Jimin has always been a favorite and widely popular in the USA, the world’s largest music market, among K-pop idols. Not only does he enjoy immense attention from different top celebrities in the country (including artists, actors, actresses, TV show hosts and film directors to mention a few as previously documented) but his music also registers impressive performance on different USA-based music charts and platforms, a show of his strong organic impact on the market.
For example, his song ‘Set Me Free Pt.2’ recorded the highest streams debut for a solo song by a K-pop soloist on Spotify USA Daily Top Songs chart at the time of its release [read here], and he beat his own record just a week later with ‘Like Crazy’ his lead single [read here]. He currently holds the record for the longest-charting solo song by a Korean/ K-pop soloist on the said chart with ‘Like Crazy’ at 122 days as of the chart dated Jan 7[refer here] which is overall the 3rd longest charting song by a K-pop soloist on the chart (just behind 2 collaborations), despite never having any playlisting or radio servicing. Additionally, the song also ranked as the bestselling download by a K-pop artist in the USA in 2023 [read here].
Jimin’s success and popularity in the USA isn’t limited to one music platform, but is demonstrated across multiple other platforms, another prominent one being Pandora. He already holds the record for the highest peak for monthly listeners for any Korean act on the platform with 590.4k and is the first and only Korean solo artist to ever surpass 500k monthly listeners on the platform’s history [read here]. He achieved these remarkable feats following the release of his solo album which gained much interest from the USA general public, and he now has more records under his belt on the platform after releasing ‘Closer Than This‘ on Dec 22 as a gift for fans. There was only a 2-day notice for the song’s release and no promotion but the song still achieved great numbers for its debut, particularly on Pandora.
‘Closer Than This’ earned the biggest first-day song debut by a Korean/K-pop solo artist on the platform with 213,757 streams, surpassing the record previously held by ‘TOO MUCH’ by Kid Laroi, Central Cee, and Jungkook.
The song kept up impressive streaming numbers all through the week, maintaining an average daily stream rate of approximately 200k each day and ended up with yet another record just when the first week of tracking was coming to an end. ‘Closer Than This’ achieved the biggest debut week for any Korean/K-pop soloist on the platform with a remarkable 1,430,048 streams, another first-time record that Korean soloists will look up to.
It is worth noting that Pandora only has premium accounts, and thus the decision on which song to listen to solely lies on the listeners, which in turn influences the top songs on the platform. Songs that land on the top songs ranking can therefore be deemed organically in demand by the listeners, and ‘Closer Than This’ debuted at #4 on the Top Spins chart for the chart dated Dec 28 just at the end of the tracking week.
Moreover, the song attained 1Million streams within a week of its release, setting an additional record for the fastest song by a Korean/K-pop solo artist to attain this feat.
The momentum hasn’t slowed down since then and as of Jan 6, the song has already surpassed 2.2 million streams on the platform as of Jan 6 chart update.
The USA will always be Jiminland. Congratulations Jimin!