Aided by the “on the hour” airplay support from iHeartMedia stations and general enthusiasm over his new music, Chris Stapleton’s “Either Way” had a strong first day at country radio.
According to Mediabase, “Either Way” attained 1,079 country radio spins on Friday. The count ensures “Either Way” will debut comfortably in the Top 50 (and likely the Top 40) of this week’s Mediabase country radio singles chart, which is based on airplay for the entire week between April 30 and May 6.
Since the chart’s methodology is more favorable in this particular situation (May 1-7 tracking week, emphasis on audience impressions), “Either Way” should land even higher on the Billboard Country Airplay listing.
“Either Way” is the lead single from Chris Stapleton’s “From A Room, Volume One.” Label Mercury Nashville interestingly opted to send the song to country radio the same day the album entered the market.
It will be interesting to see how “Either Way” fares in the weeks and months ahead. While Stapleton became a dominant album-seller and huge overall country star in the wake of his 2015 CMA Awards breakthrough, he has yet to achieve a major hit at radio.
“Nobody To Blame,” his best-performing radio single to date, peaked at #10 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. While it is hard to look too negatively upon a Top 10 hit, it is even harder to claim a Top 10 hit befits Stapleton’s overall level of superstardom.
