Metallica’s Master Of Puppets has been streamed one billion times on Spotify.

The 1986 track crossed the 10-digit threshold earlier this week. It’s the California metal titans’ third song to reach the landmark, following Nothing Else Matters and Enter Sandman, both from their blockbuster 1991 self-titled album (AKA The Black Album).

Master Of Puppets, the title track of Metallica’s lauded third album, was released as a radio single on July 2, 1986, almost four months after its namesake record came out via Elektra. It quickly became a fixture of the band’s setlist and was acclaimed by fans and critics for its technicality and neoclassical touches. Its lyrics refer to the control that alcohol and drug addiction can have over people.

The track was co-written by all of Metallica’s then-members: singer/guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Cliff Burton. It would be one of Burton’s last songwriting credits during his lifetime, as the bassist died in a bus crash while the band were touring Sweden in September 1986. He was 24 years old.

In 2022, Master Of Puppets was featured on the soundtrack of Netflix series Stranger Things’ fourth season and became a mainstream hit. It charted in the US and the UK for the first time since its release and reached number four in the Netherlands.

Amidst the attention post-Stranger Things, Metallica released a music video for the song, 36 years after it first came out, and recorded a viral TikTok of them miming along to the Master Of Puppets scene in the series.

According to setlist database setlist.fm, Master Of Puppets has been performed live 1,758 times, making it Metallica’s most-played song. The band will likely add to that tally when they embark on a run of North American shows later this month. See below for all dates and details.

Metallica 2025 tour dates:

Apr 19: Syracuse MA Wireless Dome, NY*
Apr 24: Toronto Rogers Centre, ON*
Apr 26: Toronto Rogers Centre, ON+
May 01: Nashville Nissan Stadium, TN*
May 03: Nashville Nissan Stadium, TN+
May 07: Blacksburg Lane Stadium, VA*
May 09: Columbus Sonic Temple, OH
May 11: Columbus Sonic Temple, OH
May 23: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA+
May 25: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA*
May 28: Landover Northwest Stadium, MD*
May 31: Charlotte Bank Of America Stadium, NC*
Jun 3: Atlanta Mercedes-Benz Stadium, GA*
Jun 6: Tampa Raymond James Stadium, FL+
Jun 8: Tampa Raymond James Stadium, FL*
Jun 14: Houston NRG Stadium, TX*
Jun 20: Santa Clara Levi’s Stadium, CA+
Jun 22: Santa Clara Levi’s Stadium, CA*
Jun 27: Denver Empower Field at Mile High, CO+
Jun 29: Denver Empower Field at Mile High, CO*

* Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies support
+ Limp Bizkit and Ice Nine Kills support

Cradle Of Filth's Dani Filth has condemned Spotify, and says he "owes it" to his fellow musicians to not have an account on the streaming platform.

In a new interview on Sonic Perspectives, the frontman explores the realities of living as an artist during a time where music is so readily and cheaply accessible in digital spaces.

He says (via Blabbermouth), “I owe it to my brethren in metal and music not to have a fucking Spotify account because they don’t pay people. It’s not just them — it’s just platforms in general.

“I appreciate the fact that people could discover you from another band and whatever; I’ve heard it a million times. But I’m old school… I want my bands to be paid because if they’re not paid, they’re not bands anymore."

Noting the impact of streaming platforms on the livelihood of musicians, he continues: “I know so many people from big bands that since the pandemic have gone, ‘You know what? I’m taking a proper job. So you’ll see me less often. We’ll still be doing albums, but probably once every five years,’ because it just seems like daylight robbery.”

Filth then goes on to compare the act of streaming music to taking food illegally from shops, explaining: "If you owned a delicatessen or a fucking supermarket even, people aren't allowed to just come in and help themselves to free produce, which is what people think they're entitled to do with music because it's a periphery thing and it's in the air.

"You can't physically touch music. But how do you expect bands to survive without that?"

The frontman additionally shines a light on the film industry clamping down on online piracy, noting how he feels there's less strict attitudes to consuming music without fully paying for it. ""Obviously, they really try [to combat piracy] with movies, and there's more money involved in movies — obviously," he says.

"But in England, we used to have these, not up to very recently, this whole advert they had before the movie starts where 'video piracy is killing the movie industry', and they even go to the point where they'd have this slamming prison doors, in IMAX quality sound, THX. 'You're going to prison if you watch a bootleg movie.' But not the same for… I know back in the day [they had a message on the back of albums saying that] 'home taping is killing music,' but nowadays it's like a fucking free for all."

This is not the first time Filth has aired his disapproval of the service. In 2023, he dubbed Spotify "the biggest criminals in the world".

While in conversation with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, he explained: "It's been deteriorating ever since… I think 2006 was the year that everything swapped from being comfortable for musicians — well, not necessarily comfortable; it was never comfortable.

"But [it went to] just being a lot harder with the onset of the digital age, the onset of music streaming platforms that don't pay anybody. Like Spotify are the biggest criminals in the world. I think we had 25, 26 million plays last year, and I think personally I got about 20 pounds, which is less than an hourly work rate."

A Spotify spokesperson recently responded to Filth's claims, stating: “£20!? Spotify has paid out around a million dollars in revenue to Cradle of Filth’s rightsholders for fans’ streams of their catalog. We’re disappointed to hear that Spotify’s payments are not making it through to the band.”

Watch the full interview with Sonic Perspectives below:

Spotify has seemingly used a playlist to acknowledge a recent interview where Spiritbox singer Courtney LaPlante was confused for singer/songwriter Poppy.

This weekend, Poppy, who’d collaborated with hardcore band Knocked Loose on the song Suffocate, and Spiritbox were both nominated for the Grammy Award For Best Metal Performance. Both attended the Los Angeles ceremony, and one interviewer unwittingly went viral when she confused LaPlante with Poppy during a chat on the red carpet.

Despite initially giving her interviewer a skeptical look, LaPlante ran with it, ‘confirming’ that she is Poppy. “Really happy to be here again; would love to take home the Grammy for Knocked Loose and myself because I would be the first woman to win this award,” she added.

Now, it seems the gaffe has become so well-known that even Spotify are in on it. LaPlante currently appears in the cover image of the streaming behemoth’s ‘Kickass Metal’ playlist – but the caption beneath calls her Poppy.

“Poppy on top of today’s best Metal playlist,” it says.

See a screenshot below.

Ultimately, neither Poppy nor Spiritbox claimed a Grammy this year, with the winner of Best Metal Performance being Gojira. The French metal favourites won with their rendition of revolutionary song Ah! Ça Ira, which they performed with opera singer Marina Viotti in a fiery display at the 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony.

