zjames
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Post by zjames on Nov 23, 2014 19:27:47 GMT -5
This sure isn't acting like a top 10 single right now. Sales are embarrassingly low for a band as popular as Lady Antebellum (not even in the top 1500 on iTunes all-genre) and now airplay is starting to flounder, too. "Freestyle" has only gained 192 spins and 1.253 million audience impressions during the past Mediabase tracking week. I could see this peaking as low as just outside the top 20 and as high as #15, but top 10 would be a shocker. I haven't heard any tracks on Lady A's album other than the two singles, but right now this is looking similar to the Golden era. Just when it seemed Lady A had found their fan base on iTunes again after the success of "Bartender," their next single just totally flies under the radar. It's quite possible this was just a bad single choice...I don't know. I can say that "Freestyle" still has fewer Spotify plays than "Lie with Me," so maybe Capitol just chose the next single too quickly and should have waited until after the album's release to evaluate all the choices (same deal as "Small Town Throwdown" and "Dust"). Yeah this song never struck me as a big hit, and it certainly doesn't look like it will become one. Earlier in the thread I predicted a peak in the in the in the around where "Goodbye Town" peaked, and that now looks pretty optimistic. I like the song well enough, but "Lie With Me" seemed like a better choice and a good change of pace after "Bartender".
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dm2081
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Post by dm2081 on Nov 23, 2014 19:46:22 GMT -5
@daydrinker I agree, I have no idea why labels don't wait until the album first comes out to pick the second single. They need to use all their resources, it will help ensure a better peaking 2nd single. See which songs are selling well on iTunes when the album comes out, and see what songs get the most plays on Spotify. I too thought this was a poor decision to blindly choose this song as the second single.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2014 20:48:33 GMT -5
I've been wondering about this one's horrid iTunes ranking for quite some time now and it's really quite the mystery to me. I didn't necessarily think this song would be a huge hit or a huge seller, but it's barely in the top 300 (#292) on iTunes country right now and that's just shockingly low.
"Bartender", on the other hand, is holding up remarkably well. It's still at #32 on iTunes country. "Bartender" is obviously still getting a lot of recurrent airplay but it's also up to #43 on the HAC chart with nearly 1.8 mil in audience and a bullet of +61. I'm not sure what other formats it was sent to but it's only in the Mediabase top 50 on HAC right now and not Pop or AC.
I think "Freestyle" can make the top 15 yet but I agree that, unless it starts to sell, it might not get much higher than that. I like the sound of it well enough, and Charles sounds good, but it doesn't really pack much of a punch. They moved on from Golden way too quickly. I still really think that either "Better Off Now" or "And The Radio Played" would have been big hits...or, at the very least, I think they'd certainly be doing better than "Freestyle" after 5-6 weeks.
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mus1cr0w
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Post by mus1cr0w on Nov 23, 2014 20:52:49 GMT -5
I just have to chime in here.
This song is crap. Lady A has lost the plot.
So many better songs floating around. I hope this flames out in the mire of oblivion and they follow with something great. I remember liking 747?
MR
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dm2081
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Post by dm2081 on Nov 23, 2014 20:56:07 GMT -5
^Heck they'd be fine from moving on from Golden if they just released a better 2nd single. "Bartender" is going to become on their biggest hits, so the decision to move on wasn't a bad one, but their 2nd singles appear to be the ones sinking their albums. "Lie With Me" and "747" were singles that stick more to the traditional Lady A sound that would be selling much better IMO. I know they're trying to get more upbeat songs into their setlist, but "Freestyle" isn't really moving the needle at all, and what they're making up for in tempo their losing in notoriety.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2014 21:48:48 GMT -5
I actually like this a lot but i agree that Lie With Me would have been a better choice
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Nov 29, 2014 18:25:41 GMT -5
At least ESPN seems to enjoy this song, as I heard it just now watching the Florida State vs. Florida game as they went to a commercial break.
Kind of took me by surprise to hear a Lady A song during a college football game.
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matty005
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Post by matty005 on Nov 29, 2014 19:32:56 GMT -5
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gonecountry
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Post by gonecountry on Dec 7, 2014 22:32:22 GMT -5
I had been hoping for an uptempo song for quite a few years and Downtown was something original and I started to have hope. Compass and Bartender were okay, nothing special. I'm suprised that they stayed uptempo, I'm more suprised by how attrocious this song is. Oh, how they've fallen. Their first two singles were incredible - Lookin For A Good Time is an incredibly fun song and Love Don't Live Here Anymore is quite an original still many years later. Need You Now really was a great thing for them, but ultimately a bad thing as they tried to copy it over and over again.
