Price Points & Playlist Manipulations: How Babe Rexha Gamed The System to Go #1 in Country
This week the country music world was shocked when a pop star named Bebe Rexha and her song “Meant To Be” featuring Florida Georgia Line debuted at the very top spot of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. This feat was historic, and had only been accomplished two other times in the chart’s 70-year history, and only in specialty cases. The only other songs to debut at #1 were the All-Star, cross-generational “Forever Country” song released ahead of the 50th annual CMA Awards in 2016, and “My Baby’s Got a Smile on Her Face” by Craig Wayne Boyd released after his win on NBC’s The Voice.
The #1 distinction was dubious enough since Bebe Rexha is clearly not a country star. For reasons yet to be explained by Billboard, Rexha was allowed to appear on a country music chart, even when the result of this decision would be a historic outcome that was sure to cause reverberations throughout the country industry for years to come.
But looking deeper into the numbers, something didn’t seem to add up. Yes, Billboard’s chart rules change in 2012 to allow spins on pop radio to count on country charts was part of the cause for Rexha’s incredible debut, but she was still only sitting at #28 on the pop charts, and only at #48 Country Airplay charts. “Meant To Be” also stood only at #40 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100. So how did it end up at #1 in country, even with all of the pop data propping it up? The song is barely even a Top 40 hit in its home genre. Since the Hot Country Songs chart uses an amalgam of metrics to decide a song’s placement, there must have been an incredible amount of interest coming from other sources such as streaming and downloads to justify the #1 placement.
Instead of looking at the radio airplay charts of pop and country to find the traction for “Meant To Be,” the better place is in the digital realm. While “Meant To Be” sits at #40 on the all-genre Hot 100, it’s #8 on the all-genre Digital Songs Sales Chart. It’s also #1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Songs Sales chart. The song accomplished this by selling an impressive 25,000 downloads in one week. In other words, pop radio play and Billboard’s 2012 rule changes weren’t the biggest factor in Bebe Rexha debuting at #1. It was the downloads.
So where did all of these downloads come from, and why? It’s pretty simple. While most songs are priced at $1.29 via services such as iTunes and Amazon, Bebe Rexha’s “Meant To Be” is only priced at $0.69 at the moment—basically half price, which dramatically boosts the chances it will be downloaded, but still giving “Meant To Be” 100% credit in Billboard’s metrics right beside songs downloaded at full price. Though Billboard does have rules ensuring songs and albums priced at a severe discount don’t get an unfair advantage in the marketplace, the threshold for a song is $0.39.
This practice of giving a promotional price to a single is not unheard of. Other songs and albums have gained an advantage in the charts via price points as a promotional tool. But what makes the price point so critical in this instance is how downloads are weighed in Billboard’s tabulations when it comes to the Hot Country Songs chart, and how that didn’t seem to factor in the mind of Billboard’s chart managers when making the controversial decision to place Bebe Rexha and “Meant To Be” at #1.
Since downloading a song shows a much greater commitment from a consumer than streaming it, one download is equivalent to 150 streams. This turned Bebe Rexha’s 25,000 downloads into an equivalent of 3,750,000 streams in just one week for example, not to mention all the points it earned for its radio play on both pop and country, and the fact that the song also came in at #1 on the Country Streaming Songs chart via listens on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms such as YouTube . . .
. . . which brings us to the second most important factor that led to Bebe Rexha finding her way to #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
As we all know, radio is slowly losing its iron grip on the attention span of mainstream consumers, and is being replaced by playlists on Spotify, YouTube, and other places. The streaming data these playlists generate is often used by artist representatives and labels to garner industry attention as a barometer of public interest. However just like in radio, how songs and artists get placed on certain playlists is not always transparent.
The video for Bebe Rexha’s “Meant To Be”—which at the time of posting sits at an incredible 77.5 million views in under 6 weeks—has benefited richly from prime placement on a number of YouTube playlists compiled by a company called Red Music, which appears to be out of Romania. This is not to be confused with Sony Red, which is a distribution company that is well-known in the music industry, and sometimes is referred to as Red Music.
