The way we consume music has drastically changed with the evolution of technology.

Records, albeit making a resurgence, are an element of the past. So too is the pain of rewinding a cassette, and slowly but surely, CDs are losing out to the ease of accessibility of digital streams and downloads.

With this comes the sheer simplicity of hitting next on your Spotify playlist, or even going as far to un-ticking ill-favoured tracks so they don’t sync to our iPods. No more are we almost forced to listen to an entire vinyl or try to pinpoint that bit of tape on a cassette where our favourite track starts.

In October of 2013, the Swedish-born streaming online music kings known as Spotify blew out five candles in celebration of half-a-decade of successful operations and compiled some very interesting statistics of all things Spotify over their five years.

The most astonishing of findings were that there were some 4 million tracks that had never been played. Obviously, with such an ease of skipping certain tracks, further reflection brings forth the idea that perhaps this isn’t the most shocking of news – although disturbing for us as music listeners.

And so the question arose: just what tracks, records or even artists as a whole have been ignored by Spotify’s 24 million subscribers? Enter Forgotify – the ultimate hipster’s goldmine. just what tracks have been ignored by Spotify’s 24 million subscribers? Enter Forgotify – the ultimate hipster’s goldmine.

Developed by Lane Jordan, J Hausmann, and Nate Gagnon, Forgotify launched in early February and functions almost exactly the same as its parent Spotify. All that’s required is a current subscription to the streaming service and a visit to Forgotify’s website.

From there, Forgotify instantly locates a track deep from the unkempt shadows of the ‘never listened before’ Spotify archives in an attempt to win its audience over.

The track, artist, record and album art are all visually displayed to ensure we know exactly what we’re being presented with. If the listener is still less than impressed, there’s a critical ‘next’ button that can send the forgotten track straight back to the online graveyard.

From our own quick taste test, Forgotify’s first choice – completely at random – was a synth-pop number, ‘Purani Jeans’ by Ali Haider, notably a very popular track of the 1990s in its native Pakistan.

Next up to the plate were The Nash Ensemble, with their rendition of classic composer Brahms and his ‘Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115: Andantino’.

Third time lucky, Forogitfy revealed that not one person had yet streamed the highly influential singer-songwriter Jack Hardy and his track ‘The Three Sisters’, taken from his fourth record The Nameless One.

In three simple clicks, we had musically travelled time, genre and geographic location to discover a Pakistani hit-maker as well as an American folk innovator, exemplifying the entire point of Forgotify – the discovery of unloved music. “We love music… That’s why we were so shocked to learn that 20% had never been played on Spotify.”

“We love music,” say Forgotify’s creators. “That’s why we were so shocked to learn that 20% (or over 4 million songs) had never been played on Spotify. Not even once. A musical travesty, really.”

“So we set out to give these neglected songs another way to reach your ear holes, and Forgotify was born. If you like it, help us spread the word. Let’s get all this beautiful Spotify music listened to.”

Stemming from its’ creators main intentions, what kind of impact could Forgotify have? Is it a fresh idea that will hopefully bring forth ignored artists to the spotlight? Or will the entire server fail in similar fate to those sounds they’re trying to promote?

As it stands, the website itself has over 30,000 “likes” on Facebook, with nearly 6,000 “tweets” – so it is certainly gaining momentum.

And what say of those hipsters? There’s no denying the sea of music appreciators that yearn to have their own discoveries that strengthen their love to a certain piece of music.

So, will we witness an infiltration of ‘cool kids’ scrambling to find the latest and greatest track that evidently nobody has heard before as a form of self-glorification? Cringe-worthy as such an intention may be, we can be thankful that the outcome is positive – that figure of 4 million unheard Spotify tracks is going to fall.

Naturally, only the progression of time will tell of Forgotify’s future. What should be made clear is that it’s a noble effort made on behalf of the some 20% of ignored Spotify music desperately awaiting its virgin stream.

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