Got My Eyes On You

Reset your password. Three words that mean either you have forgotten your password, you have given it to someone else and don’t want to allow them access to that particular account anymore or someone has cracked your password and is using your account without permission. That’s what we’re all worried about, isn’t it? Or at least that’s what we should be worried about. But most of us aren't.

Everyone forgets about that, I’ve noticed. The real possibility of someone stealing your data, or using your Spotify account for free, because they are cheapskates. You laugh, but that’s exactly what happened to me last year. Let me introduce myself.

Stefan’s my name. Pleasure’s my game…did I really just say that? Well…moving swiftly along. I’m no one special. Just a regular guy with an extremely low-paid job in a call centre. Yes, we’ve probably spoken on the phone before. And yes, I probably asked you “have you tried turning it off and on again?”. I am currently single. And, might I add, ready to mingle ladies. Winkity wink. Not that I’m really offering. (Unless you are tall, athletic and Puerto Rican, of course). Anyway, back to my cautionary tale of how my Spotify got hijacked.

Early in March last year, I had to replace my laptop as my existing model had decided to die. The smell of coffee and regrets emitting from it were merely a coincidence. Honest. I had heard that you could still make a few quid selling even damaged laptops for parts. Even if I only got a tenner for it, I figured it was worth a shot.

There was an ad I saw on Gumtree. “Got an old or broken laptop you don’t want? I will buy it. Barry.” How fortuitous! Here was me, the loveable protagonist of this tale, with a broken laptop that I was looking to get rid of and this Barry chap was willing to buy it from me. These kinds of things only happen in fairy tales, don’t they?

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Yes, I know I know. I am trying to make what turned out to be quite the music streaming adventure sound less like my dumb luck and more like some kind of destined cataclysmic event.

Oh, and if you guessed that I didn’t delete all my information on my laptop before handing it over to the shiftiest and least trustworthy Barry I have ever met in my life. You’re right.

Until it happens to you, I get it, this story sounds ridiculous, and I do not come off as the sharpest tool in the box.

Regardless, I didn’t even think about passwords and the different accounts that were easily accessed from my laptop. That was until I spotted something strange when I opened Spotify one day a few weeks after my meeting with the most definitely untrustworthy Barry.

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Part of what I love about Spotify is that it will curate special playlists for you based on what you’ve been listening to recently. Whenever I struggled to choose something to listen to, I’d pop one of the playlists in the “Based on your recent listening” and would usually hear some familiar sounds along with new favourites. Sometimes there might be the odd Travis Scott song that would pop up that I’d have to skip past. But generally, Spotify got it right and knew me.

Anyway. Back to the strange thing that happened that day when I opened Spotify. If you are familiar with Spotify, you will know there is an option to “Jump back in” where you can listen to a mix, playlist or artist you were listening to last time you used the app.

Something was up because there was at least one or two in my “Jump back in” section that I was not familiar with. I was the only one (at that point I hadn’t thought about Barry or anyone he might have sold the laptop to) who had access to my account, and I certainly didn’t listen to King Kofi or Josh Elkin.

Still, rather than immediately jumping to action and resetting the password, I became intrigued. After all, it was just my Spotify account. This might be a great way to explore the psyche of someone through their musical choices. And after listening to “White Boys” by King Kofi, I was convinced that maybe Barry or whoever it was that was hijacking and messing with the Spotify algorithm was an interesting character with interesting taste in music. Josh Elkin, though, I put down to a joke. "Chocolate Chip Cookies" is not very good at all.

Waiting is what I decided to do Waiting to see what other gems from Spotify would show up in my “Jump back in”. Although it felt like a long time, in reality, I only had to wait a few days for my next best new recording artist.

Opening Spotify, I was met with the fascinatingly named Headless Relatives. Clicking on their icon, I chose the first song that caught my attention. “Gutted Remains of My Enemy” is every bit as weird and dark sounding as you might imagine. I had to laugh. Barry was clearly a man of culture. Rap, folk. What next? Tibetan Monks Throat Singing?

Really that is when I should have reset my password. However, curiosity got the better of me. Until I noticed something strange. There was a playlist.

Do you know what was weird about the playlist? It had my name on it, but I didn’t create it. It was a gift from Barry or whoever it seems. When I opened it, I was shocked and a little terrified to find only one song. “Got My Eye On You” by the rather awesome Brian Jonestown Massacre. While it may sound harmless enough, it was the refrain of “I got to, got to, got to, got to get you alone” that sent a cold shiver down my spine. That and the fact that my middle name was Brian.

Thank you for reading my odd acrostic entry to the Reset Your Password Challenge. Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please leave a comment or click the heart. You can even subscribe to stay constantly up to date with my most recent work.

If you like, you can check out the other entry I submitted to the Reset Your Password Challenge:

Or some of my recent submissions for the Quardu-Haiku Challenge:

You can also check out the rest of my work here.