Blackberry Smoke Hit #1 in Country in Pure Album Sales with “Find A Light”
Blackberry Smoke is once again #1 in country, at least when you consider pure album sales. Their most recent album Find A Light released on April 6th sold more cohesive records last week than any other country release according to the Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, and also sold enough to come in at #7 total considering album sales across all genres.
This is the 3rd consecutive album for Blackberry Smoke to sell more than anyone else in country during the debut week. Their February 2015 record Holding All The Roses was the first independently-released record to hit #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart in modern history. Like An Arrow released in October of 2016 also scored a #1. The only reason Find A Light didn’t hit #1 on the Country Albums Chart this time is now streaming equivalents work heavily into the equation, putting independent artists whose fans are more likely to buy physical copies at a disadvantage.
Kane Brown’s self-titled album officially came in at #1 this week on the Billboard Country Albums chart, with Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour also benefiting from streaming and coming in at #2. Strictly in album sales, Musgraves is #15 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, and Kane Brown is all the way at #30. Brown has benefited his entire career from favorable playlist placements, which boost his streaming numbers.
Blackberry Smoke’s Find A Light sold 16,000 equivalent albums during its debut week, which is about in line with their last two records which sold 18,000 and 19,000 respectively upon debut. The numbers are also good enough to put Find A Light at #2 on the Billboard Americana/Folk chart, just behind Musgraves and Golden Hour. Find a Light also comes in at #6 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart.
The performance of Find A Light underscores how the weighing of streaming equivalents will put certain independent artists and older artists at a disadvantage in the charts in the future due to their reliance on physical sales and downloads. Sales and downloads generally result in more revenue for bands, but it’s also not doing a disservice to your favorite band to stream the record once you’ve purchased the physical product. That way they can benefit from the streaming data as well.
In other album sales news, John Prine is blowing away all expectations at the moment and creating buzz for next week’s album charts. He will certainly be beat by Jason Aldean’s newest record Rearview Town on the Country Albums chart, but early estimates have Prine selling over 40,000 albums with his first collection of all new original songs in 13 years, The Tree of Forgiveness. If the numbers maintain, they will be good enough for #2 in country, and #3 overall. Stay tuned.
April 18, 2018 @ 8:06 am
Now there’s a group of fine upstanding citizens. Wish my credit card hadn’t been hacked by some douche in California who wanted to buy truck-bed paraphernalia. Otherwise, I’d have thrown some e-cash their way today. Now I’ll just sit here and think about how there are no record stores to go anymore. Maybe I should take up smoking tobacco.
April 18, 2018 @ 8:12 am
I like this band a lot! That’s the kind of band that you wish to see at the ACM and CMA awards!
April 18, 2018 @ 8:25 am
And they are now playing on 95.9 The Ranch in Fort Worth, Texas! I hear Cody Canada of Cross Canadian Ragweed fame is a big fan and helps promote them every chance he gets.
April 18, 2018 @ 8:28 am
Awesome news!
April 18, 2018 @ 9:10 am
Trigger, this is why your site is important. I stream all of my album and search for them often on your recommendations. I listened to this album online all weekend while I was writing. If radio isn’t going to play them and they aren’t going to get good placement, we need blogs like this to get the word out.
April 18, 2018 @ 9:17 am
Enjoy it while it lasts BBS before you get your asses disrupted!
April 18, 2018 @ 10:48 am
Eat a dik.
April 18, 2018 @ 11:22 am
You’ll be the one eating misspelled body parts when A.J. McClean comes to disrupt you too pal 🙂 I mean, he was a puppet in a boy band.
April 18, 2018 @ 11:08 pm
A little context:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/backstreet-boys-a-j-mclean-says-he-wants-to-disrupt-country-turn-it-urban/
April 18, 2018 @ 10:08 am
Just got the new cd, Wow!!! What a ride!! I am 69 years and i love this band. It is always on when i am driving, and i am rocking out…Like an Arrow is also fantastic..I wish you guys all the best, keep bringing us this great music…Nancy from Texas
April 18, 2018 @ 10:13 am
Album gets better with each listen. Solid BBS release. Got tix to see them.
John Prine album is might catchy as well.. Got tix to see him!
