In an era where big tech companies are often criticized for monitoring user habits and data in depth, Spotify has packaged it as a fun feature for listeners to share with their friends. “I don’t think we had any idea that people would want to share it so much.” “I’m sure we’d all love to sit down and say it was a marketing stroke of genius, but when it was first built it was a loyalty play,” he says. He isn’t kidding: In 2020, Spotify Wrapped saw over 60 million shares from 90 million users, and that’s just counting what Spotify can measure, as screen shots aren’t something the company can track. “Suddenly we started to realize that this was an incredible way to get our passionate users to shout from the rooftops around the brand,” Bodman continues. Sharing this data snapshot is what propelled Spotify into an intersection of tech, music and culture. “But the real shocker was over 1 million social shares.” “In 2015, I think we were thrilled to have 5 million site visitors - that felt huge,” recalls Bodman. This “humble” first iteration began as “Year in Review” and has grown into visual appealing share cards flooding social media platforms that show an individual’s top songs, artists, genres, minutes spent listening, and more.

“It was a humble first effort, but it was very clear that people found this compelling.” It was a snapshot of their data which no one had been able to supply before, and Spotify users ate it up. “The genesis of this actually goes back to 2013, when a few smart folks at Spotify thought, ‘Hey we have this data, would anyone be interested?,’” says Alex Bodman, vice president and global executive creative director at Spotify. What started as a simple data share to reward existing Spotify listeners by showing what they played in the previous year - and how much - is now a full-blown holiday tradition. It doesn’t matter if it’s fresh-faced teens, aging hipsters, hip-hop heads, or even Gen-Xers and Boomers that “don’t care about your Spotify Wrapped,” as December begins the Spotify brand is at the tip of countless music fans’ tongues - or more precisely, all over their social media accounts. Who spent the most time listening to music this year anyway? Do you feel superior for having your top artists be composed of indie cohorts that nobody has heard of? Were you pole-dancing down to hell with Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” as your soundtrack? Or did you commiserate with other parents whose children have taken over their Spotify accounts? Hell, maybe it’s both. 1 song? Maybe you’re a Swiftie that’s proud to be in the top 1% of her listeners. Are you embarrassed that you’re a full-blown adult with Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” as your No.

Tis the season to face the music, literally.

Spotify top artists wrapped