Invisible with STRONG U.S. Airplay

[BigMacPhisto]

U2 has a big fanbase and a lot of people probably weren't aware of the new material since there's no new album push, hence why these tracks are now taking off thanks to the awards circuit ("Ordinary Love") and some solid airplay ("Invisible"). It's fantastic that "Invisible" has nearly charted when you consider that so many people downloaded it for free already.


U2 On The Billboard 100 This Century:

Beautiful Day - #21
Vertigo - #31
Get On Your Boots - #37
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (with Paul McCartney) - #48
The Saints Are Coming (with Green Day) - #51
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of - #52
Electrical Storm - #77
Magnificent - #79
One (with Mary J Blige) - #86
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - #99
Ordinary Love - #99

Bubbling Under Charts:

All Because Of You - #1 ("#101")
Invisible - #8 ("#108")
Elevation - #16 ("#116")
Walk On - #18 ("#118")

 

[hasin73]

Ordinary love #99 on hot 100 billboard
Invisible #114 (or #14 on BB hot 100 bubbling).

 

[CosmoKramer]

U2 has a big fanbase and a lot of people probably weren't aware of the new material since there's no new album push, hence why these tracks are now taking off thanks to the awards circuit ("Ordinary Love") and some solid airplay ("Invisible"). It's fantastic that "Invisible" has nearly charted when you consider that so many people downloaded it for free already.


U2 On The Billboard 100 This Century:

Beautiful Day - #21
Vertigo - #31
Get On Your Boots - #37
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (with Paul McCartney) - #48
The Saints Are Coming (with Green Day) - #51
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of - #52
Electrical Storm - #77
Magnificent - #79
One (with Mary J Blige) - #86
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - #99
Ordinary Love - #99

Bubbling Under Charts:

All Because Of You - #1 ("#101")
Invisible - #8 ("#108")
Elevation - #16 ("#116")
Walk On - #18 ("#118")

How Walk On was not a top 20 hit is beyond me. The lyrics and the melody are U2 at their finest! Also, Invisible should be a top 50 hit, I really love it.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

A lot of these songs were pretty big hits in other countries, but radio is really segmented here in the United States...so the bulk of airplay comes from the pop stations of which there are the most of and they generally don't play much rock, country, etc. U2 also doesn't fit either of the main rock formats, rock (really loud nonsense) or alternative (U2 isn't young enough and these stations just play the same Muse or Chili Peppers song for four months straight).

Here's all the US rock radio formats for anybody curious:

Classic Rock - Tends to play the same harder edged 60s stuff through bits of the 80s. Some formats start earlier in the 60s and some run into the 80s and 90s. Led Zeppelin is pretty much the God of rock in the United States thanks to the format being built around their sound (hard rock) and anything that deviates from that isn't really considered rock by the unwashed masses.

Heritage Rock - These are stations that play older rock music. Basically, some of the classic rock stuff along with hard rock songs from the 80s, mixed in with some newer rock tunes (or new tunes from dinosaur acts). No real room for U2 in this format either since neither of these really touch upon new wave, instead opting for 80s hard rock. They also don't play much new music either.

Mainstream Rock - Mostly very new rock songs (really loud stuff that's pretty much insufferable) coupled with louder stuff from the 90s (Pearl Jam, AIC, etc.) No real play for U2 here aside from "Vertigo" perhaps.

Alternative Rock - Plays mostly grunge and 90s alternative-era classics coupled with new modern rock hits. Some stations will put in a slice of indie rock (Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses) and some will play 80's alternative music as well (New Order, Cure). U2's older hits can get played on some of these stations, but not many of them delve into 80s music very much.

Adult Album Alternative ("Triple A") - This is U2's bread and butter. They play softer alternative rock (Sarah McLachlan, etc.) along with new stuff that fits that mold. U2 aren't too old for this format and most of their stuff fits in rather nicely.

 

[beLIEve]

U2 back on Billboard this week

Hard for me to understand the correlation between Mediabase and Billboard these days, as they used to line up perfectly, but genre's are different on the two sources now. Anyway, I don't have a BB subscription, but anyone can see the Top 10 to 25 of most singles charts.

Invisible re-enters the "Hot Rock Songs" chart at 22.

OL re-enters the "Rock Digital Songs" at 10; Invisible does the same at 16. This chart is described as "the week's top downloaded songs", so I'm pretty surprised that Invisible is back after so many free downloads.

