News: January 2013

'Sam & Cat's' Jennette McCurdy & Ariana Grande Gain on Social 50 Chart

Singer and Nickelodeon television star Jennette McCurdy debuts at No. 25 on Billboard's Social 50 chart as online buzz steadily increases surrounding her and Ariana Grande's (of "Victorious" fame, and No. 48 in the tally) new spin-off show, "Sam & Cat," which begins shooting this month.

The Social 50 chart ranks the most popular artists on YouTube, Vevo, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, Wikipedia, Myspace and Instagram. The chart's methodology blends weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with artist pageviews, song plays and reactions.

McCurdy played Sam Puckett alongside Miranda Cosgrove in "iCarly," a Nickelodeon show which ended its seven-season run this past November. As "Victorious," another Nickelodeon teen comedy, nears the end of its fourth and final season this February, the series' Ariana Grande's character Cat Valentine will live on as McCurdy's character's roommate in "Sam & Cat."

Both have promising budding music careers. McCurdy's 2011 single "Generation Love" spent seven weeks on the Country Airplay chart and Hot Country Songs, and Ariana Grande has appeared on several "Victorious Cast" releases as well as delivering her own single, "Put Your Hearts Up," which is available on iTunes.

They both have sizable online followings as well. McCurdy has over 3 million followers on Facebook and over 1.8 million on Twitter. She obtained a combined 217,000 followers overall during the charting week. Ariana Grande reaches the 2 million follower mark on Facebook and passes 4 million followers on Twitter during the charting week, with 47,000 and 109,000 added on Facebook and Twitter respectively (a 30% overall weekly increase). Grande also posted a duet of "Baby It's Cold Outside" with Mac Miller (as Larry Lovestein, as he goes by when singing) that helps add over 834,000 plays to her YouTube channel during the week.

Lady Gaga's Ball Hits North America: Lady Gaga rises 18-10 on the tally as the North American leg of her "Born This Way Ball" tour prepped for its North American kick-off on Jan. 11. She's scheduled to hit the road in the BornBrave bus, which made headlines during the charting week as she announced she would provide free mental health counseling to fans during the tour.

"BornBrave Bus Is a place where mental health + depression are taken seriously w/ no judgement, FREE real help available to all," Gaga posted on Facebook. "I feel like most kids don't look for help because they feel embarrassed so mom + I wanted to break the stigmas around "help" and make it fun."

The news resulted in an 18% rise in weekly conversation on Facebook, culminating into a 112,000 follower gain on the platform. Her weekly overall plays across YouTube and VEVO rose by 11%, abringing 5.5 million views.

To cap the top 10, we have Katy Perry (7-9) falling just below Britney Spears (11-8) while PSY continues his fall down the tally following a 1 billion YouTube view boost (6-7). Nicki Minaj jumps 10-6, Bruno Mars falls (2-5), Taylor Swift (5-4) and Rihanna holds at No. 3. One Direction (4-2) and Justin Bieber (No. 1, again) lead the chart for the week.

(Source: BillBoardBiz)