How Rosé and Bruno Mars’ ‘APT.’ Came to Dominate the Airwaves — and the Globe
"It's almost never a straight line to get to the top of any airplay chart, but this one was as close as it gets to perfect," says Atlantic's Brady Bedard.
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After the holiday period subsided, Atlantic Records kicked the year off with a bang, and are now setting records and breaking barriers because of it. The chief reason: the runaway success of Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT.,” which this week spends its second week atop the Pop Airplay chart after becoming the first song by a K-pop artist to top that particular chart.
It’s a remarkable achievement for an artist, and a genre, that has been making waves in the U.S. for years now, first with BLACKPINK and now as a solo artist. And it’s not just on the U.S. pop airwaves that the song has been a massive success — this week, “APT.” spends its 14th week at No. 1 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart, tying the record for the longest-running No. 1 in that chart’s history, while also returning to No. 1 on the Global 200 for a 12th week, making it officially the No. 1 song in the world once again. And it helps Atlantic Music Group executive vp of promotion Brady Bedard earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
It’s not just “APT.” fueling this hot streak; Mars, despite not having released an album since the Silk Sonic team up with Anderson .Paak An Evening With in 2021 and without a solo album since 2016, has three songs in the top 20 of the Hot 100: “APT.,” (No. 3), “Die With a Smile” with Lady Gaga (No. 2) and “Fat, Juicy & Wet” with Sexyy Red (No. 17). It’s another big moment for Mars, who just took over as the artist with the most monthly Spotify listeners, passing 150 million in January.
Here, Bedard talks about the success of “APT.,” how the global numbers have boosted domestic radio efforts and why Mars is having such a moment right now. “He’s one of the most talented, important, versatile artists of this century who continues to build one of the best catalogs in music,” Bedard says. “He continuously elevates both popular music and popular culture with hit after hit after hit — and judging by the world’s reaction we can all agree we are all better for it.”
This week, Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” spends its second week atop the Pop Airplay chart. It’s the first-ever song by a K-pop artist to reach that mark on that chart. What key decision(s) did you make to help make that happen?
It was the sum of all the parts. Rosé was in prime position to finally break out as a solo artist, and with the iconic touch of Bruno Mars it marked for a perfect collaboration. There was, unanimously, an irresistible energy to the song which translated in the immediate huge metrics in the U.S. and globally. Programmers ear-picked it from the start, as did their audience. Starting with our chart debut until reaching No. 1, the weekly airplay growth was textbook. It’s almost never a straight line to get to the top of any airplay chart, but this one was as close as it gets to perfect.
Has K-pop become more accepted at pop radio now, or was there something in particular about this song and campaign that made it particularly effective?
The answer really is both. Now more than ever K-pop is seen as part of the pop pantheon. Beata Murphy at KIIS in Los Angeles created a two-hour specialty show — iHeartKPOP with JoJo — that now runs across every iHeart Pop airplay station on Sunday nights. That didn’t exist a year ago.
In the specific case of Rosé, genres get “labeled” a lot in the pop airplay sphere based on the type of artist — that’s a K-pop artist, or that artist is a country or rock artist, etc — and while “APT.” is by a K-pop artist and that rightfully should be celebrated, when all those labels are stripped away at its core it’s just a really great pop song by an incredible rising pop artist.
At the same time, the song ties the record for the longest reign at No. 1 on the Global Ex-U.S. chart, at 14 weeks. How does that tangible global success help you in the promotions world?
The work the core team at the label provides is essential to what we do in promotion. Of course, starting with the music, Rosé’s Atlantic A&R Gelareh “G” Rouzbehani and then on to [VP of marketing] Jackie Wongso running point on the crucial marketing efforts, [executive vp of streaming and sales] Drew Maniscalo on the commerce side working in tandem with Liz Drummey and the global marketing team. With [Atlantic senior manager of digital] Kyle Viti pushing the massive digital footprint, and [Atlantic senior director of media] Ted Sullivan on the press side rolling out strategic media appearances all with identifiable eye-popping creative integration from [vp of creative] Trevor Newton in partnership with THEBLACKLABEL is nothing short of invaluable. The massive success their teams did here in the US and globally armed us with the information and positioning our promotion team needed to give our radio partners the confidence in this record week after week. We couldn’t have maximized what we did on the airplay charts without their expertise and insight.
Between “APT.,” “Die With a Smile” with Lady Gaga and the Sexyy Red-assisted “Fat Juicy & Wet,” Bruno has three songs in the top 20 of the Hot 100, even without having put out a solo album in almost a decade now. What makes him such an enduring hitmaker, and how do you help boost that on radio?
And look at the sonic array of those three songs! Radio is drawn to him in the same way everyone else is. He’s one of the most talented, important, versatile artists of this century who continues to build one of the best catalogs in music. He continuously elevates both popular music and popular culture with hit after hit after hit — and judging by the world’s reaction we can all agree we are all better for it.
How has the job of promotions at a record label changed over the course of your career?
Having great music and strong relationships remains core to the art of promotion. The shift is really in the strategy. In general, when I started 25 years ago, promotion teams pushed a song on the radio to work toward breaking an artist or song. Radio airplay drove the consumer into the malls and retail record outlets to buy the music — a model that worked for decades. In today’s dominant streaming and social media climate, once an artist or song is identified and verified as a winner inside of the various forms of data and metrics, then we amplify with the radio audience to take it to another level — bigger and with a long-tail effect. How much audience and how many formats can we reach in a campaign? How many songs can we reach with chart topping success? And then, once we get there, how long can we stay there? That makes the promotion work navigating radio and its hundreds of millions of weekly audience impressions as important as it has ever been.
What predictions do you have or trends are you keeping an eye on in the music business for 2025?
I predict we will continue to see a rise in more genre-bending hit songs finding their way across multiple airplay charts.
