Luke Bryan’s banner year just keeps getting bigger and better. In March, his beachy compilation “Spring Break . . . Here to Party” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums, and in April, he won entertainer of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Bryan’s Dirt Road Diaries tour has been selling out across the country and now his new album, “Crash My Party,” debuts atop the Billboard 200 with nearly 528,000 units sold the first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Only Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” (968,000) and Jay Z’s “Magna Carta . . . Holy Grail” (more than 528,000) had bigger first weeks in 2013.
“I’m very competitive about everything, but I don’t want to ever let numbers be the barometer of how I feel,” Bryan says. “It’s really neat to have the No. 1 album of all genres, but the main thing for me is just making music that people like and makes them want to add a Luke Bryan song in their playlist.”
Bryan’s previous studio album, 2011’s “Tailgates & Tanlines,” has sold 2.1 million units and spawned four top four singles including the No. 1s “I Don’t Want This Night to End” and “Drunk on You.” Yet when going into the studio with producer Jeff Stevens to record his fourth studio album, Bryan wasn’t nervous about besting that success.
“With every album that we make, I just wanted to go into it with a lot of songs that I love,” he says. “As long as I do that, that kind of puts me at ease and gives me peace. I didn’t write as much for this album as I normally do. I had a lot of songs in the hunt, but at the end of the day, I axed my own songs and put songs that I felt were better on the record.”
The lead single/title track peaked at No. 2 on Hot Country Songs and the second single, “That’s My Kind of Night,” moves 35-1 this week. “The single decisions we made with ‘Tailgates & Tanlines’ were to keep a high-energy, consistent, back-to-back sound, which branded him on the radio and with the fans,” says Cindy Mabe, senior VP of marketing at Universal Music Group Nashville. “After the success we saw with ‘Tailgates & Tanlines,’ it wasn’t as hard to find great songs for the new album. Great songs found Luke.”
Key media appearances and promotions have helped propel sales. The weekend prior to the Aug. 13 album release, Bryan took over CMT with special programming geared toward the album launch. He appeared on “Chelsea Lately” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on street date and also “crashed” NBC’s “Today” on Aug. 15, then performed the next day for the show’s summer concert series. He had visibility with NASCAR fans as Miller Lite wrapped its No. 2 car with Bryan’s album cover, which ran at the Aug. 11 and Aug. 18 races.
A special edition of “Crash My Party” is being sold at Target with four bonus tracks. “Target placed a national advertising/branding campaign to kick off the album launch,” Mabe says. “Their spots featured their iconic red target microphone, which was integrated into their own version of the ‘Crash My Party’ video. Additionally, Luke is part of the Give With Target program, which runs from Aug. 14 to Sept. 27. The promotion is launched and executed on a special Target-branded Facebook page and drives fans to vote for their favorite school for Target to give back funds to those schools.”
The label also held a special “Crash Luke’s Party,” promotion, inviting radio stations in the artist’s top 20 markets to attend both a live radio remote with Bryan in New York and his sold-out show at Irving Plaza.
“His onstage persona is laid-back and easygoing but he works really hard to get people to just have a good time with him,” Mabe says. “That is the embodiment of Luke Bryan. He is the life of the party and he wants everyone to lay down their barriers, leave their troubles at the door and have a great time with him.”
“My goal is to definitely to enjoy everything every day,” Bryan says. “I enjoy being onstage and growing the production to bigger and bigger things that fans have never seen. I want to take this to new levels.”