Radio is the step international artists ask me about most and understand least. Streaming feels open. Anyone can upload a song. US pop radio is the opposite. A small number of songs get played many times a day, and the stations decide which ones.
Monsta X, whom I have managed since 2018, reached US Top 40 pop radio, a first for a K-pop group. Here is how the format works, in general terms, and why most international acts never get on it.
How pop radio decides what to play
A pop station has a program director, often called the PD, and in many cases a music director. They decide what goes on the playlist. Most stations belong to large groups, and those groups often have programming leadership that influences what their stations play.
The PD is not asking "is this a good song?" They are asking "will my listeners change the station when this comes on?" Radio makes money on listeners staying through the ads. A song that makes people switch away is a cost, no matter how good it is.
So the PD looks at:
- Fit. Does it sound like it belongs next to what is already on the station?
- Research. Stations test songs with listeners. A familiar song that tests well stays. An unfamiliar one is a risk.
- Other signals. Streaming numbers, Shazam lookups, sales and social activity in the station's own market.
- What other stations are doing. If peers are adding a song and it is moving, it is easier to say yes.
How promotion works
A song does not get to radio by itself. It gets worked.
- Label promotion. Major labels have radio promotion departments with people who call stations every week, ask for adds, report on spins and push a song up the chart.
- Independent promoters. Labels and artists also hire independent promoters who have relationships with stations in a region or a format.
- The add. A station agrees to put the song in rotation. Labels usually target an "add date" so many stations add the same week.
- Spins. Each play is a spin. Spins are tracked by monitoring services and turned into airplay charts. A song climbs as stations add it and play it more.
This takes weeks, often months, of steady work on one song. It costs money. And it only works if the song can hold up once listeners hear it.
Why most international artists never get there
From the side of the work I have done, there are five usual reasons.
1. The song does not fit the format. Pop radio has a sound at any given time. A song that is a hit at home may not sit next to what a US pop station plays. Language matters too. Most pop radio is English-language. When Monsta X released All About Luv in 2020, it was sung in English, and it went to No. 5 on the Billboard 200.
2. There is no US promotion team. A great song with nobody calling stations every week does not get played. This is the main reason a US label deal matters. When Monsta X signed to Epic Records in 2019, a US label with a radio team was behind the records.
3. The demand is not local. A huge global fanbase is real, but a PD in one city wants to see demand in that city. Fans streaming and requesting in that market help. A global number alone does not.
4. Radio comes too early. If an artist has no American TV, no US press and no US touring, a PD has nothing to point to. With BTS from 2016 to 2018, the plan was television first, then radio. National TV gave the rest of the business a reason to listen. I wrote about [that order and how it works](/blog/how-a-k-pop-group-launches-in-the-us/).
5. It is run as a one-week push. Radio is slow. An artist who flies in for a week of station visits and leaves, with no plan for the next two months of promotion, rarely sees the song stick.
What it takes
If an international artist wants a real shot at US pop radio, the pieces are:
- A song that fits the format and works in English, or one that is already breaking through anyway
- A US label or promotion team that will work it for months
- Evidence of American demand, city by city
- National TV, press or a collaboration with an American artist to give programmers a story
- Time, and a budget planned for that time
It is a lot. It is also why radio matters. A song on pop radio reaches people who were never going to look for it, and that is how an artist becomes known outside their fanbase.
Is it still worth it?
Streaming has changed a lot of the US market, and some artists build very big careers without pop radio. But for an international act trying to be known in America beyond its fanbase, radio is still one of the few places the general public hears new music without choosing it.
For the full record of what worked, with sources, see [the K-pop US breakthrough timeline](/kpop-us-breakthrough/). And if you are working out who on a team does this, [a manager and a booking agent are different jobs](/blog/music-manager-vs-booking-agency/).
More from the blog: How a K-pop group launches in the US · What a US market entry plan looks like · Manager, label or label services · Who broke BTS in America.