Bad Bunny’s ‘Verano’ Success Is Still Growing, Brent Faiyaz Has a Viral Breakout & Pierce the Veil Are Streaming ‘King’s

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ continues its unprecedented Hot 100 domination, Brent Faiyaz scores a breakthrough hit to go with his breakthrough album, and a conservative country sales hit proves ready for the streaming world as well.

Bad Bunny, Trending Up All ‘Verano’

For the entire month of August, at least a tenth of the Billboard Hot 100 has been taken up by Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti album. It’s an incredible feat of endurance for an album released all the way back in May (via Rimas Entertainment). For comparison, the six other albums to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since Verano’s debut – Rod Wave’s Beautiful Mind, Beyoncé’s Renaissance, Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind, BTS’ Proof, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House and Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers – boast a combined 11 songs on the Hot 100 this week on the chart dated Sept. 3, as many as Verano claims on its own. 

The most remarkable thing is that the album isn’t starting to lose Hot 100 hits 16 weeks into its chart run – it’s actually regaining them. Tony Dize collaboration “La Corriente” fell off the chart for a few weeks in June and August, but since returning to the listing on the chart dated July 27, it’s been back ever since – climbing 12 spots to No. 87 this week. And “Neverita,” which last appeared on the chart dated June 25, returns to the Hot 100 at No. 72 this week with a 39.7% gain in official on-demand streams, according to Luminate, boosted by a new music video that pays tribute to the lovably dated graphics of the visual for Elvis Crespo’s late-’90s classic “Suavamente.” Forget about the summer – it seems increasingly unlikely we’ll have to face un otoño sin Bad Bunny anytime soon either. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Brent Faiyaz Benefits From Highly Adorable TikTok Trends

Brent Faiyaz has enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2022, with high-profile Drake and Tyler, the Creator collaborations leading up to his sophomore album, Wasteland (released on Lost Kids with distribution from Stem and Venice Music), debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 last month. “All Mine,” a heartfelt standout within an album of complicated romantic entanglements, became the R&B singer/songwriter’s highest-charting solo hit following the album’s release, reaching No. 42 on the Hot 100 — and after dipping off the chart, it’s back at No. 79 this week, thanks in part to TikTok’s embrace of the heartstrings-tugging track.

“All Mine” — specifically, Faiyaz’s pre-chorus suggestion, “Let’s catch a flight, change the weather / And I promise forever / All mine, all mine” — has inspired multiple TikTok trends in the past few weeks: some users have synched up photos of their significant others to the lyrics, while others have played a “tap the screen to see your soulmate’s initials” game as Faiyaz croons in the background. The trends have helped “All Mine” enjoy a 34.7% increase in weekly U.S. on-demand streams, to 5 million during the week ending Aug. 25, according to Luminate. If “All Mine” keeps growing at radio as well — the song moves up four spots to a new peak of No. 37 on this week’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart — Faiyaz could continue his hot streak with his first solo crossover hit. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Pierce the Veil and Kellin Quinn Become Streaming ‘King’s a Decade Later

San Diego-founded post-hardcore group Pierce the Veil are having a moment with their Kellin Quinn-featuring 2012 Fearless Records single “King for a Day.” Since 2006, the band has been a mainstay in their genre, amassing a devoted fanbase that have followed their work from their Vans Warped Tour days to today. Though they have achieved some crossover success over the years, a recent resurgence of “King for a Day” on TikTok pushed the single all the way up to the top of Billboard’s Hard Rock Streaming Songs charts on the chart dated Aug. 20, while gaining the group a new generation of fans, including… Lizzo?    

The “About Damn Time” singer made a TikTok with her mouthing the words to the “King for a Day” chorus. The PTV members duetted the video soon after with their own stunned reaction. “We’re not worthy,” they commented on Lizzo’s video. The ensuing streaming bump helped the song achieve a new high of nearly 3.6 million on-demand audio streams in the tracking week ending Aug. 25, according to Luminate – though it was prevented from returning to No. 1 on Hard Rock Streaming Songs by Ghost’s own newly viral 2019 track “Mary on a Cross.” – KRISTIN ROBINSON

“Dutton Ranch Freestyle” Makes a Conservative-Leaning Crossover

With a chorus referencing Morgan Wallen and Yellowstone, verse lyrics protesting “Don’t ask me for my opinion, I don’t want y’all to get offended/ Everybody’s just so sensitive,” and a cover art of a rodeo cowboy holding up the American flag, you might assume David Morris’ “Dutton Ranch Freestyle” to be another one of the recent conservative-leaning country songs making a commercial impact through digital sales. And it’s true that the song, released by indie label Grey Area, is certainly selling well: nearly 5,000 units sold last week, according to Luminate, enough to send it into the top 10 on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart, where it moves 16-9 on the chart dated Sept. 3. 

