Monday 25 February 2019

Country Billboard Chart News February 18, 2019


In Brief: Billboard Country Charts (Chart issue week of February 23, 2019)

Country Album Chart ** No.1 (2 non-consecutive weeks) ** GOLDEN HOUR Kacey Musgraves
Hot Country Songs ** No.1 (4 weeks) ** “Tequila” Dan + Shay
Country Airplay ** No.1 (2 weeks) ** “This Is It” Scotty McCreery
Country Digital Songs ** No.1 (1 week) ** “Tequila” Dan + Shay

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart News (Chart issue week of February 23, 2019)

The Billboard 200 chart measures multi-metric album consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

Ariana Grande’s THANK U, NEXT stormed in at No.1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart with 360,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 14, according to Nielsen Music. The set launched with the biggest week for a pop album in over a year and garnered Grande her fourth No.1 -- and second in less than six months. Of Thank U, Next’s starting unit sum, 116,000 were in album sales.
Largest Streaming Week for a Pop Album & Any Album by a Woman: Of Thank U, Next’s starting unit sum of 360,000 units, 228,000 were in SEA units. That latter sum translated to a whopping 307 million on-demand audio streams for the album’s songs during the tracking week.
Thank U, Next easily sets the record for the largest streaming week for a POP album (beating the debut frame of Ed Sheeran’s ÷ [Divide] with 126.7 million on-demand audio streams for its songs; March 25, 2017) and the biggest streaming week for an album by a woman (surpassing the debut week of Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy with 202.6 million; April 21, 2018).

Kacey Musgraves with GOLDEN HOUR rode its pair of Grammy Award wins on Feb. 10 to a return to the top 10, as the set re-entered the chart straight in at No.9 with 35,000 units (up 524 percent). Of that sum, 20,000 were in album sales -- a gain of 735 percent.
Golden Hour won Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and Best Country Album, while its songs “Butterflies” and “Space Cowboy” also took home trophies, for best country solo performance and best country song, respectively. Musgraves performed the album’s “Rainbow” on the Grammy Awards broadcast and also took part in an all-star tribute performance to Dolly Parton. (“Rainbow” is now being promoted as Musgraves latest single at country, adult pop and adult contemporary radio stations.) Golden Hour debuted and peaked at No. 4 last April.

Golden Hour won Grammy Awards for album of the year and best country album (both trophies were presented on-air during CBS’ live broadcast of the show), while its songs “Butterflies” and “Space Cowboy” also took home two awards, for best country solo performance and best country song, respectively. 

Musgraves performed the album’s “Rainbow” on the Grammy Awards and also took part in an all-star tribute performance to Dolly Parton. (“Rainbow” is now being promoted as Musgraves’ latest single at country, adult pop and adult contemporary radio stations.) Golden Hour debuted and peaked at No. 4 last April.

In total, Musgraves earned an increase of 414 percent in overall equivalent album units across all of her albums -- rising to 40,000 earned in the week ending Feb. 14 (up from 8,000 the previous week). Her album sales climbed 639 percent to 22,000 (up from 3,000), while her digital song sales jumped 926 percent to 28,000 (up from 3,000).
In terms of U.S. streams, Musgraves’ catalog of songs vaulted 234 percent in on-demand streams (both audio and video), rising to 23.9 million for the week (up from 7.1 million).

Year     Album   Gain % From    To
2008     River: The Joni Letters (Herbie Hancock)            967%    5,000    54,000
2001     Two Against Nature (Steely Dan)            748%    4,000    32,000
2019     Golden Hour (Kacey Musgraves)         735%    2,000    20,000 (3rd highest % sales gain since 2000)
2009     Raising Sand (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)      715%    9,000    77,000
2007     Taking The Long Way (Dixie Chicks)      714%    13,000  103,000
2002     O Brother Where Art Thou (Soundtrack) 259%    58,000  209,000
2016     1989 (Taylor Swift)        109%    15,000  31,000
2010     Fearless (Taylor Swift)   58%      34,000  53,000

Brandi Carlile "BY THE WAY, I FORGIVE YOU" re-entered Top Rock Albums at No. 2 with 20,000 equivalent album units earned, an 897 percent vault. The LP previously ruled the March 3, 2018-dated chart upon its entrance. On the all-genre Billboard 200, the set returned at No.22, its best rank since its No. 5 debut.

