Legendary English singer-songwriter Kate Bush, 63, is currently enjoying something of a comeback, even though the celebrated musician hasn’t released a new album or single.
In good news for the singer, her 1985 song Running Up That Hill was recently featured in the latest season of Stranger Things. Not just some barely audible backing track, Bush’s emotionally stirring ballad was incorporated as a critical component in the hit Netflix sci-fi show’s fourth season’s storyline.
As a result of this good fortune (literally), Running Up That Hill continues to race yet higher in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
On its original release in the mid 80s, the song reached No 3 during an 11-week run in the UK charts. Last week it appeared again, at No 8, having been discovered by a new generation of listeners who watched the Netflix show. Earlier this week it became Bush’s first ever US Top 10 hit, reaching No 8.
Remarkably, it is now the most-streamed song in the world each day on Spotify, earning nearly 8m plays a day. Spotify pays artists between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream on average. That works out as an approx revenue split of 70/30 - so that's 70 percent to the artist/rights holders and 30 percent to Spotify. So, if we take the mid-point of $0.004, that means lucky ol' Kate is raking in a rather wonderful $32,000 every day - just from Spotify. It is also the most played track each day on Apple Music in the UK.
Elsewhere, the song has also climbed its way into top music charts in Ireland, Australia, Germany, Canada and New Zealand. Nice!
If you don't recall the song or aren't watching Stranger Things, here's a video of Kate Bush performing Running Up That Hill in 1985.