But unlike a lot of those sales-only hits, “Dutton Ranch Freestyle” is also streaming exceptionally well: over 2.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the tracking week ending Aug. 25., a whopping 77% gain from the prior week. That might be attributable to its hybrid, streaming-friendly sound, which includes some Drake-cadenced rapping from West Virginia native Morris, a trappy-but-twangy beat from South Carolina producer Brandon Manley, and some pretty ripping guitar soloing to see out the track. It all adds up to a song that might be on pace to make the jump from the iTunes charts to the Spotify charts – and it’s already shown up on the latter’s Viral 50, debuting at No. 6 this week. – AU

Q&A: Russ Tannen, president of DICE, on What’s Trending Up in His World
As a ticketing platform that just experienced the shutdown and gradual return of live shows over the course of the pandemic, what has the summer of 2022 been like for you?   

It’s been a tremendous summer of fandom, and people are clearly energized to be out seeing live music in all its forms again. You say “gradual,” but really it’s been full-on this year, and we’ve seen a huge jump in people using the DICE app.

I moved to New York from the UK to open DICE’s U.S. HQ last April, and we’ve gone from 3 to 70 employees in that office alone. We’re out all the time at our venues like Brooklyn Mirage, Saint Vitus and Elsewhere. The independent music scene in New York is second to none. This summer DICE made moves in Nashville and also launched in Miami and Ibiza, so it’s been fun to explore those places too. I’m just back from a third visit to our partner venue DC-10 in Ibiza, which is a very special club. A highlight of the summer for me has to be Primavera Sound in Barcelona, though. We signed them in 2019 and waited three years to actually do the festival. It was phenomenal. 

What has been the most recurring piece of feedback from ticket buyers during this crowded touring period?


Anyone who’s ever bought a ticket knows how painful the experience can be. Both Phil Hutcheon (DICE’s Founder and CEO) and I worked as promoters and with artists before DICE was born, so we’ve been observing the landscape and attending shows for a minute. When we started the company we were looking to solve the ticket-buying journey. We didn’t like that when a show sells out, there would be tickets on secondary sites. But now it’s even worse with dynamic pricing and integrated secondary. It’s all been designed to confuse and abuse fans, but they’re not dumb. We flip that on its head and put fans at the center of everything we do, and we’ve scaled from there.

This year has been a tumultuous time for a handful of festivals. What do you expect the landscape of fests to look like in 2023? 

I think the festivals that put purpose, passion and people first will come out on top.  

Fill in the blank: before the end of 2022, I hope concertgoers ______________.

Have the best night of their lives. Be happy now, don’t wait. – JL

Trending Back Then: Taylor Swift Crowns the Hot 100 For the First Time

In 2022, when she can basically stop the whole music world with a VMAs appearance and a surprise album announcement, it can be hard to believe there was ever a time in her career when a No. 1 single seemed a bridge too far for Taylor Swift. But despite already being one of the biggest pop stars in the world by 2012 – with a Grammy win for album of the year (Fearless) and a million-selling first week (Speak Now) already under her belt – the best she had managed on the Hot 100 was still No. 2. She’d reached that perch in 2009 with Fearless smash “You Belong With Me,” and then again in 2010 with Valentine’s Day soundtrack contribution “Today Was a Fairytale” – but none of the singles from Speak Now, released later that year, could do better than the No. 3 bow of that album’s advance single, “Mine.” 

So for the lead release from 2012’s Red – which pushed Taylor further into the pop world than ever before – she came with a sure thing in the breakup singalong “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” The song had an eye-grabbing title, an instantly addictive chorus and, of course, the then-requisite added intrigue of which of Swift’s famous exes inspired the song’s salty lyrics about impetuous clinginess and indie record snobbery. It sold 623,000 digital copies in its first week, and was seized upon by radio, debuting at No. 72 on the Hot 100 just based on two days of airplay – and then jumping to No. 1 on the chart dated Sept. 1 in its first full week of release, becoming the first of her eight Hot 100-toppers to date. – AU