Cody Jinks Makes History with Two Consecutive #1 Records

photo: Brad Coolidge

An album by Cody Jinks has come in #1 in album sales for the second consecutive week. After hitting #1 in country music in pure album sales, and #2 when factoring in streaming last week with his album After The Fire, Jinks has pulled off the same feat again this week with his album The Wanting. The albums were released on October 11th and 18th respectively, giving Jinks fans a double dose of music, and allowing him to do what very few artists have done in country music history—top the charts with different albums on successive weeks.

The Wanting by Cody Jinks sold an estimated 12,500 albums in physical sales and downloads, and received 2.5 million streams during the reporting period, good enough for equivalent numbers of 14,900 units—basically in line with what After the Fire did the week previous, besting all competition for #1 in pure album sales, putting him at #2 on the Billboard Country Albums chart that factors in streaming, and #3 in pure album sales in all of music. Cody also comes in at #35 on the all genre Billboard 200.

Though some may look at the sales numbers of After The Fire and The Wanting and feel they’re low, this is somewhat missing the point. The numbers reflect the new reality of the majority of music fans streaming their music as opposed to purchasing physical copies, but the rules are the same for all artists.

The only artist that moved more records in the last two weeks in country music was Luke Combs, who once again comes in at #1 this week with This One’s For You. But even when factoring in streaming numbers, Cody Jinks beat out mainstream competition with widespread radio support for the second week in a row. Chris Janson’s latest single “Good Vibes” was #1 at country radio when his new album Real Friends was released right beside Cody’s The Wanting, but Janson could only muster selling just over 3,000 copies.

What makes the feat that much more impressive is the fact that Cody Jinks doesn’t have a record label. Cody Jinks has previously been signed to Thirty Tigers and Rounder Records, but chose to handle the release of his two new records completely in house through his management company, True Grit Presents. The numbers also don’t reflect vinyl copies of the records which won’t ship out until December 7th. Only then will they be factored into Cody’s sales. Jinks also did not use a ticket bundle—aka selling albums as a bundle option with concert tickets.

During the Soundscan era, only artists such as Garth Brooks have been able to pull off having different titles at #1 during consecutive weeks. This speaks to the incredible grassroots support Cody Jinks enjoys from his rabid fans known as “Flockers,” and the independent country music community at large. By combining a hard-edged country style with subsnative songwriting, Cody Jinks symbolizes the best of both worlds in country music that has instilled his career with an undying loyalty from listeners.

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