Invisible holds at #4 on Adult Alternative Chart

As for Mediabase daily updates, here is the breakdown for both songs this AM:

Triple A: Invisible at 4 and climbing; OL at 26 and also increasing in spins again

Alternative: Invisible down to 33

Mainstream Rock: Invisible down to 23

Will be interesting to see if tonight's performance affects OL or both songs...and if an actual Oscar has an even bigger effect.

 

[digitize]

OL has turned out to be somewhat of a sleeper, as now 3 months after it was released it's climbing back up charts around the world. Yesterday I was listening to Sirius/XM channel "The Spectrum", and they introduced a remix of OL as "brand new U2". Sounded like Redanke and a choir has been added to the song. Maybe it's the Oscar's hype.

I heard the remix on The Spectrum on Friday. They introduced it with a little audio-montage of I Will Follow, Mysterious Ways, and OL itself. It sounded really cool.

 

[beLIEve]

OL up from 147 to 7 on i-tunes after Oscar's performance

 

[Tallarico]

Performance at Oscars = big boost everywhere for Ordinary Love
Live iTunes Popularity Bars

 

[jeevey]

I heard the remix on The Spectrum on Friday. They introduced it with a little audio-montage of I Will Follow, Mysterious Ways, and OL itself. It sounded really cool.

The Epworth remix?

 

[Super Yo]

"Ordinary Love" is at number 7 in the iTunes store right now.

 

[digitize]

The Epworth remix?

Yes, it was the Epworth remix.

 

[beLIEve]

OL could end up being U2's highest BB hit in many years

"Ordinary Love" is at number 7 in the iTunes store right now.

It's up to 11 on Amazon...#1 on Rock tunes and Invisible is up to #5. So if this keeps up, OL might end up being U2's highest rated song on BB's Hot 100 since Disco...

If it would have won the Oscar, it might have made it to Top 5.

Both songs will probably chart on BB's Hot 100 next week unless this "bump" only lasts a day or two. Hard to believe anyone is actually paying for Invisible with millions downloaded for free a month ago.

 

[doctorwho]

It's up to 11 on Amazon...#1 on Rock tunes and Invisible is up to #5. So if this keeps up, OL might end up being U2's highest rated song on BB's Hot 100 since Disco...

If it would have won the Oscar, it might have made it to Top 5.

Both songs will probably chart on BB's Hot 100 next week unless this "bump" only lasts a day or two. Hard to believe anyone is actually paying for Invisible with millions downloaded for free a month ago.

Invisible is still a charity single. All paid downloads also go for charity. It's for this reason that I also paid for a download.

It will be interesting to see if OL's iTunes bump translates on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

 

[beLIEve]

Invisible is still a charity single. All paid downloads also go for charity. It's for this reason that I also paid for a download.

It will be interesting to see if OL's iTunes bump translates on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

You, Sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. Apparently others are out there, too, as the song has done well today.

 

[beLIEve]

Mediabase weekly update

Mediabase makes it's weekly report on Tuesday's. Not much has changed;

Invisible is up to 4 on Adult Rock, and OL is at 26. On the weekly chart, OL is dropping, but on the daily chart, it has seen an increase in spins again on this format.

Invisible is at 31 for the week on the Alternative Chart, down from 28 last week. On the daily chart, it's down to 32 this AM.

Invisible drops to 23 on the "Rock chart" for the week; it's 24 this AM on the daily chart.

In Canada, Invisible rises to 15 on the rock chart and OL slips to 24.

So, other than Adult Rock (Triple A), Invisible seems to have peaked. As for OL, it's rising again on that same format and has been doing quite well with downloads for the past few days. That could lead to it's rise on the BB Hot 100 chart; and Invisible may slip onto the chart as well.

After the bump from the Oscar Awards, I'd expect both songs to fade. For the U.S., OL made it into the Top 5 on Adult Rock as has Invisible. OL has already made the BB Hot 100 and may rise one more time this week. Overall, this is pretty consistent (if not better) than most songs U2 has released in the U.S. in this century. Invisible is really hard to determine, as it was for charity and certainly did it's job for RED.

As the Doctor pointed out, even the $1.29 paid downloads that have been ongoing since the free ones post Super Bowl have all been donated to RED, too. That people are still buying it after several million copies were obtained for free via I-tunes does say people liked the song and still do...it's just that it is not possible to know how it would have done on, say, the BB Hot 100 since they did not count the first 3.1M "sales".

