Country Billboard Chart News July 18, 2013

Country Billboard Chart News July 18, 2013

RIAA Certifications

Little Big Town’s 2012 album TORNADO (Platinum)

Darius Rucker’s single "Wagon Wheel"  (2x Platinum)

Luke Bryan's 2011 album TAILGATES & TANLINES ( 2x Platinum)

Luke celebrated the double Platinum selling status  as well as selling 4 million career albums to date.

In Brief:  Billboard Country Charts

Country Album Chart ** No. 1 (4 weeks) ** “Here’s To The Good Times” Florida Georgia Line 

Hot Country Songs ** No. 1 (20 weeks) ** “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

Country Airplay ** No. 1 (3 weeks) ** "Crash My Party" Luke Bryan 

Country Digital Songs ** No. 1 ** (21 weeks) “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart News

Jay-Z's "Magna Carta Holy Grail" album storms in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (BB200), selling 527,017 copies in its first week.

The larger-than-expected start is the second-biggest sales week for a single album this year. It bypasses the previous runner-up, Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories," which opened with 339,000 in May. Both albums trail behind the year's largest frame, racked up when Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" exploded with 968,000 in its first week.

Florida Georgia Line, HERE'S TO THE GOOD TIMES hit a new peak, rising 5-4 on the BB200 with 33,000 copies sold (up 5%).

After 32-weeks on the chart since its Dec 4, 2012 release it is the fourth-slowest climb to the top four  for a country album since SoundScan started powering the chart in May 1991. Among country sets, only the soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Are Thou?” (62 weeks), Dixie Chicks' "Wide Open Spaces" (56) and Garth Brooks' "No Fences" (36) have taken longer.

This is its seventh week in the top 10 on the BB200 chart. It holds at #1 on Top Country Albums for the fourth week.

It’s the first album by a duo to log four or more weeks at #1 on the country chart since Sugarland’s LOVE ON THE INSIDE, which spent six weeks on top in the summer of 2008. It’s the first debut album to log four or more weeks at #1 on the country chart since Scotty McCreery’s CLEAR AS DAY, which spent six weeks on top in 2011.

The top 4 slots on Billboard Country albums remained the same.

Taylor Swift's RED moved up 7-6. World wide sales this week were 19,000 (5,444,000 total) and 3.74 million of that 38-week total were sold in America.

Last week’s chart entry at No.39 on the BB200 (No.8 Country) Mud Digger 4 the Average Joe’s compilation fell 49 places to No.88 and landed at #21 in the country standings selling around 4,000 copies.

There were no new entries on the Top 40 Country albums apart from Travis Tritt’s THE CALM AFTER... album which made a No.190 bow on the BB200 (No.31 Country) and sold over 2,000 copies.

The 14 track “The Calm After”, released on Gretchen Wilson's Redneck Records, is actually an updated version of Tritt's last 12 track album, THE STORM (released Aug 2007), which got mired in litigation between Tritt and his former label. 

The album contains Tritt's duet with his 15-year-old daughter Tyler Reese (released as a single on June 16, Father's Day), a cover of the Patty Smyth/Don Henley classic 'Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough'. (YouTube ) - Product and credits

Available at Amazon UK CD [Import] or MP3 downloads

Spotify - Travis Tritt – The Calm After

Billboard Top 200  Placings / Top 25 Country Albums

(Issue dated Chart week of July 27, 2013)

(Country Album positions #1 - #25)

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

Billboard Catalog Chart

One album returns to the chart for the first time in 2013:

"I Told You So: The Ultimate Hits Of Randy Travis" (#41)

Top 25 Hot Country Songs (week of July 27, 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:

Duo Florida Georgia Line enjoy a 20th cumulative week at the summit with “Cruise” which is just one week shy of tying the all-time record (1944-present), and the most by any song since Ray Price stacked 20 weeks with “Crazy Arms” in 1956.

Concurrently, “Round Here” adds Streaming Gainer honours with 669,000 total streams, up 17%, according to BDS. They thereby added a second title to the Billboard Hot Country Songs top 10 as current country radio single “Round Here” (Republic Nashville) advanced 13-8.

Since the chart rankings converted from country airplay only to an airplay/sales/streaming formula last October, FGL has placed a pair of titles in the top 10 for 12 weeks. (“Get Your Shine On”, which has a #5 peak,  previously shared top 10 time with “Cruise.”) In contrast, Hunter Hayes has the second-most

weeks with a simultaneous pair of top 10 titles (four) during that time frame, followed by Blake Shelton (three), Taylor Swift (two) and Carrie Underwood (one).

