After just two days, Britney Spears’ “Hold It Against Me” already ranks as the No. 17 most-played track at pop radio, according to Nielsen BDS.
The first single from Spears’ forthcoming ninth album ranks at No. 17 in plays — and No. 9 in audience — on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 building chart, to be refreshed on Billboard.biz next Thursday (Jan. 20).
The survey lists the most played songs on 130 mainstream top 40 radio stations, as monitored by BDS.
“Hold It Against Me” logged 595 plays Monday (Jan. 10) on 114 of the chart’s reporting stations, or 88% of the panel. The song’s first-day airplay translated to 7.8 million in audience. At press time (1:30 p.m. ET Wednesday) the song was No. 1 on Itunes songs chart.
KIIS (102.7)/Los Angeles and KHTS (Channel 933)/San Diego led all pop reporters with 18 first-day plays each.
Mainstream top 40 programmers report that early listener reaction to the song has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It’s another home run for Britney,” says Sharon Dastur, program director of WHTZ (Z100)/New York, which spun “Hold It Against Me” eight times yesterday. “The tweets, texts and Facebook posts are overflowing with listeners that are excited that Britney is back with another smash.”
“Instant listener reaction in Miami has been massive,” says WHYI (Y100)/Miami PD Alex Tear. “We are already playing the song in heavy rotation, in addition to offering instant access to hear it on Y100.com. It sounds great on the radio.
“Welcome back, Brit.”
“With all those pickup lines in the song, how can it not get ‘picked up’ to play on the radio?,” asks John Reynolds, WNKS (Kiss 95.1)/Charlotte, N.C., PD. “It’s another Spears hit.”
KSLZ (107.7 FM)/St. Louis PD Jeff McHugh says that Spears, who, with the song’s debut on the Mainstream Top 40 survey, will up her count to 25 chart entries, a sum bested only by Mariah Carey (29) and Madonna (26) in the list’s 18-year history, simply continues to give her fans what they want.
“‘Hold It Against Me’ is what Britney does best: provocative lyrics and ass-shaking pop.”