To give you a point of contrast, the #1 song in radio play is Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." It had 9,325 spins in the last seven days. That was down from 9,575 last week.
The #2 song, Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" had 8,701, up from 7,956 last week.
And the #3 song, Kelly Clarkson's "Behind These Hazel Eyes" had 8,159 spins, up from 7,534 last week.
While number of radio spins is not necessarily a reflection of sales, radio play definitely helps drive sales -- and, to a lesser degree, vice versa.
If Carrie's single opens strongly on the Billboard charts, we should see her radio play rise, although the two stats never totally track equally.
Meanwhile, on the Hits Daily Double chart, although the final numbers won't be in until a little later today, it looks like the AI4 group album has dropped out of the top 50. As I mentioned last week, it was dropping like a stone. We'll know in a few more days how its weak sales have affected Carrie (if at all). Her cover of "Independence Day" is on side B of the single AND on the group album.
Of the top women Carrie will soon be competing against in sales and airplay, Mariah Carey is in #5 with a -8% drop in sales. Gwen Stefani is #7 with a -15% drop, and Kelly Clarkson is in #10 with a -7% drop.
The AI4 album managed to barely hang onto a top 50 spot. It's in #48, all the way down from #25 last week. It had a massive -46% sales drop. Will the release of Carrie's single help boost sales for it, or will the album drag her down? We may begin to get some of the answers on Thursday.