After an apparently tumultuous behind-the-scenes process, Halsey has released their new song “So Good.” The single was produced by Max Martin and Tobias Karlsson. Check it out below.

The story of “So Good” began on May 22 when Halsey posted on TikTok, “basically i have a song that i love that i wanna release ASAP but my record label won’t let me.” They continued:

ive been in this industry for 8 years and ive sold over 165 million records

and my record company is saying that i can’t release it unless they can fake a viral moment on tiktok

everything is marketing.

and they are doing this to basically every artist these days

i just wanna release music, man. and i deserve better tbh

i’m tired

After posting their TikTok, Halsey tweeted on May 22, “Talked to my label tonight after my tiktok tantrum. They said ‘wow the tiktok is going really strong!’ I was like ok cool so can I release my song now? They said ‘we’ll see!’ 🙃 tell me again how I’m making this up.”

The following day, a Capitol Music Group spokesperson told Pitchfork: “Our belief in Halsey as a singular and important artist is total and unwavering. We can’t wait for the world to hear their brilliant new music.”

Then, on May 31, Capitol tweeted, “- @halsey , we love you and are here to support you. We are committing to a release of ‘So Good’ on June 9th, 2022.” The label also released the following statement: “We are an artist first company that encourages open dialogue. We have nothing but a desire to help each one of our artists succeed, and hope that we can continue to have these critical conversations.”

Halsey released If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power last year via Capitol. They are on tour in support of the album.

Read about the “So Good” situation and more in Cat Zhang’s column “TikTok Is Turning Music Marketing Into a Labyrinthian Game” on the Pitch.