this Apple Podcast title, unpacking the 2019
Instagram Ansem, David Guetta, Daddy Yankee,
and the anatomy of a global hit, The Deep Dive.
Join us on The Deep Dive as we break down the
2019 crossover smash hit, Instagram, by Demetri
Vegas and industry, like Mike, David Guetta,
Daddy Yankee, Afro Bros, and Natty Natasha. How
does a song with five headline artists, nine
songwriters, and multiple languages come together
to dominate global charts? We analyzed the track's
blend of dance and reggaeton, its rare explicit
lyrics for smash -the -house artists, its sun
-drenched Ibiza music video, and its fascinating
chart journey from Belgium to the U .S. Hot Bands
charts. Packed with music insights and surprising
chart data, this deep dive is your shortcut to
understanding the mechanics of a modern mega
-collaboration. SEO, Demetri Vegas, and Like
Mike. David Guetta, Daddy Yankee, Naughty Natasha,
Afro Bros, Instagram 2019 song, dance music hit,
reggaeton crossover. Welcome back. You know,
it happens to all of us. You're at a... A summer
barbecue, maybe. Yeah, exactly. A summer barbecue.
Or maybe you're driving with the windows down
on a Friday afternoon. Or you're standing in
a really crowded club. Right. And a song comes
on, you nod your head. You might even learn the
hook by the second chorus. You tap the heart
icon. on your streaming app. To add it to a playlist.
Yeah. And you just consume it. We all do this.
We really do. We consume these massive omnipresent
summer hits without ever taking a fraction of
a second to realize the sheer scale of the machinery
behind them. Oh, the machinery is staggering.
We don't think about the... the cross -continental
logistics, the legal contracts, or the... The
cultural calculations. Yes, the cultural calculations
that go into making that three -minute audio
experience a reality. We tend to... We romanticize
music as a purely artistic, spontaneous endeavor.
Like a lone genius. Exactly. The cultural image
is someone sitting in a messy bedroom with an
acoustic guitar or maybe a lone producer hunched
over a laptop at 3 a .m. having a sudden burst
of inspiration. Right. But at a certain echelon
of the global pop sphere, that romantic image
is entirely obsolete. It's a myth. Completely.
Creating a song at this level is closer to executing
a multinational corporate merger. Wow, a corporate
merger. Yeah, it requires market analysis, demographic
targeting, and an incredible amount of logistical
synchronization across different time zones.
And that is the exact illusion we are going to
shatter if not today. We're going to completely
deconstruct what is, frankly, one of the most
fascinating case studies of modern music production
and globalization. It really is a perfect specimen.
We are looking back at the 2019 single, simply
titled, Instagram. Just Instagram. Yeah. Now,
if you look at the marquee for this track, it
isn't just a song by a band or a solo artist.
The credits list, Demetri Vegas and Mike... Danky
Afro bros and Natty Natasha. It's a massive lineup.
Today we are going to examine the sheer scale
of this collaboration, the very deliberate blending
of genres, and its massive yet surprisingly uneven
global commercial footprint. Looking at Instagram
isn't just about critiquing the music itself.
It's about understanding global cultural synthesis.
Right. It's about observing how completely different
musical ecosystems. Like European EDM and Latin
reggaeton. Exactly how they communicate with
each other. to engineer a product designed for
maximum worldwide consumption. And to do that,
we've pulled together a really comprehensive
stack of information for you. We're digging through
a highly detailed dossier covering the background
of the track. The composition credits the incredibly
specific rollout timeline. The visual aesthetics.
Yeah, the music video and a literal mountain
of global chart and certification data. The data
is where it gets really fun. Okay, let's unpack
this. Let's start with the artists themselves
because when I first saw this roster, my immediate
thought was how on earth did these people even
end up in the same room? Well, the short answer
is they probably didn't. Really? At least not
all at once, no. Yeah. Which is a hallmark of
modern production we can definitely get into
later. Got it. But looking at the roster, what
we have here are five distinct headline acts
representing a very calculated geographical and
cultural spread. A very widespread. You have
Dimitri Vegas and, like Mike, who are a massive
festival headlining Belgian production duo. Right,
the Tomorrowland guys. Exactly. Then you have
David Guetta, the legendary French DJ who essentially
built the modern bridge between club music and
pop radio. He's an institution. Then you bring
in Daddy Yankee, the iconic Puerto Rican rapper.
