Country Billboard Chart News December 4, 2014

Country Billboard Chart News December 4, 2014

In Brief:  Billboard Country Charts

Country Album Chart ** No. 1 (3 weeks) “Man Against Machine” Garth Brooks

Hot Country Songs ** No.1 (1 week) ** “Shotgun Rider” Tim McGraw

Country Airplay ** No.1 (2 weeks) ** "Somewhere In My Car” Keith Urban

Country Digital Songs ** No.1 ** (1 week) ** “I Walk The Line” Craig Wayne Boyd

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 December 13, 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

The Billboard 200 chart now includes on-demand streaming and digital track sales data.

The newly refreshed Billboard Top 200 Album Chart (BB200) welcomed a familiar face back to No.1, as Taylor Swift's 1989 hopped back to the top slot (2-1) after a one-week vacation. This is the album's fourth non-consecutive week at No. 1.

The Billboard 200, which has long been a chart that ranked the most popular albums of the week based on pure album sales, now shifts its methodology to a multi-metric consumption model.

This is the most substantial update to the chart's methodology since May of 1991, when Billboard first used Nielsen's point-of-sale data — SoundScan — to measure album sales.

What we saw in this first week was a "consumption" chart with Release To Date (RTD) figures: Total album sales up to this point with this week's "sales equivalent units" tacked on. There were no total sales in the list.

• The ranking includes on-demand streaming and digital track sales, in addition to traditional album sales, all measured by Nielsen.

The new Billboard 200 chart uses accepted industry benchmarks for digital and streaming data:

• 10 digital track sales from an album is equivalent to one album sale
• 1,500 song streams from an album equates to one album sale. All of the major on-demand audio subscription services are considered, including Spotify, Beats Music, Google Play and Xbox Music.

Taylor’s return to No. 1 is powered by 339,000 Total Album Equivalent units in the week ending Nov. 30. Of that sum, the majority is pure album sales (281,000).

1989's album sales now stand at 2.5 million after five weeks on sale.

The album is also No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart, which maintains the old Billboard 200's methodology of ranking pure album sales.

Swift continues to ride high on the Digital Songs chart, where she has two songs in the top 10: "Blank Space" (holding at No. 1, with 342,000 downloads; up 13%) and "Shake It Off" (8-10 with 93,000; up 12%).

Taylor Swift Data:

This Weeks Sales: 339,276

% Change: 59

Last Weeks Sales: 213,744

Album Sales: 281,212

Song Sales: 580,406

Stream Sales: 36,265

The numbers for "Song Sales" & "Stream Sales" are the pure sales/streams so you have to divide them by the factor 10 (for sales) or 1500 (for streams).

580,406/10 = 58040.6

36,265/1500 = 24.176

Therefore Taylor’s 1989 Total Album Equivalent for the chart week: 281,212 Album Sales + 58,040 + 24 = 339,276

Flying 39-7 on the new Billboard 200 is a clear beneficiary of the chart's new methodology: Ariana Grande's My Everything.

Ariana Grande: Album Sale=46,787   Tracks Sale=194,225   Streaming Sale = 9,166,145

It moved 72,319 units for the week, heavily powered not just by album sales (46,787), but also track equivalent albums (19,422 = 194,225 Song Sales / 10) and streaming equivalent albums (6,110 = 9,166,145 Stream Sales / 1500).

Had the new Billboard 200's methodology not been in place, My Everything would have ranked at No.16 (where it stands on the Top Album Sales chart). My Everything has been absent from the top 10 on the Billboard 200 since its third week on the list (dated Sept. 27, when it fell 4-11).

Regarding Billboard’s Top Country Album Chart this currently maintains the traditional Billboard 200 methodology, comprising Nielsen's sales data exclusively for the time being.

Some artists are higher on the Billboard 200 than on the Country chart placings because of on-demand streaming and digital track sales

Garth Brooks' MAN AGAINST MACHINE fell 5-11 on the Billboard 200 (BB200) in its third week (63,019 sales; up 2%) and held on to #1 on Top Billboard Country Albums for a third second week. Regarding the BB200 the album received 0 song sales points and 0 stream sales points because it was sold digitally on GhostTunes which SoundScan does not monitor and so it’s chart position was comprised solely on physical album sales.