According to European Union business filings, Red Music provides “Advertising and marketing services provided by means of social media; Advertising and marketing services provided via communications channels; Entertainment services provided on-line from a computer database or the internet; Musical entertainment; Organisation of musical entertainment; Arranging of musical entertainment; Selection and compilation of pre-recorded music for broadcasting by others; Arranging of visual and musical entertainment;” among other services.
However the company has no website that can be found, no social media presence, no public face whatsoever. All they have is an incredibly massive YouTube presence will over 1 billion total views on their various playlists. And Bebe Rexha’s “Meant To Be” is front and center on many of those playlists.
For example, on Red Music’s “Country Music Playlist 2018: Top Country Songs of 2018 (Today’s Country Hits)“, which has over 57 million plays, Bebe Rexha is at #6 on the playlist. On another Red Music playlist with almost 92 million total plays worded just slightly different, called “Country Music Playlist: Best Timeless Country Songs & Country Music 2018,” Bebe Rexha is at #7. In fact, the top of these two playlists are virtually the same.
Who else is at the very top of these playlists? It is primarily other country artists who have seemed to rocket up the charts recently with incredible streaming numbers like Luke Combs, Brett Young, and especially Kane Brown, who has multiple videos on each playlist. As Saving Country Music exposed in 2015, Brown’s whole “viral” explosion was partly manipulated by placing his songs on top playlists right beside established hits, and principally through relationship’s Brown’s manager had in the industry.
This Red Music has 13 major playlists on YouTube, covering pop, EDM, Christian, Reggae music, and others. Does Bebe Rexha appear on any of their other playlists? She does. On the “Best Music 2018: New Songs Playlist (Latest Top Hits)” playlist, with its 718 million views, (notice the strange, redundant wording of these playlists?), “Meant to Be” comes in at #18. On Red Music’s “Top 100 Songs of 2018: Best Music Hits This Week” with its 31.5 million views, Bebe Rexha is at #5. It’s also interesting to note that even though they’re not being promoted to pop, country artists Luke Combs and Brett Young also appear on this pop playlist at #36 and #40 respectively.
So if you want to know how Bebe Rexha’s “Meant To Be” racked up such incredible streaming numbers and shot up out of nowhere, this would definitely be a good answer. It’s also interesting to note that one of the first things in the description for the video of “Meant To Be” is a link to the discounted track on iTunes, likely facilitating more download sales via the YouTube playlist placement.
That doesn’t mean that these plays are fake, necessarily, though as Hyperbot recently exposed, anyone can purchase streams to gain attention. Sometimes the way those paid-for streams are fulfilled is placement on shady playlists. What these shadowy playlist generators will do is compile a playlist you would expect to see for pop country fans, and then place a song in the middle of it that automatically plays as listeners cycle through the bigger, more recognized hits, building up metadata for the artist, as well as name recognition and familiarity with the track.
What we do know about these Red Music playlists that Bebe Rexha and others have benefited from is they likely weren’t made by ham and eggs amateur fans looking to share their love for music. This is a for-profit business that has put these playlists together, and overshadowed everyday playlist builders since they have garnered so many plays, which allows them to generate even more interest by coming up first in search results when fans go to YouTube or Google (who owns YouTube) looking for a playlist of popular country songs.
At this point, how Bebe Rexha’s “Meant To Be” got here is inconsequential. By using a discounted price point, and benefiting inadvertently or purposely from the shadowy world of playlist making, she has been awarded everyone’s attention by coming in at #1 on what is supposed to be the very legitimate Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, as well as the Digital Song Sales and Country Streaming charts. Now country music’s radio programmers will feel the pressure to add the song to their playlist or be behind the popularity curve just like they did with Kane Brown, Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line will benefit handsomely from the exposure, and whatever money was outlaid on the “promotion,” or lost on the discounted track, will easily pay itself back.
Unfortunately, all of this is not incredibly uncommon in the current music landscape. But seeing how “Meant To Be” was a discounted track from an established pop star, Billboard should have abstained from the risky decision of allowing it to debut #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, ostensibly rewriting history, while it has excluded other artists from country recognition in the past such as the case with Green River Ordinance. Billboard is implementing new rules in 2018 to weigh unpaid listens like the ones on YouTube less than paid streams, but this is only part of the problem.