Spiritbox will release their highly anticipated second album, Tsunami Sea, on March 7. The band will start a European tour this month, kicking it off with their biggest-ever UK headline show at the 10,000-capacity Alexandra Palace in London. They’re also set to tour North America from April.

See dates and details via the Spiritbox website.

Read more about Spiritbox and get the inside story of Tsunami Sea exclusively in the new issue of Metal Hammer, which features LaPlante and company as its cover stars. Order your copy now and get it delivered directly to your door.

Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name has been streamed one billion times on Spotify.

Guitarist Tom Morello announced that the rap metal band’s 1992 single crossed the billion-stream threshold in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, January 11.

“Killing In The Name just hit 1 billion streams on Spotify!” he wrote. “Thanks to all those who listened to it: those who love it, those who hate it, and those that have enjoyed it without understanding it. Righteous proof that rebel music and irony are alive and well.”

Killing In The Name was released in November 1992 as the lead single from Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled debut album. It instantly drew acclaim and controversy for the Los Angeles four-piece, whose mixture of rap and metal had only been attempted by a handful of bands before them.

The lyrics, which feature numerous profanities, attack racist police officers and the military-industrial complex. They also contain arguably Rage Against The Machine’s most famous line: “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.”

Reflecting on Killing In The Name’s lyrics in a 2020 Rolling Stone interview, Morello said: “‘Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me’ is a universal sentiment. While it’s a simple lyric, I think it’s one of [Zack De La Rocha’s, vocalist] most brilliant.

“And to me, it relates to Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass said, the moment he became free was not the moment that he was physically loosed from his bonds. It was the moment when master said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘No.’ And that’s the essence of ‘Fuck you, I will not do what you tell me.’”

The song was a chart hit in 1992, reaching the top 20 in four countries, but found its greatest commercial success almost two decades later. In 2009, a social media campaign to get Killing In The Name to the UK’s coveted Christmas number one position over Joe McElderry, winner of prime-time TV talent show The X Factor, was successful.

Rage Against The Machine released two more studio albums after their debut (1996’s Evil Empire and 1999’s The Battle Of Angeles) before splitting in 2000. They’ve reunited multiple times since, most recently in 2020, but as of January 2024 are once again inactive.

According to Spotify’s official ‘Billions Club’ playlist, only 850 songs have reached the 10-digit mark. Other heavy metal tracks to have joined those hallowed ranks include Metallica’s Enter Sandman, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and System Of A Down’s Chop Suey.

Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante says Metallica were right to wage war on Napster, adding that Spotify is "where music goes to die."

Benante, who has also been Pantera's touring drummer since their revival in 2022, says the the music business has been stripped to the bare bones by greed, leaving the artists with little reward for their work.

He tells the Irish Times: "I don't subscribe to Spotify. I think it is where music goes to die. We have the music on there because we have to play along with the fucking game, but I'm tired of playing the game.

"We get taken advantage of the most out of any industry. As artists, we have no health coverage, we have nothing. They fucked us so bad, I don't know how we come out of it. You'd probably make more money selling lemonade on the corner."

Asked about Metallica's public battle with Napster in 2000, Benante hails the thrash icons for taking the stance they did.

He adds: "They were absolutely right about it. You see where it went. All those people who said, 'Fuck Metallica. They are rich bastards'. They were protecting their art, their intellectual property so that some asshole does not come along and take your art.

"They make the money while you just make the art and you just give it away. People don't know anything about this. Until you have lived the way we live and do what we have done, then you can comment on it.

"The industry of music was one of things hit the worst and nobody did anything about it. They just let it happen. There was no protection, no nothing. Subconsciously this may be the reason why we don't make records every three years or whatever because I don't want to give it away for free.

"I take music very seriously and what I do and what I write is very personal and, for someone to take it is not right. It is like I pay Amazon $12.99 a month and I can just go on Amazon and I can get whatever I want.

"It is basically stealing. It is stealing from the artist – the people who run music streaming sites like Spotify."

Gojira’s performance of Ah! Ça Ira at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is now available on streaming services.

The French extreme metal titans performed their cover of the revolutionary song with opera singer Marina Viotti at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony on July 26. The four-piece played Ah! Ça Ira after an introduction from an actor playing a beheaded Marie Antoinette, and did so on the side of former prison La Conciergerie, where Antoinette was sentenced to death in 1793 following the French Revolution.

The fiery playthrough swiftly went viral. UK national newspaper The Independent reported that some viewers deemed the moment the “only good thing” about the ceremony, which also featured Lady Gaga and Celine Dion.

On the other hand, certain Christian fundamentalists attempted to ignite a stupor by accusing Gojira’s Olympics performance of being satanic. Singer/guitarist Joe Duplantier responded in a Rolling Stone interview: “It’s none of that. It’s French history. It’s French charm, you know, beheaded people, red wine and blood all over the place – it’s romantic, it’s normal.”

On July 30, Metal Hammer published an op-ed deeming Gojira’s Olympics performance “the most important moment for metal this century”.

“Ultimately, even if you hate Gojira’s music with a passion as bloody and fiery as their recent performance, the band have now statistically been seen more times at once than any other in metal,” wrote journalist Matt Mills. “29 million people tuned in and saw them incite a riverside inferno on Friday. Not even Metallica have entered that many living rooms simultaneously.”

Mills continued: “Metal has been brought to a new apex, and it’s been hoisted there by four men who practise what they preach, evolve with each release and work their derrières off. Has any other singular moment ever done this much good for this form of music?”

Gojira released their latest album, Fortitude, to critical acclaim in 2021. They will headline Derbyshire metal festival Bloodstock Open Air in 2025, alongside Trivium and Machine Head. Tickets to the weekender are now available to purchase.

At least 30 notable metalcore and deathcore bands – including While She Sleeps, Bury Tomorrow, Fit For An Autopsy, Thy Art Is Murder and Currents – have had fake songs published on their Spotify accounts.

The false uploads were spotted by X (formerly Twitter) users earlier this week and have affected dozens of artists. All the tracks appear with similarly styled black-and-white artwork, which seems to be AI-generated. One of the bands affected, German metalcore act Caliban, publicly commented on their profile falling victim to the unauthorised upload and claimed that the music is also AI-generated.

“Dear Fans,” they started (via The PRP). “A song has been released via our Spotify artist profile that is not ours. A fraudulent artist posing as Caliban has uploaded an Al-generated song via a dubious distributor that is now scheduled for release. Caliban is not affiliated with this release.”

The band continued: “We and our team are working on resolving this issue. This appears to have occurred with various bands throughout the scene at this time as labels and managements are committed to rectifying the situation. That being said, we thank you for your ongoing support of real, handcrafted music written by human beings.”