Performer and three-time winner Brandi Carlile surges back onto the chart with her album of the year-nominated By the Way, I Forgive You. 

The set (which won best Americana album, while its song “The Joke” won two trophies) vaults back onto the tally at No. 22 with 20,000 units (up 897 percent). Of that sum, 15,000 were in album sales (up 1,054 percent).



Billboard Top Country Albums (Chart issue week of February 23, 2019)
Top Country Albums now ranks the most popular country albums of the week, as compiled by Nielsen Music, based on multi-metric consumption (blending traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA)).
10 digital track sales from an album = 1 track equivalent album (TEA) “sale”
1,500 on demand song streams from an album to one streaming equivalent album (SEA) “sale”.
Nielsen Music compiles the sales and streaming data. Billboard continues to publish pure album sales charts (subscription to billboard biz ), exclusively comprising Nielsen’s sales data.

Kacey Musgraves with GOLDEN HOUR (MCA Nashville) rocketed 19-1 (#9 re-entry Billboard 200) on the back of her Grammy success (20,200 sales; 41-week total 173,500).
This is the second week Golden Hour has reached the summit. The album became Musgraves’ third Top Country Albums leader when it arrived atop the chart dated April 14, 2018 (with 49,000 units) previously its lone prior week at No. 1!

Kacey Musgraves releases new music video for 'Rainbow'


Luke Combs with THIS ONE’S FOR YOU (River House/ Columbia Nashville/Sony Music Nashville) fell 1-2 (#14-15 Billboard 200; 4,800 sales; 89-week total 420,800). 

Dan + Shay with their self-titled album (Warner Bros./Warner Music Nashville) fell 2-3 (#37-31 BB200) in their 34th frame.

Chris Stapleton with the 198-week TRAVELLER (MERCURY/ UMGN) fell 3-4 (#55-44 BB200; 4,500 sales; 198-week total 2,445,800) as his set From A Room: Volume 1 (Mercury/Universal Music Group Nashville) held at No.16 (#184-175 BB200) and From A Room: Volume 2 rose 22-14 (#161 Re-Entry Billboard 200).

Former No.1 Kane Brown with sophomore album, entitled EXPERIMENT fell 4-5 (#64-70 BB200; 2,400 sales; 14-week total 182,500) in his 14th frame as his self-titled debut held at No.6 (1,700 sales; total 506,500) in its 115th frame. 

Former 6-week non-consecutive week No.1 Jason Aldean with REARVIEW TOWN (Macon/Broken Bow Records) fell 5-7 (#81-82 BB200; 1,200 sales; total 469,000) in its 44th week.
Thomas Rhett with LIFE CHANGES (Valory) fell 7-8 (#85-97 BB200) in his 75th frame.

Former No1 Cody Johnson with AIN’T NOTHIN’ TO IT (Cojo/Warner Music Nashville) fell 8-11 (#118-146 Billboard 200; 2,000 sales; 4-week total 31,500).

Outside the Top 10
Former No.1 Carrie Underwood with CRY PRETTY fell 11-13 (#148-155 BB200; 2,600 sales; 22-week total 425,200).

Mitchell Tenpenny with TELLING ALL MY SECRETS fell 17-19 (1,000 sales; 9-week total 24,300).

Outside the Top 25
Former No.1 Brett Young with Ticket to L.A. fell 25-29 (1,300 sales; 10-week total 49,700).


Sister Hazel with 7-track set FIRE (Croakin' Poet Records | Amazon UK - UK iTunes - Amazon.com) made a Hot Shot Debut at No.48 (#8 Country Album Sales) selling 3,300 copies.