Top 25 Hot Country Songs:

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

Hunter Hayes with “I Want Crazy” is up one,  #3 - #2 p

Luke Bryan with “Crash My Party” moves up one slot,  #4 - #3 p 

Blake Shelton with “Boys ‘Round Here” is down two, #2 - #4 q

Randy Houser with “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” is up one, #6 - #5 p

Darius Rucker  with former No.1 “Wagon Wheel” is down,  #5 - #6 q

Brett Eldredge with “Don’t Ya” stays at #7

Florida Georgia Line with “Round Here” jumps up five, #13 - #8 p

Kip Moore with “Hey Pretty Girl” stays at #9

The Band Perry with “Done” is down two,  #8 - #10  q

Carrie Underwood with “See You Again” stays at  #11

Tyler Farr with “Redneck Crazy” stays at  #12

Zac Brown Band with “Jump Right In” is up one, #14 - #13  p

Tim McGraw & Taylor Swift with “Highway Don’t Care” is down, #10 - #14  q

Easton Corbin with “All Over The Road” is up one, #16 - #15  p

Keith Urban with “Little Bit Of Everything” is up two, #18 - #16 p

Billy Currington with “Hey Girl” moves up three, #20 - #17 p

Florida Georgia Line with “Get Your Shine On” is up one, #19 - #18  p

Lee Brice with “Parking Lot Party” is up two slots, #21 - #19 p

Jake Owen with “Anywhere With You” falls, #17 - #20  q

Brad Paisley with “Beat This Summer” falls six, #15 - #21 q

Thomas Rhett with “It Goes Like This” is up two, #24 – 22 p

Miranda Lambert with “Mama’s Broken Heart” is down, #22 - #23  q

Justin Moore with “Point at You” is up one, #25 - #24 p

Jason Aldean with “Night Train” jumps up six, #30 - #25  p

Hot Country Songs

** No.1 (20 weeks)  **  “Cruise”  Florida Georgia Line

** Airplay Gainer ** No.5 “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” Randy Houser

** Streaming Gainer ** No.8 “Round Here” Florida Georgia Line

** Digital Gainer ** No.25 “Night Train” Jason Aldean

** Hot Shot Debut ** No. 49 “Friday Night” (EMI Nashville) Eric Paslay

Debut No.60 “If You Want Some” (Show Dog) Joel Crouse

Chart History

#1 Hits: These were the chart topping hits in 2008, 2003, 1998, 1993, and 1988:

2008: Blake Shelton - “Home” (Warner Bros.)

2003: Toby Keith and Willie Nelson - “Beer For My Horses” (Dreamworks)

1998: Collin Raye - “I Can Still Feel You” (Epic)

1993: Alan Jackson - “Chattahoochee” (Arista)

1988: Rosanne Cash - “If You Change Your Mind” (Columbia)

Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of July 27, 2013

Luke Bryan logged his longest-running No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart with “Crash My Party” (Capitol Nashville), which dominates for a third straight week. His seventh overall leader surpasses three titles, which each spent two weeks at the summit: “Rain Is a Good Thing” (2010), “Drunk on You” (2012) and “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” (2012).

“Party” recorded 46.666 million audience impressions (+0.277); receiving 6,860 plays (–14). The top local audience stations during the July 8-14 tracking week are WUSN Chicago (1.4 million impressions), KKGO Los Angeles (1.2 million), KKBQ Houston (1.1 million), WNSH New York (895,000) and KEEY Minneapolis (785,000).

Bryan’s track is the third title to spend at least three weeks atop the chart so far this year: Zac Brown Band held for three weeks in January with “Goodbye in Her Eyes,” and Tim McGraw’s “One of Those Nights” stayed that long in March. But no song has spent longer than three weeks at No. 1 since Zac Brown Band’s “Keep Me in Mind” rolled four straight weeks in December 2011/January 2012. The most recent five week leader is Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” November/December 2009).

Randy Houser won the weeks “Most Increased Audience” trophy with "Runnin' Outta Moonlight", which moved 8-5,  reaching a 37.478 million audience (+4.260) and received 5,624 radio spins (+597).

Carrie Underwood extended her streak for the most career opening top 10s among women, as “See You Again” (19/Arista Nashville), in its 16th chart week, became her 18th such song (counting only promoted, non-seasonal songs) to reach the upper tier (11-8).  