The similarities between the songs and their covers suggests that this mass hacking was a concentrated effort by one individual or group. However, it appears that no one has yet identified themselves as the perpetrator, nor explained the intention behind the false songs.

AI-generated music is currently a hot-button topic, as the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) is embroiled in a lawsuit with music generation startups Suno and Udio. The suit – filed on behalf of record labels Warner Records, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music – alleges that the companies are infringing copyright by using trademarked songs to “train” their AI software. The plaintiffs are seeking up to $150,000 in damages for each infringed work.

Weezer's self-titled debut album a.k.a. The Blue Album turned 30 years old last month, and the band celebrated by visiting the studios of streaming service Spotify to play a selection of album highlights.

The four tracks they performed – Buddy Holly, Undone - The Sweater Song, Say It Ain't So and Surf Wax America – have since been released as a digital EP on Spotify, but it's the filmed version of the session where the real magic lies. 

The film includes some revealing between-song banter from Rivers Cuomo and co.  We learn, for instance, that the band's breakthrough hit Buddy Holly was bound for second album Pinkerton before producer Rik Ocasek stepped in and insisted they record it. But more than that, it captures Weezer playing and sounding as good – if not better – than they ever have.  

The sound is something else. Ocasek's original mix established the band's pristine, radio-friendly crunch, and the Spotify sound may even improve on it – at least if fan reaction is anything to go by.

"The audio quality of this video is phenomenal," says celsoyh.

"Whoever mixed this deserves an award", enthuses crackingskulls.

"The mix on this is insane, good work," adds apaltry45.

"Whoa! They sound fantastic live!" says relentlessslog.

"The sound engineer the real hero. Amazing!" froths droconnell.

"Sound mix is incredible!" adds oukeith.

And so on. Thankfully, Spotify has credited the team involved in the filming, so we can recognise those responsible for such sonic excellence. So, hats off to recording engineer Jack Mason, second recording engineer Taylor Kernohan, supervising sound editor and mixer Jack Mason and mastering engineer Oscar Zambrano.  

Gentlemen, we salute you. 

This year’s Glastonbury will take place on June 26-30, with Pyramid Stage headliners Coldplay, Dua Lipa and SZA joined by a huge selection of bands including PJ Harvey, Idles, James, The Last Dinner Party, New Model Army, Kim Gordon, The Breeders and The National.

Hundreds of events will take place across the Worthy Farm site so to help you navigate the sheer amount of artists, stages, on-stage times and more, Glastonbury and Spotify have joined forces for Vodafone’s official Glastonbury app on iOS and Android.

Not only does the app allow music fans to create their own personal festival calendar so you don’t miss anything either at Glastonbury or watching on the BBC, but Spotify integration will provide recommendations of artists to check out based on the user’s listening habits.

Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis says: “It’s great to launch this integration with Spotify to help festival-goers discover artists playing this year. There are so many amazing acts on the line-up and we're really happy that the app will now help guide people towards the ones they'll love.”

Spotify vice president of global marketing and partnerships Marc Hazan adds: “Spotify reflects and celebrates music culture so this partnership with Glastonbury is the perfect fit. We want to forge deeper connections between artists and fans, and what better way to do that than by teaming up with the world’s greatest music festival. 

"The integration with Vodafone’s official Glastonbury app combines Spotify’s hugely popular personalisation and discovery tools so that users can really elevate their Glastonbury experience to a new level.” 

In addition, Spotify is also home to the official Glastonbury 2024 playlist, which is just one part of the Spotify Glastonbury 2024 hub which is crammed full of content based on this year’s artists.

The Glastonbury app also has an interactive map so you can easily get directions across the festival site - and you can share a pin with close friends so you can all find each other. Here, you'll also find the full festival line-up, a link to Worthy FM radio station and access to Glastonbury's tweets.

There's also travel info, where to buy food and shopping, general advice about what to pack, accessibility information and how and where to recycle cans, plastic, paper, wood and organic waste.

For more information about the BBC’s coverage and how to watch Glastonbury 2024, head over to our dedicated festival hub.

Further reading

• Best festival tents: Get set for the summer of music
• The 10 best performances of Glastonbury 2023
• The 12 best Glastonbury Festival performances ever
• How the Happy Mondays brought chaos to Glastonbury in 1990

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sparked an online backlash after a social media post in which he said the cost of creating "content" is "close to zero".

The boss of the streaming giant said in a post on X: "Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content. This has sparked my curiosity about the concept of long shelf life versus short shelf life. 

"While much of what we see and hear quickly becomes obsolete, there are timeless ideas or even pieces of music that can remain relevant for decades or even centuries.

"For example, we’re witnessing a resurgence of Stoicism, with many of Marcus Aurelius’s insights still resonating thousands of years later. This makes me wonder: what are the most unintuitive, yet enduring ideas that aren’t frequently discussed today but might have a long shelf life?

"Also, what are we creating now that will still be valued and discussed hundreds or thousands of years from today?"

Music fans and musicians were quick to call Ek out, with one user, composer Tim Prebble, saying: "Music will still be valued in a hundred years. Spotify won't. It will only be remembered as a bad example of a parasitic tool for extracting value from other peoples music. (or "content" as some grifters like to call it)."

Many other X users posted similar criticisms, often referring to the amount of money Spotify pays artists per stream.

Musicians weighed in too, with Primal Scream bassist Simone Marie Butler saying: "Fuck off you out of touch billionaire."

The Future of Music Coalition added: "It actually can still be expensive to make records, especially if you care about paying your collaborators fairly. Many musicians are skilled at cutting corners to accomplish their creative goals within limited budgets.

"And indeed some aspects of production are more affordable than in the past. But this often ends up radically overstated. 'Close to zero?' No."

Streaming accounts for the huge majority of music consumption. Information on how Spotify pays rights holders can be found here.

Evanescence have become the latest metal band to pass a billion streams on Spotify with their breakout hit - and all-round nu metal banger - Bring Me To Life. This isn't the first time Bring Me To Life has passed the billion mark, either: in February 2022 the song's original music video passed one billion views on YouTube.

"We cannot thank you enough for joining us on our journey," say the band on Twitter/X in a post acknowledging the incredible milestone. "Incredibly grateful that Bring Me To Life has reached over 1 billion streams on Spotify!"

The band's debut single, Bring Me To Life turned Evanescence into a near-instant sensation on release in 2003, helping propel its parent record Fallen up international charts, taking top spot in multiple countries - including Australia, Canada and the UK - as well as a top 3 placement on the Billboard 200 in the US. 

The single itself also reached number 1 in Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Italy and the UK. 

Now it has another monumental achievement to add to its accolades, joining Spotify's "Billions Club" playlist. Launched in 2020, the playlist features some of rock and metal's biggest names including Metallica, The Rolling Stones and Guns N' Roses. 

