Olivia Dean – “Man I Need”: When we first wrote about the song three weeks ago, Sirius XM’s TikTok Radio was the only monitored radio station in America playing it. It was doing crazy numbers on Spotify and Shazam with requests coming in to us before we had heard of it or played it. “Man I Need” debuted on Mediabase and we added it the following week. It has only gotten bigger. People are calling and texting us asking “what song was that,” with others telling us things like “I had never heard that song before but I instantly fell in love with it, and added it to my playlist” (a 29 year old woman).
“Man I Need” is currently the fourth most-streamed song on Spotify in the US and #3 in the world. It’s clear that this will be one of the biggest and one of the only exceptional pure-pop songs of the year. It’s #7 most-requested on Liveline this week, big with EVERY demo. Kids, teens, 25-54 men and women. Unlike “Golden” by HUNTR/X, which still has yet to receive ONE request from someone older than 15.
Tyler, The Creator – “Sugar On My Tongue”: His album “DON’T TAP THE GLASS” came out July 21 and all of its tracks occupied the Spotify Top 10. Now that some time has passed, we can see which ones are hit worthy and career-enduring. Three weeks ago, this entered our Top 20 requests; it’s now clear that this is more than just a quick spike. Until now, Tyler has had no hits on Top 40 despite releasing music since 2010. He’s a Gen Z superstar, known to all people under 30. His 2017 song “See You Again” with Kali Uchis is a fan favorite and one of Spotify’s most-streamed ever, with 2.5 billion streams. It’s currently #69 on Spotify, peaked at #3 and has held a spot in the Top 150 for the past 1,571 days.
“Sugar On My Tongue” embraces a funky, weird, odd but catchy sound that could only be compared to recent tracks like “MILLION DOLLAR BABY” by Tommy Richman, “NOKIA” by Drake or “Redbone” by Childish Gambino. TikTok sounds don’t always translate to actual streams since only a short portion of the song is catchy and people don’t actually care about the rest of it. Luckily, this song has both. It’s #9 on Spotify right now and all over social media. Currently #45 on Top 40 with WXLK/Roanoke’s Chris Ryan (often a new music leader) giving it 22 spins this week, but since it’s this week’s most added, look for a significant move this week. Our listeners are already sold: it was #11 most requested this week.
Ah yes by the highly rigorous practice of asking requesters “Oh nice one haha, now what do you REALLY want to hear?”, “Golden” gets zero in-demo requests. I don’t even really like the song but stations are clearly correct to be playing it.
Your show’s pretty great and all, and I like that you spotlight different songs each week, but…
Is Liveline still not supporting “Golden” even though it’s now Top 3 at CHR/Pop, and Top 7 at Hot A/C? ?
It seems to me that a lot of CHR listeners over the age of 15 like this song for it to go this high, no?
Also, isn’t it odd that most of the stations carrying your show are also big supporters of “Golden” ?
106.9 K-Hits Tulsa, your biggest market, has it in Top 10 rotation.
Energy 106 Winnipeg, your second biggest market. has it Top 5
Hits 96 Chattanooga has it in Top 5 rotation
104.7 KDUK Eugene has it Top 6
98.5 Kiss FM Peoria has it Top 10
Q-107 Columbus, GA has it Top 5
95 Triple X Burlington has it Top 5
Hot 104.9 Tallahassee has it Top 5
Even several Rhythmic CHRs are finding success with it.
So how much more of a consensus do you need?
There are about 40 stations powering “Golden” now, but also some well-researched large market CHRs for whom it will remain a 40x a week record. It’s interesting that KMVQ (Now 99.7) San Francisco, the biggest/earliest supporter, has backed it down (even though that still means 70x spins). But before they did, they just put together a second month of growth–from an unusually soft place–with “Golden” in power.