Bebe Rexha going #1 in country affects every country artist and their fans. This isn’t pop country vs. traditional country. This isn’t modern vs. classic. This isn’t about someone’s arbitrary definition of “country.” This is about all of the artists who’ve dedicated their lives to country in whatever form being unfairly hopscotched by an artist who didn’t.
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Saving Country Music reached out to Red Music for comment on this story, but did not receive a reply. Thanks to commenter Chris for pointing out the Red Music/ Bebe Rexa connection.
December 6, 2017 @ 7:52 pm
I think the new rules went into effect with the new chart year which for Billboard was the December 2 chart so this all happened under the new rules.
December 7, 2017 @ 12:00 am
Trigger …this is an exhaustive and informative breakdown of the hows and whys things music gets promoted…great job .But as you say , it isn’t entirely new. Being in the biz for a lifetime , hearing and seeing some of the things I have heard and seen brought me to the sad conclusion years ago : more often than we know it ..THE FIX IS IN ! And speaking as a writer its so apparent that it has become progressively harder for the industry to hide that fact. It is hardly ever about the song anymore ( and I use the word ‘song’ loosely ) Its about the act , the look , the trend , the ‘ hipness ‘ factor and the generic nature of the product where radio is concerned . There is just no way a Sam Hunt or a Taylor Swift ( when she claimed to be ) or a Lady Antebellum could possibly be considered ‘country’ music ( LA first huge hit Need You Now was a pop song plain and simple ) without a lot of folks bending rules , investing huge $$$ and calling favours ….NO WAY a traditional country audience would have given this material a second listen had it not been forced upon them , shoved down their throats and usurped REAL country music from the airwaves. It is impossible to ignore what is actually going on in the ‘ country ‘ music business . When you have acts calling out each other as not being country you KNOW everyone is on to it . ….THE FIX IS IN cuz with everyone and his brother having access to cheap recording equipment right in their own home , studios practically giving away time to survive and anybody able to play the game due to the absence of integrity in the form of ‘ gatekeepers’ ANYBODY who wants to sell more than a song ( BEBE ) will stand a chance of getting their 15 minutes .
Its an insult to our intelligence to expect us to believe these nursery rhymes are worthy of being considered ‘ hits ‘ . And so they market the product ( ass-waving Luke Bryan , Barbie doll Bebe ) to the unknowing and uninformed youth demographic . It has never been more transparent , inauthentic or dishonest and the saddest part is that In a business who’s motto has always been ” It all starts with a song “, they’ve been selling anything but .
December 7, 2017 @ 4:14 am
and since Rexha got away with it, expect to see more of it in the future.
December 7, 2017 @ 4:49 am
and here I thought it was big money, hahaa, shows you what I know about the industry. fascinating stuff, Trig, and yet more evidence that it’s important in the end to know who you are and what you want before wading into the funhouse mirror world of modern marketing
December 7, 2017 @ 5:42 am
Well done Trigger.
From the outside looking in: it’s not about changing the country format. It’s about creating a new format. Leaving the “old farts & jackasses” behind. It’s not about “pushing the boundaries of country music” or “taking country music to the next level”. It’s all about pushing (what’s left of country music) out of the way for the new shiny monogenre sound.
Making Nashville hip (again). Bringing in pop-producers/songwriters like busbee or Ross Copperman & the songwriting-program of Ashley Gorley.
Mixing pop-sounds with the flavor of the month-sound like EDM. New artists are here today & gone tomorrow replaced by the next pretty face with a handful of “tentpole” artists & releases to keep the fire burning.
But, but, but…Cody Jinks & other traditional artists have Top 10 albums & Jon Pardi #1 hits.
One Cody Jinks album against all the FGL, Swindell, Rhett, Bryan & Shelton stuff is not the big turnaround for real country music. Jon Pardi went to #1 with radio-friendly songs. A more traditional track like “She Ain’t In It” is released as 4th single. Even Luke Bryan released more country-sounding tracks as 4th single. No big deal or game-changer.
And Billboard?
