Tech

Here are the least popular songs from 22 iconic Canadian artists

by Mark Teo

July 7, 2014

When we think of our favourite bands, we usually define them by their most popular songs. For good reason: A band’s most popular songs are the ones we’re most likely to hear, whether it’s live, on the radio, or by choice. But which are a band’s least popular songs? That’s a question that the Long Tail, a Spotify app developed by Alexandre Passant, hopes to answer.

Using Spotify data, Passant developed a web app that spits out playlists based on inverse popularity—or, it identifies which of a band’s songs are played the least. We used the Long Tail’s data to figure out which are the least-played songs from a list of iconic Canadian artists.

Of note: This list uses Spotify’s data; these aren’t our specific opinions. A band’s least popular songs, of course, can signify a few things: Sometimes, they’re a band’s newer songs. Other times, they’re from under-appreciated albums. For the sake of this exercise, we’ve disqualified any live tracks or album introductions—those are easy skip tracks. Here’s what we found—prepare for a few surprises!