For some, Black Friday Open during the holiday season. But for others, it’s when they open Spotify on a late autumn day and see Spotify Packages available. It’s the beginning of the year’s review—and perhaps the most personal, offering a chance to relive summer hits or cringe in the accumulated minutes spent listening. a sad song after a breakup.
This year’s surprise Wrapped drop comes on Wednesday. And, as they have done for the past few years, Screenshots are wrapped in overflow Instagram, Twitterand TikTok.
It’s a social trend that grows every year and breaks through the noise, promoting pride and/or self-deprecating humor, depending on who your top artist turns out to be. And it’s all built on user data that Spotify wraps in eye-catching neon colors with bold comments—a move that eliminates the creepy feeling of knowing Spotify is always listening. And in return for entertaining users of the day, Spotify has an annual opportunity to push social media trends and reap the benefits of free advertising as millions of people share the recap publicly. their.
As many companies come under fire for tracking users and storing data, Spotify tries to avoid such widespread criticism. Instead, many predicted and welcomed the arrival of Wrapped. But it’s also a uniquely put together expression of the music player’s ability to capture every second that people spent listening from January to October.
“This is a particularly shining example of the fact that Spotify’s business model is based on surveillance,” said Evan Greer, director of digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future. “Spotify has done a great job of marketing surveillance in a fun way and getting people to not only participate in their own surveillance, but celebrate, share, and brag about it.” that to the world.”
Spotify released its first year review version in 2015. But it didn’t take off until a few holiday seasons later, when the app started delivering it on pale-colored cards. It has enhanced its interactive insights, further personalizing the experience. In 2021, Spotify Wrapped will be shared 60 million times by users. But that statistic doesn’t take screenshots, a common way people post their results on social media.
For 2022, Wrapped has grown to include each user in one of 16 listening personalities based on the type of music they stream and other categories, such as when they discover something early or cool. the era of their favorite music. Spotify has also integrated Wrapped with WhatsApp and Roblox to expand its reach even further. “Wrapped is one of the most exciting times for Spotify users each year,” Spotify spokeswoman Laura Batey said in an email. “We built something special that our audience anticipated and expected.”
Spotify is very good at making these lists and predicting the music users want to listen to thanks to its powerful artificial intelligence system and huge data warehouse. It also mined that data for the odd individual Advertisement, select the user’s personal listening habits and anonymize it before pasting it on the billboard. “To the person who played ‘Sorry’ 42 times on Valentine’s Day, what did you do?” an old ad read.