Billboard is publishing more charts each year. Lower album sales against higher streaming numbers & Billboard is changing the charts again. So many charts & so many chances to manipulate streaming numbers, playlists or album sales.
Reading the Billboard Country Update each week can be an eye-opener. The weekly PR-lovefest for artists like Michael Tyler, Danielle Bradbery or Dylan Scott is a masterpiece of writing d-list artists to the top. Or BeBe Rexha. Like it’s a natural thing that 2nd rated pop singers releasing “country” songs. Don’t asking questions or discussing why country music is watered down & damaged beyond repair by a handful of people like Scott Borchetta.
Money changes everything: yes & no.
In the case of BeBe Rexha yes. But what about the next Taylor Swift? Kelsea Ballerinis paid-for career is already slowing down & how much money was wasted to create the product called Chris Lane & to push “Fix” to #1?
We will see more BeBe Rexhas in the future. 2017 is a turning-point for “country” music. For sure.
December 7, 2017 @ 10:04 am
Streaming is here, and is probably the way we listen to music for decades until it’s directly beamed into our cerebellum via a government-issues microchip. Since streaming music is so hard to keep up with and regulate, all the more reason for entities such as Billboard and others to step up and make sure there is transparency in the marketplace. This is a big challenge for Billboard and others. But it was a human decision to allow Bebe Rexha to qualify for country charts. Otherwise, we’re not even talking about her, and how she may or may not have manipulated her way to the top.
December 7, 2017 @ 10:44 am
All the equivalent streaming numbers (for free or paid for) are (in my opinion) shady & the Billboard charts look like a mess since streaming became a factor. Even with lower sales numbers buying an album or a single-track should be much more important for the charts.
December 8, 2017 @ 12:22 pm
Yeah yeah yeah-
Let us say that the success of Chris Stapleton wasn’t successful, that there isn’t an obvious surge in the Americana scene that is waiting to burst into the mainstream, or that the continued success of traditional country with artists like Jon Pardi and Midland isn’t a “game changer”.
Pessimism doesn’t get you anywhere In life. And before anyone starts with the “it’s not pessimism it’s realism” bullshit well- sorry to see you guys have such a bleak out look on life.
The way I see it, their is an impending return to the roots of the genre in the meainstream, and no Sam Hunt or Bebe Rexha shall stop that.
THE CIRCLE WILL NOT BE UNBROKEN!
December 8, 2017 @ 2:50 pm
The things big machine did are the same regardless of whether or not she’s on the country charts, & it’s the same thing the labels do for many other artists. She’s on the country charts bc the song is being promoted to country radio & radio has added it. That’s the problem.
December 8, 2017 @ 3:22 pm
Green River Ordinance released an album in 2016 called “Fifteen.” They are a country band. They promoted the album to the country market. When they filled out the metadata for the catalog systems, it said “country.” And Billboard deemed it not country enough for the country charts. Bebe Rexha is a pop artist. The metadata for her song was filled out as “pop.” The reason they have a human in charge of the charts is specifically in cases such as this. A human decided that Green River Ordinance was not country enough for the country charts. A human in that same position decided to put Bebe Rexha on the country charts, which resulted in a historic event. Yes, being promoted to country radio probably helped. But the point here is there is a double standard.
December 8, 2017 @ 7:41 pm
Has any song/album been deemed not country since Green River? Or before Green River? Tbh I’m not sure, musically, this song is really less country than most Sam Hunt and Thomas Rhett singles. It looks like Green River was a complete anomaly, and honestly I wonder what the back story was there for them to get un-included. The general rule seems to be inclusive. It seems like the only double standard was Green River.
December 7, 2017 @ 6:52 am
The evolution of mainstream “country” music is sadly generational and money driven. The golden age of country never really benefitted from the digital age or streaming, so instead kids are exposed to what has been pushed by digital trends and streaming services over the last 15 years, the majority of an entire generation (20 years) have now missed out on consuming music as albums coupled with their attention spans getting shorter.