Bring Me To Life isn't the only 2000s metal song to make the list, however. Papa Roach's Last Resort, System Of A Down's Chop Suey! and both Linkin Park's Numb and In The End all also feature.

Over the years, vocalist Amy Lee has addressed decisions by the band's label at the time to augment the recording with the inclusion of rapper Paul McCoy - something the band opposed, admitting it was "a difficult pill to swallow". 

Speaking to Hammer in 2023, Lee explained, "I was so scared in the beginning that we were going forward with something that wasn’t a perfectly honest picture of who we were.” 

In 2017, the band re-recorded the song for their orchestral record Synthesis, and have generally performed it sans-rap in live shows, barring special guest appearances, as with the band's 2023 Rock Am Ring performance where they teamed up with Papa Roach vocalist Jacoby Shaddix. 

In 2023, Evanescence released a 20th Anniversary deluxe edition of Fallen to commemorate the record. The band currently have shows lined up for early summer 2024, including appearances at Welcome To Rockville and Sonic Temple Festival in the US. 

Evanescence tour dates 2024

May 12 Welcome To Rockville, Daytona Beach, Florida USA
May 16 Sonic Temple Festival, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Jun 12 Fiera Milano, Rho, Italy
Jun 14 Tierno Galván Park, Madrid, Spain
Jun 15 Rock In Rio, Lisboa, Portugal

• Our pick of the best music streaming services available today

There’s an art to covering other people’s songs. Sometimes the reimagined version takes on a life of its own and occasionally it outsells or even eclipses the original. This is not a list making subjective calls on the artistic merits of cover versions versus the originals. Instead, here are 10 times the cover song became more popular than the original – at least in the modern streaming era. Stats on Spotify as of November 2023 were used for comparison.

Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World (1994)

The haunting title track of David Bowie’s third album, The Man Who Sold The World, was never released as a single – it was a Top 10 Bowie-produced cover by Scottish singer Lulu that first thrust the song into the mainstream. It was Nirvana’s version though, recorded live on their MTV Unplugged session, that captured the dark resonance of the original. “I was simply blown away when I found that Kurt Cobain liked my work,” Bowie said in an interview.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Love Rock ’N Roll (1981)

The Arrows were a London-based glam rock band who enjoyed their own TV series in the 1970s before fading into obscurity. They left behind this artefact however, which was unearthed by Joan Jett and became a huge global hit, topping the charts in the US, Australia and half a dozen other territories and hitting No.4 in the UK.

Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower (1968)

We could almost have written a list of rock covers of Bob Dylan songs that became more well-known than the originals. The likes of Guns N’ Roses (Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door), The Byrds (Mr. Tambourine Man) and even My Chemical Romance (Desolation Row) have released versions that outperform the Dylan originals, at least on Spotify. It’s Jimi Hendrix’s distorted version of All Along The Watchtower that really took on its own life though. Dylan once wrote: "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way… Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way.”

Guns N’ Roses – Live And Let Die (1991)

Written by Paul and Linda McCartney for the James Bond film of the same name, Live And Let Die was a genuinely huge hit for Wings. Guns N’ Roses covered the song during the sessions for their Use Your Illusion double albums at the start of the 90s. In streaming stats they gave the other fella hell, with the cover sitting on 216 million streams compared to Wings’ still impressive 144 million.

The Clash - I Fought The Law (1978)

I Fought The Law was first recorded by The Crickets after Buddy Holly’s death, but it was a 1965 cover by the Bobby Fuller Four that first made it a hit – and was the version that The Clash’s Joe Strummer and Mick Jones first heard playing on a jukebox. They turned it into an anthem of punk rebellion (also later reworked by the Dead Kennedys) and incorporated a toilet into their recording, hitting the pipes of a urinal with a hammer to emulate the sound of clanking chains.

Ace Frehley - New York Groove (1978)

The Kiss members’ late 70s solo albums were a patchy collection with guitarist Ace Frehley’s being the pick of the bunch and the only one to generate a hit single in New York Groove, originally recorded by British glam rock band Hello in 1975. “It didn’t feel like I was getting one over on the other guys in Kiss, it’s just something that happened,” Frehley told Classic Rock. “I never really listened to the other three solo records, although I did put Gene’s on once. When I heard his version of When You Wish Upon A Star I had to pull it off the turntable.”

Motley Crue – Smokin’ In The Boys Room (1985)

The original 1973 version of Smokin’ In The Boys Room by Brownsville Station was actually a bigger hit than Mötley Crüe’s cover, hitting Number 3 in the US and Canada and breaking the Top 30 in the UK. In the streaming era, not so much as da Crue have racked up a creditable 58 million-plus compared to the original’s 7.8 million streams.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground (1989)

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ second first hit was a punked up cover of Stevie Wonder’s funk classic Higher Ground. In a recent interview on The Howard Stern Show, Chilis drummer Chad Smith recounted meeting Wonder and a friend asking what he thought of the cover. “I liked the publishing cheques,” the soul legend deadpanned.

Joe Cocker - With a Little Help From My Friends (1969)

Sheffield belter Joe Cocker completely reworked With a Little Help from My Friends, turning the jaunty Beatles album track – sung by Ringo Starr on the original – into a slower, grittier soul standard. Cocker got a little help on his recording from the likes of Jimmy Page and Procol Harum's BJ Wilson and it propelled him to near instant stardom. On Cocker’s death, Paul McCartney said the cover was “just mind blowing”, adding that he had “totally turned the song into a soul anthem”.

Metallica - Whiskey In The Jar (1998)

We know, we know, Thin Lizzy didn’t write this Irish trad song or even record it first. There were numerous versions including takes by The Highwaymen and The Dubliners, but Thin Lizzy’s became the standard and the version that Metallica clearly took inspiration from. Many would say the Irish rockers’ 1972 recording remains the definitive version but in terms of streaming alone Metallica very much have the advantage with 396 million streams compared to Lizzy’s 86 million.

In terms of an elevator pitch, Spotify’s “every album you ever wanted for under a tenner a month” is a pretty strong one. Unfortunately, it isn’t actually true. Yeah, all the big ones are there: you aren’t going to run out of Metallica or Iron Maiden albums to listen to. But, if you’re a proper completist – someone who is looking to dig deep into every facet of heavy music – then there are plenty of interesting, worthwhile and, in some cases, absolutely essential albums that you won’t find on the platform. Here are just 10 of them.

Judas Priest – Jugulator (1997)

Jugulator is one of a pair of albums that Judas Priest released whilst fronted by Tim “Ripper” Owens. It has something of a bad rap these days, was poorly received at the time and, considering it isn’t on Spotify, is frustratingly tricky to reevaluate. When you do, though, you’ll hear some far better music than you’ve been led to believe.