Add to that the Afro bros, a Dutch DJ duo. And
finally, Nati Natasha, the Dominican singer.
But is a lineup like this actually about artistic
chemistry or is it just a cynical attempt to
hack the algorithms? Because when you list those
countries, Belgium, France, Puerto Rico, the
Netherlands, the Dominican Republic. It sounds
less like a band and more like a United Nations
summit. It does. It feels almost overwhelmingly
strategic. What's fascinating here is that the
strategy is the art form at this level. Strategy
is the art form. Yes. This is a highly strategic,
multi -continental alliance. It is engineered
from the ground up to capture different global
music markets simultaneously. To just blanket
the globe. Think about the audiences these artists
control. You have the European electronic dance
market, particularly the massive summer festival
crowd, completely cornered by Guetta the Afro
Bros. and Dimitri Vegas and Mike. Then you have
the rapidly expanding, incredibly lucrative Latin
American and U .S. Hispanic markets covered by...
Daddy Yankee and Naughty Natasha. It's brilliant.
It is a pincer movement on the global charts.
You're virtually guaranteeing that the song will
be placed on both the today's top hits and the
Viva Latino flagship playlists on the major streaming
platforms. I want to dig into the weight that
these specific artists were bringing to the table
in 2019 because this isn't a group of up -and
-comers. The sheer volume of foundational hits
these people had already generated is staggering.
Oh, absolutely staggering. Let's look at Daddy
Yankee. You can't talk about globalizing Latin
music without him. No, you really can't. He brings
the weight of the entire barrio fino era, which
gave the world, Gasolina and Lo Que Paso Paso.
Classics. Then he maintained that dominance through
the Telenet de Barrio era, the Prestige album
with Limbo. And that's before we even mentioned
his featured singles. They're huge. I mean, the
absolute juggernaut that was Despacito. And later,
Con Comma, he isn't just a star, he is an institution.
He is arguably the foundational pillar for the
mainstream globalization of reggaeton. When Daddy
Yankee steps onto a track, He doesn't just bring
his vocals. What else does he bring? He brings
an entire global audience that implicitly trusts
his curation. By 2019, the Latin music explosion
triggered by Despacito in 2017 had fully solidified.
It was everywhere. Latin artists didn't need
to cross over into English to be globally successful
anymore if anything European and American artists
were desperate to cross over into the Latin market.
To get a piece of that pie. Exactly. So having
Daddy Yankee on your track is essentially securing
the most valuable real estate in the industry.
Which makes his pairing with David Guetta so
interesting. Guetta's track record is basically
a history of modern dance pop. He's the godfather
of it. He has the pop life era, the one love
era with When Love Takes Over and Sexy Bitch,
the Nothing But The Beat album, which gave us
Titanium. Or Them Girls It. Turn me on. Not to
mention the collaborations like Club Can't Handle
Me or the massive I Got a Feeling with the Black
Eyed Peas. He brings a two decade legacy of dominating
both the underground clubs and top 40 radio simultaneously.
But by 2019, was Geta really driving the creative
bus here or was he just lending his massive legacy
name to a track that's mostly driven by the Latin
boom we just talked about? That's a very sharp
question. Yeah. Geta is a master adapter. His
genius has never been inventing a completely
new underground sound. Right. It's more about
popularizing it. Exactly. It's about identifying
the sound that is bubbling up and polishing it
for the mainstream pop apparatus. In 2009, he
did it by merging electro house with American
R &B and hip hop. Sure. In 2019, the dominant
sound was the fusion of Latin rhythms with electronic
production. So he adapted again. He did. So while
he might not be the sole creative driver of the
reggaeton elements, his presence provides the
track with a very specific polished European
club sheen. He's a stamp of approval. He acts
as the guarantor for the European radio markets.
If get his name is on it, the major radio networks
in France, Germany and the UK will put it into
rotation without hesitation. And Natascha serves
a somewhat similar role on the Latin side, bringing
absolute heat from her own solo career. She was
on fire in 2019. By the time this track is coming
together, she is riding the wave of massive hits
like Criminal Sin, Pajama No Me Acuerdo and La
Mejor Version de Mi. She represented the absolute
vanguard of modern Latin pop and reggaeton at
that exact moment. So she's the anchor there.
She provides the essential female counterpoint.
and the melodic anchor for the Latin demographic.
