Many such artists are truly one-hit wonders, if only in the mainstream sense. Are other songs being overshadowed by “Chasing Cars” and “Let Her Go,” or do they simply not shine themselves? Each of our answers will depend on our taste, but I think we can all agree that not all bands are releasing consistently great music that simply becomes overshadowed. The same phenomenon applies to the catalog of Passenger, whose “Let Her Go” occupies 78 percent of all streams. That’s more than seven times more than their second most streamed song, “Run.” The disparities grow larger quickly, even by just moving a few songs down the list. “Chasing Cars” takes the lion's share of their Spotify streams, clocking in at 68 percent. Let’s have a (hypothetical) look at Snow Patrol. How come? If these are concentrations of attraction, how is their effect positive? While those songs compete with each other for attention and reduce each other’s streaming, single hits effectively elevate other songs. Generally speaking, the exact opposite occurs. If the absence of distractors are why single hits garner all that additional attention, how does this affect an artist’s other songs? However, the correlation works in the opposite direction, as well. Numerous hits prevent a concentration of streaming, due to a form of selective attention that psychologists call “distractor salience.” Translated into artistic terms, the more appealing songs there are, the less attention there will be for each track. Let’s explore how one-shot hits are likely to elevate less successful songs by the same artist. The effects of this phenomenon don’t stop there, though. Conversely, a single hit (or at least one whose commercial success outweighs that of their other popular songs) leads to a concentration of streaming, meaning it garners more listens than other artists’ songs of similar caliber. Briefly, if an artist has numerous hits, listeners will tend to divide their time between multiple songs (the Beatles, for example). Last week, I discussed how the number of outstanding songs by an artist generally affects the proportionality of their streaming numbers.

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