Those benefiting from the busy Thanksgiving shopping frame:

Jason Aldean “Old Boots, New Dirt” (31,379 Album sales; up 28%)

Darius Rucker “Home For The Holidays” moving 5-3 Country (30,258 Album sales; up 26%)

Sam Hunt “Montevallo” moved  6-4 Country (25,664 Album sales; up 95%)

Miranda Lambert “Platinum” moved 16-5 Country (25,571 Album sales; up 432%)

Lady Antebellum “7472 moved 14-6 Country (24,942 Album sales; up 400%)

Brantley Gilbert “Just As I Am” moved 20-7 Country (23, 057 Album sales; up 445%)

Kenny Chesney “Big Revival” moved 12-10 Country (19,233 Album sales; up 220%)

Brad Paisley “Moonshine In The Trunk” moved 30-10 (9,289 Album sales; up 388%)

Trisha Yearwood with “Prizefighter: Hit After Hit” fell 7-19 in her second chart frame selling another 7,850 copies (down 61% on her first week).

Outside the Top 25 Country Albums

Sara Evans with her holiday set AT CHRISTMAS (RCA Nashville/ SMN) fell 21-30 Country.

Dallas Smith with new EP titled LIFTED (Big Loud Mountain) made a bow at #39 Country. The British Columbia country-rocker’s

Set blends Smith’s rock roots (he used to front B.C. rock band Default), new country vibes and folk-stomp twang with a hint of modern pop, his second studio album Lifted is made for big crowds and huge singalongs. Case in point, opener Wastin’ Gas is an anthemic spine-tingler complete with stadium-sized “woah-oh-ohs,” while earlier single Tippin’ Point boasts a rap-inflected delivery layered over a thick blanket of banjos and electric guitars. (I’m thinkin’ we’re seein’ a pattern ’ere.) The focal point on the album is Smith himself. His gravelly voice is upfront and centre throughout, and the production courtesy of Joey Moi (Nickelback, Florida Georgia Line, Jake Owen) blends Smith’s past and present influences and experiences. Read More at

vancouversun.com

Jamey Johnson with his new holiday release THE CHRISTMAS SONG (Thirty Tigers) landed at No.43 Country. A month or more ago, a large banner appeared on Christmas's

website bearing four cryptic but promising words: "New Music Coming Soon." perhaps not the sort of project folks were expecting from the artist behind two of the darkest country albums this century, The Guitar Song and its predecessor, That Lonesome Song. A collection of Christmas standards in the gingerly swinging Frank Sinatra/Nat King Cole/Bing Crosby vein makes good musical sense coming from Johnson. He's so accomplished at inhabiting steely roles that it's easy to forget how deftly he can deliver more tender sentiments; how nimble a song interpreter he is; what a responsive band he employs. There's this, too: the EP contains the waltz-time "South Alabam Christmas," the first new Jamey Johnson composition to see the light of day since his 2010 double set — and certainly the first ever to feature a mini-solo from him on flugelhorn Read more: Rollingstone.com

2014 Country Album sales Year-To Date:

28,551 (Physical sales 19,246,000 (down 9%) + Digital sales 9,305,000 (down -8.3%)) which is 16.6% down at the same point in 2013 (34,250,000 sales)

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Placings

(Issue dated Chart week of December 13, 2014)

(Country Album positions #1 - #25)

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

Actual Album Sales (NOT including Track Sales + Streams which the Billboard 200 compile)

Billboard Catalog Albums Chart

Florida Georgia Line's "Here's To The Good Times" makes its chart debut in the top 10

Florida Georgia Line's HERE'S TO THE GOOD TIMES made it to two years straight on the Billboard 200 in the very week that it transitions to Catalog status. The breakout country music duo debut full-length album dropped out of the top 100 for the first time last week, and thus transitioned to Catalog status this week. It rebounded to #65 as it gets a benefit from the new Billboard 200 evaluations (11,630 Album Sales; 22571 Song Sales; 2,307,443 Stream Sales = 15, 425 Total Album Equivalent units )

Which was good enough for a #5 Catalog debut.