Her vocal style is incredibly distinct and was
just dominating the charts in standard speaking
territories. Tying all of the star power together,
we have Dimitri Vegas and like Mike and the Afro
bros. What stands out to me is that the song
was actually released by Smash the House. Yes,
the label. For those who aren't steeped in EDM
lore, Smash the House is the record label associated
with Dimitri Vegas and like Mike. It's their
baby. It's an independent leaning label known
for big aggressive festival anthems. like Tremor
or The Hum. Face -melting drops. Exactly. Why
on earth would a label known for face -melting
Tomorrowland drops be the launching pad for a
bilingual, reggaeton -infused pop crossover featuring
Daddy Yankee? It is a massive operational pivot.
When a label like Smash the House releases a
track with Get a Yankee and Natasha, They're
actively trying to transcend their core demographic.
You want the mainstream. Festival anthems are
great for building a loyal fan base and selling
out arenas, but they often have a ceiling when
it comes to mainstream streaming numbers and
commercial radio play. They don't usually chart
as high. Right. By orchestrating a major cultural
event like Instagram, Dimitri Vegas, and like
Mike, we're leveraging their label to capture
a piece of the mainstream pop pie. It's a statement.
It's a loud statement that they aren't just festival
DJs. They are global hitmakers capable of facilitating
top tier pop collaborations. So how does an event
of this magnitude actually materialize? I was
looking at the timeline of this track and this
is where the sheer corporate calculation really
becomes apparent. The timeline is very telling.
The song was actually recorded in 2018. But it
wasn't released until July 5 2019 a full year
They sat on a track featuring some of the biggest
artists in the world for an entire year Why it
speaks to the deliberate highly risk -averse
nature of the music industry at this level You
don't just finish a song with five global superstars
Export the file and upload it to Spotify on a
Tuesday afternoon because you feel like it right
a track With this specific blend of genres featuring
these specific artists is explicitly engineered
to be a song of the summer. Right, but why wait
a whole year? Couldn't they have just released
it in the summer of 2018? Not necessarily. The
logistics are a nightmare. Clearing rights, finalizing
the splits for nine different songwriters. Which
we will get to. Across multiple publishing companies.
coordinating the schedules of five incredibly
busy acts to shoot a music video. Just getting
them in one place. Exactly. And then finding
the optimal release window where it won't compete
with the artist's other solo projects takes months.
Releasing it on July 5th, 2019 was a calculated
strike. Surgical. It places the song right in
the dead center of the northern hemisphere summer.
Perfectly timed for peak club season in Ibiza
festival season across Europe and summer block
parties in the U .S. The rollout leading up to
that July release was meticulously methodical,
too. On June 18, 2019, a little over two weeks
before the official drop, the social media tease
happens. The hype building. Nadia, Natasha and
Daddy Yankee announced the song by posting photos
from the video set. And the location of that
set is crucial. Ibiza, Spain. Right. The undisputed
global capital of summer dance music. If you
want to signal to the market that you have the
anthem of the summer. You filmed the video in
Ibiza. And during this tease, Natasha posts a
message thanking the other artists, calling the
collaboration an amazing moment. It's nice Dutch.
Yeah, amidst all this corporate strategy we're
discussing, it is a nice reminder that for the
artists themselves, working with other legends
is still a personal career milestone. True. But
the marketing mechanism here is what really catches
my eye. They name the song Instagram. And how
do they build hype for it? By posting on Instagram.
By teasing behind -the -scenes lifestyle content
from Ibiza natively on Instagram. It is a brilliantly
closed loop of promotion. They are leveraging
the immense cultural cachet of the application
to promote a song about the application on the
application. It's so meta. It's meta marketing
at its finest. They understand that their audience
isn't just consuming music, they're consuming
the aspirational lifestyle of the artists. The
yachts, the clubs. By posting photos from a yacht
or a club in Ibiza on Instagram, they are essentially
providing a visual trailer for the audio experience.
But it makes you wonder if a song is recorded
a whole year prior, does it run the risk of sounding
dated by the time it finally hits the airwaves?
That's always the risk. Because pop music moves
so fast, a trend that is hot in the summer of
2018 might be completely played out by July 2019.
Absolutely. That brings us to the actual composition
of the lyrics and what I look at as a kitchen
sink approach to songwriting. The kitchen sink
analogy is very apt. When you are trying to appeal
to multiple global demographics simultaneously,
The sonic architecture of the song has to reflect
that ambition. It has to have everything. It
cannot be too niche in any one direction. Here's
where it gets really interesting. If you are
under the impression that a track like this is
just a couple of DJs vibing in a studio and a
singer stepping up to a mic to freestyle some
lyrics, think again. Not even close. The official
credits list the songwriters for Instagram. There
are nine of them. Let me repeat that. Nine individual
human beings are credited with writing this three
minute, four second song. It sounds like a lot.
