Ever wonder how Spotify’s algorithm works? I do constantly. This is an old article, but I recently came across it when I realized that an obscure b-side was Pavement’s most popular song on Spotify. It has multiples of the plays that their big hits have (this being Pavement, the term “hit” is relative). Even Stephen Malkmus barely remembered it, but now due to its popularity on Spotify it has trended on TikTok, so then it got a reissue and a new music video. Interesting how an algo tweak can create this musical/pop culture butterfly effect.