FALLING SHORT of Top 50:
On the Country Album Sales list (pure sales; old methodology)

Adam Calhoun & Demun Jones with 5-track EP CRAZY WHITE BOY (EP; ACal/Rahhh | Amazon UK) made a debut No.10 selling 2,200 copies.


Jacob Bryant with 12-track PRACTICE WHAT I PREACH (American Roots Records | Amazon UK - UK iTunes - Amazon.com) made a debut at No.22 selling 900 copies.

Year-To-Date Albums
1,227,000 (Physical sales 820,000 (down -30.2%) + Digital sales 407,000 (down -18.3%) which is 26.6% down at the same point in 2018 (1,672,000 sales) 

Year-To-Date Digital Tracks
4,132,000 down 28.5% at the same point in 2018 (5,778,000)

Billboard Hot Country Songs (Chart issue week of February 23, 2019)
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:

Dan + Shay held at No.1 with “Tequila” (Warner Bros./WAR) for a fourth consecutive week.

Luke Bryan earned his 27th Hot Country Songs top 10, as "What Makes You Country" rose 11-9. It held at No.4 on Country Airplay (32.4 million impressions, up 5 percent) and gained by 22 to 3.2 million U.S. streams.

Chris Stapleton's "Millionaire" completed a record run to the Hot Country Songs top 10, ascended 12-10 in its 56th week. The song stepped 7-6 on Country Airplay (25.4 million in audience, up 2 percent) and increased by 5 percent to 3.9 million streams.
"Millionaire," Stapleton's third Hot Country Songs top 10, passed Lee Brice's 46-week climb to the top 10 with his No. 3-peaking "Love Like Crazy" in 2010 (when the chart was solely airplay-based).

Hot County Songs
** No.1 (4 weeks) ** “Tequila” Dan + Shay  
** Airplay Gainer/ Digital Gainer/ Streaming Gainer No.2 “Beautiful Crazy” Luke Combs  
** Hot Shot Debut ** No.17 “Rainbow” Kacey Musgraves  
Debut No.30 “Brand New Man” Brooks & Dunn With Luke Combs
Debut No.36 “Every Little Honky Tonk Bar” George Strait
Debut No.42 “Believe” Brooks & Dunn With Kane Brown
Debut No.47 “Common” Maren Morris feat. Brandi Carlile

Billboard Country Airplay (Chart issue week of February 23, 2019)

Scotty McCreery held at No.1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart with “This Is It” (Triple Tigers) logging 37.7 million audience impressions (down 5%) in the week ending Feb. 17, according to Nielsen Music.

PHOTO Left 
Two Can: Triple Tigers' Scotty McCreery celebrates his two week No. 1 "This Is It" with his team. Pictured (back, l-r) are the label's Laura Hostelley and Hope Garrison, McCreery, the label's Diane Lockner, Triple 8's Scott Stem and the label's Julianna VaughnAnnie Brooksand Parker Fowler; (front, l-r) Triple 8's George Couri and the label's Norbert Nix and Kevin Herring.

George Strait posted his record-extending 99th Country Airplay entry, as "Every Little Honky Tonk Bar" bowed at No. 20 with 11.2 million impressions. On Hot Country Songs, it started at No. 36, marking his 123rd visit. (Hot Country Songs began in 1958, while Country Airplay's history dates to 1990.)
Written by Strait with son Bubba and Dean Dillon, "Bar" is the first radio single from Strait's album Honky Tonk Time Machine (due March 29).
Helped by hourly plays on participating iHeartMedia stations starting Feb. 11, "Bar" marked Strait's second-highest Country Airplay debut. It trails only "I Saw God Today," which launched at No.19, and later hit No. 1, in 2008.
"Bar" is Strait's first Country Airplay entry since "Cold Beer Conversation," which peaked at No. 33 in 2015; he ends his longest break from the chart, after he had appeared on the list every year from 1990 to 2015.