Sleep – Jerusalem (1999)

This is a complicated one. Sleep’s Dopesmoker is on Spotify, and that’s basically this album polished up a decade on from its original release. However, the original incarnation of the band’s one-song stoner metal trip, Jerusalem – which was released in 1999 after an arduous writing process and plenty of record label wrangles – is not available to stream. Purely as a comparison point, that’s a shame.

Rollins Band – Weight (1994)

For such an iconic figure in heavy music, Henry Rollins’ back-catalogue on Spotify is sparse. 1989’s Hard Volume, 1992’s The End Of Silence and 1997’s Come In And Burn are all missing from the Rollins Band discography, but it’s 1994’s Weight that’s the greatest omission. It was the band’s biggest-selling album and featured a genuine crossover hit in the form of Liar. What’s Spotify playing at?!

Melvins – Lysol (1992)

The fourth album by Melvins – one of the most influential Seattle bands of the grunge generation – bridges the gap between their brutal, sludgy indie years and the weird flights of fancy they took on major label Atlantic. So why is Lysol not on streaming services? We couldn’t tell you – all we do know is that you’re missing out on bangers like Hung Bunny and With Teeth.

Iron Monkey – Our Problem (1998)

Iron Monkey were among the most brilliantly unhinged metal bands of the 1990s. In a baffling turn of events, though, both of their albums with late, great frontman Johnny Morrow (1996’s self-titled debut and follow-up Our Problem) are absent from Spotify. Our Problem especially is a cult classic, not to mention one of the great British metal albums of its era.

Vio-lence – Oppressing The Masses (1990)

Whilst 1988’s Eternal Nightmare is a classic Vio-lence album, the fact that neither of the Bay Area thrashers’ ’90s follow-ups are is a real shame. 1990’s Oppressing The Masses doesn’t get loads of love these days, but it’s still worth hearing for some pre-Machine Head Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel tunes, some excellent hardcore gang vocals and some proper neck-snapping thrash.

Will Haven – The Hierophant (2007)

Will Haven’s MVP is frontman Grady Avenell, so when he left in 2007 it was a blow. However, the band are still capable of peeling out some awesome metallic hardcore/post-metal. They did so on The Hierophant, on which they replaced Grady with Jeff Jaworski. It was Jaworski’s only full-length with Haven and he does a decent job. Yet, thanks to Spotify, you’ll never hear it.

Boris – Dronevil (2005)

Japanese experimental crew Boris have got a lot of albums: 29, to be precise – and that’s without including any of their collaboration albums! So, you might not have missed the fact that their 2005 double album, one disc of ambient noise and one of doom metal that are actually both meant to be played simultaneously, is missing from Spotify. Shame that.

Discordance Axis – Ulterior (1995)

It might only be just under 18 minutes long but, if you’re a grindcore fan, then the fact that you can’t stream New Jersey legends Discordance Axis’ debut album is a pretty shocking oversight. It’s 26 tracks of warpspeed fury, certainly compared with where the band would go in the aftermath. Considering their status in the genre, it’s mad you can’t hear Ulterior on Spotify.

Papa Roach’s hit single Last Resort has been streamed one billion times on Spotify.

The nu metal anthem hit the landmark last week, a feat achieved by fewer than 500 songs on the entire streaming platform.

“Guess what! This song right here just hit a billion on Spotify!” frontman Jacoby Shaddix said in a video message on Papa Roach’s Instagram account Saturday (October 14). “Thanks for the love, y’all!”

Last Resort was released as the lead single of Papa Roach’s major label debut, Infest, on March 7, 2000. It quickly became the band’s breakthrough song, charting at number one on the US Alternative Airplay Chart and number three on the UK Singles Chart. It’s since been certified Platinum in Germany and 2x Platinum in the UK.

Infest was released on April 25, 2000, and climbed to number five on the US Billboard 200 chart. It remains Papa Roach’s highest-charting album and has been certified Platinum in the UK and 3x Platinum in the US.

Shaddix spoke about the success of Last Resort in a 2017 interview with Metal Hammer.

“It’s still fresh, it still means something, it still unites audiences every night, and it’s saved many, many lives,” the frontman said.

“I meet people every single day of my life, and somebody will tell me that shit. Maybe my purpose on this Earth was to write that song, and that’s fuckin’ A, man. It’s something that’s had a massive impact on music, but also on individuals, and I’m so grateful. It’s one of those songs where it could just be a riff, and you rock out to it, or it could be a life raft. And for me, that’s dope.”

Other heavy metal songs to cross the one billion streams threshold on Spotify include Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, Chop Suey! by System Of A Down and In The End by Linkin Park.

Spotify often makes headlines for the wrong reasons, but it's undeniably an incredibly easy way to access music, as even its biggest detractors agree. That said, it's important to recognise/remember that not every artist or every album is represented on the streaming service.

Here are ten brilliant punk and alt. rock albums that you won't find on the platform.

Big Black - Atomizer (1986)

In 2022, Steve Albini pulled all the music he's previously put out into the world from Spotify, which means that you can no longer hear Big Black or Shellac (or the unforgivably named Rapeman, for that matter) on the platform.

Every album that Steve Albini had made is worth listening to, but listing 10 of them here would feel like cheating, so we'll start at the beginning, with Big Black's Atomizer, one of the most influential alt. rock albums of the 1980s. "This is the brutal guitar machine thousands of lonely adolescent cowards have heard in their heads," wrote The Village Voice when the album was released, a snarky, if entirely accurate summation of Albini's caustic, misanthropic skewering of humanity's darkest, most repellent instincts. Your loss Spotify.

Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea (2003)

There is an artist called Zwan on Spotify, but whoever he/she/they are, it sure as fuck isn't Billy Corgan's post-Smashing Pumpkins alt.rock supergroup, featuring former members of Slint (David Pajo), A Perfect Circle (Paz Lenchatin) and Chavez (Matt Sweeney). The band's debut, Mary Star of the Sea, debuted at number 3 in the US upon its release early in 2003, and singles Honestly and Lyric were strong enough to make fans of Corgan's songwriting excited about where the group might go next. The answer, unfortunately, was nowhere, with the group splitting in fractious circumstances.

The good news? Billy Corgan revealed earlier this year that we'll be hearing a lot more from the posthumous supergroup, as he's working on a box set, to include a whopping 65 unreleased songs. "I personally think the best Zwan music didn’t get released," Corgan told Rolling Stone, "the acoustic side of the band, which is really what we should have done, and not tried to do an alternative pop record." That alt. pop record is pretty damn good though, just don't waste your time trying to find it on Spotify.  

