NewJeans, 'How Sweet' Spotify 300 Million Streams... Team's 9th Record

NewJeans has added a song that surpassed 300 million streams on Spotify, marking the team’s ninth song to reach 300 million streams in total. According to Spotify, NewJeans’s double single ″How Sweet″ and its title track of the same name had accumulated 300,262,152 streams as of the 25th. The song was released on May 24, 2024, and is a hip-hop track based on Miami bass. Upon release, it ranked high on major music charts such as Melon, Genie, and Bugs, and stayed on the US Billboard ″Global 200″ chart for 13 consecutive weeks. It was also ranked 7th on YouTube Korea’s ″Most Popular Songs of the Year.″ ″How Sweet″ was included in Rolling Stone USA’s ″Best Songs of 2024,″ as well as PopMatters, Billboard, and the UK’s NME’s ″Best K-pop of 2024.″ Rolling Stone described it as ″a song that continues experimental and original music,″ PopMatters called it ″another highlight in NewJeans’s discography,″ and Billboard stated it is ″a song that proves musical charm.″ The total cumulative streams of all songs released by NewJeans on Spotify have reached 8 billion. ″Ditto″ and ″OMG″ have each surpassed 900 million streams, ″Super Shy″ over 800 million, ″Hype Boy″ over 700 million, ″NewJeans″ and ″Attention″ over 500 million, ″ETA″ over 400 million, ″Cookie″ and ″How Sweet″ over 300 million, ″Heart,″ ″Cool With You,″ and ″Supernatural″ over 200 million, and ″ASAP,″ ″Get Up,″ ″Bubblegum,″ and ″Light Now″ each over 100 million streams. Meanwhile, ″How Sweet″ has faced allegations of plagiarism. ADOR stated, ″The problematic track was sourced through Bana, selected by then-CEO Min Hee-jin,″ and added, ″We are currently reviewing internal documents to determine whether former CEO Min properly conducted similarity checks on the track at the time.″ NewJeans members Minji, Hanni, Haerin, Hyein, and Danielle notified ADOR in November 2024 of contract termination, claiming breach of exclusive contract. The following October, they lost the first trial in the lawsuit confirming the validity of the exclusive contract, and without appealing, the members sequentially expressed their intention to return to ADOR. In December last year, ADOR notified Danielle of contract termination and filed a lawsuit seeking damages worth approximately 43.1 billion KRW against Danielle, one of her family members, and Min Hee-jin. The claimed amount was later adjusted to about 33.09 billion KRW and submitted to the court. Currently, Danielle, her family, and Min Hee-jin are engaged in a legal battle with ADOR. NewJeans is preparing for a comeback as a four-member group excluding Danielle and released a special film on their official SNS on the 22nd to celebrate their 4th anniversary.