THE VMAS MARKETPLACE REACTION (AND VIEWERSHIP)
Did the VMAs move the needle? For a few acts, yes.
By 8am ET today, hours after the last note sounded at MTV's Video Music Awards, Big Machine's Taylor Swift, who premiered the video for new single "Look What You Made Me Do," remained atop the iTunes overall singles chart, where it would've remained anyhow. (It's also #1 at Apple Music and both Spotify's U.S. and Global Top 50 and the top digital song at Amazon). Views for the video, meanwhile, were stratospheric (and will soon be record-setting), and launching it on the show enabled La Swift to dominate the telecast without actually appearing.
The most noteworthy jump belonged to Def Jam's Logic (pictured), whose suicide prevention anthem "1-800-273-8255" rose #18-3 after a truly moving performance. It now sits at #2.
Demi Lovato's "Sorry Not Sorry" (Safehouse/Island) went #10-4. The most-nominated artist of the night Kendrick Lamar's "HUMBLE." (TDE/Interscope) and P!nk's "What About Us" (RCA) both broke back into the Top 15 (it's now Top 5). Then there's James Arthur hit "Say You Won't Let Go (Columbia), which sailed #52-24. Fifth Harmony's "Down" (SYCO/Epic) flew #83-44.
On the album side, Kendrick's DAMN. returned to the Top 10, while Best New Artist winner Khalid's American Teen hopped #29-18 and Lorde's Melodrama went #35-25. And P!nk, who walked away with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, saw her Greatest Hits... So Far!!! (RCA) sprint #160-47.
Other than that, we've seen little strong reaction since the show.
While the show's ratings have been spun elsewhere as an increase in teen viewers and social engagement, the show in fact saw its fourth consecutive drop in ratings this time around, tumbling to its lowest overall numbers (2.66m) since Nielsen began tracking it 23 years ago. The awards confab, which had the misfortune of going against the Game of Thrones season finale, dropped 22% among adults 18-49; average viewership on the multi-platform simulcast was down as well. But there were a lot of tweets.