So what happens, when the generations transition, the demand and dollars do too and artist and songwriter strategy follows suit. Look how much mainstream hard Rock has lost it’s identity during this same time frame, who are the last rock stars or bands standing right now…Foo Fighters, Muse, my beloved Queens Of The Stone Age, The Black Keys, Jack White, U2 embarrassing themselves, Indies like Kings of Leon and The Killers with their last gasp. Over a decade ago, rock producers and session players ran to country to continue their dreams, so Church and Aldean cranked the amps to eleven. And guys like Bon Jovi, kid Rock, Steven Tyler, and even Brett Michaels tried their hand. And when that was done, EDM/hip hop followed suit right into country…guitars were turned back down and the beats took over.
Same thing for songwriting. Look we all hate Luke Bryan, but the guy had some good actual country songs early on, “Rain Is A Good Thing”, “All My Friends Say”, “Tackle Box”, etc. But we know what he decided to do after that. How about somebody like Chris Janson, who by the way seems like a genuine good guy. Struggling for years and by many accounts, a great performer, had awesome songs like “Corn” and “Yeah It Is” but then when given the once in a lifetime boost, falls right in line with what a label wants to do, dumb it all down, put away the train beats, the steel, the half time, even his harmonica. We could say the same about Granger Smith. Hey, to each it’s own, just probably not something Mike and the Moonpies would do.
It’s across the board though, our beloved Stapleton wrote songs for Bryan, Thomas Rhett and Charles Kelley of Lady A. Tim McGraw hooks up with FGL. Ronnie Dunn with Jake (ahem Josh) Owen. A devout musical student as Brad Paisley will not only duet with anyone popular, he’ll also write songs about trends that try to be cute but are just pandering. Jared Johnston has a pretty polarizing career when it comes to content. Rhett Akins writing songs with his kid that would’ve gotten him laughed out of Blackbird. WHY??? Money.
The girl is Romanian, the site supporting her to get to the top is Romanian, no harm where anybody is from btw, but there will probably be a connection between the site, the label, and maybe even the (gasp) charts. Because everyone can benefit, hey maybe it’s meant to be…see what I did there.
I’ll just go back to my Yoakam playlist, mourn Trent Willmons lack of success, and keep my fingers crossed for Tyler Childers and such.
December 7, 2017 @ 9:02 am
Where are we getting the info that the girl is Romanian from? Wikipedia says she’s Brooklyn-born, of Albanian parents. Is that untrue?
December 7, 2017 @ 11:07 am
Oh I don’t know, thought somebody said it on here.
Well, anyway…I had a point. Cant remember what it was but…my burrito bowl just arrived.
December 7, 2017 @ 6:53 am
finally someone has the guts to talk about this huge Red Music issue. They have no direct interest in country music as they’re linked to recording artist Andra from Romania, but you’re spot on when you say they took over user-managed playlists: they have completely took over the once-leading country music playlist on youtube by some guy named Lorenzo floris, who used to balance things including more traditional-sounding country artists like Mo Pitney and on the top spots. That playlist is still alive, but it’s not among the top search results anymore.
All I can find right now when I type ‘country music playlist 2017’ is playlists by Red Music, and you’re completely spot on saying that they are -indirectly- giving strenght to Kane Brown and Brett Young.
Now I have to disagree on the sales part: if 25.000 sales are equal to 3.700.000 views, then Meant to Be is only driven by Youtube streaming: 77.000.000 views in 6 weeks mean more than 12.000.000 views every week, so that’s an incredible 80.000 equivalent copies sold. Don’t you think at least one quarter of those 77.000.000 views comes from the US? That’s where those 25.000 weekly sales come from in my opinion.
December 7, 2017 @ 7:06 am
Here’s the link to the playlist I’m talking about:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2BN1Zd8U_MsyMeK8r9Vdv1lnQGtoJaSa
Interestingly it has 277.000.000 views, way more views than Red Music. But it might be due to this playlist being popular for years before this massive Red Music invasion.
December 7, 2017 @ 7:27 am
She’d not make my play list, if I had a play list, if she paid me. I listened to her the first time and the last time at the same time. The method used seems to me like it’s cause some pretty severe self esteem problems for an artist knowing full well they didn’t honestly earn the grandeur, but, I guess that’s what drugs are good for.
