What’s the Obsession with Spotify Wrapped?

Spotify Wrapped: How a year-end recap became a cultural phenomenon by tapping into human psychology and personal storytelling.

What makes Spotify "Wrapped" so compelling for users?

How your brand can find its "Spotify Wrapped" 

When Spotify first launched “Spotify Wrapped” in December 2016, it took the world by storm, allowing users to see their most-listened-to artists and songs over the previous year. Since then, it’s become a phenomenon that everyone connects with the end of the year. Each December, Spotify users patiently wait to see the fascinating insights Spotify presents about their listening history and behaviors. It’s so important to users, in fact, they often will change their listening habits to warrant a different Spotify Wrapped result.

This initiative, and the streaming service itself, has skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years, jumping from 30 million users in 2017 to 120 million in 2021— four times the amount in just four years. In 2024, the streaming service has 640 million active users. Other platforms have taken on a similar initiative, such as Apple Music and its year-end summary called “Replay.” It’s even begun spanning across industries— Starbucks introduced “Blend,” a version of Spotify Wrapped that tells you what food and drink items you purchased the most over the past year. The sheer number of Wrapped copycats is a testament to how popular and desired they are.

But, what makes Spotify Wrapped so special? Why are people so invested in what it has to say, and how can we use this perspective to our advantage?

What makes Spotify “Wrapped” so compelling for users?

In the digital age of endless content and streaming platforms, Spotify Wrapped has emerged as a cultural phenomenon that transcends mere music statistics. More than just an annual recap of users’ listening history, it’s a masterful marketing strategy that taps into deep psychological drivers: our fundamental need for self-expression, our desire for connection, our need-to-win spirit, our sense of humor, and our love for data. 

Personalization: our fundamental need for self-expression

Listening to music is an emotional and personal experience— no two people’s listening history is exactly alike. Spotify Wrapped is hyper-personalized, letting users feel unique in their song, artist, and album preferences. Music is a shared interest across cultures and generations, and people’s taste is something they’re proud to share. Users are going beyond simply promoting the Spotify platform, they’re sharing how they use it.

Community: our desire for connection

Spotify Wrapped gives users a way to connect with others over their shared interests: the artists, songs, and albums they deem their favorites. As we mentioned before, music is an extremely vulnerable topic that incites passion for many people. 

In 2023, Spotify told users the cities and towns where their music taste most aligned. Fans of Noah Kahan found themselves relating most to people from Burlington, Vermont, whereas Taylor Swift listeners closely identified with residents of Provo, Utah. This was a fun way for users to learn more about an area you may otherwise know nothing about and build a community around it.

Competition: our need-to-win spirit

Many people have a competitive spirit in them, whether it comes out during board game night or while watching your favorite sports team in the finals. For some, this competitive nature comes out during Spotify Wrapped season. People want to have the highest number of minutes listened or be in the top percentage of listeners for their favorite artists, and they’ll do anything to make sure they get there. Spotify Wrapped encourages people to keep listening so they can prove they’re a bigger fan than their friend who enjoys the same genre, artist, or song.

Duolingo’s Year-in-Review is another great example— this review allows users to look back at their learning stats over the past year. It specifically focuses on the length of users’ streaks on the apps and how much time they committed to learning languages. The review is a way to inform users about their activity while motivating them to go above and beyond next year, sparking competition within themselves and among their peers.

Memeability: our sense of humor

Spotify Wrapped opens the door for people to laugh at themselves. For example, say you have a song you didn’t expect in your top five— you may share it on social media, hoping for others to laugh alongside you.

Before, during, and after Spotify Wrapped releases each year, users and brands alike share memes and humorous content about it, largely because it’s such a big phenomenon that connects so many people. Memes make up a large percentage of shareable content across social media platforms— appealing to users’ funny sides is a great way to connect them with their friends and with your account.

Measurement: our love for data

As users listen to music throughout the year, they might not consider just how much time they’re spending on it. With Spotify Wrapped, people receive key stats to let them know exactly what that number is. It pleases our need to see the numbers behind the activity, leaving us wanting to discover where we stand among other music fans. It’s similar to the follower count on social media or the number of unread text messages on your phone: numbers are validating and in some ways, proof.

If you use Asana as your project management platform, you may have noticed the “Year in Asana” on your home page. This review shares interesting data about the number of tasks you completed, which projects you worked on the most, and which team members you most collaborated with. Throughout the year, as we tackle different projects, we might not realize the weight of the work we do, but this year-in-review sheds new light to make us feel proud and accomplished.

How your brand can find its “Spotify Wrapped”

We’re not saying every brand should create its own version of Spotify Wrapped. But, its success is a strong lesson for all brands looking for success in terms of marketing, user engagement, and user experience. Here’s what you can learn from Spotify Wrapped:

Be innovative and adventurous

If there’s one thing to learn from Spotify, it’s that you shouldn’t be afraid to take risks. Inspire your team to be innovative and adventurous, bouncing ideas off of one another. At LONDONmiddlebury, we like to take a “no bad ideas” approach, allowing people to share every thought without judgement.

When Spotify Wrapped was first created, users received an email that brought them to a microsite showing their stats. In 2019, the initiative saw new life after Spotify intern, Jewel Ham, had the innovative idea to bring Wrapped in-app. She pitched ideas to make users’ stats even more personalized, especially appealing to Spotify’s Gen Z audience. With this space to innovate, Ham came up with the first ideas for Spotify Wrapped we now know and love.  

Understand more than just the “needs” of your target audience

It’s important to understand your target audience’s wants along with their needs. Spotify users don’t need Spotify Wrapped, but the company knew it would be something users would be interested in. The company understands its audience’s wants, and it builds on them year after year with new ideas to keep Spotify Wrapped fresh.

Make your idea shareable

Having a shareable idea, both online and by word-of-mouth, will do wonders for your product or service. You want to create an offering that’s so valuable, people can’t help but talk about it with their friends. Spotify Wrapped is a conversation topic among friends and strangers— create an offering that can easily be brought up by a user when they run into an acquaintance.

Spotify Wrapped represents more than just an annual music recap— it’s a masterclass in human-centric marketing that goes far beyond simple data presentation. By tapping into fundamental psychological drivers like self-expression, connection, and playful competition, Spotify transformed a potentially mundane year-end report into a cultural phenomenon that users eagerly anticipate. Spotify Wrapped is a reminder that the most powerful marketing doesn’t just sell a product, it creates a moment of genuine human connection.

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