Spotify fillers fill pockets
November 18, 2020

Lesser-known indie-rock songs becoming hits thanks to Spotify

Galaxie 500

Stereogum explores the power of Spotify, similar to TikTok's, describing the lives of two relatively obscure indie-rock songs from the 1980s and 1990s. Pavement's 'Harness Your Hopes' was three-decade-old b-side before it became number one on Pavement’s Spotify page, ending up with over 28 million plays to date. Another one in Galaxie 500's 'Strange' which was a song from a long-overlooked album track, and ended up as the most popular Galaxie 500 song on Spotify. How did this happen? Mostly, thanks to Spotify's Autoplay feature which cues up music that “resembles” what the listener has been listening to previously.