It’s a Wrap: 2023 Spotify Wrapped, Reviewed

Every November, Spotify releases a “wrap” of all of your listening habits throughout the year. Spotify Wrapped is a feature that goes through several different categories of listening statistics, allowing users to get a grasp of their listening habits throughout the past year. Categories include “top artists,” “top songs,” and “amount of time spent listening.” Your wrapped even goes as far as to add a special feature, introduced in 2022, that categorizes your listening with a personality, label, or character. A few categories at the end of 2022’s Wrapped included the “Replayer” or the “Adventurer”, whereas this year’s had characters such as a “vampire” or “shapeshifter”. These categories are determined based on the time of day one listens to music, the genre of music they listen to, and their statistics based on artists and top songs. People around the world anticipate this release year round. Some can’t bear the wait and check their Spotify listening statistics through websites such as statsforspotify.com. 

Spotify Wrapped continues to develop every year. After Spotify created “Artist Wrap” in 2017 and received a generous amount of love for the feature, they began to develop it more and more each year. This year, they extended the feature by adding personal video messages from listeners’ top artists exclusively directed towards their top fans. They also improved their calculation of  "percentage of time listened" to stretch to the 0.001% of listeners of a specific artist. 

“We’ve built upon many of the foundations established over the past few years so that Wrapped is truly a global platform for artists to effectively connect with their fans,” Rob Fink, Associate Director of Spotify for Artists Brand Marketing, said on Spotify’s website. Spotify Wrapped continues to be a key part of music artists’ and  podcast creators' careers, as it allows them to evaluate how their fans interact with their music. This feature also allows for Spotify users to feel special when it comes to their favorite artists and, conversely, for artists to express their appreciation for their listeners.

The Wrapped feature is available to Spotify users globally, meaning every individual that uses Spotify as their listening platform has access to it. Through posting or sharing parts of their Wrapped on social media, it allows  listeners to connect with other Spotify users through finding mutual top artists or songs.

Spotify Wrapped not only creates bonds and connections between users, but also allows listeners to feel appreciated and seen by their top artists. This feature brings joy to all just in time for the holiday season, as this Wrapped feature makes the app itself very appealing to users who don’t already use it, serving as a productive marketing feature that tempts many people to download the app.

by NIHASHI NAG