The Spotify X-Files thread

[AxlRoseCDII]

2 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Maybe. It doesn't seem to work with other letters after "ro" though, like "roff",  "rojj"etc. (except for "s", of course

I agree the inconsistency is weird but I'd say it's more likely to do with something like that than anything else. For instance in songs if I search that songs labeled "Robbery" come up, confusing the V's for B's.

Edited October 3, 2022 by AxlRoseCDII

[metalavenger99]

2 hours ago, gavgnr said:

Have a look at the website. Stephanie is smokin 🤣

lol man wtf that site is exactly called like that I wonder if it's that old 🤣

[metalavenger99]

1 hour ago, Blackstar said:

I didn't get it either, but @avahlandjust explained it above. There's a (popular, I suppose) artist called Rovv who has a (popular) song called Seven. I guess what is implied here is that it brings up GN'R because they also have a song called Seven in the system.

Well that's a clever way of looking at it. That's a new Spotify X File. 

I wonder if searching for Taylor Swift brings up GNR now.

[Blackstar]

8 minutes ago, metalavenger99 said:

lol man wtf that site is exactly called like that I wonder if it's that old 🤣

According to web.archive.org, it exists at least since 1998. So Buckethead was inspired by an "adult" site and Axl decided to make a song out of it?

1 minute ago, metalavenger99 said:

I wonder if searching for Taylor Swift brings up GNR now.

It doesn't.

[StrangerInThisTown]

I don't ever see us getting a definite explanation for this unless someone here starts working at Spotify or knows someone who does. All we have is several different theories that can not be proven.

[metalavenger99]

12 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

According to web.archive.org, it exists at least since 1998. So Buckethead was inspired by an "adult" site and Axl decided to make a song out of it?

I can't remember where I read this, but didn't Buckethead used to drive to the studio with a doll like that in his passenger seat? Now it makes sense after 23 years.  (I mean now we know where he bought that)

Edited October 3, 2022 by metalavenger99

[AxlRoseCDII]

7 minutes ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

I don't ever see us getting a definite explanation for this unless someone here starts working at Spotify or knows someone who does. All we have is several different theories that can not be proven.

Imo if the sound check song is Oklahoma then some release is definitely planned. And the song titles on Spotify should give us an idea on what a release could be in return

[metalavenger99]

48 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Why does it also bring up AC/DC for you, though?

 

46 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

Search "ro" and GNR comes up down the artist list. When you add letters that the system doesn't know what to do with it likely is just trying to find any match they can.

I just think it's because both ACDC and GNR have"rock" tagged as genre

Edited October 3, 2022 by metalavenger99

[Blackstar]

8 minutes ago, metalavenger99 said:

 

I just think it's because both ACDC and GNR have"rock" tagged as genre

For me, when I type "rovv" the only rock band it brings up is GN'R. When I type "rov", though, AC/DC, Nirvana and some other rock artists come up as well as GN'R.

[metalavenger99]

1 minute ago, Blackstar said:

For me, when I type "rovv" the only rock band it brings up is GN'R. When I type "rov", though, AC/DC, Nirvana and some other rock artists come up as well as GN'R.

Thanks, so it must be that...

[Gunner55]

V is right next to C on the keyboard. Maybe they think we're trying to type Rock. Rock The Rock must be on the new album! 

[metalavenger99]

One last thing about real doll.com, I found where I learned the Buckethead thing, it came from an interview at Apetite for Distortion.(Journalist Art Tavana, I think he wrote a gnr book)

he (Buckethead) would have a dummy or a mannequin of a girl, and her throat was slit, and there was blood all over the girl’s body, and he would just put the seatbelt on her and drive around with her and use the carpool lane.” 

