The Virality and Vitality of Spotify Wrapped
- Rylee Pohancsek
- Mar 29, 2022
- 3 min read
Towards the end of the year, millions of users patiently await the release of their Spotify Wrapped. Spotify’s algorithm pulls data from each user throughout the year to craft a unique summary of their listening habits on the app. Other music streaming platforms such as Apple Music have attempted to mimic the popularity of this campaign, but have not been as successful. The shareability, individuality and relatability of Spotify Wrapped helped the campaign go viral, making Spotify the biggest music streaming service in the world.
Spotify is a Swedish music streaming app originally founded in 2006 to combat piracy issues facing MP3 files. The first year that Spotify put out something that resembled Spotify Wrapped was in 2015 when it was called “Year in Music”. This version of the campaign was very simple, only telling users what their top 100 songs are.
In 2017, however, Spotify Wrapped got its name and the campaign resembles more of what we know it as today. According to the website Alphr, the 2017 installation of Spotify wrapped includes “how many minutes you’ve used the app, your top five artists, songs and genres, and it’s created a playlist of your favourite 100 tracks.”. These updated statistics included in the 2017 campaign seemed to start a shared excitement for the following years Spotify Wrapped.
Looking at the campaign, there seem to be 3 main reasons why it has been so successful at going viral:
Shareability
When users of Spotify receive their Spotify Wrapped, the statistics that are shared with the user are packaged in a condensed and aesthetically pleasing manner. This makes it more likely that the user will share their Spotify Wrapped on social media such as Instagram where aesthetics are more valued. A feature that has been around since Spotify Wrapped 2017 is the “share” ability where users could upload their statistics to Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and more. As users of Spotify expand their social media use to new platforms, Spotify seems to be responsive to keep up with shareability. A new feature implemented in the 2021 Spotify Wrapped is the ability to share the statistics on TikTok, showing that Spotify wants users to share their statistics on every major platform.
Individuality
Because a users Spotify Wrapped is unique to their own listening patterns, each Spotify Wrapped is different. With 165 million users, people like to compare their results to others. One way that Spotify Wrapped promotes this is by telling users who their top artist is and how they rank amongst other users. For example, Spotify told me that I was in the top 1% of Tyler the Creator listeners because I had streamed 2,259 minutes of his music. These statistics offer “bragging rights” to the user as they are proud of their achievement, making it more likely that they share their results online
Spotify, “Spotify Wrapped | Billie Eilish on Gardening Playlists”, 2021, Youtube, https://youtu.be/szpU6yzzIgE.
Relatability
As people share their results on social media, it spurs conversations around music. Because of music's ability to cross geographical borders, it is one topic that can create discourse, even if there is a language barrier. When looking at other users' Spotify Wrapped, you will likely see an artist, genre or album that you have in common. One of the places where these conversations take place is Twitter where people both accept and reject users posting their Spotify Wrapped. Something that I saw more people talking about on Twitter this year in regards to Spotify Wrapped is that some find it annoying to see so many people posting about it. Although some may see these conversations as harmful to the success of Spotify Wrapped, it actually creates more awareness of the campaign.
From a social media campaign standpoint, Spotify hit all the marks to be successful and go viral year-round. I think one of their biggest challenges at the moment is how they are going to top Spotify Wrapped each year. Since it repeats the same statistics, there are only so many ways that you can display it differently. As seen this year, however, they are staying on top of trends that make their campaign more successful. As a brand, I would use Spotify Wrapped as a model of how to be successful in a social media campaign as its success is far-reaching and seemingly evergreen.
Check back next week to learn about how music festivals have taken over the music industry.
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