Is an AI-generated song really #1 in country music?
Nope
No, it didn’t. But that headline sure makes for great clickbait.
“Walk my Walk” by Digital Rust reached #1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart. But this chart only counts paid downloads. It ignores streaming, which is how 99 percent of music is consumed today.
On Billboard’s overall Hot Country list, Morgan Wallen’s “I Got Better” is #1, and Digital Rust doesn’t appear at all.
For context:
“Walk my Walk” reached #1 with just over 2,000 paid downloads.
In 2013, at the height of iTunes, topping this chart took as many as 100,000.
Paid downloads are so tiny today that these charts are easily gamed by fans or bots who coordinate buying.
At $1.29 per download, you could buy your way to #1 for less than $3,000.
No shade to Digital Rust, who has a healthy 2.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
But we’re still a long way away from an AI song topping the charts that actually matter.