Sam Smith - "Like I Can"

[jjose712]

Suddenly the updates are atrocious. It seems radio is more than ready to pull the plug without even waiting for the callout scores. And that's a little weird, this comes after two big hits and a top 20, the song is doing relatively well on itunes due it's low airplay. I find really rare that radio is not giving it a chance.

With a little luck he will be able to do some promo soon, maybe the song climbing on itunes make radio change its mind, but frankly i don't undrestand it, even if it wasn't smashing, till thrusday last week the song was climbing at an ok rhythm

[Envoirment]

Not surprised this isn't doing all too well. He's lost his momentum somewhat and there's just a lot of competition/huge songs, plus it's the 4th single off the album. Will be nice if it can go top 20 though.

[crazyfun1]

In that defense..Katy Perry had 5 singles off of one of her albums and Ed Sheeran has 4 or 5 now ? I think the # of singles is irrelevant. Lay me Down killed it since its a great song but not meant for radio. Also SWM and INTOO are still in pretty high rotation and stations aren't....replacing either of those songs with his new song.

[crazyfun1]

Jun 30, 2015 6:44:58 GMT -5 jjose712 said:

Suddenly the updates are atrocious. It seems radio is more than ready to pull the plug without even waiting for the callout scores. And that's a little weird, this comes after two big hits and a top 20, the song is doing relatively well on itunes due it's low airplay. I find really rare that radio is not giving it a chance.

With a little luck he will be able to do some promo soon, maybe the song climbing on itunes make radio change its mind, but frankly i don't undrestand it, even if it wasn't smashing, till thrusday last week the song was climbing at an ok rhythm

It's funny that you say radio is about to give up on the song because my ATT U Verse 'stingray' Hit Music section is kicking up LIC a notch and playing it 2-3x a day and they generally keep up with what radio does or they start playing hits way before they're played on the radio..so if anyone here has ATT U Verse you can go to channel 5120 and go to Hits and all the latest plus latest before they hit radio are all played. Also it just made #30 on Carson Dalys Daily Download so it wouldn't make sense for radio to pull it. It would be sad if ot did.

[crazyfun1]

And it is playing on my radio now. 104.5 KSLQ Washington MO

[jjose712]

Frankly right now i don't know what to think, radio seems unable to make up its mind with this.
The song had 9 new adds which it's good (not a sign of radio quitting this at all), maybe the bunch of bad updates was only something random (right now the chart look really stalled in the 30-50 part).

Hopefully the callout scores will be great and they will be the final push of the song, but i think the audience is too small yet to appear in the callout scores.
The other solution is a performance, i think this will rise fast on itunes after a performance, but of course he needs to be fully recovered before that and i don't know if he can sing right now

[crazyfun1]

I always think..what would happen if artists didn't perform their latest songs on award shows and let the song speak for itself ? Honestly if a song is bad it should so horrible, if a song is great it should do well with or without a performance.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Songs don't do well based on how good they are. They do well from exposure. People can't know amazing songs (or crappy songs) exist unless they hear about them from somewhere. Award shows, talk shows, etc.

I don't think there are many places right now to do promo other than late night though.

[jjose712]

It depends on the artist or the label push of the song. If this was released after INTOO i think the level of airplay would be enough to carry the sales.

It's a fourth single of an album near to 2 million in sales, the label won't be pushing too much. LMD killed the momentum on radio, but anyway this should be performing way better than it is.

Anyway radio not always react the way one expect. Human is a good example, Cristina Perri had two previous decent hits, people liked the song, it was selling well, but radio totally passed.
Budapest had great callout scores, but radio audience was always lower than songs with similar spins.

In this case all odds are against in terms of promo. The song was very very low on itunes before the release, the video was not new, he can't perform, so it relays on radio airplay, and till now, radio is not playing this enough to have a real impact on sales.

Curiously i think with even a little promo will be enough to give the song the push it needs

[brucelover]

LMD was a stupid choice, they should have released this with a brand new music video and major performances. If he can't sing then lip synch.

[Mikel Echarri]

Debuts at #99 on the Hot 100 this week!!

[jjose712]

Jul 2, 2015 4:26:51 GMT -5 Mikel Echarri said:

Debuts at #99 on the Hot 100 this week!!

The week LMD falls off the chart. Unfortunately i don't know if he will be able to stay on the hot 100 next week, airplay is terrible this week (at least he had a good day on the AC chart) and right now it's out of top 100 on itunes, if today something doesn't change (his bad updates started last thrusday) i don't know if there'll be hope for the song after the lost of all its bullet.

Given the very low airplay and the fact that it was in the lower part of the top 100 of itunes the whole week i suppose it's the streaming the thing that makes the song chart on the hot 100.

It's curious how the airplay that it was the main force in his two first hits, it's failing in this one (after failing in the previous one too)

[jjose712]

A -6 update when last week he had a +2, this doesn't look good at all. The label should push the song a bit (i know it's a fourth single and the album keeps selling) to avoid the song dying before doing some promo

[crazyfun1]

With Sam, he's new to his label Capital. I hope when he's old enough he stops letting them pull his strings and either gets a backbone to leave or speak up for himself and tell them they already hurt his career by lack of promo even if he couldn't perform or sing. Capital had done some major damage to him already and I hope they acknowledge that.

