The formal radio push for Demi Lovato’s “Stone Cold” only began recently, but the third “Confident” single is already facing trouble at the pop and hot adult contemporary radio formats.
“Stone Cold” received 555 pop spins during the first four days of the April 10-16 tracking week; it is #40 on Mediabase’s building chart.
At this point last week, the song was #34 on the building chart with 755 spins. It ended up closing last week with 1,284 spins and a #33 position on the official Mediabase pop chart.
Republic was still promoting the song as of Tuesday, but a 26.5% decline in week-over-week airplay is certainly not a good sign.
“Stone Cold” is also enduring a harsh swing at the hot adult contemporary format. The song rocketed from #106 to an official ranking of #43 at Hot AC radio last week.
That rapid growth has quickly turned into decline; after the first four days of the current tracking period, it is not even in the building chart’s Top 50.
— The radio strategy for “Stone Cold” has received criticism. While it seemed intuitive to begin pushing the song in February — Lovato had already performed the song on national television (and had more promotion scheduled for March), the video premiered on February 23, and previous single “Confident” was quickly falling down the chart — label Republic Records initially announced an April 5 pop impact date.
The pop impact date was ultimately pushed up to late March, but some fans even felt that represented a late start.
On the other hand, radio did seem initially receptive. The song reached the Top 40 fairly early into its run, and a handful of major market stations were showing support. The campaign may have started late, but radio did remain willing to give the song a chance to connect with listeners.
A broader concern may be involve the song itself. Lovato has performed the song on numerous high-profile stages — “American Idol,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and the iHeartRadio Music Awards among them — and has generally received raves for her vocals. The exposure has not, however, driven particularly meaningful sales or streaming boosts (in the short-term, let alone on a sustained basis). “Stone Cold” has still not been able to generate enough weekly activity to reach the Billboard Hot 100.
The logical conclusion, therefore, is that the song is simply not resonating.
