Justin Timberlake’s “Suit and Tie” single cover

Justin Timberlake’s new song, “Suit & Tie”, was released on January 14th but it has already made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100. However, don’t assume that it has made a major dent on the US charts because it’s start was lukewarm at best.

“Suit & Tie” entered the Hot 100 this week at #84 based on 48 hours of radio airplay alone. In case you didn’t know, the Hot 100 is based on a point system that incorporates radio airplay, digital downloads and online streaming figures.

Since, digital sales and online streaming are tallied during a Monday to Sunday cycle, the performance of “Suit & Tie” via those avenues won’t be reflected on the Hot 100 until next week. Radio airplay, on the other hand, is measured from Wednesday to Tuesday. Hence, the ranking of “Suit & Tie” this week stemmed from the 36 million audience impressions it garnered since its premiere at 12:00am on January 14th.

“Suit & Tie” is expected to sell 300K-350K copies by the end of this week and vault into the top 10 of the Hot 100 on the subsequent Hot 100 listing. Whether it will unseat Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” from the #1 slot will be a very interesting feat to witness.

See the other leading releases in the top 10 of both Billboard 200 and the Hot 100 below:

Billboard 200

1. Chris Tomlin - Burning Lights – 73K (debut)

2. Hollywood Undead - Notes From the Underground – 53K (debut)

3. Various Artists – Les Miserables – 52K (total: 322K)

4. Taylor Swift – Red – 49K (total: 3.23 M)

5. Various Artists – Pitch Perfect – 45K (total: 309K)

6. Bruno Mars – Unorthodox Jukebox – 42K (total: 522K)

7. Black Veil Brides - Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones – 42K (debut)

8. Lumineers - Lumineers - 37K (total: 781K)

9. Dropkick Murphys - Signed and Sealed in Blood – 33K (debut)

10. One Direction – Take Me Home – 29K (total: 1.43 M)

Billboard Hot 100

1. Bruno Mars – “Locked Out of Heaven”

2. Macklemore & Lewis – “Thrift Shop”

3. Lumineers - “Ho Hey”

4. Taylor Swift – “I Knew You Were Trouble”

5. Rihanna – “Diamonds”

6. will.i.am – “Scream & Shout (Ft. Britney Spears)”

7. Swedish House Mafia - “Don’t You Worry Child (Ft. John Martin)”

8. Justin Bieber – “Beauty & a Beat (Ft. Nicki Minaj)”

9. Phillip Phillips – “Home”

10. Flo Rida – “I Cry”

Listen to Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” below:

Thoughts?