Fact Check: Did Spotify “Expose” The Reason For ILLIT’s Streaming Success?
Since their debut, ILLIT have seen massive success with their catchy pop track, “Magnetic.”
As of writing, the music video has over 75 million views. This success is also seen in their streaming totals, including on Spotify, where they have over 1 million monthly listeners and have broken the record for first-week streams on a debut album.
Biggest first week streaming for debut albums by K-POP groups of all time on Spotify:
1. #SUPER_REAL_ME — 18.1M** 🆕️🎀
2. New Jeans – 15.6M
3. The Dream Chapter: Star – 13.6M
4. FEARLESS – 12.1M
5. YOUTH IN THE SHADE – 11.2M** still counting, 3 days left#아이린 #ILLIT pic.twitter.com/HWeudbSS8i
— ILLIT SPOTIFY (@illitonspotify) March 30, 2024
The group’s success on Spotify has been particularly outstanding for many, with some wondering how the group achieved the results. Following initial suspicion over their results, some admitted to being “haunted” by the track no matter what they were playing.
Recently, a post on X seemed to reveal the reasoning for this, sharing a screenshot from Spotify’s news website. The screenshot discussed a new Autoplay feature that labels could opt-in for, resulting in tracks being played automatically after popular songs.
The list of artists said to have used this included ILLIT, Beyoncé, and Ariana Grande.
This news would confirm suspicious of ILLIT’s success being inorganic, as well as explaining how the song was appearing so much for people. But is this the truth?
When checking Spotify’s news site, one can look back over past articles, including those in the “What’s New” section.
The latest article in the “What’s New” section is about Eurovision and was published on May 13, 2024. The article about autoplay was said to be released on May 21, 2024.
Additionally, the only detail about Spotify’s Autoplay feature listed on the website is the ability to play similar songs after a playlist or album ends, with no mention of the previously “revealed” feature.
What this means is that the Autoplay article is a convincing fake, and the mentioned feature does not exist.
