Jimin’s sophomore album ‘MUSE‘ as well as the album’s title track ‘WHO,’ have been massively successful and broken numerous sales and streaming records globally, just like his first solo album, ‘FACE‘ and it’s lead single ‘Like Crazy.’ ‘MUSE’ has been impressively strong in terms of streaming numbers and streaming chart rankings ever since its release, particularly on the top two music streaming platforms in the world, Spotify and Apple Music. In the present age of media consumption primarily through streaming, there could not be a better indication of demand or a better measure of success for an artist’s work than that derived from streaming numbers and rankings.
On October 8, Billboard released its various weekly charts, with this particular set of rankings marking performance for the 11th week of release for ‘WHO.’ On the Billboard Streaming Songs chart, which reports streaming activity for the USA market, ‘WHO’ ranked #20, having never dropped from the chart since its release. With 11 consecutive weeks on the chart, it became the longest charting song by a Korean/K-pop soloist in the past decade on this chart.
On the Apple Music Global chart, ‘WHO’ is in a tie as the longest-charting solo song by a Korean/K-pop solo artist on the chart, with 47 days as of Sept 12. ‘WHO’ also holds the record as the longest-charting 2024 song by a Korean/K-pop soloist, a feat that it achieved on its 11th day on the chart.
In a different category, the Billboard World Albums chart, ‘MUSE’ rose to #1 for the first time since its release, marking Jimin’s 2nd #1 album after ‘FACE’. Considering both albums, Jimin has now spent an aggregate of 6 weeks at #1 on the Billboard World Albums chart, the first and only Korean/K-pop solo artist to ever achieve this.
Turning to sales records, Jimin had earlier attained the record of the first and only K-pop artist to have multiple albums reach #1 on the US iTunes album chart in 2024.
Much earlier on, as of September 4th, the ‘MUSE’ album hit 1 Billion streams on Spotify to become the first and only album of 2024 by a K-pop Act as well as the fastest Korean album by a K-pop soloist in history to reach this milestone.
With this same feat, Jimin also became the first K-pop/Korean solo artist in history to achieve this feat with two albums (‘FACE’ and ‘MUSE’). Additionally, both albums now hold records as the first albums by K-pop Acts to reach 1 Billion streams both in 2023 and in 2024, with ‘MUSE’ achieving it in 47 days, whereas ‘FACE’ achieved it in 153 days.
In other news, ‘WHO’ has now surpassed 700 million streams on Spotify doing so in just 78 days, thus becoming the fastest 2024 song and fastest solo song by a Korean/K-pop solo artist in history to achieve this feat.
With his one-of-a-kind talent and uniquely skilled artistry that has brought forth such a captivating discography for both albums, which has seen him make a name for himself and claim his spot as a top, reputable K-pop solo artist and a generational leader, fans have high expectations for his future works, and his exceptional performance is expected to grow further in his 3rd album as well.
Congratulations Jimin!