Headswim - Flood (1994)

Headswim aren't entirely absent from Spotify: the streaming service does host the band's excellent second album, Despite Yourself. But their debut, Crawl? Nope. The Essex band were one of the most under-rated British alt. rock bands of the '90s, and listening to Crawl it's hard to believe that they didn't achieve even a sliver of the success that Bush went on to achieve in the US.

Drive Like Jehu - Drive Like Jehu (1991)

Drive Like Jehu's superb major label debut (and final album), 1994's Yank Crime, is available on Spotify, but there's no sign at present of the San Diego quartet's more raw and fiery self-titled debut album. Which is a damn shame, because more people should have the opportunity to hear what talent the late, great Rick Froberg was when partnered with the still great John Reis: here, they sound like the missing link between snotty garage rock, post-hardcore and math rock, wired and wonderful. 

Killing Joke - Extremities,Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions (1990)

Killing Joke's 1987 synth-pop album Outside The Gate could hardly have been more of a disaster: it got appalling reviews, it sold terribly, it caused the band to lose their record deal with Virgin, it got drummer 'Big' Paul Ferguson sacked, and bassist Paul Raven asked for his name to be removed from the credits. In retrospect, one can understand why its follow-up, Extremities,Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions, was rather overlooked upon its 1990 release, but it's an incredible record, as furious and filthy as Killing Joke have ever been, and the start of a remarkable new chapter for Jaz Coleman's band. Absent from Spotify, it'll likely remain a cult concern, however.

Into Another - Seemless (1995)

We included Into Another on our list of '10 rock bands from the '90s who should have been absolutely massive' last month, but we're going to give the New York quartet's finest album, their 1995 major label debut Seemless, released on Hollywood Records, another shout out here, because honestly, if you have the slightest affection for Alice In Chains, Soundgarden or Temple Of The Dog, this will be an album you'll take to your heart forever.  Unless you work for Spotify, in which case it doesn't exist, much like English football didn't exist until Sky helped spawn the Premier League in 1992. Ahem. 

The Posies - Frosting On The Beater (1993)

The Posies' sublime power-pop album Frosting On The Beater was included in Kerrang! magazine's albums of the year list in 1993, alongside alt. rock classics such as Nirvana's In Utero, Brad's Shame and Girls Against Boys' Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby. For a nano-second, the critical acclaim heaped upon the album looked like it might turn Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer's band into the superstars they deserved to be, but life isn't always fair... and now this alt. rock masterpiece isn't even on streaming services. As a consolation, you can at least hear five tracks from the album on Spotify on their 2000 compilation Dream All Day.

NoMeansNo - Wrong (1989)

That the sadly now defunct NoMeansNo got called the 'Rush Of Hardcore' wasn't simply down to the fact that both trios hailed from Canada, but rather a recognition of the complexity of their prog-punk instrumentation and the fierce intelligence of their lyrics. Wrong, the band's fourth album is arguably their finest hour, with the likes of The Tower, Two Lips, Two Lungs and One Tongue, and Oh no! Bruno! brilliant examples of the Wright brothers' off-kilter, unique approach. That it's not on Spotify for future generations to drool over is indeed wrong. 

Bob Tilton - Crescent (1996)

To be fair, that this isn't on Spotify probably isn't the fault of anyone at Spotify as the extremely punk rock Bob Tilton didn't exactly crave attention even at the peak of their popularity... and the absolute peak of that popularity saw the Mansfield emo collective playing fourth on the bill to Mogwai at London Astoria in 1999. However, anyone with an affection for intense, heartfelt, non-linear and achingly sincere mid '80s US emo - particularly the transcendent Rites Of Spring - will find much to love on Crescent, the group's 1996 debut on Subjugation Records. 

Boss Hog - Cold Hands (1990)

The now out-of-print Q magazine apparently described Cold Hands, Boss Hog's debut album for noise rock label Amphetamine Reptile as "nine painfully slow nuggets of sonic indigestion", a review which surely must have delighted former Pussy Galore/future Blues Explosion leader Jon Spencer back in the day. Cold Hands is arguably best known for the fact that vocalist Cristina Martinez posed nude for its cover, which does Spencer and Martinez, then boyfriend and girlfriend, now husband and wife, a disservice, as it's a deliciously filthy slab of New York gutter punk blues, a perfect soundtrack for all manner of post-midnight mischief.

Since its launch as a humble Swedish start-up in 2008, Spotify has grown to become the biggest streaming platform in the world. And love it or hate it, Spotify is an important metric of success in the modern music industry. Drake became the first artist to achieve a billion streams for a single song, with One Dance in 2016. Since then, a total of 446 songs have passed that same milestone, with two – The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights and Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You surpassing an incredible 3 billion plays each.

When it comes to rock music, and especially legacy rock music, there are questions of demographic and preference at play. Nearly two thirds of Spotify’s users are aged under 35 and rock fans are more likely than others to listen to traditional radio and music on physical formats. The average age of the Spotify user is creeping up though and streaming is now by far the most common method of music consumption across all combined age groups.

Queen are the best-performing rock band to have joined Spotify’s Billions Club. The 2011 remaster of Bohemian Rhapsody is currently sitting pretty at nearly 2.2 billion streams and they also have another four tracks in the list. Elsewhere, AC/DC have three billion-streamers in Back In Black, Highway To Hell and Thunderstruck. Notable by their absence are monsters of rock like the Rolling Stones, whose best-performing track Paint It Black is just shy of 938 million streams, the Foo Fighters (with Everlong on more than 886m) and Led Zeppelin (846m for Stairway To Heaven).

Here are all the rock songs that have passes a billion Spotify streams as of 18 July 2023.

Rock and metal songs with over one billion streams on Spotify

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (2.192bn)

Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out (1.981bn)

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (1.684bn)

Queen - Don’t Stop Me Now (1.642bn)

Linkin Park - In The End (1.618bn)

Journey - Don’t Stop Believin’ (1.600bn)

Queen - Another One Bites The Dust (1.572bn)

Twenty One Pilots - Heathens (1.558bn)

Guns N’ Roses - Sweet Child O’ Mine (1.548bn)

Twenty One Pilots - Ride (1.505bn)

TOTO - Africa (1.479bn)

Panic! At The Disco - High Hopes (1.427bn)

Måneskin - Beggin’ (1.364bn)

Queen - Under Pressure (1.356bn)

Linkin Park - Numb (1.356bn)

Eagles - Hotel California (1.351bn)

White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (1.350bn)

AC/DC - Back In Black (1.295bn)

Fleetwood Mac - Dreams (1.284bn)

The Goo Goo Dolls - Iris (1.28bn)

Bon Jovi - Livin’ On A Prayer (1.275bn)

AC/DC - Highway To Hell (1.272bn)

AC/DC - Thunderstruck (1.212bn)

Metallica - Enter Sandman (1.144bn)

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under The Bridge (1.157bn)

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (1.154bn)

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Have You Ever Seen The Rain? (1.139bn)

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama (1.125bn)

Queen - We Will Rock You (1.082bn)

Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger (1.073bn)

System Of A Down - Chop Suey! (1.067bn)

The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun (1.048bn)

Nirvana - Come As You Are (1.032bn)

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son (1.030bn)

Fall Out Boy - Centuries (1.023bn)

Dani Filth has expressed his concerns over the music industry's consumer culture and how it's now become an extremely "hard time" for musicians to earn a living. 

