An individual’s choices and habits are reflected in their music choices.
It may be a source of mere entertainment for some. For others, it could be a way to deal with and survive difficult situations. For some, it is a distraction, while for others, it is a form of peace.
Gone are the days when you had to download songs from the internet or listen to your favorite songs via Bluetooth. Because now, with the introduction of various music apps, it has become easier for the lisztomanic (someone who loves listening to music) in us to get satisfied easily. The music apps have a wide collection of all forms and languages of music, which helps to cater to the demands of all types of music lovers.
Hence, the online world is filled with various music applications, trying to grab the attention of the common people while being a part of the marketing competition with other music apps. Among all the music streaming apps, there’s one that compiles all the songs you’ve heard in a year, all the artists you’ve searched for, and the composers you’ve been interested in. And it’s a concept called Spotify Wrapped.
For those unversed, Spotify Wrapped is a viral marketing campaign of the Spotify music app, that allows its users to view a compilation of data about their activity on the platform over the past year and also gives them a chance to share it on social media. It has been released annually since its inception in early December 2016. While it is a very exciting phenomenon for all users, especially hardcore music lovers, this marketing strategy also gives Spotify a niche over its rival music apps like Gaana or Jio Music App.
This business strategy of Spotify has turned out to be an enormous boost for it and has been successful in popularizing it in the hearts and minds of almost everyone. As a result of people posting their favorite songs or artists on their respective social media handles, Spotify has been a major success and a widely recognized music app. In brief, the success of Spotify Wrapped was greatly explained by the head of marketing of Spotify when he said that it creates a kind of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect which makes people want to download and use Spotify. In December 2019, more than 1,200,000 posts on Twitter were about Spotify Wrapped after its release. This marketing strategy is further enhanced by additional advertisements on television, billboards on roads, and a flood of related memes on the internet.
All this is not only amusing for its users but also for the artists and producers whose songs are featured in the music app. Spotify Wrapped allows budding singers and music composers to know how much their songs were loved and played in a particular year. Spotify is also successful in bringing famous playback singers and music composers on board to promote Spotify Wrapped among their ardent listeners. There’s also a feature where it recommends highly rated songs that you probably didn’t notice in that particular year.
We can say that the whole concept of a music app wrapping up your entire music listening habit and compiling it as easy-to-understand data gives a chance to its users to not only celebrate the music that they lend their ears to but also help them embrace their intimate listening habits and be unapologetic about sharing it publicly.
So, while one may have “Ranjha’’ from the movie Shershah as their most played song, some may have Harry Styles as their most heard artist (all thanks to his song, “As It Was’’). Many users may have Korean Pop (especially the Female group, Blackpink) as their favorite genre this year, and some others have played AP Dillon‘s ‘‘Excuses’’ hundreds of times. And for many people like me, Pritam has been topping our list of most-heard music composers for years now (not to forget his masterpiece, “Kesariya’’ from Brahmastra which is currently ruling almost everyone’s Spotify accounts).
All in all, this Spotify Wrapped is a virtual music festival, and while it is just the first month of 2023, I already can’t wait to see what songs I will explore over the remaining 11 months of this year.