Top Catalog Albums

#1 Christmas - Michael Buble

#3 Wrapped In Red - Kelly Clarkson

#5 New Here's To The Good Times - Florida Georgia Line

#7 Cheers, It's Christmas - Blake Shelton

#12 Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas - The Robertsons

#14 On This Winter's Night - Lady Antebellum

# 20 The Ultimate Hits - Garth Brooks

#21 Based On A True Story ... - Blake Shelton

#34 Re-Entry Tailgates & Tanlines - Luke Bryan

#41 49 70 Red River Blue - Blake Shelton

#43 Re-Entry 104 Loaded: The Best Of Blake Shelton - Blake Shelton

#46 Red - Taylor Swift

Top 25 Hot Country Songs (week of December 13, 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:

• Tim McGraw scored his first No. 1 in nearly four years on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs — and his first on the list since it switched from measuring core country radio audience to a sales/airplay/streaming hybrid two years ago — with “Shotgun Rider” (McGraw/Big Machine), which stepped 2-1 to become his 25th career leader. McGraw last reached the summit when “Felt Good on My Lips” began a three-week reign on the Jan. 8, 2011 chart. Following a No.20 peak on last week’s Country Streaming Songs tally (dated Dec. 6), the track dipped to No. 23 with 667,000 total U.S. streams, down 10 percent.

Hot County Songs

** No.1 (1 week) ** “Shotgun Rider” Tim McGraw

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.15 “I Walk The Line” Craig Wayne Boyd

** Streaming Gainer ** “What We Ain’t Got” Jake Owen

Debut No.46 “Mom” The Nashville Nuggets

Debut No.48 “Love Me Like You Mean It” Kelsea Ballerini

Debut No.50 “Hard To Be Cool” Joe Nichols

Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of December 13, 2014

Keeping with the vehicular motif, Keith Urban’s “Somewhere in My Car” parked atop the Country Airplay chart for a second week, sporting 49.330 million audience impressions (+1.882 million; up 4%). The track is the ninth of Urban’s 17 leaders to post more than a week at the summit and his first since “Little Bit of Everything” spent the second of two weeks atop the chart dated Sept. 14, 2013. Urban’s longest No. 1 reign is six weeks, for both “Somebody Like You” (Nov. 23, 2002) and “Better Life” (Nov. 26, 2005).

• Eric Church made his quickest top 10 ascent (unaccompanied by other artists) on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Talladega” (EMI Nashville) drew 28.966 million audience impressions (up 5%) and raced 12-10 in its 11th chart week. That’s one week faster than his previous best top 10 time, first achieved when “Springsteen” reached the upper region in 12 weeks (May 5, 2012) and repeated with “Give Me Back My Hometown” (April 5, 2014). Both of those titles eventually reached No. 1, with “Springsteen” (two weeks at No. 1) remaining the only of Church’s three unaccompanied leaders to lead for more than a week. “Talladega” is the fourth single from Church’s album THE OUTSIDERS. The title track debuted and peaked at No.25 (Nov. 9, 2013) and, following “Hometown,” “Cold One” peaked at No.20 (Aug. 30, 2014).
• Carrie Underwood’s “Something in the Water” (19/Arista Nashville) rose 11-9 to become her 20th Country Airplay top 10, extending her mark for the most such hits by a woman from a career’s start (counting songs promoted to radio and excluding holiday fare). Dating to the chart’s launch on Jan. 20, 1990, Underwood ties Martina McBride for the third-most top 10s among females. Reba McEntire leads with 36, followed by Faith Hill (23). Carrie last reached the upper tier when “Somethin’ Bad” (with Miranda Lambert) peaked at No.7 on Oct. 25. She collected her last top 10 without another artist when “See You Again” peaked at No.2 on Sept. 7, 2013. Her chart history includes 13 No.1s, a feat most recently earned with “Blown Away” (Oct. 27, 2012).