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Post by tim on Dec 7, 2014 23:16:44 GMT -5
I wasn't expecting much after reading the comments above and thought "Ugh, another country release I won't like." Wrong. This is great. I was tapping my foot along the entire time and was just having fun listening along. For me, "Bartender' just fell flat...this was the opposite. Wow, I just don't know what I was thinking or thought when I heard/typed this back in September. Maybe it was the video that killed it for me, but I am on the opposite spectrum of this song now. It's also possible that I still have some distaste for the way Lady A and their label ditched and killed the Golden era. "Goodbye Town" happened to be a great song IMO, and yet the label freaked out after its somewhat disappointing run. Anyways, I had to go back and correct my stance on this song lol.
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Dec 8, 2014 13:36:56 GMT -5
I don't feel this one will be a big hit for Lady A. The sales have just not been there, especially if you compare them to the sales of "Bartender". I could very well see another "Goodbye Town" scenario or perhaps even worse, though it is still early on in its chart run, but something to keep in mind.
I don't know about anyone else but this song almost puts me to sleep when it comes on the radio. It's become one of those just zone out or start daydreaming about anything else while its playing kind of songs. The production and feel is a little different (they sound good as always) and its clear that they are trying to change things up sonically here but it just doesn't work for me.
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zjames
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Post by zjames on Dec 8, 2014 13:47:33 GMT -5
I don't feel this one will be a big hit for Lady A. The sales have just not been there, especially if you compare them to the sales of "Bartender". I could very well see another "Goodbye Town" scenario or perhaps even worse, though it is still early on in its chart run, but something to keep in mind. I don't know about anyone else but this song almost puts me to sleep when it comes on the radio. It's become one of those just zone out or start daydreaming about anything else while its playing kind of songs. The production and feel is a little different (they sound good as always) and its clear that they are trying to change things up sonically here but it just doesn't work for me. I'm starting to feel the same way about this. At firs I actually really liked this, but now it actually bores me. I don't hate it, but I don't see it growing on me at all. "Lie With Me" seems like it would have been a much better choice for winter.
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Dustin J.
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Post by Dustin J. on Dec 9, 2014 22:39:32 GMT -5
I guess I'm in the minority here. I think this is a fun song for Lady A...almost taking me back to some of their earlier music. I've always felt as though their uptempo stuff was way better than their pop ballads.
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someguy
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Post by someguy on Dec 9, 2014 23:21:12 GMT -5
I guess I'm in the minority here. I think this is a fun song for Lady A...almost taking me back to some of their earlier music. I've always felt as though their uptempo stuff was way better than their pop ballads. I like their uptempo stuff better than their ballads for the most part too, but for whatever reason I just can't get into this song. It's probably my least favourite out of all of their singles.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2014 1:57:52 GMT -5
This song isn't too bad, but it's just kind of "there"...it doesn't seem to have any sort of hook or centralized theme to it at all. The chorus is extremely vague and nondescript. It just feels like it's a song about nothing, and I'm really not surprised that it's not selling very well. Then again, I am somewhat surprised that its sales are this abysmal
It's like people don't know what the song is or is about and can't find it to download it (ie, song about nothing). It's at #225 on the iTunes country chart, currently being outsold by songs from 5-10 years ago and obscure album tracks that aren't being heard by millions on the radio, and are sung by much less popular artists, no less. "Freestyle" isn't even in the top 1500 all-genre on iTunes.
I see this scraping the top 20 at best, with a chart run similar to "Wanted You More" from their Own The Night album (when's the last time anybody heard that one on the radio?)
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Dec 10, 2014 2:37:50 GMT -5
This song isn't too bad, but it's just kind of "there"...it doesn't seem to have any sort of hook or centralized theme to it at all. The chorus is extremely vague and nondescript. It just feels like it's a song about nothing, and I'm really not surprised that it's not selling very well. Then again, I am somewhat surprised that its sales are this abysmal It's like people don't know what the song is or is about and can't find it to download it (ie, song about nothing). It's at #225 on the iTunes country chart, currently being outsold by songs from 5-10 years ago and obscure album tracks that aren't being heard by millions on the radio, and are sung by much less popular artists, no less. "Freestyle" isn't even in the top 1500 all-genre on iTunes. I see this scraping the top 20 at best, with a chart run similar to "Wanted You More" from their Own The Night album (when's the last time anybody heard that one on the radio?) I actually heard "Wanted You More" on WYRK a few weeks back. The PD here is a fairly big supporter of Lady. That one is an even bigger bore fest than this.
