EDGARTOWN, Mass. – Some full-time music critics spend their lives curating playlists they hope become popular. President Obama outdid them all last week in between briefings and rounds of golf.

For the second year in a row, Obama released his summer vacation music and reading lists. And within a day, Obama's playlist was the most listened-to on Spotify, other than those organized by the global music streaming service itself. That level of popularity occurs only when listeners do more than sample the songs, but actually enjoy the set, said Jonathan Prince, a Spotify spokesman.

"For a playlist to hit No. 1 globally on its own out of nowhere is just bananas," Prince said. "If he wants a job curating music when this presidential gig is over, we'd take him in a second. That's very impressive."

While Prince said Spoti­fy could not measure how Obama's selections influenced the popularity of particular artists, his picks last year led streams of the band Low Cut Connie to increase 2,906 percent overnight and those of the hip-hop duo Reflection Eternal to jump 798 percent.

Obama is in the final months of his presidency, aware of the expiration date for his hold over the national conversation — especially during a fiery presidential election season. Perhaps because of the widespread disquiet over both major parties' nominees, Obama's own popularity has been steadily rising and is now above 50 percent. Admiration for Obama is particularly high among young adults, or those 18-29 who are so coveted by TV and radio advertisers.

That popularity has made him unusually influential culturally, a power he and Michelle Obama, the first lady, take seriously. She was an early champion of "Hamilton," the Broadway musical that has since become a cultural phenomenon. He interviewed Marilynne Robinson for an article in the New York Review of Books, an unusual presidential effort to bolster the career of a literary novelist.

Obama got high marks from several music critics for his summer playlist choices, in part because he mostly avoided politically expedient selections. There were no songs, for instance, from wildly popular artists like Adele, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake or Rihanna.

The president's musical taste — which includes surf rock, soul, blues and hip-hop — is open-minded, even eclectic. However, there is one notable exception: Missing for the second year in a row was country music, widely played in Southern states where Obama could benefit from more people relating to him.

"This is not a politician's playlist," said Rob Sheffield, a music columnist for Rolling Stone magazine. "It's a list of someone who, if they were a full-time music lover or a full-time music archivist, would be an extremely good playlist."

White House officials insisted that the picks were made solely by the president.

New York Times