Country Airplay
*** No.1 (1 week) *** “This Is It” Scotty McCreery 37.687 million audience (-1.699 million) / 7541 radio plays (-560)
** Most Increased Audience/ Hot Shot Debut/ Most Added ** No.20 “Every Little Honky Tonk Bar” George Strait
Debut No.56 “Somebody's Daughter” Tenille Townes
Debut No.57 “All To Myself” Dan + Shay  
Debut No.60 “Someone I Used To Know” Zac Brown Band

Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart
(Chart issue week of February 23, 2019)

Following their win at The Grammys Dan + Shay (Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney) with Tequila” advanced 8-1 (#40-10 Digital Songs; 15,000 sales; total 558,000) to top the chart for the first time in their 56th frame while their 11 non-consecutive week No1 “Speechless” fell 3-5 (#23-32 Digital Songs.
Tequila” was nine places behind “Shallow” by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper which ruled the Digital Song Sales chart once more, in the week ending Feb. 14.

Kacey Musgraves with new radio single “Rainbow” made a debut at No.2 (#15 New Entry Digital Songs; 13,000 sales; total 18,000) thanks to her 4 Grammy wins and show performance exposure.  Her single “Butterflies” also made a re-entry at No.16.

Previous weeks No1 Luke Combs with Beautiful Crazy” fell 1-3 (#13-21 Digital Songs) in its 41st frame. Additionally, Combs’ She Got The Best Of Me” retreated 10-18.

Brooks & Dunn with Luke Combs with Brand New Manmade a debut at No.4 (#23 New Entry Digital Songs; 11,000 sales) and a bow at No.7 (#48 New Entry Digital Songs; 6,000 sales) with “Believe” and the new collaboration with Kane Brown.

Kelsea Ballerini with “Miss Me More” held at No.6 (#35-42 Digital Songs) in her 15th week.
Jake Owen with “Down To The Honkytonk” fell 5-8 in its 25th frame.
Lee Brice with “Rumor” fell 7-9 in his 9th frame.
Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line with their Grammy nominated multi-week No1 “Meant To Be” pushed 19-10 in their 64th frame.

Outside the Top 10
Following her Grammy Awards tribute Dolly Parton’s Jolene” made a re-Entry at No.11 (5,000 sales).
12 New 1 - Chris Janson with “Good Vibes” made a debut at No.12. Co-penned by Janson, it’s the first single from his upcoming album. He earned his highest start since his breakthrough hit, “Buy Me a Boat,” bowed at No. 8 in 2015.
Chris Stapleton’s Millionaire” fell 9-13 as 162-week “Tennessee Whiskey” fell 11-14.

Florida Georgia Line featuring HARDY with “Y'all Boys” made a debut at No.15.
Maren Morris featuring Brandi Carlile with album pregrat trackCommonmade a debut at No.21 as first single GIRL” fell 18-20 in her fourth frame.

Country Aircheck MEDIABASE Chart

February 18, 2019

Scotty McCreery Remains At #1 With 'This Is It'

Congrats to Scotty McCreery, Kevin Herring and the Triple Tigers promotion staff on landing a second week at No.1 with “This Is It.” The song is the second consecutive chart-topper from Seasons Change. Writers are Aaron Eshuis, Frank Rogers and McCreery. As previously reported (Feb 11), this marks Scotty’s second career #1, following the success of "Five More Minutes.”

This Is It” (Broken Bow) held at No.1 logging 8,209 radio spins (-404), 51.838 million audience impressions (-1.929) with 26519 Total Points (-1380) from 156 tracking stations (156 ADDS) for the tracking week February 10 to February 16, 2019 and published chart dated February 18, 2019.

George Strait Is Most-Added With 'Every Little Honky Tonk Bar'
Congratulations to MCA NASHVILLE's GEORGE STRAIT who is most-added at Country radio this week with "Every Little Honky Tonk Bar." The single earned 97 MEDIABASE adds.

