The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
For some, music is a huge part of one’s identity, Music allows for people to express their true emotions and communicate through lyrics. Spotify is a vehicle for just that. I believe in music’s power, its ability to change, or lift a mood, or set the tone of an environment. Looking to sit in a dark room and listen to sad songs? Spotify has a playlist for that. Hoping to pop, lock, and drop it with super cool dance moves? Spotify most definitely has you covered. Music aids many of life’s moments, whether it is adding speed to the treadmill when the beat drops or a father walking his daughter down the aisle, melodies and lyrics can be a natural, yet positive force.
Think Kris Jenner works hard? The Spotify marketing team works harder. Spotify Wrapped is just one of the ingenuous content creation strategies that the novel streaming platform has developed to dominate the marketing and digital world. Spotify Wrapped invites the subscriber to participate in the marketing process. This inclusion encourages users to post on their Instagram stories, sharing their niche music taste with friends, family, and followers alike. Many things on Spotify are created for our listening pleasure, but this marketing ploy celebrates your year in reflection, cultivating a one-of-a-kind playlist for each and every user. It allows the subscriber to feel a sense of belonging in multiple communities greater than themselves and offers insight to the depths of their musical repertoire. One’s top five genres may range from Rap to Country to Pop, allowing others a sneak peek into someone’s personality, their likes and dislikes, and their relationship with music.
Justin Bieber, Drake, Kanye West, Coldplay, and the Jonas Brothers. These are my top five artists on my Spotify Wrapped list this year. I have listened to a total of 20,680 minutes of music in 2021, which equates to about 345 hours, or approximately 15 days of straight sound. Spotify has marketed their platform so effortlessly, by engaging music-enthusiasts such as me to share their most popular and frequently played songs, albums, and artists with the rest of the world. The app then generates a playlist of your most listened to and favorite songs throughout the year, mixing and matching between the various genres you may have navigated between. Spotify Wrapped allows users to engage with the streaming platform in a unique fashion, motivating many to count down the days until their curated list is created.
What makes Spotify Wrapped so brilliant is its timing. Though it’s the most wonderful time of the year, the holidays can be a stressful time, as well. Those who are in school may have finals or those in professional careers may be finishing their final quarter. Purchasing gifts, attending parties, and paying bills may all be stressful, yet many of these worries can be assuaged for a couple minutes when Spotify releases its Wrapped playlist. For me, I will recognize a song and recall a memory I’ve attached it to. If a song was repeated numerous times, enough to make my top five, I can attribute it to cheerful times. I remember the environment I was in, the people that surrounded me, and the mood I felt upon first hearing that song.
Apple Music has tried to steal the spotlight on Spotify’s Wrapped by somewhat copying their method, yet people feel loyal to only one company: Spotify. Not only is this loyalty unmatched, but their subscribers are devoted to the cause so deeply that they post their Spotify Wrapped to Instagram stories and other collaborative sites. While this may or may not have been a part of Spotify’s marketing plan, they inadvertently receive free marketing from their customer base, increasing their brand awareness without lifting a finger!
While Spotify Wrapped has been around for 15 years, CEO Daniel Ek is setting out on a quest for a new acquisition to keep the company agile and ahead of marketing trends. Ek, a Swedish-born entrepreneur who has a net worth over $4.4 billion believes that all digital sound should be shifted to Spotify. Radio has existed for over 135 years and still reaches the masses without even trying. Whether on the drive to work, to the supermarket, or even for a leisurely trip down the block, radio is the essence of the car. Yes, Apple Play has dominated the market the last few years, but older model cars don't have the luxury of Bluetooth, or even USB compatibility. Ek wants to make Spotify the go-to destination for music, storytelling, live talk, audiobooks, and more. As done with Spotify Wrapped, this new, adjusted, and advanced platform will deliver a personalized audio stream to each subscriber, perfectly curating the best sounds for each listener.
Spotify’s investment into podcasts also promotes their growth trajectory. I am a guilty user of both Spotify and Apple Music, yet once my favorite podcasts became accessible on Spotify, there was no real need to use the original Apple podcasting platform. Spotify’s technology was built for music, but could be adapted to podcasts, offering ad-free and smart speaker accessibility for storytelling that its competitors cannot replicate.
When I opened my own Spotify Wrapped just a few days ago, it came as no surprise that I listened to 25 episodes, or a total of 1,610 minutes, of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. Furthermore, Spotify continued the buzz around their brand by signing extensive licensing deals with well known podcast hosts like Alex Cooper, Joe Rogan, and even former President and First Lady of the United States, Barack and Michelle Obama. Audiences are more engaged with podcasts, learning more and more about the intricacies of the hosts’ life, all while Spotify monetizes through targeted advertising. This shift from video to audio media is clear, keeping Spotify competitive in the entertainment space.
All these advancements testify to the uniqueness of Spotify’s platform. It reaches far and wide and shows no sign of slowing down. Its advertising network allows brands to partner with podcast hosts, analyze data about target customers, and continue making effective campaigns. Its ability to create user-based content through creating personalized playlists and song suggestions keep its customer base engaged and always on the lookout for the platform’s next move.
