Formal promotional muscle has not yet kicked into action, but Kanye West’s “Only One (featuring Paul McCartney)” and Bea Miller’s “Fire N Gold” are both on the pop radio radar.
The two tracks were recently added to the All Access “Cool New Music” listing. A song’s presence on the listing offers no guarantee that it will ever formally go for radio adds, but it does reveal that the track is under consideration for such a push.
“Only One,” which is the first of several collaborations between West and McCartney, blasted into the top five on iTunes’ single sales chart shortly after debuting on New Year’s Day. Trending data suggests it commanded more than one hundred thousand paid downloads through the end of the tracking week on Sunday, and it still holds a top ten position on iTunes.
A very personal track with minimalist production, “Only One” does not seem like a prototypical radio release. In a press release announcing the song, Def Jam did, however, refer to it as “the first single from [West’s] forthcoming solo album.”
Envisioned as a multi-format single, “Only One” also appears under “Cool New Music” for the urban, rhythmic and hot adult contemporary formats.
“Fire N Gold” comes from Miller’s debut EP, which produced a top forty pop hit in title track “Young Blood.”
Though it still maintains a presence on the music industry radar, “Young Blood” appears to have faded from the mix at pop radio (it is down to #44 on Mediabase’s airplay chart). Attention, therefore, must turn to a follow-up.
If the plan is to release another single from the EP (or to use an EP track to promote her forthcoming full-length), “Fire N Gold” would be the most logical candidate. Of the four songs included on “Young Blood,” only the title track has sold better.
