How Stranger Things Is Shaping Music Streaming

If you’re anything like us, you spent last weekend tucked away, indulging in Stranger Things, Season 4 Volume 2. The Netflix series has blossomed into a cultural phenomenon over the past six years, and the rollout of its fourth season has significantly influenced the way its fans stream music.

For those of you who haven’t caught up on the latest episodes, we’ll keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

Running Up Those Streams

The first volume of Stranger Things Season 4 was released on May 27th, and its five episodes were followed by two movie-length episodes, released last Friday. Season 4 made some waves with its diegetic inclusion of Kate Bush’s 1985 song ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’, as Max Hargrove’s (Sadie Sink) favourite song. Since that inclusion, the track has become an anthem for Stranger Things, and something of a musical crowning jewel for its soundtrack.

The day of Season 4’s release, Kate Bush had approximately 2.979 million monthly listeners on Spotify. This week, she’s sitting at over 43 million. Over on TikTok, ‘Running Up That Hill’ has been used on 2.2 million videos, while its 2018 remaster has been used on over 423 thousand videos. Bush’s track also received a cinematic rework for the Stranger Things season 4 finale. It’s been received well by fans, particularly on TikTok, but there’s no word yet from Stranger Things or Kate Bush, about whether it will get its own release.

Kate Bush isn't the only artist who has enjoyed some perks thanks to Stranger Things.

Musical Youth’s 1982 track ‘Pass The Dutchie’ has also received a boost from the series after it featured in an episode of Season 4. You can hear it on 32.9 thousand TikTok videos.

Metallica also joined the party last week, as their track ‘Master of Puppets’ featured in the Stranger Things finale. ‘Master of Puppets’ missed out on chart placement on release, back in 1986. Now, it’s at No. 26 on Spotify’s Global Chart.

A Release Of Its Own

In collaboration with Netflix, Spotify released 'The Upside Down' playlist last week. The personalised playlist combines users' own library with tracks from the show's soundtrack.

The soundtrack is available as an album on DSPs now, and physical copies are set to follow, later this year. Fans will be able to purchase the album on vinyl, CD, and in true 80s fashion, cassette tape.

The series recently rolled over the 1 billion hours of viewership milestone, so it's no surprise that its soundtrack is influencing the masses. Stranger things have happened.

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