It has already been ratified around the world. It’s a seemingly instant hit in America. It’s the rare instance of a phenomenal streaming record that also happens to work as a radio song. On the syndicated evening CHR show Liveline, it was receiving requests before the first spin and is already the No. 1 request, holding off Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” so far.
Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” certainly sounds like a song that Mainstream AC radio will be playing in a decade. It feels like a song that, once it reaches the AC chart, will stay there forever, like “Beautiful Things” or “Lose Control.”
But it’s nowhere close at the moment. As of Tuesday, “Man I Need” was up to only 20 spins at AC radio. On a soft chart with few titles receiving significant airplay outside the top 20, that’s enough to place it among the 40 most-played currents, but those spins are still coming almost entirely from one reporting station, WMGN (Magic 98) Madison, Wis. By comparison, “Man I Need” is on a single Triple-A chart station as well.
In Canada, “Man I Need” is a little further along, largely because of Bell Media’s French-language Rouge FM stations. (Those stations have also jumped on Myles Smith’s new “Stay [If You Wanna Dance]” ahead of any significant US airplay.) In Australia, “Man I Need” is the most-played song on the very successful Smooth FM, notable because that gold-based Soft AC doesn’t typically play currents in significant rotation.
At CHR in America, “Man I Need” is up 18-14 and the fourth-fastest-growing song. At Hot AC, it’s 26-25, the seventh-greatest gainer. It’s not that AC should be playing it more — it arrived on these shores as a clear CHR hit. But there’s still something baffling about a pop song that is so, well, adult, still having to work its way from CHR to Hot AC to AC.
Baffling, but not in any way surprising. Seven years ago, this column tagged AC “The Format That Plays One Current” — based on many stations’ practice of playing only a few songs in significant rotation, most of them recurrent in any other format. AC’s habit of taking hits mostly from CHR had slowed when late-’10s pop music became more extreme, but the format never returned to developing its own currents.
CHR is more accessible now, but it has less critical mass to spread a song to other formats, meaning a 4-share station has less influence on a 7-share rival. Besides, Top 40 and Hot AC have become less current, slowing the pipeline as well. By my previous definition of songs still charted at other formats, there are actually two “currents” at AC this week, but that’s because “Die With a Smile” is still on the Hot AC chart after 62 weeks.
There are two core-AC artist titles that have gotten relatively fast traction at AC. Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” is currently No. 6 with nearly 800 spins, but the gap between that song and No. 5 — where power airplay essentially begins at AC — is more than 1,000 spins. Ed Sheeran’s “Camera” is No. 9, ahead of Top 40 (No. 15) but lagging behind Hot AC (No. 8).
Yet, it seems odd that this texturally appropriate song, coming to radio as far more of a proven hit than many, is not yet on AC’s radar. Shouldn’t the right time to consider a song be “when you know it’s worthy of consideration”? Would an AC station playing “Man I Need” really lose a punch war to an AC playing “Home” by Daughtry? A Classic Hits station playing “Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles?
Even at the time of the first article, AC and Hot AC had already become formats that differed from each other less in texture than timing. Hot AC was the format that still played currents, even softer ones; Mainstream AC was the one that still played the ’80s. Thanks to the effects of streaming and fewer young listeners, CHR has been reshaped as an alternate universe Adult Contemporary format — with slightly edgier currents and gold. Perhaps within a cluster, then, there is no eagerness to share even an AC appropriate record with the AC format.
Another likely explanation is that with labels less concerned about radio overall there is rarely the motivation to push Mainstream AC to do anything. Any song that started there would be pigeonholed by CHR and Hot AC, not welcomed as warmed up. Perhaps Atlantic felt it needed some additional mass on Sheeran — now a work artist — from a friendly format. Swift’s camp still enthusiastically uses radio, including CHR airplay on album cuts, to swell her attention-getting opening weeks. There’s less incentive to work a song two weeks before the all-Christmas formats kick in anyway.
Is any of this a problem? In the original story, I asked, “Who’s going to tell [WLTW] Lite FM [New York] they’re wrong?” Lite had an 8.5 share at the time. In the last monthly PPM ratings, the station had an 8.1. There is no industry truism harder to disprove than “you don’t get hurt by what you don’t play,” although perhaps a decade of streaming-driven attrition has made that one a little less of a mic drop.
I still believe there are missed opportunities, including AC’s ability to show itself to listeners as a lifestyle format, not just a utility. There aren’t many Adele-like stories of songs or artists with instant traction with adult women. Why ignore one when it happens? From a label standpoint, AC’s reach still has impact on Billboard’s Hot 100, something seen most at the holidays. Wouldn’t it be better to have 15 WLTW spins now, rather than a year from now? As CHR struggles for a fast read on songs, shouldn’t that format want the lateral support, too?
There are, as it happens, instances when other types of lateral support have warmed up a song. Brandon Lake & Jelly Roll’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah” is No. 19 at AC but getting more than 80% of its airplay in overnights. As a former No. 2 Christian AC hit, and a song that has also gotten Country airplay for nine months, it’s probably better known than AC PDs realize. Russell Dickerson’s “Happen to Me,” a former Country No. 1 and top 30 CHR hit, isn’t getting AC play. Neither is Locash’s No. 1 Country and top 30 Hot AC hit, “Hometown Home.” Plenty of AC listeners would likely know both already, but with little AC callout, how would programmers know?
“AC should play more currents” is as hard to litigate as the “you can’t get hurt” logic that drives it, and a seemingly random battle to choose at this moment. Then again, the success of Country, which develops some songs glacially, but develops them nevertheless, is a key piece of evidence. Overall, though, with the hit music ecosystem having been weakened in every way, we would have more and bigger hits if one of our two biggest music formats chimed in sooner when it made sense.
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