Cody Jinks is pulling the ultimate power move, sending his Platinum single “Loud and Heavy” to country radio as his next single.
The song is actually seven-years-old, and considering that Platinum status certified by the RIAA, is already a hit in every aspect other than the fact that it hasn’t peaked at #1 on the Country Airplay or Mediabase charts, which are the two charts labels use to officially track their songs performance.
And he recently spoke to Billboard a little bit about the decision to send his signature song to country radio so many years after it was released, and Cody really boils it all down to one reason:
“A good song is never dated.”
Touché…
Cody’s signature track was included on his 2015 album The Adobe Sessions, and according to Luminate, has garnered a grand total of 436.5 million on-demand streams since it was released.
It has clearly resonated with plenty of people, but without the help of a major record label, Cody admitted that he simply couldn’t afford to push a single back then.
And now, seeing as he’s a major country superstar outside of the mainstream, he thinks it’s time to challenge the powers that be at country radio to play a song that’s already a proven smash hit.
He remembers executives saying that it wasn’t a proven hit and they couldn’t take the chance at the time, although obviously most songs aren’t when they first arrive at country radio, so Cody feels like this will challenge them to really put their money where their mouth is, so to speak:
“The first year, mainstream radio basically told us we weren’t allowed to be in the club, like we couldn’t release it because we didn’t have the proper backing.
And then they basically said, ‘Well, it’s not a proven hit.’ So after it went platinum, we kind of went back and said, ‘Will you play it now? We checked all the boxes.’
Like, put your money where your mouth is.”
And though it’s likely that this won’t become a #1 multi-week single, even though it should, I love the trolling he’s essentially doing by promoting this as his next single.
He also offered a little bit advice and caution to artists who are drawn to record labels as a means to get their career started, saying that they aren’t in it for the success of the artist and the music, but more often than not, the money they can make off of any given single, no matter how shitty it really is:
“Record companies don’t build artists for success. Record companies are in business for their own success.
If the artist happens to be successful, it’s because they happened to find an oil well that they actually hit on.
Record companies are wildcatters. They just have all these oil wells, hopefully one hits.”
And I couldn’t have summed it up any better myself.
Luckily, there are guys like Cody who are happy to do things their own way, and moreover, are willing to go out on a limb and challenge the status quo like this.
Plus, he knows he doesn’t need to be played on radio, but at this point in his career, can at least know that he’s more than qualified to play ball with the big boys, even though they aren’t necessarily playing for the same team.
And honestly, I don’t know how it could be any more obvious that they’d be doing themselves a massive favor to let him be the dang captain:
“We probably needed them more back then. It’s nicer to be able to say, ‘Look, we still don’t need you. But we’re still willing to come play ball.’
We don’t have to be on the same basketball team, man, but we can play on the same court.”
Like I said before, regardless of where this song peaks, I think it’s safe to say he already has the last laugh…
“Loud and Heavy” will impact country radio this Monday, August 1st.
“Loud and Heavy”
