Idol Billboard Update for Issue 10/18/08
This week’s Idol Billboard Update is right HERE. Lots of debuts this week, let’s do the highlights, shall we?
- Jennifer Hudson’s debut album Jennifer Hudson debuts big on the Billboard 200. It enters at #2, selling 217K. Nice numbers, Jennifer! Her single “Spotlight” moves into the #2 position on the Hot R&B Songs and Airplay Charts. It retains it’s #1 on the Hot Adult R&B Airplay chart and holds steady at #6 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip Hop chart. She got a significant boost on the Hot 100 – 36-29, Hot 100 Airplay, 17-16. It finally debuts on the Hot Digital Tracks chart at #37 and the Hot Digital Songs chart at #38. Sales increased 145% this week, from 13K-32K for a total of 177K.
- Kellie Pickler’s sophomore effort, Kellie Pickler debuts at #9, selling 43K. Her single “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful” debuts at #3 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart and climbs from 26-25 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
- David Cook’s new single “Light On” enters the Billboard charts this week. Here are the numbers: Hot 100 at #17, Pop 100 – #24, Pop 100 Airplay – #67, Hot Digital Tracks – #8, Hot Digital Songs – #8, Hot Canadian Digital Singles – #30, Canadian Hot 100 – #61. Meanwhile, “Time of My Life” hangs in there. It holds on to its #1 position on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, and re-enters the Hot Digital Songs chart at #71.
- Bucky Covington’s single “I’ll Walk” enters the Hot 100 at #93 and the Hot 100 Airplay chart at #72.
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19 Responses to “Idol Billboard Update for Issue 10/18/08”
David’s Cooks new single is doing well and kudo’s to magic rainbows the little song that could. Congrats to the other three Idols as well.
Go Magic Rainbow! Go!!
Why is that I haven’t heard Light On once on the radio? Is it just that the radio stations in my area suck? It’s really making me a bit angry.
I read on a forum that Light On won a “kick it or pick it” poll on Radio Disney… with 76%. It may begin to be heard there soon.
It’s just really early. Some stations are early adopters and others are big followers. The early adopters will pick up a song early and start playing it, usually overnight at first and then “test spins” during the day to see what kind of reaction it gets by their listeners. They also conduct callout surveys to determining how well its listeners really like a song. These callout surveys are combined into national survey rankings that can be accessed by all stations. A song has to have 60% familiarity to make the ranking, so don’t expect to see Light On there any time soon (Crush just made the rankings last week and its still only at 65%).
The follower stations won’t add the song until it either makes the Top 40 on pop, or the Top 50 on the Hot 100, depending on how risk averse they are. Top 40 on pop is easier to make than Top 50 on Hot 100 (because the Hot 100 combines all genres so there are simply more songs to compete with).
The other followers will wait for a big station in their general area to add the song before they give it a chance.
So the whole process takes awhile. Songs by debut artists will generally take much longer than songs by established artists. And the road to get higher airplay is fraught with frustrations–stalls, brick walls, faster-moving songs getting the bump, etc. It will take a couple months or more for some stations to put Light On into medium rotation. So don’t get worried you’re not hearing it yet. It’s still too soon for that.
I heard something about the 14th for Light On to start impacting (or something) on the radio. I don’t know what it means, but I don’t think it will start getting much play until Tuesday. Maybe someone who knows about this can elaborate.
The station where my little brother works (the big station in this area) doesn’t even have the song yet. I know because I’ve been hounding him to play it.
