At the end of each year, Spotify releases your “Year in Review”. Spotify Wrapped gives you a few statistics about how much you listened to Spotify, your top songs, artists, and genres. This may seem like just a cool feature, but it’s actually a really smart marketing tool.
I recently wrote a post about my personal Spotify Wrapped, and in the midst of writing that I realized the marketing genius behind Spotify’s biggest marketing strategy.
Spotify Interest Spikes at Year End
Below is the Google Trends chart for the search term “Spotify”. Each spike in searches for Spotify comes during the first part of December when Spotify Wrapped is released. As you can see over the past four years, Spotify has seen a bump in interest and searches around the release of their Year in Review content.
I think this chart is a perfect indicator that this end of year marketing strategy is working. And as the Wrapped content has been optimized from year to year, the interest and hype surrounding the content has grown.
Apple Music released a similar feature in 2020 to Spotify Wrapped. Apple’s version is called Replay. Replay resulted in a similar spike in interest to Spotify’s in December 2020.
Spotify Makes Wrapped Content Specifically For Sharing
Spotify embraces psychology to encourage people to share their Wrapped music to their social media. I know that people were posting their Spotify Wrapped in my Instagram feed, and I’m sure you saw at least a couple posts about your friends’ Spotify Year in Review. Wrapped is specifically formatted for mobile devices and allows users to share directly from the app.
Why Spotify Wrapped is So Sharable
- Surprising Statistics: The statistics for how many minutes you listened to Spotify can be surprising. If you’re a music lover, you may love to share the fact that you listened to music for twice as much as your friends.
- People Love Their Favorite Music: Spotify has created content that allows people to share their favorite artists and “brag” about their taste in music. This also stimulates conversations around music and Spotify.
- FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): As people see others sharing their Year in Review posts, they too want to get in on the posting. Someone who isn’t using Spotify may even try the app because they want to have their own Wrapped content to post.
- Hyper-Targeted, Personal Content: People love seeing content and statistics that apply to them. Spotify does this very well with Wrapped. It gives people playlists to listen to, graphics to share, and statistics about their use of Spotify.
How Wrapped Also Works with Influencers
Spotify Wrapped is not just for listeners. Spotify also creates content for bands and artists who share their music on Spotify. When bands get new statistics about how many people listened to their music, and how long they spent listening, the bands (who likely have large followings of music lovers on social media) can share that content with their fans.
This is influencer marketing, but Spotify doesn’t have to pay the influencers (the bands) the share the Spotify branded content.
Examples of Spotify Wrapped – Top Songs & Artists
Which marketing tactics have stood out to you recently? Let me know on Twitter.