Putting a song on American streaming services takes an afternoon. Releasing it in America, so that people here hear it, takes a plan and an order of operations. Here is the order our record shows.
Getting music onto U.S. streaming services is the easy part: any distributor that delivers to Spotify, Apple Music and the other services will do it. Releasing in America means building an audience here, and that happens in a sequence. Pick the right song for the American market. Set a date that fits your home calendar. Then win American television, then Top 40 radio, then collaborations with U.S. artists, then touring. Each step is the proof the next one needs.
A song that is live in the U.S. but has no plan behind it is available, not released. American radio programmers, television bookers and editors are not looking for it, and the algorithm has nothing to work with.
So the first decision is what the American release is for. A single to test U.S. radio. An English-language album. A tour that needs a record behind it. The answer decides which song, which date and which team.
Before anything is booked, the question is which song, and whether it is the right one for American radio and streaming. For many international artists this means a song written or recorded for the U.S., often in English. Monsta X's All About Luv, sung in English, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in 2020.
This is the step most international teams skip. It sets the ceiling for everything after it. Our guide to breaking into the U.S. market covers how we choose the song.
Your home label may already distribute worldwide. If it does, the U.S. release is a question of timing and campaign, not delivery. If it does not, you need a distributor that reaches U.S. streaming services and, if fans buy albums, U.S. physical retail. We work with a wide selection of distribution partners, from ADA, Virgin Music Group, BMG and The Orchard to AWAL, EMPIRE and Believe, listed on our distribution and label deals page.
The date matters as much as the distributor. A U.S. single competes with home-market promotion, tours and other territories for the artist's time. Set it where the artist can be in America, doing American press, in the weeks the campaign needs them.
Television is the fastest way to show an American audience, and American gatekeepers, that an artist is real here. Eshy Gazit, our CEO, described the BTS plan in a published interview on artist development: "The plan was television first. Then radio. Then collaborations with American artists. Then arenas. In that order, on purpose."
BTS made their U.S. television debut at the 2017 American Music Awards, the first performance there by a K-pop group, followed by Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Late Show with James Corden. Monsta X's run has included Good Morning America, TODAY, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Radio turns attention into a national audience, and it is the hardest door for an international artist. Programmers add only a few songs a week and want proof that a song is already working.
BTS became the first K-pop group at U.S. Top 40 pop radio during the 2016 to 2018 campaign. Monsta X became the first K-pop group on the Radio Tour, and with BTS they are the only K-pop groups with three or more songs at U.S. Top 40 pop radio. Tiffany Young won Best Solo Breakout at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards, the first female Korean artist to win an iHeartRadio Music Award.
A collaboration merges two fan bases and gives American listeners a name they know. The "MIC Drop" remix with Steve Aoki and Desiigner, A&R'd by Eshy Gazit, reached No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went RIAA Platinum. BTS also worked with The Chainsmokers on "Best of Me" (2017) and with Steve Aoki on "Waste It On Me" (2018).
Collaborations pitched too early are hard to land. They work once the American side can see value for its own artist.
Touring comes last because it depends on everything before it. BTS sold out U.S. arena dates on the 2017 Wings Tour. Monsta X became the first K-pop act at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in 2019 and headlined Staples Center in Los Angeles the same year.
Not at the start. A U.S. label deal or joint venture is easier to get once the American numbers are moving. Monsta X signed with Epic Records in 2019, and the Los Angeles Times covered that move to a U.S. major label. In 2021 Eshy Gazit founded Intertwine Records with BMG, which now releases Monsta X and Wonho.
Until then, label services fill the gap: the release plan, the campaign and the American team, while the artist keeps their own label and management.
Every project is assessed on its own. Some artists are ready for television in the first month; some need a year of groundwork.
Yes. A distributor can deliver your music to U.S. streaming services and retail without a U.S. label. A label or label services partner is what puts an American campaign behind the release: radio, press, television and the calendar.
The order that worked for BTS and Monsta X: the right song first, then American television, then Top 40 radio, then collaborations with U.S. artists, then touring. Each step uses the one before it as proof.
When the American numbers are already moving. A label deal or joint venture is easier to get after radio, press and touring have shown demand. Monsta X signed with Epic Records in 2019.
Labels and management companies outside the U.S. can start on the U.S. launch page, or see how U.S. label services run the American side of a release.