The Spotify X-Files thread

[HollyWoodRose84]

10 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

Alright, no screen shots so you will just have to trust me.

I did the "I can't find the new single Atlas Shrugged - what's happening?" routine. Here's the first reply from Nikita K at Spotify Customer Support:

"Got it. It was presented as one of unreleased songs, so it may be label choice - artists and labels decide if that's available on Spotify. Let me check if we have additional info on this". 

I then asked what he/she meant with "presented as unreleased song"? to which Nikita dropped the bombshell, "Oh, I've personally been a big fan of GnR - and this was basically an unreleased song from Chinese Democracy :)"

I then said that I thought it was released already, hoping he/she would say it would be released on a specific date (but obviously they don't have this information and Nikita was way too professional to disclose such info anyway). Nikita then stated that nothing is wrong: "Seems like there is no error on this part - this must be a label / artist decision. If that changes any time in the future - the song might become available, but we have no say in this unfortunately".

I pressed on by asking, "Do you think it is about to be released, and that's why it is in your system, or just that Spotify keeps info on unreleased songs?" hoping to get some information on how Spotify works. Before Nikita responded, I phrased the question a bit differentely: "Could it be that Spotify itself has added info about this song to its database or must it be the label/artist?"

Nikita established her professionality and also suggested an algorithm thing (without me having suggested it first) while at the same time suggesting we should be on a lookout for new music: "We at customer support have no information if it is about tobe released - my best guess would be that people try to find that song by Guns and Roses, and due to sheer amount of requests it might be showing that. Can't say if that's why it works - but I'd suggest to be on a lookout!"

I didn't give up: "heh. But unlikely that Spotify itself adds info on unreleased songs to its databases? So either label/artist or some search algorithm quirk?"

Reply fron Nikita: "I'd love to tell you here for sure - I don't know. I'd definitely say that labels/artists have the final say in this - we just provide the platform :)".

I was undaunted: "So you think the label/artist have added info on Atlas Shrugged, most likely because it will be released?"

Then, unfortunately, "No, it's a bit more likely to be an algorithm. can't say for sure though. Would love to give you more details if I had them. :)"

Sending I couldn't get more info: "I suppose we will have to wait and see :). Thank you, you have been both helpful and professional :)".

Nikita: "Appreciatr your patience and your curiosity - I'd personally love to see that track on Spotify as well :)" Chinese Democracy is my fav album of GnR personally :)) Take great care of yourself *heart*"

Yes, she added a heart at the end. 

No screenshots yet you remember the entire conversation word for word? 
 

You have way too much time on your hands. 

[Blackstar]

31 minutes ago, HollyWoodRose84 said:

No screenshots yet you remember the entire conversation word for word? 
 

You have way too much time on your hands. 

Or maybe he just copy-pasted the text of the conversation?

[SoulMonster]

51 minutes ago, HollyWoodRose84 said:

No screenshots yet you remember the entire conversation word for word? 

You have way too much time on your hands. 

I had the conversation on my phone and typed it in on my computer.

Too much time on my hands? It took me about 10 minutes to talk to my new friend Nikita and type down the conversation. I'm in that part of life where the kids don't need 24/7 supervision, so my wife and I find that we are now getting our leisure time back again. I abandoned next to all hobbies when I got kids and now I have the dilemma, "Work even more than I do or pick up a hobby". I decided to talk to Nikita, thank you very much. 

[metalavenger99]

9 hours ago, Blackstar said:

I don't think that it's *only* algorithmic, either - meaning that I don't think the algorithm would make a connection between these titles and GN'R "on its own" if there were no data in the system.

So it could be a combination:

- The band/label has submitted these titles/working titles (not the tracks themselves) to streaming platforms as a preventive measure for potential uploads by third parties, so these data are in Spotify's system.

- Then the Spotify algorithm has this function that, unlike other streaming platforms, allows these data to appear in some way in search results under certain circumstances (e.g. many search sessions).

