How an underestimated song became a streaming summer hit

Hari Sreenivasan talks Nico & Vinz, Rosanne Cash, Ken Parks, Spotify’s Chief Content Officer and the Managing Director for Spotify USA, and many others about the world of streaming and the changing music industry.

Since its release, the song “Am I Wrong” by Norwegian pop duo Nico & Vinz has sold more than 2 million copies and been streamed more than 200 million times on Spotify alone. It came in at No. 14 on the Billboard Top 100 songs for 2014.

But the mega hit of summer 2014 almost didn’t make it as their first single. In fact, the duo told the NewsHour they didn’t think the song would be a success at all.

“I remember being in the studio and we had recorded it and were listening to it. Me and Vinz were like, ‘Nah, I’m not so sure, I don’t think that’s the one,’” said Nico.

“I remember having the same skepticism,” said Vinz, “I was looking at the most-streamed song in Norway at the time and it was this artist, Admiral P. He had 10 million streams on Spotify and I was like, man, 10 million — that’s a lot.”

Thankfully for the duo, they were wrong: The song paved the way for their debut album.