April 18, 2018 @ 6:10 pm
I’ve listened to the new John Prine CD three times already and it gets better every time! He’s such an excellent songwriter – very catchy lyrics.
April 18, 2018 @ 10:55 am
I thought the album was good but average for them. Good for them though, they deserve this. They’re a good band.
April 18, 2018 @ 12:33 pm
Trigger, thanks for breaking down the charts for us.
It drives my mind to thinking…how can we best support our people in the biz.
Which streaming services pay the best?
Is there a difference?
Album sales direct seem to be the best way to send my hard earned money directly to the musicians that I want to support.
I’m a big fan of fair market support, but the whole world of paying for music is so convoluted and confusing, I wonder if you’d be willing to write a piece on the subject?
April 18, 2018 @ 1:07 pm
Yes, direct album sales are the best way to support your favorite artists, but streaming the album also is not harmful either. Buy a vinyl copy of a record and spin it while you’re at home, and otherwise pay $10 a month to Spotify and stream it when you’re in your car or working outside in the yard. That way your favorite artists like Blackberry Smoke don’t get buried in the charts because along with the purchase, they’re also racking up streaming data. If you play a CD in your car, there’s no record you ever listened. It’s just built into the charts from the original purchase.
A couple of years ago I broke all this down:
The Best Way to Buy Music And Support Your Favorite Artists
https://savingcountrymusic.com/the-best-way-to-buy-music-and-support-you-favorite-artists/
April 18, 2018 @ 5:20 pm
I have a family membership to Spotify and I let that baby play all day long in my office…even if I turn the volume down because someone has to talk to me, I make sure the folks are getting paid all day long!
April 18, 2018 @ 1:08 pm
Yeah, I’d be interested to hear what’s going on. Was wading around looking for something and saw:
“According to the [Amazon] company, streams of country songs on Amazon Music are 2.5 times more than the industry average.” – Billboard
Bitter clingers using what they know, is a fair explanation for why I stay there… but I’d adapt to do
things differently if it really changed the numbers on an artists deposit slip.
April 18, 2018 @ 1:17 pm
I’m not sure there is a significant enough difference between the streaming companies payout to select one over the other. If you’re already dealing with Amazon Prime, go with them. If you’re an Apple guy, that’s fine too. Spotify might be the easiest to use, but the others are fine. In the article I linked to, there is a breakdown in the payouts, but that’s probably a little old. The most important thing is to PAY for your streaming service as opposed to going the ad supported route. That ensures more money is going back into the music. Also, YouTube has notoriously bad payouts. They’re good for video, but bad as a streaming service.
Also, this is not just about money. Metadata is really important for bands these days. It gives bands a boost in charts, which creates interest behind them, helps them with booking, may help get them placed in important playlists, among other things. Every time you stream a song, it’s cataloged.
April 18, 2018 @ 1:01 pm
Going to see these guys on Saturday April 21 2018… Like what I have heard and SEEN so far…. See y’all then
April 18, 2018 @ 2:59 pm
I have to wait until early August to see this band, but on the other hand, they are playing only 1/2 mile from my residence…
April 18, 2018 @ 1:18 pm
Finally- A band that doesn’t record a bunch of covers to fill in the gaps of an uncreative mess and remains relevant by putting out a new album every 2 years or so. Good job BBS! Y’all are the real deal Holyfield! The rest are just lazy “try hards” and fakes that are in it for the party and not the music. Thank you BBS for being a genuine band for the people! About damn time people wise up to it!!!!
April 18, 2018 @ 4:57 pm
Not Country.
April 18, 2018 @ 5:30 pm
I normally agree with you. BBS is maybe “technically” southern Rock… but what specifically makes you think they are definitely “not Country”
I hear a lot of the stylistic ruffles of Bluegrass musicians, so I habitually refer to BBS as “acoustic rock played by Bluegrass musicians”
April 18, 2018 @ 6:33 pm
If we both agree this is Country:
https://youtu.be/s1_Z3XZyIpw
How can you call this Country?
https://youtu.be/K3OUEdsOD7o
April 19, 2018 @ 6:30 am
Little Joe Carson died 54 years ago. Hee Haw hadn’t even premiered yet. was there not a slightly more contemporary analogy?