Still hope Invisible tops the Adult Rock Chart. Along with U2's record of 39 songs charting on the Alternative chart, they also own the highest number of songs charted on Triple A (and the most songs at #1). OL got up to #3 and Invisible could still match that or perhaps reach the top spot. We'll see.

 

[AEON]

Just curious - how would Invisible rank if the download sales counted?

 

[beLIEve]

Never know

Just curious - how would Invisible rank if the download sales counted?

If the free downloads would have counted, Invisible would have been #1 in the US and on the global chart in it's debut week. If it had not been for free, but, say, $.50, with BOA matching that, then maybe it would have counted. But would it have exceeded 3.1M downloads in 36 hours? No. The strategy to make it a free download with BOA donating $1 for each was the best one to raise funds for RED, so I'm glad they did it that way.

Super Bowl gets such a wide audience that it still may have had a ton of downloads, but difficult to know if it would have been enough for them to get a #1 hit on the BB Hot 100. The Global #1 song for that week had 300,000 paid downloads, and the next week, 400,000. Radio airplay and Streaming is part of the equation for both charts; not sure of formula. If U2 had charged something for the song with a matching or more commitment from BOA, I think it would have counted on the global chart. Not sure how Billboard would have measured it.

It reached 18 on the Euro Top 200 Singles Chart in it's first full week, and that did not count the free downloads. It did reach 108 on Billboard's Hot 100 last week (#8 on Bubbling Under Chart), and so that's about where it ranks on downloads given it's airplay is confined to the smaller rock genres. It might be the most downloaded song of 2014, but the vast majority were free.

With OL still holding in the Top 20 on the major download sites since Sunday, it will move up from 99 on the BB Hot 100. But Invisible has been downloaded way more than OL. Charts will never reflect it, though. Perhaps once RED can say the majority of money raised from Invisible (current paid downloads for $1.29/ea still going to the charity) is complete they will release a final figure, and from that information one should be able to figure out how many people paid for the song versus getting it for free (approximately 3.1M).

So far, anyway, OL was the slightly better charting song worldwide and in the U.S., and airplay for the songs has been about the same. Still, the arrangement in place raised the most money possible, and that was the goal for the song all along. U2 is back in the news and on the radio, so if they do release a new album soon, both songs have helped raise people's awareness of U2 (Even The Joshua Tree re-entered the BB Hot 100 after the Super Bowl at 47). Not sure it will have a huge effect on the album's sales, but it will help.

That assumes they actually release an album in the next few months. If the new LP does not come out in the next 3-4 months, then I doubt folks will remember these two songs. Attention spans don't last that long these days.

 

[digitize]

Nice analysis, beLIEve. Thanks for keeping us all informed.

 

[Tallarico]

Good job beLIEve.
I think seeing u2 in the US itunes top 10 in 2014 (a band of over fifty) is a great result.
As well as having a song (Invisible) downloaded in 36 hours over three million, and after that it always rank! The market has changed, they have aged, but they are the only ones of their generation to hold on in the rankings to a certain level. For a band with over thirty years of career means to be relevant in my opinion (please tell to Bono...).
Sorry for my bad english...

 

[beLIEve]

Forbes take on U2 @ Oscars & Relevancy

Good job beLIEve.
I think seeing u2 in the US itunes top 10 in 2014 (a band of over fifty) is a great result.
As well as having a song (Invisible) downloaded in 36 hours over three million, and after that it always rank! The market has changed, they have aged, but they are the only ones of their generation to hold on in the rankings to a certain level. For a band with over thirty years of career means to be relevant in my opinion (please tell to Bono...).
Sorry for my bad english...

How The Oscars Proved That U2 Still Lives Up To The Hype - Forbes

 

[doctorwho]

While this thread is about "Invisible", I want to toss in a question about "Ordinary Love".

OL hit #99 last week on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It was only around #147 on the U.S. iTunes chart.

After the Oscars, OL skyrocketed into the Top 10 on iTunes. I know at one point it hit #7. Yet, when I look at the Billboard charts, I don't see the song.

It may be possible OL returns to the charts next week (as the sales on Sunday-Wednesday of this week count towards next week's chart), but if not, I find it odd that a top 10 song on iTunes drops off the Hot 100, when it was in the Hot 100 when it's iTunes sales were far lower.