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tsr
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Post by tsr on Dec 12, 2014 0:06:21 GMT -5
This song isn't too bad, but it's just kind of "there"...it doesn't seem to have any sort of hook or centralized theme to it at all. The chorus is extremely vague and nondescript. It just feels like it's a song about nothing, and I'm really not surprised that it's not selling very well. Then again, I am somewhat surprised that its sales are this abysmal It's like people don't know what the song is or is about and can't find it to download it (ie, song about nothing). It's at #225 on the iTunes country chart, currently being outsold by songs from 5-10 years ago and obscure album tracks that aren't being heard by millions on the radio, and are sung by much less popular artists, no less. "Freestyle" isn't even in the top 1500 all-genre on iTunes. I see this scraping the top 20 at best, with a chart run similar to "Wanted You More" from their Own The Night album (when's the last time anybody heard that one on the radio?) I actually heard "Wanted You More" on WYRK a few weeks back. The PD here is a fairly big supporter of Lady. That one is an even bigger bore fest than this. definitely have to disagree with you on that one. They should go ahead and move ahead to "747" though.
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Dec 12, 2014 0:45:24 GMT -5
I actually heard "Wanted You More" on WYRK a few weeks back. The PD here is a fairly big supporter of Lady. That one is an even bigger bore fest than this. definitely have to disagree with you on that one. They should go ahead and move ahead to "747" though. Even though this song is off to a dreadful start sales wise, pulling it less than two months after it was released and just after it has eclipsed the top 30 is not a wise move. Capitol will stick with this through the new year and try for a top 10 finish. Though I still think that might be a tall order. I'm not saying they won't pull the plug at some point but not right now.
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dm2081
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Post by dm2081 on Dec 12, 2014 1:17:53 GMT -5
This single choice is extremely frustrating. "Bartender" is one of the biggest hits of the year, and one of their biggest hits period. It seemed like they were going to have a new second wave of momentum, but now I fear this song will ruin any chance of that. Sometimes i think labels just over think their single choices, and had Lady A just waited a week or 2 more, they would've realized that there are far more popular songs on the album. I really hope they can still get another #1 off this album (not this song though), and I can't help but think 747 and Lie With Me would have both hit the jackpot and kept their momentum up.
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.indulgecountry
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Post by .indulgecountry on Dec 12, 2014 2:03:26 GMT -5
This song looks like it's going to derail them more than "Goodbye Town" did from the last era.
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Cody Wants Out...
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Post by Cody Wants Out... on Dec 13, 2014 10:14:35 GMT -5
What are they gonna do if this just barely makes the top 20? Move on to a new album? I would at least try "747" or "Long Stretch of Love" before doing so, though.
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zaclord 🌈
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Post by zaclord 🌈 on Dec 14, 2014 1:36:30 GMT -5
This was just a terrible single choice. "Lie With Me" is a smash waiting to happen in my opinion. And I feel like there's 5 or 6 better singles choices on this album over this one. Like others have said, this is just extremely forgettable. Not bad, but not special either.
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surfy
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Post by surfy on Dec 22, 2014 23:10:51 GMT -5
This has grown on me, but I wanted something stronger. (Sadly I never got to chart "Downtown" but I really liked that from them, and "Bartender" was great! but I honestly haven't cared much for anything else they've released since "Dancin' Away With My Heart")
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.indulgecountry
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Post by .indulgecountry on Dec 23, 2014 1:03:24 GMT -5
I'm so tired of hearing "Bartender" on the radio because I never cared for it in the first place, and it's so overplayed now. That said, I'm not really excited about this single taking over its wealth of airplay since it's not good either. Though this isn't doing so hot so I'm not anticipating to hear this one a whole lot on the radio and I expect this to probably be their second-lowest peaking single (it should make Top 20 and out-peak "Wanted You More" but I don't see this going Top 10 and even matching the #11 peak of "Goodbye Town" and "Lookin' for a Good Time" might be difficult with the way this has been doing). I gave the 747 album a listen and I remember not a lot stood out to me save for maybe 2-3 songs, but I'll need to revisit the album again. Still, my initial response was that it was a step down from the greatness of Golden. Shame they paid that era so much dust w/ the messy re-release and moving on so early.
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Markus Meyer
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Post by Markus Meyer on Dec 23, 2014 2:56:56 GMT -5
Honestly, '747' just did nothing for me. It seemed like it was quickly thrown together simply for the sake of re-establishing themselves as a radio go-to. Didn't seem like there was a whole lot effort put into it. Which is a shame because 'Golden' was absolutely outstanding.
As for this song, it just gets worse each time I hear it. Easily one of my least faves on the charts right now. The production, vocals, lyrics, it's all so BLAH to me.