First released on April 15, 2013; it was written by Carrie with Hillary Lindsey and  David Hodges. (watch the video)

She scored her first top 10 with “Jesus, Take the Wheel” in December 2005. Underwood has three more front-end top 10s than second-place Taylor Swift (15), who scored her first with “Tim McGraw” one year after Underwood’s first. Since the Country Airplay chart launched in January 1990, Tracy Lawrence leads all artists with 19 career-opening top 10s, while Brooks & Dunn remain in third place with 17.

Easton Corbin claims his fourth top 10 in five tries with “All Over the Road” (Mercury), which jumps 12-9 in its 28th chart week. He’s clocked faster top 10 ascents twice with “Roll With It” and “A Little More Country Than That,” which needed 19 weeks and 27 weeks, respectively (both 2010). Both of those titles eventually reached the summit, with “Country” reigning in its 32nd chart week and “Roll” crowning the list in its 27th week. Corbin’s chart history includes a No. 14 peak with “I Can’t Love You Back” in 2011 and “Lovin’ You Is Fun,” which stopped at No. 5 last October—the latter title reached the top 10 in its 29th chart week.

Tim McGraw  won the “Most Added” cup for the week as "Southern Girl" (Big Machine) leapt up 20 places (55-35) in its third chart week. The song drew a 4.530 million audience (+3.777); with 871 plays (+733) thanks to 59 new radio commitments (ADDS) 

Country Airplay

*** No. 1 (3 weeks) *** "Crash My Party" Luke Bryan 

** Most Increased Audience **  No.5 "Runnin' Outta Moonlight" Randy Houser

** Most Added **  No.35 "Southern Girl" (Big Machine) Tim McGraw 

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.54 "What Are You Listening To" (Mercury) 

Debut No.57 "Wake Up Lovin' You" (Black River) Craig Morgan

Debut No.59 "Granddaddy's Gun" (Blaster) Aaron Lewis

Debut No.60 "The Heart Of Dixie" Danielle Bradbery 

Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of July 27, 2013

Florida Georgia Line’s  “Cruise” sells 158,000 (down 18%) in its 57th chart week. Its remix with Nelly accounts for a little more half that sum—it dominates the chart for a 21st cumulative week. It now becomes the third-best-selling US country digital song to date, behind Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” (6,177,000) and Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” (5,594,000).

“Cruise” easily passes the 5-million download mark with a new total of 5,099,000 to secure a Quintuple Platinum RIAA certification.

"Cruise," slipped 5-6 on the Hot 100 and ruled for a monstrous 20th week on Hot Country Songs.

FGL also moved 7-6  with “Round Here” on the Country Digital standings with a week on week increase of 7%.

The top 5 songs remained the same. Luke Bryan who rounded out the Top 5 with “Crash My Party,” the title tune to the upcoming fourth studio album for Capitol Records. The track has now sold over 1-million copies in 15 weeks reaching 1,010,000 copies to ensure Platinum certification.

At No.38 Lady Antebellum’s lead-off single  “Downtown” has also gone Platinum.

Jason Aldean moved up 13 places (35-22) with his latest radio single and title cut “Night Train”.

Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music (published July 17, 2013)

 (LW) Last Week  (TW) This Week 

*Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000^th

Billboard Boxscores (Selective Country concerts)

Rank Artist: #47

Event Venue City/State:

Brad Paisley, Chris Young, Lee Brice, The Henningsen Farm Bureau Live at Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach, Va.

Dates:  June 28, 2013  Gross Sales:  $504,669  Attend: 14,889 /19,000

Capacity Shows:  1/0   Sellouts Prices: $65, $25

Promoters: Live Nation

Rank Artist: #65

Event Venue City/State:

Darius Rucker, Rodney Atkins, Jana Kramer Meadowbrook Gilford, N.H.

Dates:  June 22, 2013  Gross Sales: $264,732     Attend: 6,610/6,737

Capacity Shows:  1/0   Sellouts Prices $50.50, $49.50, $23

Rank Artist: #147

Event Venue City/State:

Holly Williams The Hamilton Washington, D.C.

Dates:  April 20, 2013   Gross Sales:  $4,314   Attend: 203/470

Capacity Shows: 1/0     Sellouts Prices: $20, $15

Promoters: C3 Presents

Rank Artist: #142

Event Venue City/State:

Sierra Hull  The Hamilton Washington, D.C.

Dates:  April 26, 2013  Gross Sales:  $5,359     Attend: 177/530

Capacity Shows: 1/0    Sellouts Prices: $36, $32

Promoters: C3 Presents