “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely,” which peaked at No.2 in Feb, 2014.
• Kenny Chesney with “American Kids” took home both “Most Increased Audience” and “Most Added” honours for a second successive week logging 17.931 million audience impressions, a gain of +5.067 million and received 2,409 radio plays (+1,072) thanks to 48 fresh radio commitments (ADDS)
• Thompson Square with “I Can’t Outrun You” (Stoney Creek) snagged the “Hot Shot Debut” trophy at No.59 with 139 new radio spins.

Women of Country 2014 Watch:

There were no solo female artists on the Top 30 Country Airplay songs after Miranda Lambert’s "Automatic" (last week No.16) was pulled by RCA Nashville allowing country radio to focus on her “Somethin’ Bad” duet with Carrie Underwood which climbed 26-25. 

Cassadee Pope #34, Kacey Musgraves #42, Jana Kramer #47, Danielle Bradbery #53 and Sheryl Crow #56 were the five solo females in the remaining 31-60 slots, to make it just 8.3% of the entire Top 60 chart. This lack of solo females on the Top 30 placings was also mirrored on the Mediabase Country Aircheck chart. Their data is based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio and used on many popular radio countdown shows.  Mediabase is a division of Clear Channel Communications, Inc.

Country Airplay

*** No.1 (1 week) *** "My Eyes” Blake Shelton feat. Gwen Sebastian

** Most Increased Audience/ Most Added  ** No.20 “American Kids” Kenny Chesney

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.59 “I Can’t Outrun You” Thompson Square

Debut No.60 “Trailer Hitch” Kristian Bush  

Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of July 12, 2014

Kenny Chesney with "American Kids," had the chart's top Digital Gainer as it roared 7-1 seling 74,000 copies, up 87% following its first full week of retail availability. It also enters Country Streaming Songs at No.14 (624,000, up 392%); its official clip premiered Monday (June 30), likely translating to even greater streaming gains next week.

Women Of Country Watch

Miranda Lambert with single "Automatic" at No.31 fell 5 places in its 19th chart frame so there were no solo female artists on the Top 30 placings and it was the ONLY solo female song on the Top 50!:

Miranda Lambert duet with Carrie Underwood and former #1 “Something Bad” rebounded 10-4 in its sixth week

Dropping off the Top 30:

26-31 Miranda Lambert “Automatic”    

30-34 Thomas Rhett “Get Me Some Of That”    

25-35 Brett Eldredge “Beat Of The Music”

Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music (published June 26, 2014)

 (LW) Last Week  (TW) This Week

*Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000^th

Country Aircheck/ Mediabase chart

Blake Shelton featuring Gwen Sebastian landed the No1 on Mediabase with “My Eyes” (Warner Bros./WMN) moving 2-1. The song logged 7,686 radio spins (+555) and 58.832 million audience impressions (+3.806 million) from 149 tracking stations for the tracking week June 22 to June 28, 2014 and published chart June 30th.

It’s congratulations to WMN SVP/Promotion Kevin Herring, VP/Promotion Kristen Williams, Dir./National Promotion Katie Bright and the entire Warner Music Nashville promotion team for nabbing this week’s #1 spot on the MEDIABASE Country singles chart with “My Eyes.” Shelton’s 17th career #1, which features Gwen Sebastian, is also his fifth consecutive chart-topping single from his CMA Album of the Year, BASED ON A TRUESTORY

Congratulations to Columbia Nashville’s VP/Promotion Norbert Nix, Dir./National’s David Friedman and Rj Meacham and the entire Columbia promo team for garnering 33 MEDIABASE Country adds on Kenny Chesney’s “American Kids.”

Those adds gave Chesney the "Most Added" title for the second week in a row. Bagels were due to be delivered to the Columbia offices (July 1st) to congratulate the staff on their achievement.

For a detailed report check out Country Aircheck Weekly Issue 403 - June 30, 2014 [PDF File]

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

Billboard Boxscores (Selective Country concerts)

Chart Week of July 12, 2014

Source: www.billboard.com/biz/current-boxscore

Taylor Swift has smashed the all-time revenue record for a single tour by a country artist with the final stats reported from her Red tour that played arenas and stadiums in four continents during a 15-month span.  According to Billboard’s Boxscore archives, the tour’s overall gross of $150 million surpasses the prior country artist record held by double-billed Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Soul2Soul tour that brought in $141 million during 2006 and 2007. She performed in London and Berlin in February to kick off the tour’s 2014 schedule, and the final trek covered six cities in Asia, beginning with a May 30 performance in Shanghai and ending on June 12 with a final concert in Singapore.  The Red tour’s final box office counts total $150,184,971 in revenue from 1,702,933 sold tickets at 86 performances in 12 countries. 

Read More at Billboard.com