YAY for Archie’s vid! He’s such a great guy, with astounding talent and smarts. OK really I’m commenting for COOK. I’m SO excited for him! I hope Light On does well. I have it “in heavy rotation” I think is the term, along with a couple other Cook songs (older ones actually). I hope his new album is everything he expects and wants. I hope he maintains his sanity and stays grounded, knows what he wants, doesn’t get lost…because I want him around for a long time. I’m selfish, I admit. I just want him around so I can listen to him, hear new music, hear what he has to say, listen to him SING. Gawd, what is it about him and his voice and his words? OK I’m getting fangirly so I shall sign off. I’m really proud of Archie and Cook. But I do so love Cook…. :clap_tb:
I just want to give *hugs* to the “seemingly” DA fans who are being so encouraging as far as DC goes. It almost brings tears to my eyes! THANKS!!! :happy_tb:
I also want to say YAY for how well “Crush” is doing! :cool2_tb:
Go Davids!!!! I honestly believe they’re both going to do great and awesome things in the music industry!!!!!!! WooHoo!!!! :thumbup_tb:
Thanks for the feedback soundscene, but (and I know I’m not supposed to compare) why do I hear “Crush” rather often (and I heard it since it came out, not just recently)? It’s ok, the whole radio play system confuses me. I’ll just keep on hoping.
It just works that way sometimes. There are stations playing Light On right now that don’t have Crush on their playlist at all. It depends on what the program director thinks his/her audience will like. If a station leans more pop/R&B they may be more apt to play Crush. If it leans more pop-rock/rock, they may be more apt to play Light On.
There’s also another factor that may be holding Light On back a little–it’s impacting around the time a lot of other songs are being released to radio. You have this big fuss over Britney Spears’ “Womanizer,” and that song is like a plague on the pop charts because it started eating up other songs’ spins very quickly. You also have Nickelback’s “Gotta Be Somebody” released very recently and doing very, very well on both pop and Hot AC stations. Although “Gotta Be Somebody” is probably the poppiest Nickelback single yet, they are still considered “rock.” It could be that a program director decides that he can’t add two rock songs to a pop station within a certain period of time so holds back adding the song by the newer artist. That’s just speculation, but I have heard of a person calling a radio station and the program director saying that there were simply too many new songs out and that Light On would have to wait, even though the PD liked the song.
My local pop station just put Crush into daytime medium rotation last Wednesday. It technically added Crush two months ago, but has only played it in the middle of the night. That station has already added Light On but, yes, is only playing it in the middle of the night.
I heard “Light On” today for the first time on one of Houston’s Top 40 stations during my drive to work. To put this into perspective, it took about a month and half after Crush was released before I heard it on that same radio station. Houston is one of the huge radio markets. That should give some encouragement to you Cookies out there. Go David C!
It was on RadioDisney this afternoon and got a 74% pick. I posted in yesterday’s headline thread about it going to be on this afternoon (Saturday).
I haven’t heard LO on my local stations, nor Crush. They play Jordin Parks all the time along with Daughtry and Underwood but I do hear TOML being played now and then. I don’t understand this radio thing either.
I really, really, really hate to say this, but looking at Itunes and combining it with the extremely limited radio play it’s receiving– LO could conceivably fall out of the Hot 100 from #17 after only one week.
It WILL come back though.
Noctem, the drop next week should be steep, but I don’t think it will fall out of the Hot 100 completely.
radio in the upper ohio valley is so lame that we never get to hear a song until it becomes so big that it can’t be ignored any longer. so lame it’s pathetic :annoyed_tb:
LOL cricket, I know this is OT, but hudda thunk there would be two cricket “type” names on here from Ohio. I’m from the Miami Valley.
Back on topic. (I think). I guess I better figure out what stations to call and request it on, obviously not in a harrassing kind of way.
My guess is that LO will be somewhere between 45 and 50 on the digital sales chart. Its streaming has remained strong. Air play is hard to call at this time. My understanding from Pulse Music Board is that (for some reason that I don’t understand) for the “mixed” charts, such as Hot 100, they actually use airplay measures through Tuesday. I believe that there will be some nice increases on Monday and Tuesday with the adds dates, based on what we’re seeing over this weekend and what fans have been told by folks at radio stations. Even if DC’s airplay growth continued at the same pace that it has, without some jumps based on the adds dates, DC will be nearing the top 50 on CHR/Top 50 by Tuesday and should hit the top 50 on HAC by the end of Tuesday. So, I suspect that there will be a substantial drop, but there’s good reason to believe that LO will still be on the Hot 100.