Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Finding a 'Home' in the Top Ten


In its 17th week on the chart, Dierks Bentley's latest single "Home" became his 14th Top-10 single thus far in his career! Congrats, Mr. Prez! Though it moved into the top 10 on Mediabase last week (it is #9 there), it finally hit its current peak on Billboard, at #10, this week (the two charts have different rules when it comes to sending songs to recurrent status, hence the difference). 

It may seem as though the song is moving somewhat slower, and in some respects, it is. However, it is important to note that slower songs typically have a slower ascent up the charts. Not only that, but it did have a 3-week "rest" as the charts dealt with the Christmas effect. Right now, this looks to hit #1 in week 23 or 24. Average chart run time on Billboard is 21.8 weeks. There is an "everybody gets their turn" trend right now on the charts, which puts it 6th in line, assuming nothing going up drops out in front of it. And although it had a little bit of an "off week," I think Capitol is letting it have a bit of a breather before heavier rotation starts back up in conjunction with the album release, as well as Arizona's Centennial (you'll remember it's the "theme song"). For a slower song, it's selling fairly well, too, with current sales sitting at roughly 140,000. And, its listener feedback is also very high - it is #3 on Radio Feedback, and #9 at Callout America.

So although it won't be #1 when the album drops (I think it will be just outside the Top 5), it's still a very healthy-performing song and is doing a great job of promoting the album. As Mike Dungan pointed out to Billboard over the weekend, the great thing is that this album already has two songs that fans are familiar with and responding to (not to mention "Diamonds Make Babies," "5150" and "Cold Cans" that they introduced fans to on the road over the course of the past year). That should only help translate to album sales once the album comes out on February 7th (that's just TWO WEEKS AWAY!!!).

Keep telling radio you're still interested in hearing this song - call, text, tweet or email your stations regularly to request and/or thank them for playing it!

~ Carrie S. (DBC Rep/Chart Reporter ~ NC)

3 comments:

  1. Awesome report! Who's in 1-9 spots that we need to jump over? In other words, who is our biggest competition?

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  2. 1, 3, and 6 are falling right now. (Luke Bryan, Eric Church, and David Nail - pretty sure they'll all go recurrent by album release, putting Home at #7.)

    Then there's Chris Young, Band Perry, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, and Martina McBride. He needs to hold off Toby Keith (um, so everybody should start calling their stations to tell them to STOP PLAYING RED SOLO CUP), George Strait, Blake Shelton, Taylor Swift and possibly Jake Owen.

    It's *possible* that the Martina song might stumble and start to descend. But I don't think Home will do any more jumping - the audience impression totals are just far too great from one group to the next. (He and Martina are in the 23 million range on Billboard. Keith and Kenny? 29 million. Band Perry and Chris Young? 36 million, and Luke is at 40 million. In a *great* week, a song will pick up 2-3 million.)

    At this point, we patiently wait our turn. I'm sure Capitol will crank the heat up when it hits the top 3, but I will be absolutely amazed if it jumps a song that is not falling past it.

    ~ Carrie :)

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  3. Always love your insight on the charts, Carrie!

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