I'll be honest, when I see a credit list that
long, my immediate reaction is that it's designed
by committee. It sounds less like an artistic
endeavor and more like a corporate boardroom
trying to engineer a hit. That is a very common
and understandable reaction from listeners who
grew up with the paradigm of a four -piece rock
band writing all their own material. Right, the
garage band model. But it fundamentally misunderstands
how modern global pop is constructed. Think of
it less like a band jamming in a garage and more
like assembling the crew for a blockbuster film.
A movie crew. You don't have the director doing
the lighting, the catering and the stunts. You
have highly specialized experts. Let's break
down these experts because matching the real
names to the stage names reveals how compartmentalized
this actually was. Let's do it. The track was
written by David Guetta Francesca. Richard Dimitri
Thevios and Michael Thebios. Who are the brothers
making up Dimitri Vegas and like Mike? Exactly.
Then you have Ramon Luis Ayala Rodriguez. Who's
Daddy Yankee. Giordano M .S. Ashroof. Natalia
Alexandria Gutierrez Batista, which is Nati Natasha,
and Rashid MSM Badlow and Sher -MR Badlow. The
Afro bros. So almost every single artist on the
marquee is also a credited writer alongside a
few additional professional songwriters. Exactly.
This illustrates the specialized nature of the
modern songwriting camp. You have the Thavayos
Brothers' Ghetto and the Badlow Brothers likely
handling the intricate layers of the sonic production.
Making the beat. They are arguing over the exact
frequency of the kick drum, the synthesis of
the bass line, the timing of the drop, and then
you have Ayala Rodriguez and Gutierrez Batista
crafting their specific vocal flows. They are
ensuring that the slang is current, that the
Spanish verses land with the correct rhythmic
cadence and translating the overarching theme
into their respective cultural dialects. It's
so modular. It's a deeply collaborative, albeit
highly compartmentalized process. And it's confirmed
that there were three distinct production entities
working on the final mix, Dimitri Vegas and Psychem
Brut, like Mike David Guetta and Afro Bros. The
sonic result of all those specialists working
together is a very specific fusion of dance and
reggaeton. It really is. The instrumental has
these heavy reggaeton influences, but obviously
with Guetta and Dimitri Vegas and Mike involved,
it is a massive dance track at its core. For
sure. For those of us who aren't producers, can
you break down the mechanics of that blend? What
does it actually mean to merge those two genres?
It's all about the rhythm section. Traditional
European electronic dance music, especially the
big room house that Geta and DVLM are known for,
relies heavily on a four -on -the -floor beat.
Four on the floor. It means the kick drum hits
on every single quarter note, one, two, three,
four. It's a very driving, straightforward pulse
designed to keep a massive crowd jumping in unison.
Very steady. Reggaeton, on the other hand, is
built on the Dembo rhythm, specifically a syncopated
Trisillo pattern. Has that signature booch boop
boop swing to it. Yeah, you instantly recognize
it. It's designed for a different kind of movement,
a different kind of dancing entirely. So how
do you put those two entirely different grooves
into one song without it sounding like a mess?
You find the mathematical compromise. Mathematical.
The producers here likely utilized the driving
energy and electronic synth soundscapes of European
house, but underpinned it with the syncopated
dembow drum pattern of reggaeton. Best of both
worlds. In the context of 2019, that specific
sonic blend was arguably the dominant global
sound. It was the ultimate musical bridge. A
bridge. It allowed the track to be played seamlessly
during a peak time set at an electronic festival
in Belgium on a Top 40 pop radio station in the
U .S. and in a reggaeton club in Puerto Rico.
It is the sonic equivalent of a universal power
adapter. A universal power adapter. I love that
analogy. Now let's look at what they are actually
saying over this mathematically compromised beat.
The track is bilingual featuring verses in both
English and Spanish. The thematic content is
exactly what you would expect given the title.
It's about the app. It's about the Instagram
app, the curation of lifestyle, and the concept
of fleeting fame on social media. But there's
a lyrical detail that caught me completely off
guard. The fairy tale reference. Yes. Amidst
all the modern tech references, there is an explicit
reference to Peter Pan. Yes. That is a surprisingly
literary juxtaposition for a club track. Right.
