Chris Stapleton – "Starting Over"

[Deleted]

As much as I wanted this to hit #1, I'm not totally disappointed if it's over because I'm ready for the next single. Hoping for "You Should Probably Leave".

[zdm1998]

Mar 15, 2021 20:10:27 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

Mar 15, 2021 19:54:49 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

UMG Nashville intends this to reach #1 on at least Mediabase. Max spins start the week of April 4th.

Well if they are gonna do it and try and get the Billboard #1 as well they are gonna have to hold off Gabby Barrett's "The Good Ones" which is now within 300k of it on Billboard. 

Straight up though even though this song has connected really well from a sales and streaming standpoint this song doesn't deserve #1 because country radio seems to be pretty much done with this song for quite a while now and it is annoying the label is still promoting this song when they can just move on to another single. I have to imagine when this song is done, it is gonna fall fast like we have seen with singles like "Happy Does", "Hole In The Bottle", and "I Should Probably Go To Bed" and like those 3 I hope this gets restricted to a Mediabase only #1.

Country radio grow some balls and if a song is stalling or pretty much stalled out just drop the song. The top of the chart has gotten so "Participation Trophy" it is sickening and disgusting it makes chart watching not fun as it feels like there are zero stakes once a song hits Top 15. 

See I kind of think the opposite. Country radio and the people for vote on the testing sites make up such a small portion of how people view this song. This shows how completely disconnected radio is from listeners. If a song is selling as great as this one is selling and streaming like this one is then that shows the general public is behind it. I feel like their opinion matters more than a couple of hundred disconnected radio PDs who think they know what good and what isn't. This deserves #1, just like My Church and Vice deserved #1; because like this one the public was 100% behind those, but the flawed system of testing got in the way. 

[lady𝓐fan]

One thing that confuses me is that "Starting Over" is actually doing very well in callout scores, but the thing with country radio is that the paradigm has shifted over the last few years so that nearly every single has great scores. So even though this is in last place, heavy burn is low, negative is decently low, and positive is decently high. Which is why it's weird to me that it's been crawling through the top 15 like it has for the past 10+ weeks.

[thewp]

Mar 24, 2021 10:19:11 GMT -5 zdm1998 said:

Mar 15, 2021 20:10:27 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

Well if they are gonna do it and try and get the Billboard #1 as well they are gonna have to hold off Gabby Barrett's "The Good Ones" which is now within 300k of it on Billboard. 

Straight up though even though this song has connected really well from a sales and streaming standpoint this song doesn't deserve #1 because country radio seems to be pretty much done with this song for quite a while now and it is annoying the label is still promoting this song when they can just move on to another single. I have to imagine when this song is done, it is gonna fall fast like we have seen with singles like "Happy Does", "Hole In The Bottle", and "I Should Probably Go To Bed" and like those 3 I hope this gets restricted to a Mediabase only #1.

Country radio grow some balls and if a song is stalling or pretty much stalled out just drop the song. The top of the chart has gotten so "Participation Trophy" it is sickening and disgusting it makes chart watching not fun as it feels like there are zero stakes once a song hits Top 15. 

See I kind of think the opposite. Country radio and the people for vote on the testing sites make up such a small portion of how people view this song. This shows how completely disconnected radio is from listeners. If a song is selling as great as this one is selling and streaming like this one is then that shows the general public is behind it. I feel like their opinion matters more than a couple of hundred disconnected radio PDs who think they know what good and what isn't. This deserves #1, just like My Church and Vice deserved #1; because like this one the public was 100% behind those, but the flawed system of testing got in the way. 

Why would a radio station care about that? They want songs that test well so that people don’t change the station so that they can sell ads. It’s my understanding they’re looking at local testing and feedback I.e, who listens to THEIR stations. No one cares about those radio survey sites any fan can sign up for.

[zdm1998]

Mar 24, 2021 14:35:39 GMT -5 thewp said:

Mar 24, 2021 10:19:11 GMT -5 zdm1998 said:

See I kind of think the opposite. Country radio and the people for vote on the testing sites make up such a small portion of how people view this song. This shows how completely disconnected radio is from listeners. If a song is selling as great as this one is selling and streaming like this one is then that shows the general public is behind it. I feel like their opinion matters more than a couple of hundred disconnected radio PDs who think they know what good and what isn't. This deserves #1, just like My Church and Vice deserved #1; because like this one the public was 100% behind those, but the flawed system of testing got in the way. 