Kudos to Katie Dean and the MCA crew on securing 97 adds on George Strait’s Every Little Honky Tonk Bar”. The song topped the "Most Added" board this chart week.

"Every Little Honky Tonk Bar" Debuts Top 20 on Billboard Country Airplay Chart
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – King of Country Music George Strait’s brand new single “Every Little Honky Tonk Bar” debuts as the most-added single at country radio this week with 117 stations, landing the tune in the Top 20 on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart.
“This is Straight Up the best Country song that has crossed my desk in a long time.  The King still reigns supreme.”  - Bill Black, WKSJ (Mobile)
 “The format’s standard is back! Tempo....a little two-step and all is well in the world! Great to have new music from The King of Country.” – Tom Hanrahan, WDXB (Birmingham)
“We love this new George single. It’s got tempo and exactly what we need on KMLE right now.” – Tim Richards, KMLE (Phoenix)

 “George Strait, ‘The King,’ is back at it, asking everybody else to hold his beer while he delivers another solid performance.” – Danny Dwyer, KUPL (Portland OR)
“‘That ain’t country;’ ‘We don’t play new songs;’ ‘Too poppy;’ ‘No tempo.’ Yep, pretty much there is no excuse not to play this huge hit song from the icon in the format.” – Nate Deaton, KRTY (San Jose CA)

“Every Little Honky Tonk Bar,” written by George Strait, Bubba Strait and longtime collaborator Dean Dillon, is the first radio single to come from Strait’s upcoming 30th studio album, Honky Tonk Time Machine, due out March 29 on MCA Nashville
 Team MCA Nashville Celebrates Most-Added: Pictured L-R (Back Row): MCA’s Miranda McDonald; UMG Security Officer/"Spin Police" #1; MCA’s Anna Widmer; Cardboard Strait; UMG’s Donna Hughes; UMG Security Officer/"Spin Police" #2; UMG’s Chris Fabiani; MCA’s Michelle Tyrrell; UMG’s Chris Schuler and David Friedman (Middle Row): MCA’s Katie Dean; Donna Jo Passuntino; and Louie Newman (Front row): UMG’s Royce Risser; Kaileen Mangan; and MCA’s Briana Galluccio 



























Mediabase Adds (Selective)

Artist/Title (Label) TW Total Historic Adds
GEORGE STRAIT/Every Little Honky Tonk Bar (MCA)    97         112      
ZAC BROWN BAND/Someone I Used To Know (No Reserve/BMG/Wheelhouse)  26         30        
RYAN HURD/To A T (RCA)        21         28        
KACEY MUSGRAVES/Rainbow (MCA)  17         70        
TENILLE TOWNES/Somebody's Daughter (Columbia)    12         73        
DAN + SHAY/All To Myself (Warner Bros./WAR) 11         60        
BRANTLEY GILBERT & LINDSAY ELL/What Happens In A Small Town (Valory)  8          113      
BROOKS & DUNN w/L. COMBS/Brand New Man (Arista)            8          16        
TIM MCGRAW/Thought About You (Columbia)   8          71        
CHRIS YOUNG/Raised On Country (RCA)          7          100      
MAREN MORRIS/Girl (Columbia)           7          112      
CARLY PEARCE/Closer To You (Big Machine)   3          126      
RUNAWAY JUNE/Buy My Own Drinks (Wheelhouse)      3          127      
ASHLEY MCBRYDE/Girl Goin' Nowhere (Atlantic/WAR) 2          74        
DAVID LEE MURPHY/No Zip Code (Reviver)      1          1         
LAUREN ALAINA/Ladies In The '90s (19/Mercury)         1          90        
STEPHANIE QUAYLE/If I Was A Cowboy (Rebel Engine)           1          11

For a detailed report check out Country Aircheck Weekly February 19, 2019, Issue 640  - Magazine View

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

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