 

[Tallarico]

U2 this week on Billboard:

Hot Rock Songs
1 1 42 Pompeii - Bastille
2 2 25 Team - Lorde
3 3 50 Let Her Go - Passenger
4 4 39 Royals - Lorde
5 5 74 Demons - Imagine Dragons
6 6 24 Best Day Of My Life - American Authors
7 7 75 Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
8 8 95 Sail - AWOLNATION
9 15 22 Glory And Gore - Lorde
10 12 28 Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys
11 11 19 Love Don't Die - The Fray
12 14 50 On Top Of The World - Imagine Dragons
13 13 24 Chocolate - The 1975
14 18 8 The Walker - Fitz And The Tantrums
15 19 6 Ain't It Fun - Paramore
16 17 8 Sleeping With A Friend - Neon Trees
17 16 4 Ordinary Love - U2
18 20 29 Come A Little Closer - Cage The Elephant
19 21 8 Fall In Love - Phantogram
20 23 25 Afraid - The Neighbourhood
21 26 5 Come With Me Now - KONGOS
22 New 1 I've Just Seen A Face - Dawn & Hawkes
23 New 1 Midnight - Coldplay
24 25 7 Coming Of Age - Foster The People
25 24 8 Pumpin Blood - NONONO
26 27 8 Bad Blood - Bastille
27 New 1 The Moon Song - Karen O & Ezra Kiening
28 29 4 Heaven Knows - The Pretty Reckless
29 36 3 Tonight You're Perfect - New Politics
30 38 4 Blue Moon - Beck
31 New 1 Pseudologia Fantastica - Foster The People
32 30 15 Unbelievers - Vampire Weekend
33 32 7 Skinny Love - Birdy
34 33 20 The Mother We Share - CHVRCHES
35 31 14 Shepherd Of Fire - Avenged Sevenfold
36 34 13 It's About Time - Young The Giant
37 37 7 Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? - Arctic Monkeys
38 22 4 Invisible - U2
39 New 1 Peace - O.A.R.
40 46 3 Take Out The Gunman - Chevelle
41 42 2 Doses & Mimosas - Cherub
42 New 1 If I Could Change Your Mind - HAIM
43 39 7 R U Mine? - Arctic Monkeys
44 43 3 What If I Was Nothing - All That Remains
45 40 12 Holding On For Life - Broken Bells
46 Re-Entry 17 The Wire - HAIM
47 Re-Entry 3 Girls Chase Boys - Ingrid Michaelson
48 50 2 Riptide - Vance Joy
49 New 1 Supernova - Ray LaMontagne
50 48 4 Things We Lost In The Fire - Bastille

I think we'll see an Oscar effect for Ordinary Love next week.

 

[SleepyDeadMan]

Does anyone have access to the "Bubbling Under" chart? Curious to see how far invisible and OL dropped, maybe they are on the cusp?

But yes, all the Oscars help SHOULD push OL into the Hot 100, certainly higher than 99.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

Hot Rock Songs
1 1 42 Pompeii - Bastille
5 5 74 Demons - Imagine Dragons
7 7 75 Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
10 12 28 Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys
12 14 50 On Top Of The World - Imagine Dragons

How the hell is Pompei at number 1 after all of this time? I remember hearing that song way back in the summer. Same goes with Imagine Dragons 'Radioactive'. For that matter, how is it that Imagine dragons have 3 songs in this chart, probably the same question for Bastille. And while im bitching, the Artic Monkeys song 'do I wanna know' is so annoying.

 

[doctorwho]

Radioactive has been on all the Billboard charts forever. I think it just set the record.

One reason was analogous to why Beautiful Day lingered on the charts for a long time - it crossed over to the Adult Rock stations. Once a song crosses over into other genres, it gets more air time and its lifetime is extended.

I cannot address the other songs. One would think a newer song would knock these guys off the top, but I think Pompeii is still doing really well on all charts as well.

 

[beLIEve]

OL down one spot to 17 on BB's "Hot Rock Songs", described by BB as "The week's most popular current alternative, mainstream rock and triple A songs. Invisible re-enters at 30. Weird, as on Triple A, here is the most up to date Nielscan/Radio & Records chart for that format:

FORMAT: TRIPLE A LAST UPDATE: 3/7/2014 12:41:00 PM
RANK MEDIABASE SORTABLE STATS™ SPINS
lw TW Artist Title Label TW lw Move
1 1 CAGE THE ELEPHANT Come A Little Closer RCA 545 594 -49
3 2 BROKEN BELLS Holding On For Life Columbia 522 496 26
5 3 U2 Invisible Interscope 492 477 15
...
25 30 U2 Ordinary Love Decca/Interscope 136 147 -11
31 31 BLITZEN TRAPPER Thirsty Man

Also on Billboard, OL is at 10 on "Hot Rock Digital Songs", the chart for the "most downloaded rock songs of the week". That's the same position it had in the prior week, so as the Doctor noted, the bump we saw in downloads for OL will likely be seen in next week's chart. Invisible drops from 16 to 32 on the same chart. Not surprised to see it drop on download charts, but thought it had more potential for airplay. It has at least matched OL on the Adult Rock chart as of March 7, however.

