Good to know. Yeah, there has to be something in the metadata for GN'R's entry in their system as an artist and/or their tracks and albums that relates them to these search terms.

Question is - has that metadata ended up filled with shit from things like user's local files, their searches, their playlists, and/or sources online? Personally, I think that's unlikely. It would seem like a surefire way to ruin the reliability of your search feature if you're Spotify.

So, if it's an upcoming release, that's great. My other theory is - these titles have been around associated with the GN'R project for years, what if they exist on one of UMG's internal systems somewhere that Spotify connects to. But, that wouldn't explain why this starts happening now.

You got any insight into what systems a record co like UMG use and what industry platforms companies like Spotify, Apple, etc. connect to?

Yeah, someone tried it with unreleased Stones tracks and didn't get anything. If you try Face It Alone, for that new unreleased Queen song that is coming out - Queen pops up.

So in the UK the following pop GN'R as a result now, some of them when partially complete or misspelled

"atlas shrugged"
"state of grace"
"the general"
"soul monster"
"perhaps"
"thyme"

And if I use a VPN for Sweden I also get results for "zodiac".

If I tack on Hard Skool & Absurd to that I'm up to 9 tracks for a potential album. Throw in either covers, song titles we don't know etc. and you're closer to a 10-15 track release.

Obviously, there could be nothing to this Spotify stuff, but I struggle to see how this is their algorithm getting messed up for these terms by fans searching stuff or from doing NLP on random old articles about the band. If that was happening, it would be happening for other artists too and Spotify's search functionality would be universally hated by users.

I'm inclined to believe these songs may actually have been added to Spotify and just aren't live/active yet. What I'll always feel less certain about with GN'R is whether they ever do go live or if "plans change".

That's the band's fault for sitting on this for so long, not the hardcore fans who've wanted to hear these tracks for the past 20 years. Do the AFD boxset in 2017 on the actual anniversary and push Hard Skool + Absurd (and who knows maybe more!) in 2018 and there's no 2019 leaks killing the hype of a release in 2021.

If the album had come out earlier in 00-04 when next to no leaks had happened, again the fanbase would have been ecstatic. Instead, all that ecstasy was used up through 05-08 when the majority of the album leaked. By the time the album came out the only songs that hadn't been heard were Scraped, Sorry & This I Love.

The lesson here is obvious - the longer they sit on this stuff without pulling the trigger the likelier it is that earlier versions of these songs leak online and steal the thunder from their release. If the Spotify search results actually do mean something is coming and they are prepping a release soon of State of Grace, Atlas Shrugged, Perhaps, Soul Monster, The General then that's great. But the longer they wait the likelier it is those songs leak.

Each day is another day where someone who has those tracks can send them to a friend, or trade them with someone else who has other things they want, or sell them to someone. The more hands those songs pass through, the likelier it becomes they turn up online. If the versions they're planning to release leak say 2-3 weeks before the official date, then that's one thing - that's how the music business is sometimes these days. If it's versions of these songs from 2006 or from the rumoured 2010 verison of CD2, that's not so great and really kills the buzz.

They could be planning to release next week, next month or maybe next year. But if tomorrow a circa 2008 clip of The General or Soul Monster was to start circulating then they'll be kicking themselves they didn't release in June like Slash suggested they might earlier this year.

The band is the one to blame for old leaks killing the buzz of their releases. They should learn their lesson and get these songs out there, especially if they're finished and all recording, mixing and mastering is done.