December 7, 2017 @ 8:19 am
Great job Trigger, you have just discovered why guys no one has ever heard of are making songs that immediately go viral and why new songs released by Blake Shelton or Luke Bryan are inexplicably struggling these days. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take Brett Young over Luke Bryan any day, but this is just a terrible system and something that throws a lot of shade over minor artists struggling to get any play at all on country radio. This is why Runaway June, Parmalee or Chase Bryant get no interest at all besides few radio plays.
At this point I think you highlighted just how country radio is not relevant anymore and how country music industry is unable to understand it.
December 7, 2017 @ 10:08 am
Either you play the game, or you get left behind. It’s like the steroid era in baseball. Luke Bryan and others are watching while Kane Brown and Luke Combs pass them by. Next thing you know, you’re sending a check to Romania.
December 7, 2017 @ 8:30 am
Fuck streaming music. Buy albums, listen to local radio and get off my fucking lawn bebe!
Not to mention how will you bequest your music collection to your children? “Son, when I die I’d like you to have my Spotify password, enjoy my collection of random songs assembled into a playlist”
BUY ALBUMS! BUY ALBUMS! BUY ALBUMS!
December 7, 2017 @ 9:29 am
I’m so on board with this. Buy it, and when possible, buy it direct from the artist.
December 7, 2017 @ 1:02 pm
Yes indeed. I go support artists whenever I get the chance and buy physical product. Streaming’s not my way.
December 7, 2017 @ 9:07 am
It doesn’t matter what song is No. 1 on radio in 2017. Yes, in the 1980s if a dumb song was a big hit, it sucked because the radio played all the time. Now, you don’t have to listen to the radio. We have sites like this which promote good music. After reading Trigger’s list, I pulled up Apple Music and listened to Bottle by my Bed and If We Were Vampires on my commute home.
Let Babe by No. 1. Let Radio play “Body Like a Backroad” a million time. It doesn’t bother me. We live in a time where we can pick our own music by tapping a button.
Repeat after me. Radio is dead or at least on life support and that doesn’t effect a music lover like me at all.
December 7, 2017 @ 11:06 am
Ya know, Florida Georgia Line have proved a few times that they are thinkers. And I think a part of this is them seeing what bridges are possible between Pop and Country and what will be acccepted incase they have to abandon ship, especially with the future of Country radio being unclear. These Pop collaborations help the mainstream warm up to them. Don’t be surprised if their next album has songs going to both Country and Pop radio.
December 7, 2017 @ 11:51 am
Scary stuff here. What the hell are these Romanian guys doing in country music?
December 7, 2017 @ 9:12 pm
When i first heard the song, it was on a top 40 station as I was flipping through the radio. I was actually pretty excited. I thought, ‘awesome. Florida Georgia Line is finally admitting that they’re pop and now I don’t have to hate every single one of their catchy songs because they’re in the wrong genre.’ I never even considered that they would think about calling this obvious pop song country.
December 7, 2017 @ 10:06 pm
At least we still have Garth Brooks
December 7, 2017 @ 10:11 pm
Maybe body like a backroad will get a remix and take the #1 spot back. Would be SO much better than a POP song being #1 on a COUNTRY chart. Sam Hunt, you’re our only hope! Maybe you can save country music!
Lol
December 8, 2017 @ 7:32 am
This should be a 60 minutes special.
December 8, 2017 @ 2:58 pm
Not that I want this song on the country charts, but it isn’t nefarious. A large number of the songs on iTunes are discounted at any given time & including several songs in the top 10. It’s not abnormal or unusual.
Most people who like streaming want a curated playlist. The curated playlists are the same thing as a radio program director deciding what the station plays. And the labels have big budgets to promote their songs to radio. People still have to decide that’s the curated playlist they want to listen to.
People like this song, people like a lot of music I don’t like. But this song isn’t playing by any different rules than anyone else. It’s just been more succusful than actual country (well mainstream “country”) songs.
December 9, 2017 @ 7:31 am
People are overlooking this problem, but it’s bigger than anyone thinks. Red Music will lead to the distruction of small country performers. One of my favorites was David Nail and he got dropped by his label due to lack of success. His last music video has 600k views. Fuck these scumbags, someone has to kick their Romanian asses out of the US as soon as possible.
