(Billboard) – Sam Smith takes over atop the landmark new Billboard Artist 100 chart, rising 2-1.
The list, which launched last week, provides the first-ever weekly ranking dedicated to measuring artist activity across Billboard’s most influential charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200 and Social 50, among others. The Artist 100 is modelled after the formula utilised to compile our annual Year in Music Top Artist list (as well as the Billboard Music Awards Artist of the Year category), blending information from album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
British pop newcomer Smith surges 2-1 on the Artist 100, displacing inaugural champion Trey Songz, who dips 1-8 as the latter’s album ‘Trigga’ tumbles 1-4 on the Billboard 200 with 35,000 sold (down 66 percent), according to Nielsen SoundScan. Meanwhile, Smith holds at No 3 on the Billboard 200 with “In the Lonely Hour” (42,000, minus just 6 percent) and is stationary on the Hot 100 at No 5 with his set’s lead single “Stay With Me,” the Hot 100’s top Airplay Gainer (125 million in all-format radio audience, up 13 percent, according to Nielsen BDS). Of Smith’s overall Artist 100 chart points, 36 percent are from album sales and 35 percent from track sales.
Smith concurrently rises 11-10 on the Hot 100 as featured on Disclosure’s “Latch.” (An act in a featured role claims a smaller portion of a song’s overall points than the lead act for purposes of the Artist 100’s tabulation.) Smith is the only act in the top 10 of the Billboard Artist 100 to place in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, Digital Songs and Radio Songs.
Below Smith, Iggy Azalea and MAGIC! rank at Nos 2 and 3, respectively, on the Artist 100. While MAGIC!’s “Rude” overtakes Azalea’s “Fancy” atop the Hot 100 this week, Azalea also ranks at No 3 on the Hot 100 as a guest on Ariana Grande’s “Problem.” Her overall airplay, track sales, streaming and social activity are enough to overcome MAGIC!’s top Hot 100 rank, as well as the group’s slight lead in album sales (16,000 for its ‘Don’t Kill the Magic’ vs 13,000 for her ‘The New Classic’).
Two acts blast into the Artist 100’s top 10 from outside the top 20 last week: Florida Georgia Line vaults 23-4, fuelled by the No 11 Hot 100 debut of its new single “Dirt,” which sold 182,000 first-week downloads. At No 5, Sia soars from No 38 as her album ‘1000 Forms of Fear’ bows at No 1 on the Billboard 200 with 52,000 copies sold. Digital song sales of “Dirt” and other songs by Florida Georgia Line account for 61 percent of the pair’s Artist 100 points, while album sales form 66 percent of Sia’s sum. Notably, Florida Georgia Line represents the only country act in the Artist 100’s top 10.
Classic rock icons Judas Priest score the week’s highest debut on the Artist 100, entering at No 31 thanks to the band’s No 6 start on the Billboard 200 with ‘Redeemer of Souls’. With 33,000 sold of the set, album sales account for nearly all the group’s Artist 100 points total.
Highlighting how social activity can impact the Artist 100, Justin Bieber jumps 67-34 as he returns to the top of the Social 50 for a record-extending 90th week. Social metrics, as measured by Next Big Sound, account for 91 percent of Bieber’s Artist 100 sum.