If you took the 2nd or 3rd Highwaymen albums and went around playing them the day after Joe Carson passed away they would sound just as jarring as any BBS tune does.
A LOT of things change in 54 years, and Country Music *needs* to change.
I think very few people want to sit around listening to the same old records for the next 54 years.
But when Country Music needs new material, it needs Wayne Hancock, who in my mind is one of the best practitioners of that early style of Country music. it doesn’t need silly stuff.
BBS is what I would consider the modern day evolution of the old southern rock days of Charlie Daniels, Marshall Tucker Band, etc.
Good Southern rock that shares a lot of stylistic similarities with what Country Music was.
If we use Cody Jinks and Dale Watson as the control group, and put them in the shoes of the Willie, Waylon, and Johnny Paychecks of thirty/forty years ago… then BBS would be a perfect fit for the matching Marshall Tucker Band slot.
it’s all perspective.
and southern rock is generally regarded as a cousin of Country Music and shares a lot of the same audience, whereas Bluegrass, despite being practically Country Music’s closest family member, does not have the same overlap across the same number of decades. Bluegrass and Country overlapped during the early years but the fans have since split and very few Bluegrass fans have been major mainstream Country fans in forty years.
April 19, 2018 @ 12:06 pm
I only referenced Joe because you’ve name dropped him at least a dozen times. I was talking more about that sound than Joe himself.
I could’ve just as easily put a link to a good Alan Jackson song, and my point remains.
Southern Rock isn’t Country. It’s Rock made by South-based Rock bands.
April 19, 2018 @ 12:09 pm
Oh, and Fuzz, I don’t give a crap what Blugrass sticklers say, Bluegrass is a sub-category of Country. Country Music has about 5 sub-categories.
April 19, 2018 @ 12:22 pm
Well glad someone pays attention to me.
per your Bluegrass point… is Bluegrass at all canonically similar to anything out of Country Music since 1970s?
April 19, 2018 @ 7:16 am
I agree. Like Lynyrd Skynyrd was, I think they are influenced by country music, but they are clearly a rock and roll band.
April 18, 2018 @ 6:10 pm
Blackberry Smoke isn’t country, but whatever they’re dang good. However he might have started his career though, Kane Brown is now a massive up and coming star. And as a young artist, his fanbase streams a ton.
April 18, 2018 @ 6:24 pm
Oh Yeah! Good for them! Whatever genre you want to lump them under, Blackberry Smoke is a great group and they make some rockin’ music.
It would be great if we could see a ton of good Southern Rock artist rise to prominence again. BBS, Old 97s and Chris Stapleton are helping.
Anyone have recommendations of similar southern rock outfits to check out?
April 18, 2018 @ 7:12 pm
Lucero, Whiskey Myers
April 18, 2018 @ 9:23 pm
Check out The Steel Woods.
April 19, 2018 @ 5:13 pm
I picked up the Steel Woods album when it first came out and listened to it a bunch of times. Buying about 10 or so CDs a month, it kind of got lost in my shuffle but for some reason I have had it on constantly this whole week. BBS is, touring and workrate wise, in a class by themselves right now but I love the sound of the Steel Woods album.
I’ll be seeing BBS for the 9th time when they come to town next month, and am dying for a chance to check out the Steel Woods live.
April 19, 2018 @ 5:16 am
You gotta check out Wiskey Myers, they also are the real deal! A bit more “country” than BBS but in concert they rock hard!!! Can’t wait to see them again!!!
April 19, 2018 @ 6:57 am
Powder Mill. Check out the album Land of the Free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b22smquMF2s
April 18, 2018 @ 10:00 pm
I’m addicted to BBS music, concerts, etc. Southern Rock at its absolute best! All their albums I purchase and stream. Gonna see them for the 4th time in Birmingham this August with Skynyrd! It doesn’t get better than that.
April 19, 2018 @ 5:23 am
And people were confused about Allman bros too, its country rock easy to rock out or settle into…don’t over think it enjoy it
April 19, 2018 @ 5:54 am
very similar band: BLACKWATER CONSPIRACY from Ireland
April 20, 2018 @ 9:38 am
Just need to add my customary, ‘Woo-hoo!’
Love it when those album sales are up in Smoke!!