The Cradle Of Filth frontman discussed his thoughts while in conversation with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, noting how the music business has changed to cater to the consumer's preference of having easy access to music, rather than purchasing material. 

Speaking of the state of the industry from a musician's standpoint, he says (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): "It's been deteriorating ever since… I think 2006 was the year that everything swapped from being comfortable for musicians — well, not necessarily comfortable; it was never comfortable. 

"But [it went to] just being a lot harder with the onset of the digital age, the onset of music streaming platforms that don't pay anybody. Like Spotify are the biggest criminals in the world. I think we had 25, 26 million plays last year, and I think personally I got about 20 pounds, which is less than an hourly work rate."

Of how fans generally assume musicians to be financially stable, Filth laments: "For example, the other day my girlfriend…She's got an ill cat; her cat's very sick and needed a life-or-death operation. She's a well-known tattooist, and she posted a thing online about… a GoFundMe for her cat, and she was gonna do a raffle and people could win a tattoo, et cetera, et cetera. 

"The point of it is a lot of people were, like, 'Why the fuck should we pay for your cat? You're going out with a multimillionaire?' And she was, like, 'Excuse me, I don't think you understand how the music industry works nowadays. One, he's not a multimillionaire at all. Two, I'm my own person, and this has nothing to do with him.'"

Filth then goes on to elaborate on the misconception of musicians allegedly earning alot through their album sales, noting how in reality, particularly during a period of time where cost of living has increased, artists struggle more than the rockstar stereotype would have people believe.

"I think people just have this amazing ability to [believe] that when you have stuff out there, like physical product, that you're earning a fortune from it." he says. "They don't realize you have so many people taking pieces of the pie — record company, management, accountants, blah blah blah blah; it doesn't matter. If you're not getting any money in the first place, there's not much money to share around. 

He concludes: "Yeah, the music industry is on its knees at the moment. I still enjoy making music — don't get me wrong; I love it — but, yeah, the musician nowadays is finding a million things against them. It's a hard time."

There are roughly 80 million songs on Spotify at any one time, which would take approximately *checks notes* a very long time to listen to back to back. But while virtually all of the all-time classics are available to stream at the tap of a phone or click of a mouse, there are a handful of great albums that aren’t on there, whether it’s due to record label politics, being withdrawn in anger or just slipping down the back of the sofa of history and getting forgotten about. In a perverse take on public service journalism, here are the best albums you can’t listen to on Spotify right now

Black Sabbath - Headless Cross (1989)

Black Sabbath were a diminished force in the late 80s, though the albums they made with singer Tony Martin have their staunch defenders. Headless Cross is held up as one of their finest non-Ozzy/Dio records - When Death Calls and Kill In The Spirit World are packed with classic Tony Iommi riffs, while the presence of Cozy Powell on drums (and co-production duties) gives the whole thing extra firepower. But the album failed to re-establish the band, their label I.R.S collapsed a few years later, and Headless Cross and follow-up Tyr currently languish in streaming limbo – though rumoured reissues my rectify that situation.

AC/DC – High Voltage (Australian version) (1975)

The international edition of High Voltage that launched AC/DC on the world in 1976 readily available on Spotify, but there’s no sign of the previous year’s Australian version. There’s little overlap between the two aside from the title and the songs Little Lover and She’s Got Balls. The other tracks were released on the ’74 Jailbreak EP and 2009’s Backtracks box set, but this version of High Voltage still isn’t on Spotify in its original form.

Neil Young – Harvest (1972)

Neil Young is Spotify’s most famous refusenik. Vocally unhappy with the quality of digital music, he launched his own short-lived download service and player, Pono, in 2014 as a high-resolution alternative to other platforms, but most of his albums remained on Spotify. That changed in January 2022, when he yanked his music from the service in response to Spotify‘s decision to continue hosting the The Joe Rogan Experience podcast after Rogan was accused of spreading Covid disinformation. None of them, including 1972’s landmark Harvest, has gone back up.

Badlands – Badlands (1989)

One of the great forgotten supergroups of the late 80s, blues rockers Badlands featured former Ozzy guitarist Jake E Lee, onetime Black Sabbath/future Kiss drummer Eric Singer and singer Ray Gillen, who had done a blink-and-you-missed it stint with Sabbath. Their classy self-titled debut album was acclaimed at the time, but Gillen and Lee fell out and Badlands were dropped by their label, Atlantic, soon after their second album, before Gillen died in 1993. Badlands was reissued in 2010 but remains MIA on Spotify.

Budgie – In For The Kill (1974)

The Welsh power trio are one of the definitive examples of a band whose influence outweighs their commercial success. Iron Maiden, Metallica and Soundgarden all covered Budgie’s songs, but precious little of the group’s material is available on Spotify. The 2013 remasters of their eponymous 1971 debut and 1972’s follow-up Squawk are on there, but despite being the group’s highest charting release in the UK, their fourth album 1974’s In For The Kill is notably absent. It still sounds ahead of it time: Crash Course In Brain Surgery was later covered by Metallica and Zoom Club is an expansive prog metal jam.  

Joni Mitchell – Court And Spark (1974)

Joni Mitchell removed her own albums from Spotify in support of her friend Neil Young’s protest against The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Like Young, Mitchell is at the point where her legacy is so firmly established that she doesn’t actually need Spotify – though it’s still a shame that anyone who doesn’t own Court And Spark on vinyl, CD or eight-track can’t listen to it legally any more.

Judas Priest – Jugulator (1997)

It’s tempting to wonder if there’s some concerted plot to erase the Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens era from Judas Priest’s illustrious history, given that neither of the studio albums he cut with the band, Jugulator and 2001’s Demolition, are on Spotify. A more innocent explanation may be that those were the only albums that Priest recorded for the Steamhammer label, so it could simply be a licensing issue. Whatever the cause, it’s a shame. Jugulator flew in the face of grunge and alternative rock, delivering an album that’s unapologetically metal from first note to last.

Tesla - The Great Radio Controversy (1989)

Okay, a handful of the 13 tracks from the Sacramento rockers’ second album are on Spotify, but only the ones that appeared on subsequent compilations. As for the rest? Nada. Which is a shame, because Tesla were one of the great hard rock bands of the era, and The Great Radio Controversy is their finest 59 minutes and 18 seconds.

