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 AirplayJULY 28, 2020 Page 1 of 22 Leader; Travis Denning Makes History INSIDE Spotify Kicks Off an Earnings Season 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),Like debuts No at No. 1 Other:on Billboard’s lion audienceWhat impressions, to up 16%).Watch for as Top Country• What DoAlbums Virtual chart dated April 18. In its first week (ending April 9), it earnedFestivals 46,000 Pay equivalent Artists? album units,Music including 16,000 Biz in album Lays sales, ac- TRY Out TO ‘CATCH’ Pandemic’s UP WITH YOUNG Brett Youngachieves Impact his fifth consecutive cordingTomorrowland to Nielsen Music/MRC Tests Data. and total Country Airplay No. 1 as “Catch” (Big Machine Label Group) ascends Southsidea New marks Model Hunt’s second No. 1 on the 2-1, increasing 13% to 36.6 million impressions. chart and fourth top 10. It follows freshman LP BY GLENN PEOPLES Young’s first of six chart entries, “Sleep With- Montevallo• Gov., which Andrew arrived at the summit in No - out You,” reached No. 2 in December 2016. He Cuomo Calls For vember 2014 and reigned for nineStarting weeks. To with date, Spotify on Wednesday (July 29) and three monthsfollowed ago. with the multiweek No. 1s “In Case You Montevalloa Public has Healthearned 3.9 million units, with 1.4 Didn’t Know” (two weeks, June 2017), “Like I Loved millionInvestigation in album sales. of The ending August 20, the second-quarter financials of When Spotify You” (three,released January first-quarter 2018), “Mercy” earnings (two, August on MontevalloChainsmokers’ has spent Drive- 267 weeks13 on publicly the list, tying traded music-related companies will lay May 1, Europe2018) was and more “Here than Tonight” two months(two, April into 2019). the Luke BryanIn’s Show Crash My Party as thebare sixth-longest- the damage done by the coronavirus pandemic. pandemic and“Catch” the United completes States his economy longest journey had been to No. 1, running titles in the chart’s 56-year history. having taken 46 weeks to reach the apex. It out- • A 79-Year-Old On one end of the spectrum are digital services such in a tailspin for six weeks. Some metrics went south On the all-genre Billboard 200, Southside ar- paces the 30-week climb of “Here Tonight.” Doing Hip-Hop? ‘The as Spotify that likely escaped unscathed; concert at the end of the first quarter, Spotify saw “some rives at No. 5, awarding Hunt his second top 10 On Hot Country Songs, “Catch” pushes 7-5 for Simpsons’ Is Where HUNT YOUNG after the No. 3-peaking Montevallopromoters,. with touring suspended through the entire pickup” in thea new churn high. rate and a dip in the ratio of daily Free Speech Battles Hunt first released the EPX2C quarter,, which debuted suffered unprecedented losses and have pre- to monthly listeners. But the downturn was short- Age Bias Claims and peaked at No. 5 on Top Countrypared forAlbums blank in slates August the 2014. rest Followingof the year. COMBS ‘DOES’ lived:IT AGAIN by LukeApril, Combs the churn’ “Does rate to Me” saw (River “some House/Columbia pretty nice Montevallo• Yellowcard, Between Ends the Pines: AcousticMusic Mixtape industry started professionals, at its No. 7particularly high in Nashville), record la featuring- improvements” Eric Church ,and ascends new 11-8 user on growth Country accelerated, Airplay, up 10% the to NovemberCopyright 2015. Lawsuit bels and publishers, who want to build their24.7 expecta million- in audience.company The said. song is Combs’ eighth straight career-opening MontevalloAgainst Juice produced WRLD five singles, four of which hit the pinnacle of Country top 10, following a record run of seven consecutive out-of-the-gate, properly Airplay: “Leave the Night On,” “Taketions Yourfor streaming Time,” “House royalties, Party” should and “Make take notepromoted of Spo -No. 1 singles.Key Takeaways: You• Miss The Me.” Organizers “Break Upof in a Smalltify’s Town” earnings peaked release at No. and 2. conference call discussionChurch adds his1) 15th Labels Country and Airplay publishers top 10. should look to Spotify’s HuntThat co-penned Controversial all 12 songs( onBillboard Southside will, including thoroughly “Body cover Like both). a Back In particular, sequential and annual growth rates to gauge the pan- Road,”Chainsmokers which was released in 2017.the Thekey smashmetric hit is ruledactual Country subscriber Airplay growth for comparedTHAT TOOK QUITEdemic’s ‘A FEW’ effect MONTHS on subscription Travis Denning royalties. shatters the record for threeConcert weeks and Respond: the airplay-, streaming-to the company’s and sales-based earlier Hot forecasts Country of Songs 133 millionthe most to weeks it has2) Thetaken publicly to penetrate traded the promoters’Country Airplay second-quarter top 10 as “After chart‘The for aVideo then-record Doesn’t 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 - 138 million. An uptick in churn and a slowdown in earnings will reveal the coronavirus’s impact. With FloridaConvey Georgia How LineCareful’s “Meant to Be” (50 weeks atop the latter list in 2017-18). lion in radio reach. “Downtown’sWe Were’ Dead,” which isfirst-time also on the subscribers new set, reached could Nos. put 14 Spotify and 15 at theThe low song surpassesenough two liquidity tracks that to survivetook 50 weeks 2020, each promoters’ to enter thebigger top 10: on Hot Country Songs and Countryend Airplay,of the range. respectively, Another in June metric 2018. to “Kin watch- isEaston full-year Corbin ’schallenge “A Girl Like is You,”2021. which reached No. 10 in January 2018 be- folks” led Country Airplay on Feb.guidance 29, becoming of 143 Hunt’smillion seventh to 153 millionNo. 1. It hitsubscribers: fore peaking a at No.3) 6 that Warner February, Music and Group’s Aaron Watson earnings’s “Outta will reveal Style,” how which No. 3 on Hot Country Songs. fall in the forecast indicates that Spotify believesachieved the its No.well 10 high the in major December labels 2017. have navigated brick-and-mortar Latest single “Hard to Forget” jumps 17-9 on Hot Country Songs. It’s his “After” is Denning’s second Country Airplay entry. “David Ashley Parker pandemic’s effects will last longer than it predicted (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 22 IN BRIEF closures that hurt physical sales. Look for revenue, the second quarter was a challenge With little revenue in the quarter, comments on digital royalties and WMG’s even for fast-growing global publishers. A promoters’ balance sheets are far more outlook on subscription services for insight comparable company’s performance was important than their income statements. In into the second half of the year. Snap’s second-quarter revenue: up 17% particular, Live Nation has girded for deep After a torrential rally, Spotify’s share year-over-year but, more importantly, down losses by bolstering its liquidity through a price closed Monday at $272.82, up 82.4% sequentially from $462 million to $454 mil- $1.2 billion notes sale and a $130 million for the year but 9.0% below the high of lion in the first quarter. increase in its credit facility. As of May 1, $299.67 reached on July 22. Investors’ To investors, Spotify’s podcast business MSG Entertainment had roughly $1.4 billion ringing enthusiasm stems from a string of and continued rapid growth justify its $50 in cash and cash equivalents and short-term podcast deals with the likes of Joe Rogan, billion-plus market capitalization. J.P. Mor- investments, plus approximately $220 mil- arguably the biggest name in American gan’s Doug Anmuth set a $305 price target lion in advance cash proceeds from the $400 podcasting, and newcomer Michelle Obama. on Spotify shares while RBC Capital Mar- million sale of the Forum on March 24, The run-up was mostly anticipation for kets’ Mark Maheney has a $320 price target. according to its previous earnings release. future benefits of an aggressive push into Having set a $172 price target, Bernstein’s Warner Music Group’s earnings — set podcasting. While nobody can say if Spotify Juenger is less impressed by Spotify’s ability for Aug. 4 — will show how major labels made the right moves — wait until 2022 or to convert podcast listening into subscrib- performed in a quarter with brick-and- so — the company is likely to give an update ers and ward off Apple’s and Amazon’s push mortar retail closures hurting CD and vinyl on its progress of turning a music service into non-music content. sales. After most countries issued shelter-in- into a broader audio platform. Whatever harm the coronavirus caused to place orders in March, WMG’s first-quarter Podcasting works better as a subscriber digital music is a flesh wound compared to revenues fell 12% from $335 million to acquisition tool than an advertising genera- the damage inflicted on the live music busi- $294 million. Even though digital royalties tor.