Tm4074

It's very annoying how an obnoxious vocal minority on the internet are responsible for setting the narrative. HTIMYLM is a hit, but the narrative surrounding it you would think the majority are disappointed while that is not the case. This is her best performing single in the US since Positions and the GP prefer her moody mid-tempos. Ironically same thing happened to Positions. These people need to be filtered out from the fanbase, they are obviously not her target audience anymore and they set her up every time.

Ariana always wins. ATRL should of learned that by now, it's been 13 years of this

I mean considering Internet forums are mostly a thing of the past ATRL is very active for a forum in 2026. I like how it's more niche and doesn't attract the GP like Reddit does. Although some users are really stuck in the past on here lol

Referencing the music video for the boy is mine which is inspired by Catwoman. Cats hunt rats.

Sweetener is pretty left of center for a mainstream pop release, especially in 2018. Originally Sweetener had fewer Max Martin tracks, it was mostly her work with Pharrell. GIAW, for example, was a last minute addition. Her work with Tommy Brown was also added at the end (goodnight n go, better off, pete davidson). If Ariana had it her way it would have been just her and Pharrell, but at that time in her career she couldn't completely abandon her mainstream pop appeal completely. She probably wants to get weirder but the fanbase has to be on board and some of them are stuck in 2016.

US Apple Music (Day 32) HTIMYLM: #12 yes, and?: N/A yes, and? tankery was really something else. That was the first and last time she took Frankie's advice on a lead single choice lmao

Olivia Dean is more their style and that's who is likely winning. Olivia Rodrigo although acclaimed and well-liked, is still a young pop star that appeals to mostly young women. I don't agree with that perspective at all and I greatly prefer Olivia Rodrigo's album over Olivia Dean's watered down pop-soul but Grammys don't think that way.

Major established artists are catering to their specific niches because the only way to get mass exposure with the GP in the attention economy with singles is being a discovery (new artist hype aka Sabrina and Chappell having a big moment in 2024), viral TikTok song, or past hits from the monoculture reviving due to nostalgia. That's why the album format is what established artists are focusing on. Olivia only sent her lead single to radio is a consequence of singles having less importance for sustained longevity as an artist. I mean look at Dua, huge singles artist but that's a slippery slope to depend on once the novelty of being new artist wears off hence RO underperformance as an album. We won't have another 2024 until a new artist discovery happens in a big way that collides with a bunch of major artists releasing albums. We talk about 2024 hits but most of them were from new or breakthrough artists (Sabrina, Chappell, Gracie, Benson Boone, etc). Billie had Birds but that's an outlier and no shade but the autoplay feature was abused even though Birds was a big hit regardless. Taylor, Beyoncé, Ariana all had hits in 2024 but they weren't touching their monocultural hits from past eras.

Not bad for a Sunday update. Those versions released on streaming was peak stupidity from her team though. They don't contribute any additional streams and damages the song's performance on the algorithm which is important for exposure. They should know how the algorithm operates by now, such a negligent move by her team. LMH is just waiting for an huge revival. If Ariana and Abel don't link up and perform it live at either one of their shows in London it could be one of the biggest missed opportunities of this tour.

Retails drags and you need to be on the sales floor all the time pretending like you care. The tasks are redundant and customers suck worse than fast food for sure. Fast food shift goes by faster bc you're busy and you aren't as micromanaged if you aren't an idiot. Fast food can get tips too depending where you work. I have ADHD so retail was hell for me, so boring and I didn't care about sales or pushing sales. Both are miserable though.

In the US sure, globally no it's not. It has no relevance outside of the Anglosphere.

Absolutely! Back to #1 on Global Spotify after a month! Longest running #1 female song of the year so far (11 days). Second longest running song released this year in general behind Swim by BTS (25 days). Olivia's stupid song did 10 days at #1. Everyone else is in the trenches with new releases this year.