It is up to #3 this AM on "Adult Rock", it's highest position on that format. It's down to 25 on Mainstream Rock and it dropped out of the Alternative Top 40. However, BB seems to lag the real time data by about 10-12 days, as we saw with the downloads.

Invisible is at #17 on the VH1 Top 20 video countdown. It was just added to AMTV, whatever that is, per R&R. It's also in the Top 30 on MTV2, but I can't tell what position, as it's lumped in with all the songs that got 20-25 plays for the week.

EDIT: Just saw BB's "Adult Alternative Chart" for the week. Not sure how I missed it, but Invisible is shown as #3 (#2 on radio, #3 on "spotify") this week. So maybe the airplay lag is not as significant as the download lag. OL is at 26 on this chart, so it all matches up with the R&R airplay charts much better than I thought...just seems like one extra genre to count, but it's apparently growing, and U2 does very well on "Triple A" or "Adult Rock" or "Adult Alternative", whatever you want to call it. Maybe Invisible will hit #1 on that chart, anyway.

Finally, on the Euro Hot 200 Songs Chart, OL hangs on at #29, but Invisible is out of the Top 100 at #136. OL peaked at 9 and is in it's 14th week on the chart. Invisible peaked at 22 and is in it's 5th week on the chart. To be fair, the Invisible downloads did not count. However, the chart also uses Airplay across some 30 countries and 1500 stations. Here is the link apcchart.com

Hope the new single for the new album drops sooner than later...

 

[niallyb]

OL will likely be inside the top 50 this coming week. It spent mon - wed inside the top 10 on itunes. It did well on Amazon at that time too. Its a pity the response was so spiky though. A second TV appearance late in the week would REALLY have helped . At the moment though itunes downloads are the biggest single contributor to BBtop 100 positions (wasnt always the case).

Its quite possible to have a really high charting single on the back of Itunes with very little airplay (see gaga - her airplay lags her sales by several weeks and thus her chart positions bounce around a lot). You tube video views also count since a few months ago. OL hasn't had a fantastic video response though - get out there and watch it over and over lol

But the following week - OL will have a huge drop because the sales response was so spiky - unless some big U2 related media event happens in the next couple of days.

BTW folks www.ukmix.com is a great site for chart analysis and trends. Its well worth checking out. It has U2s complete UK/US chart history including catalog positions. It also has threads on their german chart history etc.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

Radioactive has been on all the Billboard charts forever. I think it just set the record.

One reason was analogous to why Beautiful Day lingered on the charts for a long time - it crossed over to the Adult Rock stations. Once a song crosses over into other genres, it gets more air time and its lifetime is extended.

I cannot address the other songs. One would think a newer song would knock these guys off the top, but I think Pompeii is still doing really well on all charts as well.

That's just crazy. Its not the worst song ever (radioactive) but you'd think people would be tired of it by now. I remember hearing it last summer, its now nearly spring. Will this song be on the charts for a year? Then again, good name for it if it does, radio-active, no doubt.

 

[Super Yo]

Adult Alternative Songs
*** No. 1 (1 week)*** "Invisible" U2
U2 passes Coldplay for the most No. 1s in the 18-year history of the Adult Alternative Songs chart, as "Invisible" jumps 3-1. Now with 11 leaders, the band breaks a tie with Coldplay (10). (Dave Matthews band and Jack Johnson follow with nine No. 1s each.) Coldplay could soon reclaim its share of the record: its "Magic" soars in at No. 18 (and enters Rock Airplay at No. 13 and Alternative Songs at No. 17). "Magic" introduces Coldplay's sixth studio album, "Ghost Stories," due May 19.

Chart Highlights: One Direction, Katy Perry, U2 Score New No. 1s | Billboard

 

[hasin73]

So happy for INVISIBLE reaching no. 1 in Adult Alternative chart.