Metallica base setlists on Spotify data, says streaming company’s CEO

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The next time you see Metallica play live, you may want to stream your favorite song by the legendary metal band over and over prior to the show. According to Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, Metallica base their setlists on the streaming service’s data in each city in which they perform.

The business news website Quartz reports that Ek made the claim in the company’s earnings call on Thursday. Specifically Ek said, “You have an artist like Metallica, who changes their setlist on a city-by-city basis just by looking at Spotify data to see, which the most popular songs happened to be in that city.”

He added, “We’ve never before been at a place in time where you could make as many informed decisions and understand your audience as well as we can do now as an artist.”

It seems like a pretty bold statement from Ek, and it’s yet to be confirmed by Metallica’s representatives. Looking at the band’s recent setlists, there’s not a whole lot of variance, but one or two songs do seem to change at each show. Perhaps, those are the ones that are determined by Spotify plays in each city?

Whether completely accurate or not, it’s an interesting approach by a band, to say the least. Metallica kick off a new North American tour leg on September 2nd in Madison, Wisconsin. So, if you want hear a deep cut from the band’s debut disc, Kill ‘Em All, which just turned 35 years old, start streaming it like crazy on Spotify. Maybe, just maybe, James Hetfield and the boys will play it at your city.