ghost
15:24 Wednesday, 14 September 2022
As if it wasn't evident enough just how popular Ghost are, yesterday (Sept. 13), the group's fans crashed the Spotify Live servers due to overwhelming demand as they awaited a special appearance and Q&A session.
Both Spotify Live and Ghost confirmed in tweets that it was indeed Ghost fans responsible for the outage. Many Spotify users experienced a widespread outage yesterday as well and it is not known if the crashing of the Live servers was directly related to this incident as well.
Spotify Live chalked the crash up to "overwhelming demand," which triggered "technical difficulties" and ultimately forced the cancelation.
"We wish to inform you Ghost appreciates their fans' dedication and time. Though proud to have crashed @SpotifyLive's servers, Ghost is disappointed with this experience. Alternative opportunities are being explored, because nothing shall keep us apart," said the band, who are currently on the road with Mastodon and Spiritbox, in response to the snafu.
Although unfortunate as countless Ghost fans missed out on the experience, it's quite impressive that, while some people still perpetuate the "rock is dead" narrative (which is bogus, by the way), fans of a rock band managed to completely overwhelm the streaming giant's servers.
To give you an idea of just how popular Ghost are on Spotify in particular, the band's monthly listener count currently sits at nearly 10.5 million, which is more than the monthly listener tallies for other huge rock and metal artists, such as Slipknot, Iron Maiden, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch and Tool. The surging popularity of the 2019 single "Mary on a Cross" thanks to TikTok certainly provided an additional boost in recent months as well.
Ghost's headlining North American tour wraps up on Sept. 23. Get tickets to the remaining shows here.
Hear Ghost and a lot more in the '2022's Best Rock Songs' playlist by Loudwire.