Yall are underestimating her and aren't paying attention to how the market and strategies have changed just this past year. ES didn't have multiple vinyl variants only 1 single vinyl variant. ES had multiple covers which does nothing to push pure sales if it's the same vinyl variant. The only fanbase to mass buy multiple covers of the same vinyl variant are the Swifties and they're deranged. Petal has 8 vinyl variants so far. Her SEA should be 200k+ as long as the album doesn't suck and is well received. ES would have 200k with SEA units alone under this new formula. Olivia increased her pure over 100k from GUTS due to pushing more variants. Sabrina also increased her pure sales 40k from SnS to MBF bc of variants. SnS was in a chart battle with Travis Scott so she did multiple digital variants release week to push for #1, without that the pure sales increase between SnS and MBF would be higher. Ariana's only albums to be released under this variant trend was ES. ES rollout was botched and her team was stuck in another era, tbh it's a feat it managed to do 227k after the botched rollout. She seems to have fixed that issue. Using her pure sales from her other albums is irrelevant. It was a completely different time and pure sales were dead for everyone unless they did tour bundles. TUN would have opened 450k+ minimum under the new SEA rules and if pushing multiple variants existed back then. She didn't even do a tour bundle for TUN and it still managed 112k pure when pure sales were essentially dead. Ariana should aim for 100k+ pure and 200k+ SEA. 300k+ and could go higher if it has glowing reception and positive WOM. Debuting ~250k is actually an underperformance from ES. ES under new rules is 277k and that's with the botched rollout and terrible marketing strategy. I get managing expectations but 300k is more than manageable lol. All she has to do is have her streaming remain stable and increase her pure sales 30k from ES. That is very doable with multiple variants. If she can't manage that she has a problem.

I mean why wouldn't he? He's in his 50s and he's not going to be a top writer and producer forever. Why not sell and enjoy the fortune when nostalgia for his past hits are peaking? i rather take the massive check and enjoy it while I still can.

Yes, stupid song dropped 230k and HTIMYLM gained 4k.

Rising on AM

Starting? Being deranged in is their whole job. Taylor's grip on the cultural zeitgeist waning and Olivia's critical acclaim is really putting them through it so they've been extra deranged lately. What goes up must come down. They should have learned from the Drake cautionary tale, artificially inflating your numbers due to high volume of releases and mobilizing a big fanbase won't pay off in the long run if the material is slop.

Performing better on the Hot 100 than yes, and & WCBF in its third week. HTIMYLM is #8 this week. WCBF was #10. Yes and was #17. It will probably rise or stay stable next week depending on how quickly Olivia's songs drop. Hopefully radio picks up.

I highly doubt that Twitter insider is legit but I think she should drop a second single. Olivia's rollout is proof a second single before the album is effective as long as the song is good (she has to pick a good single though lol). Keeps the momentum going. HTIMYLM isn't killing hype like yes, and did so there isn't high stakes on a second single this time.

girl don't speak too soon that can still flop if the og audience doesn't show up lol

Excellent numbers! Especially pure sales. Improved significantly from GUTS which made the difference this time. She did this with a transitional rollout too. More big artists should try it bc it shows following a traditional rollout won't be a hype killer if the album is good. GUTS did 200m on-demand streams and this album did 218m so it's not blowing away GUTS in a big way or anything in terms of streaming performance in the US. GUTS had a hit with vampire too so I'm curious if any of the three singles end up sticking around like that song did.

Why is everyone on edge in here? She teased instrumentals from the album in her tour visuals and there are alternative influences there, which fits with the sound we heard on HTIMYLM which isn't that same synth-pop from ES at all. It has some similarities but overall it's a different sound and her vocal delivery is different too. We have some crumbs that give us actual hints where she is going. I think we can infer certain things about the album atp without knowing any of the specific details. Ariana has always been an artist that knows how to adapt to trends bubbling up in the mainstream while incorporating her signature style to make it hers. She went EDM on My Everything, started dabbling into trap on Christmas and Chill/DW and went full force on Sweetener/TUN. On ES was the 80s synth-pop revival of the 2020s, etc etc. Alt/indie is having a moment right now. I mean Dominic Fike's Babydoll is a huge hit and it sounds like a Sublime song from the 90s.

Ohh this album is going to be for me. Poor Into You stans stuck in 2016, they better keep their complaining mouth shut on release day and not ruin it for the rest of us. The gays better keep the leaks contained. I would hate for the full album to leak when we still over a month away from release.

It was a holiday in the US yesterday so maybe that had an an effect on the streams?

ATRL is such a bubble sometimes. Taylor and Ariana being the only women on this list is expected. Ariana was the only woman competing with the hip-hop giants on streaming in the 2010s especially with new releases. thank u next and Positions absolutely dominated on there, she had album tracks reaching #1. TUN occupied the entire top 12 and Positions occupied the entire top 14 on US AM after release. Taylor is Taylor so she was a given. No other female artist achieved similar chart dominance on the platform. Rihanna's catalogue does well but she hasn't released since 2016 so it makes sense she isn't here. SZA also doesn't have a big enough catalogue and only CTRL was released when the platform was at its peak.