You have this hypermodern, technologically dependent
anxiety regarding social media fame. Right. The
likes and views. The ephemeral nature of likes
views. and 24 -hour stories contrasted directly
with classical mythical imagery. Peter Pan, the
boy who never grows up. Precisely. Yeah. And
he resides in Neverland, a fantasy world isolated
from the realities of time and consequence. OK,
I see where this is going. The inclusion of Peter
Pan acts as a rather poignant piece of literary
irony. It can be interpreted as a commentary
on how platforms like Instagram function as a
modern digital Neverland. A digital Neverland.
Users project these meticulously curated, eternally
youthful, highly idealized fantasy versions of
their lives. Nobody ages, nobody struggles. Everybody
is perpetually on a yacht in Ibiza. That is incredibly
dark when you really think about it. A modern
Neverland built on anxiety and ring lights. It
is a bit dark. And speaking of Edge, there is
another detail regarding the lyrics that is quite
significant. The information we have notes that
this single is one of few explicit songs of Demetri
Vegas and Like Mike. That detail is crucial for
understanding the power dynamics of this collaboration.
How so? In the world of mainstream festival -ready
EDM, The world that Dimitri Vegas and like Mike
dominate the focus is almost entirely on the
instrumental drop, the kinetic energy, the communal,
almost euphoric experience of the crowd. Everyone
jumping together. The lyrics are usually secondary,
often consisting of uplifting, universally palatable
platitudes about love unity or dancing until
the sun comes up. A very safe lyrics. Explicit
lyrics are very rarely part of that formula because
they can alienate commercial sponsors or restrict
daytime radio play. So why allow it here? If
they're trying to make a massive commercial hit,
why risk the explicit tag? Because the pursuit
of authenticity overrode the desire for a sanitized
product. Authenticity. This strongly points to
the creative leverage held by Daddy Yankee and
Natty Natasha. They operate in the reggaeton
and Latin trap spheres genres. where the lyrical
content is inherently more unfiltered, more street
level, and often explicit. It's just part of
the genre. If Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike had
demanded that Yankee and Natasha sanitize their
verses to fit a traditional family -friendly
EDM mold, the song would have lost its credibility
with the Latin audience. They would have sounded
like sellouts. Exactly. By allowing the track
to carry an explicit tag, Dimitri Vegas and Like
Mike demonstrated a willingness to step outside
their operational comfort zone. They let the
featured artists dictate the thematic boundaries
to maintain the authentic edge of the culture
they were borrowing from. It makes the crossover
feel less like a corporate mandate and more like
a genuine collision of worlds. Yes. So you have
this bilingual, mildly explicit genre blending
Peter Pan referencing audio file. Quite a mix.
But to truly conquer the global market in 2019,
audio alone is insufficient. You need a visual
narrative to anchor it. You have to visualize
the vibe. And that brings us to the music video.
The visual component is absolutely paramount.
It functions not just as an accompaniment, but
as the primary packaging for the products in
the YouTube era. The music video dropped on the
exact same day as the single July 5, 2019. It
was uploaded straight to YouTube. And the first
thing I noticed was the runtime. The length.
The video clocks in at exactly three minutes
and 36 seconds. But the official audio track
is only three minutes and four seconds. 32 seconds
difference. What happens in that extra 32 seconds?
That additional time. is standard industry practice
for high -budget visual treatments. It allows
the director to establish a cinematic introduction,
create narrative context before the music kicks
in, or utilize an extended outro sequence. Setting
the scene. This grounds the song in a specific
physical environment or storyline, making it
feel more like a short film and less like a static
audio file. And the physical environment they
chose to ground it in is key. As we mentioned,
it was filmed entirely in Ibiza. The visual narrative
is incredibly straightforward. It presents the
DJs, Natty, Natasha, and Daddy Yankee at a massive
outdoor party utilizing the Instagram app and
eventually coming together to take a selfie.
Very on brand. I want to try and paint this picture
for you if you haven't seen it. Think of the
most hyper saturated sun drenched aesthetic possible.
Blindingly bright. You have crystal clear Mediterranean
water luxury yachts bobbing in the background
high end fashion and this assembly of global
superstars just mingling and dancing. Living
the dream. And the literal climax of the video,
the thematic anchor of the entire multi -million
dollar production, is the artists huddling together
to take a selfie on their phones. It is the absolute
epitome of marketing imitating lifestyle. How
so? The music video is functioning as a high
budget, highly stylized representation of an
Instagram story. The whole video is a story.
