Parasocial activity: Thoughts on the culture of Spotify followers and stalking

What do the people fuck to? What do they dance to on summer afternoons when the mercury creeps above 33 degrees and even iced chai lattes won’t rid them of sweat? What do they cry to when they get cheated on? What do they work remotely to? What do they show to the weird person they reluctantly decided to go on a Hinge date with on a Tuesday night? 

These are, of course, all questions that can be answered by looking at someone’s Spotify profile. It varies from person to person; some people aren’t playlist makers by nature and prefer just to keep tabs on their liked songs, but this can get a little boring when you’re on a deep dive. Some people are organised, with playlists sporting little cutesy headers and all organised by mood, by month, by something, by anything that gives it some semblance of order. Some people’s profiles, myself included, are a sprawling mess of wildly different genres ranging from sleazy and mildly cringeworthy playlists inspired by The Dare’s New York Freakquencies set (which I now have absolutely no desire ever to attend since it’s now swamped with Brooklyn trust fund babies and a sea of iPhone cameras), weird ambient techno reminiscent of my university’s only decent electronic music collective, and collections dedicated solely to crank wave and post-punk. 

Disclaimer: I am not an active participant in creeping around parasocially in this way. Frankly, I have little interest. I do not encourage this behaviour, but instead, these are merely observations I have made from simply being on the internet and often being confused about the social norms that come with what people do and don’t choose to share. I’m baffled, impressed and borderline repulsed at the extent that the little people on the internet will go to in order to seek validation from people who most likely barely know them - why force something so hard if the connection doesn’t come naturally? And what makes you think that that one dude will even think a single thought if he sees that you’ve posted an Instagram story with a song he likes on it? Doubtless, he won’t even make the connection…

I remember sitting in a close friend’s bedroom at university and being a little taken aback when she was able to tell me to the DIGIT how many Spotify followers a man she went on one single date with had - and as far as I am aware they are no longer seeing each other, even after all that effort. Another friend also informed me that having over 40 followers automatically means that someone is “ran through” or a “red flag” (once again, terminology that has evolved from the modern condition of being obsessed with parasocial interactions) - I was a little affronted as I did not realise that the only thing less than respectable about my Spotify follower count of 69 was the fact that the number itself could provoke a little bit of a giggle.

I’d define ‘Spotify stalking’ most accurately as the act of closely monitoring a person's activity on Spotify, including their listening habits, playlists and the songs they frequently listen to. This behaviour can be part of a broader trend of social media stalking, where individuals use various platforms to gain insight into the personal lives of others - and, inevitably, the information readily available on Spotify can reveal a surprising amount about a person's tastes, emotions and daily habits. To me it’s certainly clear that in a time when everything on social media is filtered, photoshopped and curated beyond belief, being able to see what someone is listening to provides an unconventional yet marginally more real perspective on what goes on in the minds of the listener. Sometimes, this is whether they like it or not - there’s something to be said for the amount of effort that goes into discovering someone’s profile when it’s not given freely. It could be concealed in someone’s Instagram bio, they could post one of their playlists to their story, they could already be a follower of one of YOUR followers - or, more usually, they’ll just send you the link if you ask for it. Just be respectful, it’s not that hard!

There are many reasons for this phenomenon, and many increasingly weird and specific things can be learned from just a few scrolls and a few clicks of lurid green buttons. Observing the genres and artists a person frequently listens to can give an idea of their musical tastes and cultural influences, and the type of music a person listens to at different times can indicate their current mood or emotional state. For example, a sudden switch to sad or melancholy music may suggest that the person is going through a difficult period. Furthermore, there seems to be a strange unspoken etiquette on what is and isn’t acceptable to do when viewing a Spotify profile, much in the same way as adding someone on Snapchat in the 2020 lockdown times, say; while a follow is considered to be flirtatious, an unfollow is downright odd and petty in the eyes of some. After all, who even takes the time to search for someone’s profile on Spotify and physically remove themselves from the virtual world of technicolour playlist covers and On Repeat? 

In addition, platforms that connect to Spotify such as LastFM, Receiptify and Stats for Spotify enable music tastes to be shared across the globe, offering users yet another way of publicly displaying their listening habits and discovering new music based on shared preferences. These tools reinforce the social aspect of music streaming, offering features such as listening statistics, personalised music receipts and detailed analyses of the most listened-to tracks and artists. While these platforms foster a sense of community and shared interest, they also contribute to the culture of creeping around on Spotify by making monitoring and analysing a person's musical preferences easier. Regarding LastFM, the concept of ‘scrobbles’ also can serve as either a major ego boost or a let-down. This is a feature where followers can see which songs have been played recently, but multiple times (from experience, if this consists of excessive amounts of Midwest emo, this isn’t necessarily a red flag, but you may need to check up on your friend/acquaintance/partner and see if they’ve retreated into a deep depression…) The detailed information provided by these tools can amplify the risk of overanalysing a person's listening habits, leading to a deeper dive into their personal life and emotions, that is; by publicly sharing listening data, these platforms can unwittingly increase transparency, allowing others to track changes in musical tastes that may correlate with emotional or life events.

To conclude, I would consider the current epidemic of Spotify stalking to be a modern manifestation of our desire to understand others through their digital footprint. As with all forms of social media engagement, I suppose it’s feasible that genuine connections can be made by finding things in common - music being a great tool for bringing people together, etc. All that I’m asking is that you guys restrain yourselves from being downright odd online and define your music tastes based on your likes and dislikes, and not by scrolling through your situationship’s wanky crank wave playlist. Go listen to what you love, whether that be 70s folk, La Femme or the selection of songs you made when you were 18 titled “worst songs to have sex to”. Dance around your kitchen to whatever you desire and stop being so chronically online!