That's probably the best theory yet lol, no album and no algorithm, just metadata.

[Live Like a Suicide]

So the Spotify customer service route has been exhausted. Who's volunteering to face the wrath of GNR's legal team by testing the preventative measure theory by uploading Atlas Shrugged to Spotify? Where's Rick when you need him? Lol.

[Trin9498]

Sounds like Axl and TB have infiltrated Spotify 

[StrangerInThisTown]

34 minutes ago, metalavenger99 said:

That's probably the best theory yet lol, no album and no algorithm, just metadata.

Which means that

1) a release might not be imminent, and this data could have already been submitted ages ago.

or

2) it could have been provided recently to prepare for a release soon because they know which songs are gonna come out.

And this again means.. that we know absolutely nothing. The soundcheck is to me, an indication that it might be the latter.

Edited October 2, 2022 by StrangerInThisTown

[Italian girl]

So case closed. please close this thread too

[metalavenger99]

The soundcheck is a big indication to me as well, but I just think we have a long, long af wait ahead, I don't know if they are gonna tour the US again the next year but if they do, I think that's when we'll hear the song.

And that will confirm that they are planning to release a single every time they tour the whole world so sadly no new album anymore, or maybe we would get one by the farewell tour which I don't really wanna think about yet. I'd love if they play it tomorrow or next week and release it on Spotify as "Oklahoma" , that would be the right path!

[StrangerInThisTown]

3 minutes ago, metalavenger99 said:

The soundcheck is a big indication to me as well, but I just think we have a long, long af wait ahead, I don't know if they are gonna tour the US again the next year but if they do, I think that's when we'll hear the song.

And that will confirm that they are planning to release a single every time they tour the whole world so sadly no new album anymore, or maybe we would get one by the farewell tour which I don't really wanna think about yet. I'd love if they play it tomorrow or next week and release it on Spotify as "Oklahoma" , that would be the right path!

I do think we might be waiting a while aswell, this is probably the last material Axl has to release / will ever release, so he's not rushing to get it out. But the soundcheck to me means we might be getting atleast 1 song in the near future. I'd love for it to be Oklahoma.

Edited October 2, 2022 by StrangerInThisTown

[betterman]

Based on the spundcheck there will be new music this year! And I think its exciting that the song is neither Atlas or Perhaps - the two songs that were almost finished from the leaks

Edited October 2, 2022 by betterman

[jettesnel]

I promised myself not to be involved in this anymore, but I found something intresting. If you search for se7en, absurd shows up, but if you search for seven, absurd  doesnt show up. 

[StrangerInThisTown]

12 minutes ago, jettesnel said:

I promised myself not to be involved in this anymore, but I found something intresting. If you search for se7en, absurd shows up, but if you search for seven, absurd  doesnt show up. 

Don't know what other people think, but I think you just found another one.

[rocknroll41]

Didn’t brain say seven was a ballad, and also his favorite of the unreleased songs? And he’s still with them in South America as we speak, isn’t he? Would be an appropriate lead single for the seventh studio album (SMKC did just call their fourth album 4, after all) but this is GnR we are talking about so logic doesn’t apply…

Edited October 2, 2022 by rocknroll41

[Blackstar]

16 minutes ago, jettesnel said:

I promised myself not to be involved in this anymore, but I found something intresting. If you search for se7en, absurd shows up, but if you search for seven, absurd  doesnt show up. 

Yeah, I can see that too with VPN (Sweden, I suppose).

Funny. Oklahoma doesn't bring up anything in Sweden anymore, at least for me, and Zodiac is weaker (Hard Skool comes up lower in the list), but now "se7en" shows up. And for all the other songs (except Perhaps) that still come up, it brings up both GN'R and Hard Skool/Absurd.

[SoulMonster]

If this is caused by the band having submitted info to prevent uploading of unreleased songs, then they shouldn't come and go like this, nor should partial song names result in GN'R and not complete song names. 