The act of taking a group selfie isn't just a
fun, spontaneous moment captured on film. It
is the core thesis of the project. It reinforces
a very specific aspirational message to the viewer.
Which is? We are living the reality that you
consume on the app. We are the architects of
this platform's culture, and this track is the
official soundtrack to that lifestyle. So what
does this all mean? You have this perfectly tailored,
surgically engineered audio -visual package.
You have the strategic midsummer release date,
the multinational powerhouse roster, the meta
-marketing loop, the genre -blending beat designed
to play. everywhere all the ingredients are there
did it work did the global pincer movement actually
conquer the world that brings us to our next
major area of analysis chart domination the numbers
don't lie and looking closely at these numbers
it truly is a tale of two hemispheres or rather
a study in the hyper regional realities of the
music industry The chart data is where the theoretical
strategy meets the reality of consumer behavior.
It allows us to track exactly how deeply this
track penetrated different global markets and
the anomalies are incredibly revealing. Let's
do a deep dive into these global chart numbers
because there are some wild variations that completely
challenge the idea of a global hit. It wasn't
uniform everywhere. I'm going to run through
some of the peak positions from the 2019 to 2020
weekly charts. In the Netherlands on the Dutch
Top 40, it peaked at number five. Very high.
And on their Singletop 100, it hit number six.
In Belgium, specifically on the Ultra Top 50
Flanders chart, it reached number seven. Consistent.
Over in Romania on the Airplay 100, it hit a
very solid number 16. In the U .S. on the Billboard
Hot Dance Electronic Songs chart, it reached
a respectable number 23. Those are incredibly
strong numbers, particularly in the Benelux region,
Belgium and the Netherlands. Right. That success
is entirely logical. Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike
are Belgian icons and the Afro bros are Dutch.
Home field advantage? They leverage their home
court advantage perfectly. The massive festival
infrastructure in that region, events like Tomorrowland
serve as an unparalleled promotional engine for
these specific artists. But then you look at
some other major markets, and the numbers drop
off significantly. They do. In Germany, it peaked
at number 29. In Austria, number 42. In Switzerland,
number 53. A steady decline. Down in Colombia
on the national report, it hit number 79. In
Portugal, number 95. And here is the data point
that genuinely shocked me. In France, on the
SNEP chart, it peaked at number 104. Yes, that
is a massive data anomaly that requires unpacking.
Right. Why did it peak at number five in the
Netherlands? but only scraped the bottom of the
top 150 at number 104 in France. David Guetta
is French. He is. He is arguably one of the most
famous musical exports in French history. You
assume that putting his name on a track alongside
Daddy Yankee guarantees a top 20 debut on French
radio at a bare minimum. You would assume that,
but it highlights a crucial reality. Even with
a megastar, you cannot override localized cultural
and sonic preferences. The fans want what they
want. The data. tells a story about hyper -regional
tastes in dance music, even within the relatively
small geographic footprint of Western Europe.
How different can it be? Well, while Guetta is
French, the specific sonic profile of Instagram...
The heavy reggaeton influence mixed with the
aggressive smash -the -house brand of Big Room
EDM might have resonated far more strongly with
the Dutch and Belgian club scenes in the summer
of 2019 than it did with the French mainstream
radio or streaming algorithms at that exact moment.
They just weren't feeling it. The French market
might have been favoring domestic rap, a different
subgenre of electronic music or entirely different
Latin crossovers. Interesting. It shows how fragmented
the European music market truly is. A massive
inescapable hit in Brussels is not guaranteed
to translate to Paris, despite them being a short
train ride apart. And there's another fascinating
anomaly that proves your point right inside Belgium
itself. The regional split. The data lists two
separate Belgian charts, Flanders and Wallonia.
Right. In the Flanders chart, which represents
the Dutch -speaking northern region, it hit number
seven. Smash hit. But in the Wallonia chart,
the French -speaking southern region, it only
reached number 24. A significant drop. So even
within the borders of one single country, there
was a massive split in how the song was received
by the public. That is a perfect microcosm of
how linguistic and cultural ties dictate music
consumption. It follows the language lines. Exactly.