Wolfsbane – Live Fast, Die Fast (1989)

These days, Blaze Bayley is best known as the bloke who replaced Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden in the 1990s, but he made his name as member of Tamworth Terrors Wolfsbane, a band whose lunatic following dubbed themselves The Howling Mad Shitheads. Such was the buzz around Wolfsbane that Rick Rubin signed them to his label Def Jam and flew them to the US to produce this, their debut album, only to strangle the life out of the band when they got in the studio. A case of great songs, rubbish production - as you’d know if the thing was actually on Spotify.

Zodiac Mindwarp And The Love Reaction - Tattooed Beat Messiah (1988)

Zodiac Mindwarp was the fevered rock star alter ego of former illustrator-turned-rock god Mark Manning, and their debut album Tattooed Beat Messiah (co-produced by Bill Drummond of techno provocateurs The KLF, no less) is a masterpiece of subversive biker rock, T-Rex-esque-gone-bad wordplay and comic book references. Was it a homage to hard rock excess or a parody of it? Maybe it was a little bit of both. The world is certainly a poorer place for being denied access to it on Spotify.

XTC – Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999) & Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) (2000)

After a long legal battle with their old label Virgin for control of their music, Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding’s art-pop mavericks XTC bowed out with a pair of albums on the Cooking Vinyl label.  Anyone hoping for another Nonsuch would have been disappointed, but Apple Venus Volume 1 is a marvel of invention, with its sparse acoustic arrangements and ingenious use of strings. The guitar-led Wasp Star is more typical of XTC’s classic sound, rich in off-kilter, delightful pop songs. While the Virgin-era material is on Spotify, XTC have held onto their swansong double bill.

To kick off the new year, music streaming giant Spotify have unveiled a brand new feature for their platform that is shaping up as one of their most unique ideas ever. Labelled Playlist In A Bottle, it gives users the chance to create a 'playlist time capsule' of sorts, putting together a mix of various songs using prompts from Spotify itself that users can then revisit at a later date - one year from now, to be precise.

We've had a look at how it all works, what you need to do to get involved and any other issues or questions you may have about it all. Read on to find out more....

What is Spotify Playlist In A Bottle?

Playlist In A Bottle is a fun, quick feature designed to give users an opportunity to capture a moment in time using the songs that mean the most to them. Or, as Spotify themselves put it, it's their "latest interactive, in-app experience that captures who you are musically right now and then lets you revisit your 2023 musical self one year later."

How do I do a Playlist In A Bottle?

We're glad you asked! Head to spotify.com/playlistinabottle on your mobile - this will launch your Spotify app and take you straight to the new feature (make sure you have the latest version of the app installed). Simply pick your preferred digital time capsule (we picked a lunchbox), and answer a series of prompts to pick the songs you want included. Once you're done, Spotify will 'seal' it up until next year. Easy! You can also share a "personalised card" based on your Playlist In A Bottle across social media, if you wish.

What kind of questions does Playlist In A Bottle ask?

When we test ran it a few times we got everything from A Song That Will Be This Year's Summer Anthem and The Song You Want To See Live This Year to A Song That Reminds You Of Your Favourite Person and A Song That Sounds Like The Year 3023. Though you only need answer three categories, you can add more if you life and can cycle through different question options until you get ones you like the sound of the most.

How many songs does Playlist In A Bottle use?

Playlist In A Bottle only needs to takes three songs from you to work, but as mentioned above, you can add plenty more if you want, and you have quite a wide range of prompts to choose from in terms of what songs actually end up in there. 

When can I access my Playlist In A Bottle again?

Next year! January 2024 to be precise, when the 'bottles' (or, depending on what digital symbol you choose, pockets, lunch boxes or teddy bears) will be opened again. Will your predictions and hopes for your musical future come to pass? Only time will tell.

Can you use Playlist In A Bottle on desktop?

Currently, no. While you can access the Playlist In A Bottle page on desktop, it'll simply tell you to go to your mobile app, though it does provide a scannable barcode that'll take you right where you need to be to get started.

If you like the look of Playlist In A Bottle and want to give it a go, head to Spotify now. If you're yet to join Spotify and are uncertain if it's the best streaming service for you, don't forget to check out our comprehensive guide to every streaming platform.

Metallica’s Enter Sandman has become the latest metal song to pass 1 billion plays on Spotify.

The 1991 song, which was the lead single from the band’s self-titled fifth album (aka the Black Album), joins Linkin Park’s In The End and Numb, AC/DC’s Highway To Hell, Back In Black and Thunderstruck and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit in Spotify’s 1 billion club,

Metallica also became the most-streamed metal band of 2022, notching up a total of 1.6 billion plays over the last 12 months, with Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters and the Stranger Things-assisted Master Of Puppets helping them surpass 2021’s total of 1.3 billion plays.

“You guys have outdone yourselves once again!,” said the band in an Instagram post. “137 million hours of Metallica were streamed on Spotify in 2022, up by more than 20 million hours from last year. Whether you're new to Metallica, or you've been listening for the past 41 years, we'd like to extend a huge ‘THANK YOU’ to the entire Metallica Family.”

Metallica’a new album, 72 Seasons, is released on April 14. 

There are always great streaming offers doing the rounds from services like Tidal and Amazon Music, but we rarely see any Spotify discounts. If you’ve been looking to make a saving on one of the most popular offerings online today, right now existing and new Walmart Plus members can get 6 months of Spotify Premium absolutely free. That's a saving of $59. At a time where we’re all feeling the pinch, savings like this are hard to beat.

Walmart Plus gives shoppers access to money off products, including fuel, plus free deliveries and advanced warnings on the best offers – it’s kind of like Amazon Prime for Walmart shoppers. What’s more, there’s currently a free 30-day trial on offer, plus your Walmart Plus sub can be cancelled at any time. After the trial period you’ll pay $12.95 per month.

To redeem your free Spotify subscription, head to the Walmart Plus landing page and sign up. Create your new Spotify Premium account then you can start enjoying 6 months of ad-free listening – just in time for new albums from Rammstein and Def Leppard. Once your subscription ends, you’ll pay $9.99 to continue using Spotify Premium. This offer runs until 7 May. 

Spotify is currently the world’s most popular streaming service, with over 82 million songs and podcast available. With your subscription you’ll enjoy ad-free streaming and offline play, alongside the ability to create playlists and explore new music via Spotify’s Discover feature.  

If the recent Neil Young/Spotify spat has left a sour taste in your mouth when it comes to the streaming platform, check out our guide to the best music streaming services for recommended alternatives to Spotify.