BTS’ “Butter” premiered at 12AM ET Friday morning, and pop radio stations began providing immediate airplay. Since this premiere technically came prior to midnight in other US time zones, the new single registered a healthy amount of Thursday night airplay.
According to Mediabase, Hawaii’s 102.7 Da Bomb had played “Butter” four times before the clock struck midnight in Hawaii.
Nine non-east coast stations, including Los Angeles’ 102.7 KIIS and 97.1 NOW and San Francisco’s 99.7 NOW and and WiLD 94.9, each offered three Thursday night spins. Other stations played the song once or twice before Friday officially arrived in their time zones.
The strong airplay support will continue Friday, as numerous stations will be playing the song every hour.
“Butter” is also attracting considerable digital attention; the main version is #1 on the US iTunes sales chart, while the instrumental is currently #2. The music video already has over 61.6 million views.