The Flemish market is closely tied culturally,
linguistically, and via media networks to the
Netherlands. So it perfectly mirrored the massive
Dutch success of the track. That makes perfect
sense. The Walloon market has closer cultural
and media ties to France and therefore mirrored
the slightly cooler, more resistant reception
we saw in the French market. Number 24 versus
number 104. It performed better in Wallonia than
in France itself, likely due to the sheer localized
star power of Dimitri Vegas and like Mike as
national Belgian figures. But the cultural divide
is undeniably visible in the chart data. OK,
here is the statistic that I found most interesting
in the entire data set. It states that Instagram
became Demetri Vegas and like Mike's most popular
single on Shazam. That is an incredibly revealing
metric regarding how the song interacted with
the general public. Think about that context
for a second. We just talked about their discography.
These guys have tracks like The Hum and Tremor
that have been played at almost every major EDM
festival in the world for years. Decades almost.
They are absolute anthems with hundreds of millions
of streams. And yet this song Instagram was the
one people were pulling their phones out to identify
the most. Why do you think that is? Is it just
because it was played in more mainstream environments?
It links directly back to the bilingual genre
fluid nature of the song and the universal power
adapter concept we discussed earlier. When you
hear tremor at a festival, you are likely already
a fan of that specific genre or you are in an
environment where you don't necessarily need
to know the name of the track to enjoy the kinetic
energy of the drop. You're just there jumping
around? You are there for the experience, but
Instagram was designed to infiltrate entirely
different environments. Like where? Shopping
malls, commercial radio beach clubs, casual backyard
parties, clothing stores. So people are hearing
it out in the wild. Right. When a casual listener,
someone who doesn't necessarily follow EDM, hears
a track that blends recognizable Latin rhythms
with a massive dance hook, and they hear vocals
in both English and Spanish. It creates a moment
of friction and curiosity. What is the song?
It feels familiar yet novel. It crosses the boundaries
of what they typically listen to. So they pull
out Shazam to identify it. That makes total sense.
It reached demographics that wouldn't normally
search for a Dimitri Vegas and Mike Festival
track, which spiked its discovery metrics. And
it clearly wasn't just a fleeting moment of curiosity
either. If we look at the year -end charts, the
longevity of the track is genuinely impressive.
It stuck around. In 2019, it was the number 31
song of the entire year in Belgian Flanders.
Number 38 on the Dutch Top 40. 94 in Romania.
Solid year -end placements. And number 78 on
the U .S. Hot Dance Electronic Songs chart. But
what's crazy is that it carried over into the
next year. The 2020 chart. On the 2020 year -end
charts, a full year after its release, it was
still present, ranking number 86 in Belgium Flanders
and number 52 in Romania. Being present on year
-end charts across multiple countries for two
consecutive years, proves that the strategy worked.
It wasn't a fluke. It wasn't just a flash in
the pan. It had a massive sustained tail. It
successfully embedded itself into the cultural
soundtrack of those specific regions. It became
part of the fabric. It transitioned from being
merely a heavily marketed summer hit to a staple
catalog track that continued to generate steady
streams, radio, airplay, and club spins long
after the initial multi -million dollar promotional
push ended. And that steady, years -long stream
of AirPlay and searches translates directly into
our final area of analysis, certifications and
the economics of the hit. The business side.
Because as much as we are analyzing this as a
cultural artifact, it is fundamentally a highly
lucrative commercial product. Oh, without a doubt.
Let's look at the actual certifications this
song achieved, because comparing the raw numbers
provides a fascinating look at the global economy
of music. It's a great economics lesson. OK,
let's unpack this. In Belgium, the track went
2x platinum, which represents 40 ,000 units sold
or streamed. A huge success there. In Mexico,
it went platinum for 60 ,000 units. Spain also
awarded it platinum for 60 ,000 units. Consistent
numbers. Poland gave it platinum for 20 ,000
units. Then we get into the gold certifications.
France certified it gold. for 100 ,000 units.
Okay, 100 ,000 for gold. Germany also certified
at gold, but it required 200 ,000 units to reach
that status. Double the amount. Italy gave it
gold for 35 ,000 units, Switzerland awarded gold
for 10 ,000, and Portugal gave it gold for just
5 ,000 units. The scaling is wild. How does that
work? How is it that moving 5 ,000 units earns
you a gold record in Portugal, but you need to
move 200 ,000 units 40 times as much product
to get that exact same gold plaque in Germany?
It is a perfect practical lesson on market scaling
and global music economics. Music certifications,
gold, platinum, diamond, are not universally
standardized global numbers. So there's no central
rulebook? There is no central authority dictating
that a hundred thousand streams equals gold everywhere.
