Today’s thread is brought to you by the numbers 4, 9, 45, 23K and 15B. Updated to include Trent’s download numbers from last week.
On Billboard’s Hot 100, Rihanna and Bieber land long-term achievements while the record of non-American’s topping the chart is extended to 40 weeks.
Rihanna’s “Work” featuring Drake tops the Hot 100 for its 8th week and gives her a total of 59 weeks at the top of the chart. That ties the Beatles for the second total number of weeks at number one behind former Idol judge Mariah Carey who holds the record at 79. “Work” had 27M streams, 102M AI and 63K in downloads. All are down from last week.
Lukas Graham continues at 2nd with their “7 Years”. They are closing the gap with “Work” with 17.8M streams, 90M AI and 127K in downloads. Can they pass “Work” next week or will they need another week (or will they stall before it ever happens?). “7 Years” has topped charts around the globe. Meghan Trainor’s “No” is 3rd and is currently in the best position to snap that non-American chart topping streak.
Zayn’s “Pillowtalk” (performed by one of the contestants on The Voice last night) continues at 4th this week. Designer’s “Panda” pops up at 5th in the top 10 due to becoming a bit of an Internet meme. Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” slips down a spot to 6th, but it ties the record number of weeks in the top 10 since debut at 21 weeks. It’s a five way tie with the other two singles from his “Purpose” (“What do You Mean” and “Sorry”), Voice Judge Adam Levine’s Maroon 5’s “Sugar” and Idol Judge Nicki Minaj’s “Starship”. “Love Yourself” is in a good position to break that record next week as it continues to top the airplay chart for the 9th week with 143M AI – radio loves that song.
Flo Rida’s “My House” is 7th, Mike Posner’s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” is 8th (new high), X-Factor’s Fifth Harmony’s “Work from Home” (featuring Ty Dolla $ign) is 9th (new high) and G-Eazy and Bebe Rexha’s “Me, Myself & I” is 10th.
We did not expect the Idols to make a dent on this chart with late week song releases. Still Trent managed to sell 23K of his “Falling” by Thursday at midnight, 6K of “Drink You Away” and 5K of “Sharped Dress Man. Thanks ptebwwong for finding the numbers!
In biz news, global music revenue was up 3.2% TO $15B. Digital services accounted for 45% of revenue outstripping physical revenues. Total digital revenues were up 10.2% despite download revenues falling 10.5%. Physical revenue dropped 4.5%. North American revenues were up 1.4%, European 2.3%, Asia 5.7% and Latin American up 11.8% (largely due to a staggering 80.4% increase in streaming revenue).
How about a blast from the past? Led Zeppelin is getting sued for Copyright infringement. “Stairway to Heaven” was released back in 1971 (45 years ago) and has become a rock standard, but not so fast says the estate of Randy Wolfe lead guitarist of Spirit. The estate claims that Zep stole parts of the song from Spirit’s “Taurus” that was written some time around 1966-1967 (it was the 60s – dates are a little fuzzy). Apparently, the two bands played at some of the same festivals. But nobody noticed until now? Isn’t it a little late? Well, the estate got around the statute-of-limitations rules because “Stairway to Heaven” was remastered and re-released in 2014. Huh? Seems like a weak sauce way around not having made a timely claim. But a judge bought that case and the reasoning and the trial starts May 10th. Should be fun times trying to argue that one.
