Summer of Love Delivered to Dutch Radio

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2018-02-05)

On January 16, 2018, Dutch Radio DJ Ruud de Wild claimed on air that U2’s next single will be “Summer of Love.” De Wild is a well known DJ in The Netherlands and hosts a regular show on NPO2. It appears that this has indeed been the case at least in The Netherlands where airplay of “Summer of Love” has spiked since Friday afternoon. But it appears that the song has only been released in The Netherlands at this time, with most of the airplay worldwide being in that country. Dutch radio stations have been responsible for 76% of the worldwide airplay of the song to date, a number that is growing with every play on radio.

The song is also seeing airplay in other countries that make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Curaçao it has about 8% of the worldwide totals, and there is airplay also being reported on island of Aruba. Both island countries are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

A small amount of airplay is being seen in other countries, but in the single digits for any specific country, and for any specific station, which suggests it hasn’t been released as a promotional single at this time in those regions.

So far the stations with the most airplay reported for the song “Summer of Love” in the Netherlands are Favoriet FM in Zevenaar, SkyLine FM in Uden, Magic 96.5 FM in Oranjestad (Aruba), Omrop Fyrsland in Leeuwarden and WOS Radio in ‘s-Gravenzande. Each station has played the song multiple times since they started play late on Friday.

The track is being pushed to radio including the cover art from the Songs of Experience album. The version being used for radio is the same as is found on the album. A new image has not accompanied this push to radio.

Airplay numbers in other countries are very low to date. So what is going on?

When U2 launched “Get Out of Your Own Way” it was delivered to radio in Poland for adds long before it was sent out anywhere else. This wasn’t a case of Polish Radio stations deciding to play the song, as they were delivered a special edited version of the song. The song was first delivered in Poland on November 2, 2017. A wider release to radio in Europe was done on December 8, 2017. And the song was pushed to AAA (Adult Alternative Albums) in the USA on December 4, 2017. That first month the song was delivered to Poland by itself, and was probably used to understand how the song would do at radio, and what type of stations would add the song. Expect that they are now doing the same with “Summer of Love” with a wider roll out in a few weeks time if it does as expected in The Netherlands.

“Summer of Love” has also been showing up in a remixed form on Oakenfold’s podcast of late. The mix by TILT and Danny Stubbs first made an appearance on BBC Radio back on December 7, 2017, and has been appearing in Oakenfold’s Planet Perfecto podcasts the last two weeks.

To date “You’re The Best Thing About Me,” “Get Out of Your Own Way“ and “The Blackout“ have been commercially released. Additionally “American Soul” had been issued to UK radio as a promotional track on radio in early December, but does not seem to have been added in other regions, so it is possible that “Summer of Love” may yet stay a limited release for promotion.

The band is still actively promoting “Get Out of Your Own Way” in worldwide markets, with a video release on January 18, 2018, a new remix release on January 26, 2018, and a push to Hot AC Radio set for last week, starting January 29, 2018.

Many thanks to @gertdewit79 for the initial heads up on this.

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