Is the popularity of Wasting Love fabricated?

efekåseo_suomi

efekåseo_suomi

Ancient Mariner
Wasting Love is one of only nine Iron Maiden tracks to surpass 100 million streams on Spotify. After those nine, the next tier of tracks—like The Wicker Man and Flight of Icarus—sit in the 60 million range. The music video for Wasting Love on Youtube is drawing alot of views. That makes Wasting Love’s streaming numbers stand out, especially considering it's not typically thought of as a core fan-favorite or a major live staple. Spotify serves as a reliable statistical tool and an indicator of what songs are most popular with listeners. Other major bands are known to actively use Spotify data when crafting their setlists. For example, Metallica adjusts their setlists city by city based on regional Spotify stats. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek even confirmed this during an earnings call: “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 songs are most popular in that city.” Take Bruce’s recent Mandrake Project solo tour as an example—his setlist was clearly influenced by what songs perform best on Spotify. Navigate the Seas of the Sun made the set, which surprised some fans, but it’s actually one of his top three most-streamed solo tracks. On the flip side, many fans wanted Tattooed Millionaire songs, but with Z not present, there was little incentive—especially since those songs just aren’t that popular, as anyone can see from streaming numbers.

It’s different with Maiden—they stick to a single setlist for an entire tour. But I find it hard to believe that Wasting Love passing the 100 million mark hasn’t caught the attention of the band or their management. Whether the result of algorithm-driven playlists, editorial pushes from magazines and streaming platforms, or something else entirely, I think Wasting Love’s popularity is not purely organic. Is it possible that the management or industry is trying to promote a softer, more accessible side of Maiden to appeal to newer or more casual fans?

  • The Trooper – 512,973,131
  • Run to the Hills – 413,267,887
  • Fear of the Dark – 370,197,206
  • The Number of the Beast – 266,082,508
  • Hallowed Be Thy Name – 190,595,509
  • Wasted Years – 175,765,764
  • 2 Minutes to Midnight – 163,918,061
  • Aces High – 130,448,010
  • Wasting Love – 107,679,456
  • The Wicker Man – 66,127,818
  • Flight of Icarus – 65,902,839
  • Can I Play with Madness – 59,467,672
  • Phantom of the Opera – 53,423,664
  • The Evil That Men Do – 50,909,703
  • The Writing on the Wall – 46,687,245
  • Blood Brothers – 46,388,641
  • Children of the Damned – 41,254,639
  • Afraid to Shoot Strangers – 41,184,466
  • Dance of Death – 41,158,459
  • Be Quick or Be Dead – 41,023,233

Iron Maiden - Spotify Top Songs

A website that collects and analyzes music data from around the world. All of the charts, sales and streams, constantly updated.
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Yeah, here I was thinking the Fear of the Dark album is virtually unknown apart from the title track and the cover art, both within the fandom and without. The streaming popularity also took me by surprise and I'd also expect it must be because of some "Spotify selects the music to make love to your significant other to" or something.
 
I don’t know if this is the case for “Wasting Love” but GenZ kids will often find and promote less well known tracks on TikTok, which causes a spike in a song’s popularity.

It may also be a case of mistaken identity, as the song “Wasted Love” by someone named JJ is a popular recent release.

I guess it’s a question of whether there’s a recent spike or if the song ranked similarly among Maiden songs on Spotify over a longer time period.
 
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I can't believe it's that popular. Wasting Love is a total cringe-fest. Like—'Hey, look at us, we’re just as hip as Guns N’ Roses!' IMO
 
People love rock ballads. So the song has an advantage. E tout le monde is megadeth's most popular 3rd song, nothing else matters is metallica's 2nd popular song. Angel is 9th most popular Priest song with 26 million listens.
 
Perun said:
I've always assumed it's on some popular power ballad playlists. It certainly never ranked anywhere near as high before Spotify existed.
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I've made that argunent on here before, but @Smither I think assured me that it was a hit in South America and the 1992 period was landmark with Maiden playing in South America for the first time, so maybe that explains the numbers
 
srfc said:
I've made that argunent on here before, but @Smither I think assured me that it was a hit in South America and the 1992 period was landmark with Maiden playing in South America for the first time, so maybe that explains the numbers
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I don't think it is the 9th most popular Maiden song here though, so I'm certain that that the number is indeed inflated by power ballad playlists, but yeah, it is much bigger here than everywhere in the world. Here in Brazil at least, every Maiden tribute band needs to play Wasting Love on their shows and I have lots of non-metalfans friends that know and like Wasting Love.

EDIT: Actually I think it is next to the 9th yeah, between 10 and 15 maybe. It is huge here.
 
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It's a ballad, of course it will have many streams. The whole list after the top 8 is a surprise imo. Flight of Icarus that high? That being higher than CIPWM and Evil that men do is a surprise for me.
There are 4 FotD songs. This album was huge in Latin America, so it is to be expected, the population is massive.
I thought Daughter would be higher because it's a no1 hit, but it hasn't aged well, I guess. It doesn't even have 20M streams.
 
Wasting Love was always included in power ballad collections in Brazil, and I believe in other countries as well. The TV ad would sometimes play its chorus—this was before the internet, when TV was by far the number one source of daily entertainment.

The tracklists would always include songs like Is This Love, Carrie, and Wind of Change. That’s why WL is regarded as the band’s power ballad, even though I don't think it shares the same mood or style as the others.

Nowadays on Spotify, I believe the same thing happens. If only there were a way to track 'playlist-sourced plays'—in other words, how often a song is played from public playlists as opposed to a user’s own playlist or direct search/play.
 
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