They are relative metrics established independently
by each individual country's own music industry
association. Who are they? For instance, SNEP
governs the thresholds in France. BVMI sets them
in Germany and so on. Okay. These thresholds
are carefully determined by analyzing the overall
size of the domestic music market, the total
population size, and the historical purchasing
power or streaming adoption rate within that
specific country. So Germany just has a vastly
larger consumer base for recording music than
Portugal. So the bar for success is set proportionally
higher. Exactly. Germany is historically one
of the top four largest music markets in the
entire world alongside the US, Japan and the
UK. Wow. Top four. Therefore, the barrier to
entry for a track to be officially recognized
as a hit is much higher in terms of raw consumption
numbers. And Portugal. Portugal has a significantly
smaller population and a smaller overall music
economy. Moving 5 ,000 units there represents
a proportional level of national market penetration
that is roughly equivalent to moving 200 ,000
units in the massive German market. It's entirely
relative to the size of the pond you are swimming
in. But regardless of the threshold, if we connect
this to the bigger picture, these certifications
represent incredibly lucrative returns. Massive
returns. While the song was a deeply collaborative
artistic effort with nine songwriters, these
numbers represent massive revenue streams flowing
back to the stakeholders across multiple, entirely
separate economic zones. It's a diversified portfolio.
You have the royalties from 40 ,000 units in
Belgium, 200 ,000 from Germany, 100 ,000 from
France, 60 ,000 from Mexico. All of these are
separate economies generating income. All funneling
back to the rights holders. And remember, the
single was released by Smash the House, so Dimitri
Vegas and, like, Might's label is acting as the
primary hub for a massive portion of this global
commerce. By the bank. By bringing in an artist
like Daddy Yankee to tap into the Mexican and
Spanish markets, where it went platinum, and
utilizing Guetta to solidify the French and German
markets, they effectively diversified their economic
portfolio with a single three -minute audio asset.
We connect this to the bigger picture. It's an
incredibly efficient use of resources. They utilize
the cultural capital of their collaborators to
open up entirely new revenue streams in territories
where they previously had a smaller footprint.
It's just staggering when you look at it from
that macro perspective, a single three -minute
asset generating that kind of complex multi -continental
economic web. It's a marvel of modern industry.
It really changes the way you look at a track
when it randomly pops up on your streaming service
on a Tuesday. It definitely should. Well, that
brings us to the end of our deconstruction of
this particular track. We have followed the journey
of Instagram all the way from a conceptual, heavily
populated 2018 studio session through a highly
strategic, Ibiza drenched meta marketing rollout
in the summer of 2019. What a journey. And we
tracked its fascinating path across the global
charts to becoming a multi -platinum bilingual
mega hit. It successfully bridged the distinct,
often isolated worlds of Europe. European, Big
Room EDM, and Latin reggaeton. It really proved
that with the right combination of massive stars,
producers, and market timing, you really can
engineer a global cultural moment. You can build
it from the ground up. So I hope that the next
time you hear a song at a party or on a playlist
that sounds like it was made by a small army
of stars. When you check the credits on your
phone. Right when you see five headline names
on the track and nine writers in the credits
and wonder how that happened, you now understand
the precise data -driven cross -cultural machinery
that put it there. It isn't an accident. No,
it is architecture. It is modern architecture
at its finest. And as we wrap up our analysis
of Instagram, this raises an important question
for you to mull over regarding the longevity
of pop music. That's the question. When a group
of artists writes a song that heavily relies
on the cultural permanence of a specific technology
brand, like the Instagram app in the late 2010s,
what happens to the legacy of that song? 20,
30, or even 50 years down the line. When the
app is gone. Exactly. Technology is inherently
transient. When the platform inevitably evolves
beyond recognition or if it disappears entirely,
does the song transcend its title to become a
timeless hit based purely on its rhythm and melody?
Good question. Or does it become forever locked
as a hyper -specific nostalgic time capsule of
the late 2010s? It is a fascinating tension between
capturing the current zeitgeist and aiming for
musical immortality. That is a brilliant point
to leave off on. Is it a timeless rhythm or is
it a tech time capsule? I guess only time will
tell how it ages. We will have to wait and see.
Thank you so much for joining us for this deep
dive. We'll be back soon to deconstruct another
incredible topic for you. Until then, keep listening
closely.