Coldplay’s Streams Surge After Viral Concert Kiss-Cam Moment

A little over a week after Coldplay’s infamous kiss-cam moment went viral online, the band’s streams are up 25 percent. 

The incident saw CEO of Astronomer, Andy Byron, and the company’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, displayed on the big-screen during the band’s Boston concert stop on July 16. When they realized they were on camera for the kiss-cam segment, Bryon ducked out of frame, and Cabot turned around and put her hands over her face. 

“Uh oh,” Coldplay’s Chris Martin can be heard saying in the now viral video. “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.” Bryon and Cabot are, in fact, married to other people. 

According to data from Luminate sourced by Billboard, the seven-time Grammy award-winning group’s on-demand audio streams went up by 25 percent. In the preceding five days before the Boston concert, Coldplay had 28.7 million streams, which shot up to 35.7 million in the five days after the scandal.  

Following the backlash, Byron resigned from his role as CEO of Astronomer. On Saturday, the company released an official statement, which read in part, “Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”

“Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted,” the statement continued. “The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive, as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO.”