• Luke Bryan bagged Most Increased Audience stripes for a second successive week logging 20.115 million audience impressions, a gain of 4.520 million.
• Blake Shelton feat. Ashley Monroe with “Lonely Tonight” drew Most Added honours receiving 1,901 radio plays (+545) thanks to 28 fresh radio commitments (ADDS)

Women of Country 2014 Watch:

There were two solo female artists on the Top 30 Country Airplay songs with Carrie Underwood’s “Something In The Water” (11-9) and RaeLynn’s “God Made Girls” moving 20-21. “Girl In A Country Song” by duo Maddie & Tae lifted 3-2.

Jana Kramer #34, Kelsea Ballerini #42, Lucy Hale #58 and Lindsay Ell #60 were the additional four solo females in the remaining 31-60 slots, to make it just 10% of the entire Top 60 chart.

Country Airplay

*** No. 1 (2 weeks) *** "Somewhere In My Car” Keith Urban

** Most Increased Audience ** No. 16 "I See You" Luke Bryan

** Most Added ** “Lonely Tonight” No.26 Blake Shelton feat. Ashley Monroe

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.55 "Riot” Rascal Flatts

Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of December 13, 2014

• Craig Wayne Boyd hailed as next country star from TV show The Voice saw his revamped version of Johnny Cash’s iconic “I Walk The Line” (performed on Nov.24) sell
  
  46,000 copies to land at No.1 atop the summit of the Billboard Country Digital Singles.  Boyd’s Voice performance was an emotional one. He borrowed Cash’s song, but not the classic boom-chick-a-boom tempo of the original, and recast it as a slow, soulful ballad. Dating to the launch of Country Digital Songs (January 2010), Boyd is the third TV talent-show contestant to debut at No. 1 on that chart — Scotty McCreery did so in June 2011 with “I Love You This Big,” followed by Cassadee Pope’s “Over You” in December 2012. Before the performance, Boyd handed his coach, Blake Shelton, a replica of a necklace worn by their mutual close friend and mentor Wayne Mills, a Nashville-based singer-songwriter who was killed a little more than a year ago (Oct. 23, 2013) after being shot in the head at a Nashville nightclub. In addition to mentoring Shelton and Boyd, Mills was an early supporter and mentor of Jamey Johnson, among others.
• The previous weeks chart topper Carrie Underwood with “Something In The Water” fell 1-2 and sales of 35,000 copies took it over the ½- million threshold to hit GOLD certification.

Women Of Country Watch

Carrie Underwood with “Something In The Water” at No.2, RaeLynn (14-12) and Brenda Lee with the Christmas classic Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree were the 3 solo female acts on the Top 30

Dropping off the Top 30:

9 – Off the Top 50  Craig Wayne Boyd “You Look So Good In Love”

26-31 Darius Rucker “Homegrown Honey”

30-33 Dierks Bentley  “Drunk On A Plane”

Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music (published December 4, 2014)

 (LW) Last Week (TW) This Week

*Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000^th

Country Aircheck MEDIABASE Chart

Keith Urban moved 2-1 to land No1 on Mediabase with “Somewhere In My Car” (Capitol). The song logged 7,885 radio spins (+310) and 57.946 million audience impressions (+2.185 million) from 149 tracking stations for the tracking week November 23 to November 30, 2014 and published chart December 1st.

Congrats to Keith Urban, Royce Risser, Steve Hodges, Shane Allen, Katie Dean and the whole Capitol promotion staff on scoring this week’s No. 1 with “Somewhere In My Car.” The milestone is particularly significant as it caps Hodges’ career with the label. “Keith is the artist I’ve worked with the longest – he and I had the most tenure,” Hodges told Country Aircheck as he wraps 21 years with Capitol’s promotion team – the last six at the helm. “For him to have a No.1 on my last official chart week is extra special. You couldn’t script a better way to end.”

Kudos as well to Norbert Nix and the Columbia crew on scoring 19 adds for Steven Lee Olsen’s “Raised By A Good Time,” topping this week’s board.

       

For a detailed report check out Country Aircheck Weekly Issue 425 - December 1, 2014 [PDF File]

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