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Post by Daryl the Beryl on Dec 24, 2014 21:27:24 GMT -5
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Post by Daryl the Beryl on Jan 6, 2015 3:22:04 GMT -5
Claims the Airpower award on Billboard: 20 20 12 FREESTYLE Capitol Nashville Airpower Lady Antebellum Audience: 15.260(+2.561) Number of plays: 2693 (+421) Rank in terms of plays:20
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Jan 8, 2015 14:28:48 GMT -5
Like jhomes87 brought up late last night in the "What We Ain't Got" thread, "Freestyle" has just not been getting the job done as a second single for Lady A, coming off a huge #1 in "Bartender". The three weeks on MB before the break, it accumulated 1762 points (average of 587), and 3.1 million in audience (average of 1.0 million). It did gain over 1500 points and over 5 million in audience over the holidays but that was to be expected over the Christmas layoff and the regains from the audience losses during that time period. Nothing really alarming but certainly slower than this should be moving considering a brand new album having just been released and on the heels of one of the biggest singles of the year. I actually went back to see how their last second single "Goodbye Town" performed after 12 Billboard weeks, which is where "Freestyle" is at currently and it only solidified my skepticism for "Freestyle's" future. "Goodbye Town" had 23.3 million in audience and 3600 spins. "Freestyle" over the same time span has 15.2 million in audience and just under 2700 spins. The level of audience spread out on the entire Airplay chart for both charts are roughly the same too so its not like "Freestyle is playing in a different league here. You couple in the already brought up awful sales thus far ("Drunk Americans" is the only one selling less in the top 30 right now and that one is running on fumes) and I don't think "Freestyle" is making the top 10 just like fore mention "Goodbye Town". In short, this was just not a smart single choice.
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rsmatto
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Post by rsmatto on Jan 8, 2015 16:00:03 GMT -5
Like jhomes87 brought up late last night in the "What We Ain't Got" thread, "Freestyle" has just not been getting the job done as a second single for Lady A, coming off a huge #1 in "Bartender". The three weeks on MB before the break, it accumulated 1762 points (average of 587), and 3.1 million in audience (average of 1.0 million). It did gain over 1500 points and over 5 million in audience over the holidays but that was to be expected over the Christmas layoff and the regains from the audience losses during that time period. Nothing really alarming but certainly slower than this should be moving considering a brand new album having just been released and on the heels of one of the biggest singles of the year. I actually went back to see how their last second single "Goodbye Town" performed after 12 Billboard weeks, which is where "Freestyle" is at currently and it only solidified my skepticism for "Freestyle's" future. "Goodbye Town" had 23.3 million in audience and 3600 spins. "Freestyle" over the same time span has 15.2 million in audience and just under 2700 spins. The level of audience spread out on the entire Airplay chart for both charts are roughly the same too so its not like "Freestyle is playing in a different league here. You couple in the already brought up awful sales thus far ("Drunk Americans" is the only one selling less in the top 30 right now and that one is running on fumes) and I don't think "Freestyle" is making the top 10 just like fore mention "Goodbye Town". In short, this was just not a smart single choice. They shoulda went with "She Is" or "Sounded Good At The Time." Both those sound like smashes. Now that they've got to regain momentum, "She Is" should be the choice. It could be a "God Gave Me You" for them (and it's personal to Hillary since it was the song on her wedding video).
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dm2081
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Post by dm2081 on Jan 8, 2015 19:45:48 GMT -5
Like jhomes87 brought up late last night in the "What We Ain't Got" thread, "Freestyle" has just not been getting the job done as a second single for Lady A, coming off a huge #1 in "Bartender". The three weeks on MB before the break, it accumulated 1762 points (average of 587), and 3.1 million in audience (average of 1.0 million). It did gain over 1500 points and over 5 million in audience over the holidays but that was to be expected over the Christmas layoff and the regains from the audience losses during that time period. Nothing really alarming but certainly slower than this should be moving considering a brand new album having just been released and on the heels of one of the biggest singles of the year. I actually went back to see how their last second single "Goodbye Town" performed after 12 Billboard weeks, which is where "Freestyle" is at currently and it only solidified my skepticism for "Freestyle's" future. "Goodbye Town" had 23.3 million in audience and 3600 spins. "Freestyle" over the same time span has 15.2 million in audience and just under 2700 spins. The level of audience spread out on the entire Airplay chart for both charts are roughly the same too so its not like "Freestyle is playing in a different league here. You couple in the already brought up awful sales thus far ("Drunk Americans" is the only one selling less in the top 30 right now and that one is running on fumes) and I don't think "Freestyle" is making the top 10 just like fore mention "Goodbye Town". In short, this was just not a smart single choice. They shoulda went with "She Is" or "Sounded Good At The Time." Both those sound like smashes. Now that they've got to regain momentum, "She Is" should be the choice. It could be a "God Gave Me You" for them (and it's personal to Hillary since it was the song on her wedding video). While those songs are decent, I really think 747 and Lie With Me are more traditional Lady A songs, and would appeal to radio and their fans because so.
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