Astronomy @ Spotify

Here are links for the astronomical playlist on Spotify. The list, maintained by Joni Tammi, has been collected over the years by various astronomers for personal use. It is not meant to contain everything ever recorder, but something along the line of "easy to listen to and somewhat astronomical".

Astro is the master list with everything in one place.

Here are links for the web page, or if you have Spotify installed and your browser configured properly, you can play the list using the Spotify link

The criteria for including a song to the collection are the following:
the song has to be about astronomy
(or, for non-lyrical pieces, "sound astral enough"),
or at least have astronomical theme,
or at least have something astronomical in there,
or at least be named after something astronomical.

Yeah, we're not very strict...

Also take into account that the list was initiated as "from astronomers, to astronomers", so the connection may not be immediately clear for everyone.

Sub-lists

The songs on the Astro list are further divided into three separate lists accoding to their lyrics:

• astro / main list (Spotify link)
• astro_en (Spofity link)
  contains the songs with lyrics in English – or some other "mainstream Indo-European language".
• astro_fi (Spofity link)
  contains the songs with Finnish lyrics.
• astro_inst (Spofity link)
  contains those pieces of music without lyrics – or lyrics incomprehensive to the average listener. Also, some complete space ambient albums (such as Arecibo's "Trans Plutonian Transmissions") are here as a whole, while only one or two pieces are included in the main Astro list.

See also

Want to learn more about astronomical music or musical astronomy? Start with these:

• Space Rock, the popular music inspired by the stars above us (pdf, 688 kB) by Jarkko Merisalo
• Music inspired by Astronomy (pdf, 114 kB) by Andref Fraknoi
• Music Inspired by Astronomy: A Resource Guide Organized by Topic by Andrew Fraknoi, in Astronomy Education Review, Vol. 11, 010303-1 (2012)

Something missing?

There are certainly many songs missing.

Some are missing because they are not available on Spotify.

Some are just too remotely related to the theme. There are probably thousands of ambient and trance pieces named after space events without having nothing really astronomical in them; also not all songs by the metal bands with "brutal astronomical names" such as Gamma Ray or the Deathstars can make to the list :)

However, some are still unknown to us and we'll gladly add them on the list if you send us a hint (joni*tammi#aalto*fi)!