Spend an afternoon at Astor Place and you might just be lucky enough to become a contestant on Track Star — the internet game show that’s so hot, that everyone from Charli XCX to Kamala Harris has asked to play.
“If you can name the artist, you win five bucks,” host Jack Coyne says, as volunteer passerby slip on a pair of Beats headphones.
After participants share their preferred music genres, the New York native shuffles through his vast catalog, playing snippets of songs he thinks the stranger could guess — enticing them to double their cash prize with every correct answer.
“The idea of the show is like, it’s not a gotcha thing, like we’re not trying to get people out,” Coyne, 33, told The Post. “We’re trying to play music that people love and we’re trying to trigger a reaction in someone to tell a story about something in their life that the song sort of brings out.”
The über-popular music trivia series — which boasts more than 730,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram less than two years since its inception — has grown so successful that the biggest names in music clamored to be guests, such as Ed Sheeran, Halsey, Camilla Cabello, Sam Smith, Charli XCX and Paris Hilton.
“We don’t try to get anyone on the show, it’s all inbound,” explained Coyne. “People ask.”
That includes the show’s first “superstar artist,” Olivia Rodrigo, who appeared as a guest just over a year ago. At the time, the show only had about 20,000 followers when her camp approached Coyne and the Track Star team.
“That was when it shifted and we realized that the show was kind of becoming a big deal in the music industry,” he recalled.
Track Star even caught the attention of Vice President Kamala Harris, whose team invited Coyne and his crew to the Democratic National Convention to interview the presidential candidate — and quiz her on her music taste.
In fact, Coyne, who called the experience “mind-blowing,” was the first “press” — though not an interview — Harris had done since earning the nomination.
“When we started getting famous people on the show, we recognized like, sure, they’re famous, but they’re just regular people. They’re just like all of us, too,” he said.
“And the same things make them tick, like hearing a song that they love, is going to elicit the same reaction as a random person they meet on the street and from the most famous celebrity in the world.”
Coyne, with his brother Kieran Coyne and pal Henry Kornaros, created Track Star in January 2023 after launching their media company Public Opinion, which operates a YouTube channel and TikTok page dedicated to NYC trivia and mini documentaries about the inner workings of the Big Apple.
“The reason that I started doing this is because I always had a lot of faith and optimism about the city and about the people who live here and wanted to use this opportunity to showcase the citizens of what I think is the greatest city in the world,” Coyne said.
The trio, who also produce commercial work for major brands like Adobe, Gucci and Nike to fund their other creative endeavors, came up with the idea for music trivia to reach “a much broader spectrum of people” that their niche NYC-based content couldn’t.
In just an hour spent in the Astor Place hub — as people scurry by hauling their Wegmans groceries home or hurrying to class at NYU — Coyne successfully recruited multiple eager volunteers, all of whom recognized him as “that guy from TikTok.”
When Ben Bernstein, 24, saw Coyne on the corner, he said he “had to” stop and play, despite losing out on $320 with one wrong answer.
While it may seem like a breeze to guess the artists of your favorite songs, Coyne said there’s usually a disproportionate number of losers to winners. Those who score big — like a local firefighter named Ray who won more than $5,000 and donated it to the charity Tunnel to Towers — clearly make it seem much easier than it is.
Once you step in front of the camera and slip on the Beats headphones, the nerves set in and your confidence dissipates.
“I thought I was gonna get $40 in a heartbeat,” contestant and Murray Hill resident Liv Hamwee, 23, told The Post after losing the game.
“You definitely have a more positive mindset going into it and then you’re in the moment and you’re like, ‘Wait, there’s millions of songs out there, and I don’t know them all,’” Hamwee said.
And, for that reason, Coyne didn’t repeat a song for the first year of hosting Track Star. While he wouldn’t consider himself a “music junkie,” operating the show has given him exposure to new artists and songs and he might not have otherwise known.
“I was trying to understand what are the 500 most popular, famous artists of all time and how do I know those people?” he said. “And when you’re listening on the radio, what comes on most often, and can you make sure you’re able to identify those people, the songs that sort of define the culture?”
Despite the booming success and plethora of high-profile people vying for a spot on the show, there’s still one person Coyne hopes will eventually be a guest: Bruce Springsteen.
“My whole life, my whole family listened to Bruce Springsteen. His music has always spoken to me,” said Coyne, who revealed he’s seen the New Jersey “legend” in concert seven times. “I just think it’d be a fun conversation to have to meet someone who you’ve looked up to so much and have a conversation with them about music.”
While Coyne wouldn’t be opposed to contacting Springsteen’s team about a guest appearance on Track Star, he hasn’t reached out — at least, “not yet.”
“I guess this is an open invitation,” he said. “Bruce, if you’re reading this, you’re invited on the show.”
