Spotify Celebrates 20 Years of Harry Potter With Fan-Streaming Insights: Did Your Listening Habits Correctly Sort You?
Twenty years ago, moviegoers from all over the world watched the “Boy Who Lived” on-screen for the first time. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (also known as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, depending on where you live) went on to be a box-office smash hit, grossing over $90 million during its opening weekend. Since then, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the entire wizarding world have influenced a generation of aspiring wizards and witches.
To celebrate the beloved series and the fans who have kept the boy wizard’s story alive, Spotify peeked into Dumbledore’s pensieve to gather streaming data on all things Harry Potter.* Scroll through to find out what music has been popular with each of the Hogwarts houses, the characters that have inspired the most playlists, and the fan-made podcasts that have been engaging Potterheads since 2005.
Songs To Sing in the Common Room
Did Spotify’s streaming data correctly sort you? We looked at the thousands of listener-generated playlists on our platform and found a few artists who stood out within each Hogwarts house.
Ten points to the Gryffindors who chose high-tempo rock songs for their house playlists. The favorites among these lion-hearted listeners were “Everybody Talks” by Neon Trees, “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy, and “Kiwi” by Harry Styles.
Slytherins’ favorite songs were somewhat of an inside joke among Draco Malfoy fans, with “Daddy Issues” by The Neighbourhood taking the top spot. Another no-brainer was “you should see me in a crown” by Billie Eilish, and rounding out the top three was “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” by Arctic Monkeys.
Hufflepuffs took the assignment literally, with many of them taking a cue from their house colors and choosing “Golden” by Harry Styles and “Yellow” by Coldplay. The loyal and patient badgers stayed consistent in tone with “Ophelia” by The Lumineers.
For the quick-witted Ravenclaws, top choices featured a juxtaposition of up-tempo beats and moody lyrics: “Sweater Weather” by The Neighbourhood, “Are You Bored Yet? (feat. Clairo)“ by Wallows, and “ocean eyes” by Billie Eilish.
As you can see, the data also showed that the playlists had artists in common. Billie Eilish and rock band The Neighbourhood are popular with both Slytherins and Ravenclaws, and Harry Styles is a Gryffindor and Hufflepuff favorite. Only the Sorting Hat could say which house truly claims these artists!
After tallying the results for the most listener-generated playlists dedicated to a Hogwarts house globally, the Spotify House Cup went to Slytherin! This group of cunning and ambitious wizards created almost three times as many playlists as Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor came in third and fourth place, respectively.
Not Me, Not Hermione . . . Draco
But the playlists aren’t just house-themed. Spotify listeners have also created playlists filled with music inspired by some of the series’ most loved—and hated—characters. Draco Malfoy inspired the most user-generated character playlists, redeeming the Slytherin antagonist. The beloved Fred Weasley came in second, and, perhaps most surprisingly, “You Know Who” (or if you don’t know—Voldemort) came in third.
Overall, the song that was included the most in listener-generated Hogwarts playlists was “Runaway” by AURORA. Coming in second was the appropriately named “Welcome Home, Son” by Radical Face, and finally, “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence came in third.
“Hedwig’s Theme” from the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by John Williams was the most streamed song from the entire Harry Potter film soundtrack.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Playlists
Since the dawn of podcasting, Potterheads have been using audio to continue sharing Harry’s story, culminating in more than 1,700 Harry Potter fandom podcasts available on Spotify around the world. While we’re sure Lee Jordan’s Potterwatch, a pirate radio program during the Second Wizarding War, would have made the cut, today’s top five Harry Potter fandom podcasts continue to win over witches and wizards on Spotify.
They include Potterless, which stars Mike Schubert, a grown man reading the series for the first time, and Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, a sure-favorite among Ravenclaws, where hosts Vanessa Zoltan and Matt Potts take a close reading to the books that inspired it all.
Rounding out the remaining top three are podcasts dedicated to discussing book theories and news in the Potterverse: Swish and Flick: A Harry Potter Podcast, MuggleCast: the Harry Potter podcast, and PotterCast: The Harry Potter Podcast on Spotify.
Want to keep reminiscing? No need to find platform 9¾. Head over to Spotify to listen to the top Harry Potter podcasts and playlists, or start creating some of your own!
*Streaming data as of November 2021
