{"id":389843,"date":"2026-01-03T22:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/389843\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T22:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:43:07","slug":"prince-songs-surge-on-spotify-after-stranger-things-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/389843\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Songs Surge on Spotify After Stranger Things Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Call it the Kate Bush Bump: After \u201cPurple Rain\u201d and \u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d were used by <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/tag\/the-duffer-brothers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Duffer Brothers<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/01\/stranger-things-series-finale-recap-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the series finale<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/tag\/stranger-things\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Stranger Things<\/a>, Spotify streaming stats for the two iconic <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/artist\/prince\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Prince<\/a> tracks have exploded in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>According to data released by Spotify, \u201cPurple Rain\u201d saw a 243% increase in global streams between December 31st (when the Stranger Things finale debuted) and January 1st, 2026. Additionally, the song saw a 577% increase in streaming by Gen Z users, who hopefully weren\u2019t hearing it for the first time. \u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d experienced smaller but similar results: a 200% increase in global streams, with a 128% increase for Gen Z specifically. The feature also brought an increased interest in Prince\u2019s catalog overall, with a 190% increase in global streaming.<\/p>\n<p>Without getting into spoilers for the series finale, \u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d and \u201cPurple Rain\u201d played a key role in \u201cThe Rightside Up,\u201d underscoring a key action scene as well as an emotional farewell. \u201cWe knew we needed an epic needle drop, and so many ideas were thrown around,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/tudum\/articles\/stranger-things-5-episode-8-prince-needle-drop-songs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Ross Duffer told Netflix\u2019s Tudum<\/a>. \u201cI think there\u2019s nothing really more epic than Prince.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related Video<\/p>\n<p>Getting \u201cPurple Rain\u201d in particular was not a sure thing, as the Prince estate very rarely allows for that song to be licensed. But over its five-season run, Stranger Things developed a track record for making \u201980s hits into present-day chart-toppers, exemplified by the massive success of \u201cRunning Up that Hill\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2022\/06\/kate-bush-running-up-that-hill-billboard-charts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">after being featured in Season 4<\/a>. As Matt Duffer put it, \u201cThanks to Kate Bush, we were able to acquire the rights [to \u2018Purple Rain\u2019].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prince wasn\u2019t the only high-profile artist featured in the series finale \u2014 check out <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2025\/12\/stranger-things-season-5-soundtrack-every-song\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">our soundtrack guide to Stranger Things Season 5<\/a> for a full breakdown. The complete series is now streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Call it the Kate Bush Bump: After \u201cPurple Rain\u201d and \u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d were used by the Duffer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-389843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}