Spears Without Peers

SPEARS WITHOUT PEERS: Britney Spears’ “Hold It Against Me” continues to smash records. The single debuted at #1, selling 411k downloads within a week of its exclusive iTunes release, the most ever for a female artist, a record previously held by Taylor Swift. The single debuted at #1 in 19 other countries, including Australia, Belgium, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, France, and Ireland. Britney’s the first artist to simultaneously commercially release her single as the song was made available to radio stations worldwide. Spears also shattered all previous records for the most number of spins on its first day at Mediabase and BDS by racking up 3,866, with the largest audience debut of 33,237,000. The 4,071 BDS detections represented the highest total by a debuting title in the 18-year history of the BDS Pop Chart. "Achieving numbers like Britney did in her first week with 'Hold It Against Me' are possible when programmers are not afraid to think outside the conventional lines," said JLG EVP Promotion Joe Riccitelli. "Without radio willing to give the song unwavering support out of the box, it can't happen." (1/19p)