Weekly Register: FGL, Shelton and 'The Voice's' Danielle Bradbery

With no new country album releases in the 5k and up zone this week it seems an excellent time to focus on tracks. The tracks chart is a very interesting list these days. First we have to keep mentioning Florida Georgia Line who aren’t bordering on success— they now own it. Their monster smash, “Cruise” retains its lock on the chart top by selling another 196k units. At this rate it will be 4X Platinum next week! Having two versions of the track has been a masterful and profitable idea for all connected to this project. (The remix featuring Nelly actually sold 126k of this week’s total 196k, for an RTD of over one million.)
But happening right underneath the glitz of FGL’s achievement there is another story playing out, based around a TV singing contest—The Voice. Blake Shelton’s huge personality and tall talent have really benefited from this massive media exposure platform. And the Okie has totally maxed the opportunity. Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here” track jumps 36% this week staying in the No. 2 spot with over 147k downloads. The song has charted for 10 weeks and next week will surely pass the one million mark. Shelton’s benefit concert this past week to support disaster victims in his home state likely helped swell his numbers, but he’s just so damn likable…
And that brings us to another of Shelton’s good qualities, his ability to pick talent. He chose last year’s winner, Cassadee Pope and now it seems he has once again found a talent that is touching the hearts and pocketbooks of fans across the country.
It’s no surprise that Danielle Bradbery was one of the final five saved by America on last night’s show. Bradbery currently has three songs on the top 100 country tracks list. “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout The Good Ole Days)” which she sang on last week’s show jumped to No. 7 with almost 52k downloads. The previous week her rendition of “Heads Carolina, Tails California” sold 48k (No. 8) and then added another 9k this week. Four weeks ago her song choice was “Maybe It Was Memphis” which debuted at No. 9 with sales of over 49k.
Isn’t this normal you might ask? Well there are other contestants with songs on the charts, but on the country side all of them added together don’t equal Danielle’s tally.
I don’t want to be accused of laying down the jinx, but winner or not, this 16-year-old Texan (@DBradbery) with the golden pipes is winning fans and already selling an enviable amount of product. Her Twitter feed is about to pass 100k and growing rapidly. Surely the announcements of a high profile manager, label and new producer will be arriving soon. Who will it be?
Album Chart
Moving briefly to the album side, Blake Shelton (42k) leads, barely edging out Darius Rucker (No. 2; 41k) for the top spot. It’s week two for Mr. Rucker who suffered a 51% decline, much less than normal. George Strait (No. 3; 26k); Lady Antebellum (No. 4; 24k) and Florida Georgia Line (No. 5; 22k) round out the top 5.
Stay tuned for next week when we’ll have numbers on LeAnn Rimes’ new Spitfire, plus measure the effects on sales from the CMT Awards and of course CMA Music Fest…