I doubt that song will ever get released and I doubt it has vocals, but I'm 100% sure the song, the site, and the story are all connected, the locker leaks were amazing... 22 years after that shit happened you can now "figure this out"

[BillConnor_1982]

It’s hard to watch this thread. They should call the next album, Use Your Delusion.  I want a new album so bad from these guys but it ain’t happening. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re grasping for straws. It’s also a little disheartening the TWO ‘new’ songs since 2008 were ones hardcore fans already heard. It’s like punishment for the leaks but also makes me feel “do they really have much else left?”. . 
 

i like Hard School and actually really like Absurd (the original 2000 version even more) but the fact they chose these 2 as the first big new music singles leaves me to believe they don’t have much left in the tank. Because I never understood this “oh they’re saving the big guns”.  It’s just a weird mentality, like, “hey these songs are OK but don’t worry! They’re not our best ones!”  Like way to strive for the best 

Edited October 3, 2022 by BillConnor_1982

[Powerage5]

21 hours ago, metalavenger99 said:

RealD Tune? Lol

I mean the probability that we are discovering a complete new song starting with the letters "reald" that is unrelated to the locker leak named real doll is really, really low. Or maybe it's just called realdoll.com now, since Axl has realized that there are no spaces in between web links  

At this point, shit like "realdoll.com" fits more with "Hard Skool" or  "ABSUЯD" than epic names like Soul Monster or The General.

I'm not even sure the answer is that complex - the most simple answer to me is, The Village CDs were just internal discs of rough mixes and working ideas. They most likely have some typos. Putting a space in a URL is one, but then you have the fact that "Billionare" is a misspelling, Quick Song is spelled both with and without a space on different discs, "Oklahaoma" is a misspelling (I didn't even notice that one until I went to reference the disc images), shorthand titles when were know the full titles existed at the time (i.e "Catcher", "Rhiad", etc.), there's random lowercase words/letters, and we don't know for sure Shackler's Revenge was ever spelled "Shankler's Revenge". The discs are cluttered with irregularities. 

20 hours ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

We have no clue what has and hasn’t been worked on since 1999 to be fair. None of us even knew Perhaps and State of Grace were basically in completed forms until 2019. Who knows, maybe it’s something they kept developing all these years. We don’t know everything.

None of us even knew Perhaps or SOG were titles before 2019, never mind knowing how complete they were  The most shocking "I can't believe how complete this song was" to me was ITW - it was basically ready to go as we got it on the album in 1999. 

We also don't know which songs, if any, on The Village sessions got reworked into a song under a title we do know. Maybe Mustache became Cuban Skies, for example. There's a lot of "we don't know what we don't know" in all of this. 

[bumbleslash69]

5 hours ago, Blackstar said:

Why does it also bring up AC/DC for you, though?

It thinks the search is a typo for “rock.” Same reason the rock playlist pops up. 
 

If I search it on my account it brings up the artist Rovv, and then a ton of artist I listen to who have their genres tagged as “rock.” 

[Draguns]

9 hours ago, metalavenger99 said:

One last thing about real doll.com, I found where I learned the Buckethead thing, it came from an interview at Apetite for Distortion.(Journalist Art Tavana, I think he wrote a gnr book)

he (Buckethead) would have a dummy or a mannequin of a girl, and her throat was slit, and there was blood all over the girl’s body, and he would just put the seatbelt on her and drive around with her and use the carpool lane.” 

I doubt that song will ever get released and I doubt it has vocals, but I'm 100% sure the song, the site, and the story are all connected, the locker leaks were amazing... 22 years after that shit happened you can now "figure this out"

Thank God he's out of GNR. What the heck was Axl thinking bring this guy into GNR???

[Axl S]

54 minutes ago, Draguns said:

Thank God he's out of GNR. What the heck was Axl thinking bring this guy into GNR???

That the dude was unreal at playing guitar and writing guitar parts. Considering that at the time Axl also had this vision about the band's sound changing and he didn't think some of Robin's solo contributions were good enough, it made a lot of sense to bring in someone who could do the things Buckethead could do.

Edited October 4, 2022 by Axl S

[chrismcquillan]

Spoke to a musician I know who publishes on Spotify.

He says it'll be nothing to do with an algorithm. The record company will 100% have uploaded these tracks to licensing databases that power Spotify and other services for two reasons.

1) It allows copyright takedowns to occur instantly if anyone uploads leaks to services like YouTube.

2) It prevents other people publishing tracks with the same titles and artist data, obviously.

So he thinks the tracks are definitely in the system. Whether it's indicative of a release or not, he couldn't say.