[Blackstar]

7 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

If this is caused by the band having submitted info to prevent uploading of unreleased songs, then they shouldn't come and go like this, nor should partial song names result in GN'R and not complete song names. 

The algorithm still plays a part in what shows up, and some titles are "weaker" compared to other results. I have noticed that the results are not stable in general even for "real" songs, at least when searching on the browser, e.g. one day Taylor Swift comes up first for State of Grace and another day she is lower in the list.

[WillBailey]

6 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

The algorithm still plays a part in what shows up, and some titles are "weaker" compared to other results. I have noticed that the results are not stable in general even for "real" songs, at least when searching on the browser, e.g. one day Taylor Swift comes up first for State of Grace and another day she is lower in the list.

Here she is a solid number one for "State of Grace" (FR). Still havent seen any track associated with GN'R ...

[Blackstar]

5 hours ago, metalavenger99 said:

That's probably the best theory yet lol, no album and no algorithm, just metadata.

5 hours ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Which means that

1) a release might not be imminent, and this data could have already been submitted ages ago.

or

2) it could have been provided recently to prepare for a release soon because they know which songs are gonna come out.

And this again means.. that we know absolutely nothing. The soundcheck is to me, an indication that it might be the latter.

There are still some problems with this theory, if we take the first case scenario (that the data have been submitted a long time ago only as a preventive measure and have nothing to do with a release). Because, although it addresses the connection issue (why these titles are connected to GN'R) it leaves the two other main "algorithmic" questions unanswered: the "why now" question and the "why in these countries and not other countries" question.

So let's hope that the data have been provided recently.

5 hours ago, Live Like a Suicide said:

So the Spotify customer service route has been exhausted. Who's volunteering to face the wrath of GNR's legal team by testing the preventative measure theory by uploading Atlas Shrugged to Spotify? Where's Rick when you need him? Lol.

Maybe we need two volunteers, one from a country that Atlas Shrugged shows up and one from a country where nothing shows up

[Blackstar]

11 minutes ago, WillBailey said:

Here she is a solid number one for "State of Grace" (FR). Still havent seen any track associated with GN'R ...

For me her State of Grace song always comes up first, but Taylor Swift as an artist is not always first.

[AxlRoseCDII]

Man…se7en showing up but not seven is super interesting to me. Fans couldn’t have been searching for that to this amount! Just when I think I don’t care anymore 

[StrangerInThisTown]

33 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

Man…se7en showing up but not seven is super interesting to me. Fans couldn’t have been searching for that to this amount! Just when I think I don’t care anymore 

Who knows how many more there are that we don't know about. There might be some songs we'll never find out because they got a different title now, but there's no doubt we already know a whole bunch of them. If someone here actually worked at Spotify we could maybe get info of the whole list GNR gave them lol.

Edited October 2, 2022 by StrangerInThisTown

[Dani_1455]

32 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

Man…se7en showing up but not seven is super interesting to me. Fans couldn’t have been searching for that to this amount! Just when I think I don’t care anymore 

Se7en is a title that Axl can put to the tracks, like he did in Hardskool, and Absurd with that rare r!

 

[AxlRoseCDII]

4 minutes ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Who knows how many more there are that we don't know about. There might be some songs we'll never find out because they got a different title now, but there's no doubt we already know a whole bunch of them. If someone here actually worked at Spotify we could maybe get info of the whole list GNR gave them lol.

I’ve been thinking there’s gotta be some weird variations out there. I wonder if Oklahoma stops at Oklaho because of some weird symbol or thing Axl added. Either way this Se7en find is huge in my opinion. That’s WAY too specific for something to not be in the system to some extent. Crazy find.

[AxlRoseCDII]

Actually, thinking about the theory that the song names were submitted to check for leaks, maybe Silkworms was submitted alongside Absurd just as a safety measure since it could be on the next album and that’s why it brings up GNR stuff. And since it’s technically released already that’s why the results are a lot stronger.