Wednesday, July 8, 2026

KPoop: Korean Boy Band BTS Has Their First Real Flop with “Permission to Dance” A Sales Disaster UPDATED

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WEDS MORNING: Total is up to 178,000. That’s it. There are a lot of questions about how “Permission” is being listed as number 1 anywhere. The fact is, it’s number 14 or 15 on iTunes.

MONDAY MORNING update: Total sales through Saturday are 161,000 all in. Downloads (included) are 46,400. The song is number 19 on iTunes.

 

EARLIER BTS may stand for Better Luck Next Time.

After a string of hits including recent ones like “Butter” and “Dynamite,” K Pop group BTS has pooped out.

Their new single, “Permission to Dance,” has seriously flopped. After one week, it’s number 17 on iTunes.

According Buzz Angle Music, “Permission” has been denied everywhere. Total sales including streaming are just 150,000. That includes 45,000 paid downloads. Most of the sales are streaming, and they are minor compared to other hits on the charts this summer.

Compare that number also with the single, “Butter,” released in May. “Butter” has sold 1 million copies so far, including 207,000 downloads.

But “Permission” may have come out too soon on heels of “Butter.” It’s also a rare failure for factory like songwriters Ed Sheeran and Johnny McDaid, who’ve had hits with Justin Bieber and others. Sheeran has a hit himself right now in the top 5 called “Bad Habits,” which typifies his own bad habits in songwriting. (Sheeran is still dodging a lawsuit over one song by the Marvin Gaye estate.)

What’s next for BTS? Stay tuned…

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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