It's possible there's a release coming, or there are concerns about the finished tracks leaking, so it's a preventative measure to stop them getting onto services like YT.

[jamillos]

1 hour ago, chrismcquillan said:

Spoke to a musician I know who publishes on Spotify.

He says it'll be nothing to do with an algorithm. The record company will 100% have uploaded these tracks to licensing databases that power Spotify and other services for two reasons.

1) It allows copyright takedowns to occur instantly if anyone uploads leaks to services like YouTube.

2) It prevents other people publishing tracks with the same titles and artist data, obviously.

So he thinks the tracks are definitely in the system. Whether it's indicative of a release or not, he couldn't say.

It's possible there's a release coming, or there are concerns about the finished tracks leaking, so it's a preventative measure to stop them getting onto services like YT.

May well be, but there are loads of tracks with the same title - it's inevitable. 

[chrismcquillan]

1 minute ago, jamillos said:

May well be, but there are loads of tracks with the same title - it's inevitable. 

Title & meta data combo, so title, length, artist name etc.

Doesn't block any musician from uploading a song called "Oh My God" for example.

[jamillos]

18 minutes ago, chrismcquillan said:

Title & meta data combo, so title, length, artist name etc.

Doesn't block any musician from uploading a song called "Oh My God" for example.

But isn't that what copyright is for? E.g. no one else can upload a song on Spotify under the name of Guns N' Roses? Why would they need to preempt that with metadata? Just asking, I don't know jack about this. 

[StrangerInThisTown]

35 minutes ago, chrismcquillan said:

Title & meta data combo, so title, length, artist name etc.

Doesn't block any musician from uploading a song called "Oh My God" for example.

How is that in any way connected? No one can upload a song with artist name Guns N Roses lol, the meta data has nothing to do with that, because you have to upload it from the GNR account to publish it as GNR songs. This explanation makes no sense to me.

And secondly, not sure how someone who uploads his music on Spotify is in any way knowledgeable or qualified to comment on this anyway lol, not like they are being "briefed" on any of the inner workings like an employee, they just put their songs there and then people can stream it.

Edited October 4, 2022 by StrangerInThisTown

[chrismcquillan]

11 minutes ago, jamillos said:

But isn't that what copyright is for? E.g. no one else can upload a song on Spotify under the name of Guns N' Roses? Why would they need to preempt that with metadata? Just asking, I don't know jack about this. 

Think of it this way.

Spotify allows musicians to upload their music, and that music is cross referenced and checked with the licensing databases etc.

That's fine.

Now think of YouTube, where anyone could upload a video under any name. You see "Copyright claim by Universal Music LLC or something" as soon as you upload that, because the track itself is identified in the database immediately.

I'd assume having to upload files with titles to the database stops musicians from just copyrighting any random audio segment they want, but it's frequently done for copyright control. You can upload music and then set a publish date of 100 years in the future. But if that file did get out online at any point, even if the artist didn't intend to release it, they can have it pulled down or at least monetise it.

These licensing databases power a lot more than Spotify. They power TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all sorts.

And there's plenty of music submission sites that allow artists to submit onto these databases.

More pertinent question would be, why would you not upload the tracks if they're finished? Even if you don't want to release them yet.

[Jw224]

1 hour ago, chrismcquillan said:

Spoke to a musician I know who publishes on Spotify.

He says it'll be nothing to do with an algorithm. The record company will 100% have uploaded these tracks to licensing databases that power Spotify and other services for two reasons.

1) It allows copyright takedowns to occur instantly if anyone uploads leaks to services like YouTube.

2) It prevents other people publishing tracks with the same titles and artist data, obviously.

So he thinks the tracks are definitely in the system. Whether it's indicative of a release or not, he couldn't say.

It's possible there's a release coming, or there are concerns about the finished tracks leaking, so it's a preventative measure to stop them getting onto services like YT.

This person does not have any more knowledge than the rest of us when it comes to how Spotify works in the back end. 

[chrismcquillan]

1 minute ago, Jw224 said:

This person does not have any more knowledge than the rest of us when it comes to how Spotify works in the back end. 

My dad is a published singer-songwriter on Spotify and numerous other platforms. I'm repeating what he's told me.