So who do you like — DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber or Bruno Mars?
Well, you probably fancy all three — but only one of the trio of superstars is in line to have his song become the Song of the Summer.
Every year, music lovers seem to rally around a song that reminds them of that vacation they went on, a wedding they attended or a BBQ or road trip they enjoyed.
While music lovers do it for sentimental reasons, music labels quietly jockey to get their top song crowned the winner.
The label with the winning song stands to pocket millions in extra revenue, industry sources said.
With pride and profits on the line, the labels are busy with state-of-the-art seeding efforts on social media, remixes to keep things streaming and meetings with key program directors in radio.
The goal is to get their song streamed, played on the radio, sold, karaoked and hummed enough to reach the top of Billboard’s chart. Top contenders:
- Universal Music’s “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee, featuring Justin Bieber,
- Warner Music’s “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars
- Sony Music’s “I’m the One” by DJ Khaled, featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne.
The trade magazine has been crowning the Song of the Summer since 2010.
For the music labels, much of their marketing push is centered on music streamers — which have changed the game when it comes to promoting hit records.
Spotify’s chief trend spotter, Shanon Cook, notes that the streamer, with 50 million paid users, is already seeing users start to put together summer playlists.
“The concept of the song of the summer isn’t new, but the role playlists now play in boosting a song’s exposure is still fairly new,” said Cook.
“Listeners now rely on playlist curators to direct them to not only the hits, but what’s emerging and what might suit their music tastes,” she said. “We base our summer predictions in part on a song’s performance in key playlists — like Today’s Top Hits — and ultimately, it’s the listeners’ passion for that song that drives it to the top.”
Warning: Graphic language
So music labels lean on Spotify and other streamers to get their hit songs on those curated playlists.
Cook said each of the songs listed earlier in the story is on plenty of playlists — as is another song featuring Bieber, called “2U,” from French DJ David Guetta. It debuted just a few days ago but is seeing some hot take-up, Cook noted.
Cook is also watching “Strip that Down” from singer Liam Payne as well as Camila Cabello’s “Crying in the Club.” Any one of the dark horses could upset the big faves.
“The record companies are very strategic about the songs they tee up and that they compete vigorously and, with that, they need to set things up far in advance,” Larry Miller, director of NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, told The Post. “It’s not as if a song that comes out after Memorial Day can’t generate a hit, but it’s awfully hard to compete with a tidal wave.”
Here is how each of the labels is trying to make its top hit the Song of the Summer:
I think certain songs emerge that represent something in people’s lives that are omnipresent,” says Warner’s David Grant, senior vice president of marketing at its Atlantic Records, when asked about why the Song of the Summer has become an important milestone for an artist.
The executive has been busy working on Bruno Mars’ catchy “That’s What I Like,” which has 554 million views on YouTube and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart on May 13.
Grant says he worked with Musical.ly, a social platform that lets kids sing and make their own videos of popular tunes.
“We did a contest with them where the kids uploaded dance moves from the video and we compiled the best ones into a YouTube video, which went up in May,” Grant said.
The Warner division also created Facebook camera effects, similar to the Snapchat filters, using the animation from the video.
The song is currently No. 2 on the Billboard Song of the Summer chart.
“His songs have a long life and his singles can do six months on the chart,” Grant told The Post. Mars just debuted “Versace on the Floor,” which he performed at the Billboard Music Awards last month, another fine piece of marketing.
The song has at least eight remixes — which, Grant explains, is another sly way music labels expand a song’s audience.
“Injecting a new version of the song is super helpful. Streaming has such a long tail, to keep injecting new pieces extends the life,” Grant said. It also helps songs win placement on a broader variety of playlists, pushing streaming numbers higher.
And upping odds.
At Sony, DJ Khaled is already sitting at No. 2 on the summer chart with “I’m the One.”
“Over the years, you put out a track and you plan for radio and retail partners and streaming and press,” one Sony Music exec told The Post. “It’s condensed now. A viral video or a hot break video, and consumers get it on their playlists.”
At Sony, executives try to get hot songs on to playlists of streaming companies — such as New Music Friday, Summer Hits, or even global playlist RapCaviar.
“Social is really important,” the Sony exec said. “Fans are reacting before we can. Instagram and Snapchat are vital, as are TV and press. When you do a ‘Good Morning America’ performance, it can be an incredible moment.”
Universal Music’s Latin cross-over hit, “Despacito,” is expected to tally 2 billion views on YouTube and Vevo by the end of the week — and the song is currently at the top of Billboard’s Song of the Summer chart. It’s the most watched music release of 2017.
The original version was already the Song of the Summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and now the remix featuring Bieber is having its moment here in the US, where it’s been at the top of the Hot 100 charts for five weeks.
Bieber famously heard the song in a nightclub in Colombia and asked his manager, Scooter Braun, if he could record the song.
When the artists Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee agreed to add Bieber, the song’s publisher, Sony/ATV, effectively gave up 25 percent of the rights to Bieber publisher Universal — though together they expanded the pie more than anyone expected.
Bieber is a co-writer of the remixed song, which features some new English lyrics, even though he admits he doesn’t know the Spanish words and sings “Dorito” instead, according to Billboard.
Jesus Lopez, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Latin America, told The Post that positive social media postings helped the song get lift-off from the very beginning.
“Celebrities were supporting it from day one. There were 350 million Instagram posts. That’s amazing,” he tells The Post.
Fonsi appeared on the final of NBC’s “The Voice” this week but, in a stroke of luck, the song was also featured twice during the NBA Game 5 broadcast on ABC this week, notes Lopez, giving it yet more exposure and adding fuel to keep it atop the charts and a contender for the Song of the Summer.