BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE 4 OF 19 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Bulletin SamHunt’s Southside Rules Top Country YOURAlbu DAILYms; BrettENTERTAINMENT Young ‘Catc NEWSh UPDATE’-es Fifth AirplayFEBRUARY 24, 2021 Page 1 of 30 Leader; Travis Denning Makes History INSIDE The Fan Data Goldmine Sam Hunt’s second studio full-length, and first in over five years, Southside sales (up 21%) in the tracking week. On Country Airplay, it hops 18-15 (11.9 mil- (MCA Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville), debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s lionBY audienceTATIANA impressions, CIRISANO up 16%). Top Country• Spotify’s Albums Music chart dated April 18. In its first week (ending April 9), it earnedLeaders 46,000 onequivalent the album units, including 16,000 in album sales, ac- TRY TO ‘CATCH’ UP WITH YOUNG Brett Youngachieves his fifth consecutive cordingStreaming to Nielsen Giant’s Music/MRC JessieData. Reyez loves to text, especially with fans.and Ustotal- Countryand Airplay Community No. 1 as “Catch” allows (Big you Machine to do that, Label especially Group) ascends Southside‘Audio-First’ marks Future: Hunt’s seconding No.a phone 1 on the number assigned through the celebrity when you’re2-1, not increasing touring,” 13% says to 36.6Reyez million co-manager, impressions. chart andExclusive fourth top 10. It followstext-messaging freshman LP startup Community and shared on her Mauricio Ruiz.Young’s “Using first every of six digital chart outletentries, that “Sleep you canWith- Montevallo, which arrived at thesocial summit media in No accounts,- the singer-songwriter makes to make sureout you’re You,” stillreached engaging No. 2 inwith December your fan 2016. base He is • How Subscription vember 2014 and reigned for ninetime weeks. nearly To date, every day to have one-on-one conversa- incredibly important.”followed with the multiweek No. 1s “In Case You MontevalloPlatforms has earned Have 3.9 million units, with 1.4 Didn’t Know” (two weeks, June 2017), “Like I Loved millionBecome in album Revenue- sales. tions with her most dedicated supporters where they The musicYou” industry (three, Januaryhas long 2018), ridden “Mercy” on superfans: (two, August MontevalloGenerating, has spent Real- 267 weeksshare on the memes list, tying and talk about their lives. the top 1% most-engaged,2018) and “Here day-oneTonight” (two,die-hards April 2019). who Luke BryanTime ’sFan Crash Clubs My Party as the“Some sixth-longest- really kind fans send me heartfelt messages, consistently stream“Catch” their completes favorite his longestartists’ journey music, to buy No. 1, running titles in the chart’s 56-year history. having taken 46 weeks to reach the apex. It out- • Breaking Down BTS and we have exchanges regularly now that I have their merchandise, pay to see their shows and share On the all-genre Billboard 200, Southside ar- paces the 30-week climb of “Here Tonight.” Label Big Hit’s 2020 them in my favorites,” says Reyez. “Distance between their music with friends. Executives interviewed for rives at No. 5, awarding Hunt his second top 10 On Hot Country Songs, “Catch” pushes 7-5 for Earnings HUNT YOUNG after the No. 3-peaking Montevallohumans. seems to be getting larger and larger. Howev- this story estimatea new high. that superfans on average make up er, being able to get directly into [fans’] text messages 50% to 80% of an artist’s overall revenue. Yet on an Hunt• Turning first released Fan Data the EPX2C , which debuted and peakedInto at Hits No. 5 on Top Countryhas been Albums a step in in August making 2014. a fan Following more than a COMBSfan.” ‘DOES’ individualIT AGAIN Luke level, Combs superfans’ “Does wereto Me” long (River invisible House/Columbia to their Montevallo, Between the Pines: AcousticAlong Mixtapethe way, started Reyez at is its getting No. 7 highsomething in Nashville), just as featuringidols, Eric since Church artists, ascends and their 11-8 onteams Country lacked Airplay, the toolsup 10% to to November• From 2015.Beatlemania valuable: a pathway to retrieve data about her24.7 super million- in audience.track fans’ The information song is Combs’ and eighth habits. straight career-opening MontevalloTo Beliebers: produced five singles, four of which hit the pinnacle of Country top 10, following a record run of seven consecutive out-of-the-gate, properly fans, who each opted in by way of sending a text and That has all changed now as streaming and social Airplay:The “Leave Business the NightOf On,” “Take Your Time,” “House Party” and “Make promoted No. 1 singles. You MissFan Me.”Clubs “Break In The Up in a Smallagreeing Town” to peaked an online at No. consent 2. form. Through sendingChurch adds hismedia 15th have Country unlocked Airplay a top wealth 10. of audience data — from HuntSuperfan co-penned Era all 12 songsmass on Southside messages, including to segments “Body of Like her aCommunity Back fan basics like age and location to favorite TV shows, shop- Road,” which was released in 2017.base, The Reyez smash has hit pulled ruled Country information Airplay — forsuch asTHAT home TOOK- QUITEping ‘A habits FEW’ and MONTHS food preferencesTravis Denning — asshatters well as the the record ability for • Behind Maluma’s three weeks and the airplay-, streaming-town, age and and sales-based interests Hot — to Country target Songsher most-engaged the most weeks toit has segment taken to those penetrate fans intothe Country categories Airplay by engagement top 10 as “After chart forAmbitious a then-record ‘Papi 34 frames. It now ranks second only to Bebe Rexha and a Few” (Mercury Nashville) climbs 12-10 in its 57th week, up 4% to 21.4 mil - FloridaJuancho’ Georgia Tour: Line ‘We’s “Meant tofans Be” with (50 weeks digital atop advertisements, the latter list in 2017-18). strike brandlion deals in radio reach.level. This data allows artists to pinpoint and engage “Downtown’sGave the Industry Dead,” a which isand also more. on the Community new set, reached also Nos.helps 14 her and make 15 merchanThe song- surpasseswith their two tracks most thateconomically took 50 weeks and each culturally to enter valuable the top 10: on HotNeeded Country Infusion’ Songs and Countrydise Airplay, decisions respectively, based on in fans’ June feedback 2018. “Kin and- mobilizeEaston Corbin ’scohorts “A Girl Like— superfans You,” which — who, reached in turn, No. 10 have in January an exponen 2018 be- - folks” led Country Airplay on Feb.fans 29, to becoming get the attention Hunt’s seventh of brands No. 1.and It hit artists fore she peaking at No.tial 6 promotional that February, impact and Aaron in the Watson social’s media “Outta age. Style,” which No.• 3BILLBOARD on Hot Country 200 Songs. wants to collaborate with on social media. “There’sachieved its No. 10“Superfans high in December are this 2017. generation’s street team,” adds LatestCLICK single HERE “Hard to Forget” jumps 17-9 on Hot Country Songs. It’s his “After” is Denning’s second Country Airplay entry. “David Ashley Parker just so many ways that you can monetize these days, (continued) eighth top 10, having corralled 8.2 million U.S. streams (up 96%) and 5,000 in From Powder Springs” traveled to No. 32 in September 2018. ETHAN MICHAEL YOUNG: VIA MARTIN/NHLI GETTY HUNT: IMAGES. IMAGES MILLER/GETTY Page 3 of 30 IN BRIEF Reyez’s co-manager, Byron Wilson. “They’re bots, duplicates and other useless traffic. people similar to that fan are interested in, the people that are out there in the world, “We’re locked into this pattern of just purchasing, watching and more. From there, screaming the loudest for us. We can always going to silos — Facebook and Twitter artists can target superfans with specific count on them to share content, engage with and Instagram — but we’re renting those ads, route tours based on where superfans it and do what we need.” audiences over and over,” says Katz. “What are geographically clustered (once touring A growing number of music executives Audigent does is that every time we touch resumes) and command more dollars from are making strides toward simplifying artist those audiences, they become residents in brand deals. access to fan data, and such efforts could our house. We go from being renters to be- While brands normally focus on synch change the economics of building a music ing landlords.” and name/likeness deals with artists and la- career. At the forefront of that push are Along the way, and perhaps most impor- bels, access to data “opens the conversation Shara Senderoff and Zach Katz, partners in tantly, Audigent only pulls data from users up to discussing [buying] media,” meaning music-tech investment firm Raised in Space, who opt in through a pop-up consent form ad inventory, says Audigent co-founder/ which they founded in partnership with and only analyzes fully anonymized data CEO Drew Stein. “If a brand spends Ithaca Holdings’ Scooter Braun and Ripple’s sets that are restricted to users’ content $500,000 on a synch or name and likeness developer platform, Xpring. Alongside its consumption, interests and affinities. Au- deal, they might spend 10, 20 or up to 30 investment in Community, the firm led a digent doesn’t track personally identifiable times [that] on the media spend behind the $6.7 million 2019 Series A investment round information (aka PII), and users can opt deal,” he continues. “Labels and artists who in Audigent, a data management platform out at any time. While tech companies like have solid first-party data have the ‘crown for entertainment, sports and lifestyle Facebook and Google have faced backlash jewels’ to discuss how they can provide real brands that Senderoff says functions like a for their handling of personal data, Sender- value to capture a piece of the media bud- “GPS system” for reaching superfans.