by By: Kaimana Mau
What is Spotify Wrapped?
One of the most impressive marketing campaigns a company has ever created was Spotify Wrapped. This campaign launched in 2016, allowed it’s users to see an annual report of their listening habits and encouraged them to share their taste in music with friends and family across multiple social media platforms. At the end of each year, Spotify compiles data about users activity such as how long they’ve spent listening to certain music, what genres they were interested in, who their top artists were, and what their most played songs are. It’s ease of access and ability to share with others allowed it to become one of the most popular campaigns to date, allowing for the trend to circulate through different media outlets very quickly. This has now become a tradition for people every year as they post their Spotify Wrapped every December to their social media pages. You can find out more about 2023’s Spotify Wrapped theme here
Why is it so successful?
Every year Spotify has millions of users sharing their Spotify Wrapped across multiple social media accounts leading to the explosion of the hashtag; #SpotifyWrapped and with it, free advertisement for the company. Spotify was able to create a community based sharing trend based around their listeners taste and allowing them to share a little piece of themselves through social media. This phenomenon introduced a unique effect known as the “FOMO” effect, also known as the (Fear of missing out) effect, which has encouraged many listeners to use Spotify over other music streaming services. One of the reasons I believe that Spotify Wrapped was so successful was because it gives you an avenue to better understand the things about yourself, specifically your taste you might not have been aware of, and so you’re going to feel more engaged with that brand. Secondly it also gives you information that you feel is worth sharing with the world because it helps you to define yourself to others. These are some of the key reasons things go viral on the internet.
Marketing/Engagement:
There is currently more than 100 million songs on the Spotify app and over 5 million podcasts. Spotify also has 184 markets spanning countries all over the globe from the Americas, Africa, Oceania, Europe and Asia. The average Spotify user in the US streams about two hours per day, or roughly 743 hours per year. With the massive amount of fans sharing and retweeting their Spotify wrapped, it was no wonder it became so popular and it is probably one of the most famous example of a campaign well done.
Birth of a Campaign: This is a video from Spotify themselves to show the development and creative concepts behind Spotify Wrapped as well as what their goals and vision were for the campaign.
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Hi Kaimana,
I loved reading your blog post. I have always been curious about how Spotify wrapped has become so successful in the past few years. It’s super interesting to read about the logistics and strategy behind this campaign.
Hi Kaimana!
I enjoyed reading your blog post. I always love seeing everyone’s Spotify wrapped, including my own. I think you bring up a great point that the reason so many people share their own wrap is because it shows others who they are through music. Seeing my own Spotify Wrapped this year made me realize that it’s time to branch out and listen to other music because I had a similar wrap from the year before. I also love seeing my own wrap because it reminds me of certain times in my life with the music that I listened to.
Great Blog!
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your post and have always found Spotify’s ability to leverage user data to build personal relationships with its users interesting. Being someone who grew up using Spotify (instead of Apple music) I definitely noticed an increase in popularity among people my age over the last few years. After reading your post this makes total sense since the creation of Spotify Wrapped happened within the last decade.
Hi! Super interesting blog post. I always get so into Spotify wrapped each year but never thought much about the campaign aspect behind it. So much sharing happens, and I think one of the most interesting things to come out of it has been other music apps (like Apple Music) starting to create their own versions of Wrapped to keep up with the competition. The campaign has really established Spotify as THE go-to music app.
Hi Kaimana, your blog post is super interesting. As a Spotify user, one of the main reasons I use the streaming service is its Wrapped feature at the end of the year. However, I never knew much about the campaign. I found this post informative, providing details that helped me understand why Spotify Wrapped and the company are so successful. Like you, I use the feature to learn more about my listening history throughout the year and share it with others. In the future, it will be interesting to see if the company can create a campaign that outperforms the success of Spotify Wrapped.
Hi! I enjoyed your analysis of Spotify and its campaign. Even though I know Spotify Wrapped was a relatively new feature, I never knew how much traction it gave them and its bigger impact. I love how interactive this feature is, and always look forward to seeing my wrapped and other peoples’ as well, along with the similarities. I also love finding new music and this campaign is great in engaging different people to different genres. It’s amazing to see how much music is on Spotify and the name they’ve created for themselves. It definitely conveys the powerful force that digital media has on music and connecting different types of people.
What an intrigueing blog post, Kaimana! I have always found the way Spotify markets music to be extremely interesting. It is fascinating how they use a member’s data to connect them with musicians, and other listeners, and introduce them to a perfect blended mix of music styles. I count down the days for when Spotify Wrapped comes out, and can absolutely see how popular it has become. Wrapped not only allows listeners to know more about themselves but also share and connect with friends and similar listeners across so many platforms!