[jjose712]

They are not promoting this single that's for sure, and the chose of LMD was a mistake, but he had a great promo when he started his career (it's true it was very easy, but nobody could predict that).
Even if this single flops, his career is not at risk at all. There will be a lot of buzz for his second album, the risk it'll be if the first single of that album flops (but even with a good plannification that could be solved).

He is more an album singer than a singles singer (even when his previous singles did that well) and the album keeps selling.
I think it's a pity if they don't do promo for this single because the sound it's different and it would be good if american audiences realize he is more than ballads (it would help for the second album), but he is already in a good place in his career.
Of course we have plenty of examples of people who did amazing with his first album to flop big time with the second, but i'm quite positive it won't be his case

[jaex]

Jul 3, 2015 8:39:03 GMT -5 jjose712 said:

They are not promoting this single that's for sure, and the chose of LMD was a mistake, but he had a great promo when he started his career (it's true it was very easy, but nobody could predict that).
Even if this single flops, his career is not at risk at all. There will be a lot of buzz for his second album, the risk it'll be if the first single of that album flops (but even with a good plannification that could be solved).

He is more an album singer than a singles singer (even when his previous singles did that well) and the album keeps selling.
I think it's a pity if they don't do promo for this single because the sound it's different and it would be good if american audiences realize he is more than ballads (it would help for the second album), but he is already in a good place in his career.
Of course we have plenty of examples of people who did amazing with his first album to flop big time with the second, but i'm quite positive it won't be his case

I agree. LMD was a poor choice for a single and this era lost momentum on the radio because of it, but his career isn’t in any danger even if LIC does nothing. Everyone has an underperforming single now and then, it’s no big deal. It’s a shame of course, I like LIC a lot and it shows a different side to his music, but he’ll be fine either way.

[jjose712]

Yes, the label should push LIC a bit, give the song a little time. Right now the problem is LIC drop a lot of positions on itunes.
The song is doing at least decently on streaming because with the low airplay and the barely in the top 100 on itunes i doubt it will chart on the hot 100 without streaming.

Today it had a +3 on pop (but losing audience), +22 on hot ac (but with a little gain in audience) and a +5 on AC (on AC is doing quite well, the song is near top 20).
On canada LIC is doing way better than LMD did in terms of airplay

[crazyfun1]

A lot of his fans posted video clips on Instagram of his first show today in Mexico I believe...his first since his surgery. His voice sounds outstanding so I'm really glad he's back on the road !

[jjose712]

First day in some time with positive gains in spins and audience in pop, hot ac and ac. Hopefully this tendency will last, now it needs to recover on itunes

[crazyfun1]

Jul 4, 2015 12:40:52 GMT -5 jjose712 said:

First day in some time with positive gains in spins and audience in pop, hot ac and ac. Hopefully this tendency will last, now it needs to recover on itunes

I can usually tell how well a song is doing by watching my U Verse Stingray music selection. For some reason they are always ahead of radio and songs go onto heavier or lighter rotation days before I hear more or less of them on the radio so these days I've been listening to radio less and if I'm home tune into my music station which has been 100% accurate where music is concerned and yes they have been rotating LIC way more often the last 2 days.

[jjose712]

Only 2 new adds this week, on a more positive note the song is getting nearer top 100 on itunes again.
Anyway the number of adds is not the problem, last week it had 9 and there wasn't a positive movement till the end of the week (and only in terms of spins, because audience is totally stalled)

[jjose712]

Better updates in recent days and 13 early adds on pop, maybe this has a chance after all (but it changed its path so many times that it's difficult to predict)

[jjose712]

17 new adds this week, i think it's a good sign, hopefully the good updates continue

[crazyfun1]

Jul 15, 2015 4:40:06 GMT -5 jjose712 said:

17 new adds this week, i think it's a good sign, hopefully the good updates continue

Maybe this song will shock me if it ends up doing amazing. I will know soon enough just how good Sam is live. I will be seeing him in concert shortly. I can't wait to hear his vocals since his surgery.

I always think if stations are going to waste or spend their time adding songs play them if not don't bother adding them

[jjose712]

Enters at 40 on American top 40. That should give the song a nice push because it was not played before.
Now the song is doing better on pop than on hot ac.
I still think what this song needs is a little promo, but if pop continues to support it, maybe reaching a decent audience will be enough to make this song rise on itunes.
I expect this to come back to the hot 100 next week, or maybe the week after that

[david079]

ONE performance could get this off the ground. I hope they announce something soon. I can't think of anything he's done since the Grammys.

[pnobelysk]

Jul 17, 2015 14:14:32 GMT -5 david079 said:

ONE performance could get this off the ground. I hope they announce something soon. I can't think of anything he's done since the Grammys.

That's because he had to go on vocal rest for surgery otherwise there probably WOUDLVE Been a lot more promotion

[Daryl the Beryl]

Top 30 on Pop:

33 30 SAM SMITH Like I Can 2338 1863 475 7.789

[The Upper Hand]

I doubt they're promoting this song since Sam's collaboration with Disclosure is soon to be released.

[jjose712]

9 early adds on pop.
Pity that now that the song is doing well on pop it totally stalled on hot ac