Why would a radio station care about that? They want songs that test well so that people don’t change the station so that they can sell ads. It’s my understanding they’re looking at local testing and feedback I.e, who listens to THEIR stations. No one cares about those radio survey sites any fan can sign up for.

Radio has been on a decline ever since streaming became so easy. I just started watching charts within the past 5 years (around the time Carrie’s “Heartbeat” was about to go #1) and the average audience of a #1 song then was 60-65 million in audience. Now it’s around 50 million, thus meaning radio is continuing to loose audience because people are playing what they actually want to hear. A good way for radio to help combat this is to play what is connected most on a sales/ streaming front, because this gives an entire sample of the audience, not just a tiny flawed sample like testing does. No reason huge songs like My Church should be stalling while mediocre hits like “Love Ain’t” go #1 just because they “test” better.

[raylatch98]

I will say I do think there is a thing as general audience and radio audience, like I do think among the general audience "Starting Over" is connecting really well as it has high sales and streaming, but I don't think that automatically means radio should be playing this song because at the end of the day country radio is a business and they know more about their business and how it works for their betterment than we do. 

[seak05]

Mar 24, 2021 17:31:51 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

I will say I do think there is a thing as general audience and radio audience, like I do think among the general audience "Starting Over" is connecting really well as it has high sales and streaming, but I don't think that automatically means radio should be playing this song because at the end of the day country radio is a business and they know more about their business and how it works for their betterment than we do. 

let’s say you’ve got 100 people who listen to country radio, and 70 of them want A and 30 of them want b or c. So radio says ok the vast majority want A, we’re going to give them A over and over. Well 70% of your audience is happy, but you end up driving the other 30 away...and shrinking your audience.

This is what the over reliance on testing has accomplished. Instead, is a song is selling/streaming well, radio should be thinking about how to bring in that audience, who likes the song. Radio though cuts it out, and every time they do that, they shrink their base

[recordyear]

#1 on Billboard's Country Streaming Songs chart this week.

[sabre14]

Mercury Nashville is hoping for a massive push week for Stapleton and "Starting Over" this week (starting out with over 120 spins gained in today's Mediabase update).

I saw the discussion in the "The Good Ones" thread, but moving the discussion over to here. While Gabby Barrett is currently ahead by 800 spins and nearly 6.0 million in Mediabase audience over Chris, I'm getting the sense this push will be pretty big and the race for the Mediabase #1 should be a close one (which UMG Nashville is aware of). 

I'll have to see what "The Good Ones" does in gains the next few days, and I haven't seen the point totals for either song for this week, but on the surface I would give "Starting Over" a fair shot to get the MB #1 if the push is as big as it's appearing to be. FGL, Rhett and Brett Young aren't a factor this week (falling) -- Dustin/BBR isn't pushing and that leaves Gabby and Chris. Warner Music Nashville isn't pushing this week, but I'm sure they would love to have Gabby be #1 on one of the charts or both. There's no doubt the push will have to be massive for "Starting Over" to claim #1 but it's not impossible.

[onebuffalo]

Stapleton means business:

7 1 CHRIS STAPLETON Starting Over 7867 6416 1451 40.78

[raylatch98]

I know that there is a loud vocal minority that hates Chris Stapleton and his music here, but even despite the ridiculous push to #1 I am happy it did hit #1 on one of the charts as it has been a very big hit single (besides "Tennessee Whiskey" it is his highest song on the Hot 100) and I am glad that even if a bit artificially it's radio peak does reflect how big it has been (I also think this will appear on the Year End Hot 100 for 2021?)

[recordyear]

Apr 12, 2021 10:34:10 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

(I also think this will appear on the Year End Hot 100 for 2021?)

Oh yeah this is locked a while ago. Probably at 60s when it's set and done because this has charted on Hot 100 every week since release.

[recordyear]

Also (narrowly?) won against The Good Ones as #1 in Hot Country Songs. 0.4M less in airplay audience.