Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS JANUARY 14, 2019 | PAGE 1 OF 18 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE
[email protected] Dustin Lynch’s Country Consumption Up In 2018 ‘Good’ News >page 4 As Shift To Streaming Continues Garth Fan Gets Settlement Buy it. Stream it. Watch the video. albums hit 617.98 million, up a whopping 23 percent from 2017. >page 8 Fans have multiple ways to consume music in 2019, and Streaming growth contributed mightily to those bumps. in appropriate fashion, three different artists led four year- Country amassed 50.88 billion streams, a 46 percent inflation end Nielsen Music country lists for 2018 with Luke Combs, over the 2017 numbers. That performance slightly outpaced Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean feeling the love on the overall industry, which counted 901 billion streams, a Loretta Lynn’s different platforms. 43 percent increase. All-Star Birthday Actual product sales were down by double digits as consumers FGL’s collaboration with pop singer Bebe Rexha, “Meant >page 9 continue to move in overwhelming numbers to streaming. to Be,” benefited most from that growth as a runaway winner On balance, overall in both on-demand consumption — streaming and measured through digital downloads. Brad Paisley audio-equivalent It racked up 721.6 Has A Field Day album units, which million streams, >page 9 is a combination of outpacing Brown’s album sales, track- “Heaven,” which equivalent album landed at No. 2 Makin’ Tracks: sales and on-demand with 470.5 million Kane Brown’s audio streaming — streams. (Due to an grew by 10 percent for internal technical ‘Good As You’ FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE and REXHA >page 13 country, which racked error, the original up 48.38 million version of this story audio-equivalent album units.