The Behavioral Science Behind Spotify Wrapped’s Viral Success
It’s December once again, a most special time of year for many of us. We have so much to look forward to in just one month: beloved holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve, and of course, the release of Spotify Wrapped.
In case you’ve somehow missed the boat on this cultural phenomenon, Spotify Wrapped is an annual campaign where users of the music-streaming platform can view a dolled-up summary of their listening data over the past year, set to snippets of their favorite tracks. The 2021 version also includes new features such as personalized audio “auras” (a visual representation of one’s musical personality, akin to what would happen if you spilled some watercolor paint everywhere and took a blurry photo of the result), quizzes about the user’s own listening habits (“True or false: BTS was your most-binged artist”), and more.
Since its inception, the campaign has become an event in its own right, and has proven very successful in promoting Spotify as a platform. In 2020, Spotify downloads increased by 21% in the first week of December, and 90 million people engaged with the campaign that year.1 Wrapped has been described as a “best-in-class marketing campaign,” won multiple Webby awards, and is constantly being used as a case study of how to market successfully in the digital age.2 The tweets below are only a drop in the tsunami of content produced about Wrapped each year.
Happy Spotify Wrapped Day to all who celebrate <3
— grant👨🏻🦱 (@urdadssidepiece) December 1, 2021
SPOTIFY: your top artist this year, was actually one of the famous popular musicians that there are. Top song was their most popular song
— jeremy levick (@jeremylevick) December 2, 2020
ME: this thing is so cool
All this success has not come without its share of backlash. Some have criticized the campaign for promoting the superficial broadcasting of taste rather than the actual enjoyment of music, while others claim it’s a great example of just how comfortable we’ve become with the surveillance of our personal behaviors.3,4
Still, millions of us go nuts for Spotify Wrapped. So why are we so obsessed with an annual reveal of our own listening data? Read on for some behavioral perspectives on the Spotify Wrapped hype, and what this phenomenon can tell us about consumer behavior in 2021.
References
- Jain, P. (2021, June 27). How Spotify Wrapped 2020 Marketing Campaign Boosted Mobile App Downloads And Engagement. MoEngage. https://www.moengage.com/blog/spotify-wrapped-2020-app-downloads-engagement/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1639682210485000&usg=AOvVaw3RbnZCziHhVEZ4riBktLdB
- Morgan, P. (2020, December 22). Spotify wrapped: A best-in-class marketing campaign. Metia. https://metia.com/blog/spotify-wrapped-a-best-in-class-marketing-campaign/
- Hunt, E. (2021, December 1). Spotify wrapped is free advertising that says nothing about the joy of music. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/01/spotify-wrapped-is-free-advertising-that-says-nothing-about-the-joy-of-music
- Metz, R. (2021, December 2). Spotify wrapped shows how our personal data gets sliced and diced. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/02/tech/spotify-wrapped-data/index.html
- Franzen, H. (2001, April 16). Neuroscientists learn why some people like surprises. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/neuroscientists-learn-why/
- Ma, X. (2015). Anonymity, intimacy and self-disclosure in social media. AEA Randomized Controlled Trials. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.840
- Radovic, A., Gmelin, T., Stein, B. D., & Miller, E. (2017). Depressed adolescents’ positive and negative use of social media. Journal of Adolescence, 55, 5-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.12.002
- Barrett, F. S., Grimm, K. J., Robins, R. W., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., & Janata, P. (2010). Music-evoked nostalgia: Affect, memory, and personality. Emotion, 10(3), 390-403. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019006
- McAdams, D. P. (2011). Narrative identity. Handbook of Identity Theory and Research, 99-115. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7988-9_5
- Hong, E. K., Sedikides, C., & Wildschut, T. (2021). How does nostalgia conduce to global self-continuity? The roles of identity narrative, associative links, and stability. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 014616722110248. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211024889
- Dai, H., & Li, C. (2019). How experiencing and anticipating temporal landmarks influence motivation. Current Opinion in Psychology, 26, 44–48. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.04.012
- Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior. Management Science, 60(10), 2563–2582. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901
- The advertising industry has a problem: People hate ads (Published 2019). (2019, October 28). The New York Times – Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/business/media/advertising-industry-research.html
- The trust opportunity: Exploring consumer attitudes to the Internet of things. (2019, May 1). Internet Society. https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2019/trust-opportunity-exploring-consumer-attitudes-to-iot/
About the Authors
Maria Fomina
Maria is a Summer Associate at The Decision Lab whose main interests lie at the intersections of health and behavioral science. She has recently completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, majoring in global health and psychology, and minoring in immunology. Before joining TDL, Maria helped start Doctrina, the educational program of Pendance film festival. In her free time, she does translations for the Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice, an NGO promoting a humane drug policy in Russia.
Triumph Kerins
Triumph is passionate about understanding how human behavior influences our world. Whether it be global macroeconomics or neural networks, he is fascinated by how complex systems work, as well as how our own behavior can help create, sustain, and break these systems. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Psychology at McGill University, attempting to design an interdisciplinary approach to better understand all the quirks that make us human. He has experience in non-profit consulting, journalism, and research. Outside of work, you can find Triumph playing bass guitar, gardening, or down at a local basketball court.
Katie MacIntosh
Katie MacIntosh is Lead Editor at The Decision Lab. She is interested in the intersection of behavioral science, culture, and new communication technologies. Before joining The Decision Lab, she contributed to research on the neurochemical bases of memory and the social psychology of the internet. An aspiring polyglot, she has studied a number of languages, including as an exchange student in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Katie graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in psychology and linguistics.
Kaylee Somerville
Kaylee is a research and teaching assistant at the University of Calgary in the areas of finance, entrepreneurship, and workplace harassment. Holding international experience in events, marketing, and consulting, Kaylee hopes to use behavioral research to help individuals at work. She is particularly interested in the topics of gender, leadership, and productivity. Kaylee completed her Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary.
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