Ask yourself where are Mo Pitney, William Michael Morgan, Maddie and Tae, Kacey Musgraves, Josh Turner and Runaway June now. They’ll likely get killed by RedMusic like David Nail was.
Another thing you did not consider Trigger: Billboard APPOSITELY changed the title of this song to make it result a Country song. Look at wikipedia: the song title was “Bebe Rexha – Meant to be FEAT Florida Georgia Line”.
On Billboard, it has inexplicably become “Bebe Rexha AND Florida Georgia Line – Meant to Be”. Appositely changed to make it result a Florida Georgia Line & Bebe Rexha song instead of a Bebe Rexha song (feat. Florida Georgia Line). Watch out as the next will probably be Hailee Steinfeld & Floroda Georgia Line & Alesso.
Fuck Billboard. And fuck RedMusic.
December 9, 2017 @ 5:48 pm
I have listed to Country Music for 40 years. I have had it all. Vinyl, 8-track, cassettes, cd and digital. What I find amazing is how shitty these artists are today. They don’t put the time in and can’t sing without help from auto tune. Remember the artists in the 80’s & 90’s that couldn’t get any radio airplay and were deemed “failures” by their labels? They are better singers then these goofs on the radio today. Someone mentioned Trent Willmons earlier. Great singer! The group Canyon! Butch Baker! Billy Burnette! Bobbie Cryner! JC Crowley! Ken Mellons! And a slew of others. Great singers who would kick today’s artists in the nuts with better music!
December 20, 2017 @ 3:21 am
Reminds me of when Billboard allowed PSY’s “Gangnam Style” to go #1 on the Rap chart in 2012. Billboard themselves determined the song had enough “rapping” in it to qualify for the rap chart. A lot of rap fans were pissed about that one.
December 20, 2017 @ 6:06 am
I don’t understand why Bebe Rexha’s song DEBUTED at #1 on the Country Streaming Songs on the Dec. 16 chart when the video for “Meant to Be” has been on her official Youtube channel since Oct. 23. It seems like she should have debuted on the Nov. 11 streaming chart since her first full week of streams was Oct 23-30.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDo0H8Fm7d0
Trigger, do you know why she didn’t debut until Dec. 16 on streaming?
December 20, 2017 @ 10:43 am
I think this is evidence that the fix is in. The short answer is that it wasn’t added to the country charts until it was released to country radio. That is what made it “country.” The long answer is it was never meant to be a country song, the label saw an opportunity, called up their cronies at Billboard, and made it make history so they could draw even more attention to a mediocre, not country song. Otherwise, like you point out, it should have been added to the chart once it was released.
December 20, 2017 @ 3:06 pm
Thanks for your answer Trigger. I’ve been thinking for a while all these duets on awards shows of pop or rap stars with country singers was weird, but I know it’s all about $$ in the end, so like you say the labels see an opportunity to exploit the pop/rap and country markets. I think I remember some country stations gave Beyonce’s “Daddy Lessons” some play right? We’re probably lucky that one didn’t go #1 on all the Billboard country charts (except airplay). If Timberlake’s new stuff gets some “country” airplay, we might be looking at a number 1 for him based on sales/streams. I thought it was weird recently when Pink did a solo on a country awards show. I hope she’s not planning on trying this chart stunt too.
March 10, 2018 @ 2:51 pm
Hi, Trigger! I am a Brazilian journalist, and 3 months ago I did a big article about selling and buying at YouTube playlists here. Red Music domain the biggest brazilian music playlists (it even bought local channels that had popular playlists). I found musicians and managers that paid to be in high places in Red Music’s and other playlists. They even have an “representative” to commercialize playlists here. He said he was going to Romania to get more “training”. I tried to get in touch with Red Music, but they did not answer me, either. https://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/musica/noticia/playlists-no-youtube-viram-negocio-lucrativo-com-venda-de-lugares-nas-listas-de-hits.ghtml
May 29, 2018 @ 3:43 pm
The owner is Levi, a big vlogger in Romania.
February 14, 2019 @ 12:42 pm
Last time I checked, it cost $2,000,000 to get a song to #1. The music biz is not a meritocracy. Money talks.