In response to the deadliest mass shooting in American history, Spotify has created a music playlist, ostensibly to honor the victims and offer support to the communities that were affected.
The playlist, called “Pulse” after the gay club in Orlando, Florida where the shooting occurred, includes a photo of a rainbow flag and the following message: “Our hearts are with Orlando and the LGBTQ community. Support victims of Pulse here. #WeAreOrlando.” The link takes users to a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for victims of the shooting.
“Pulse,” which includes 40 songs, clocks in at just over two and a half hours. It features tracks like John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” and Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.” It was created yesterday by a member of Spotify’s curation team, and it’s racked up over 10,000 followers already. (Unfortunately, if you’re not a Spotify subscriber, it appears that you’ll still hear ads in between some of the songs.)
“Pulse is about music, dancing, and bringing people together, so we wanted to put together a playlist to pay our respects and to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community,” a Spotify spokesperson told Gizmodo in a statement.
While creating a playlist in response to one of the worst incidences of violence in U.S. history might seem a little odd, Spotify has actually gone this route before. After the November terror attacks in Paris, it created a playlist called “Peace.”
