If there’s one thing Diplo knows, it’s how to make a hit. Through his Major Lazer side project, the pop music tastemaker called upon notable 2015 collaborators Justin Bieber and MØ for last week’s “Cold Water,” and the song has already shot to #1 on Spotify’s global Top 200 chart.
“Cold Water” isn’t anything that special from a musical standpoint. Strategically speaking, however, combining his own influence with that of Bieber and MØ while simultaneously cashing in on the nostalgia of his previous collaborations with each artist – Jack Ü’s “Where are Ü Now” and Major Lazer and DJ Snake’s “Lean On,” respectively – speaks to Diplo’s understanding of how the music business works.
Clearly he knows his stuff. It only took the song four days to hit #1 where “Lean On” took three months, as Diplo himself pointed out on Facebook. MØ must be jumping for joy, too; over the course of two festival seasons she’s gone from being a relative nobody to having two #1 tracks on Spotify’s Top 200.
“Lean On” took eight months to become Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time, so we’ll see how long it takes for Major Lazer‘s “Cold Water” to follow suit. Then again, another single from the outfit’s upcoming album, Music Is The Weapon, might beat it to the punch.