It’s that time of year that everyone waits for – not Christmas…Spotify Wrapped time! Showcasing your most played songs, artists and of course the all-important tally up of minutes listened, I expect you will find Spotify Wrapped posts all over your socials for the next few days!

Spotify Wrapped is available for most users to review from the 1st of December and will appear in your homepage feed – you really can’t miss it! The results are often viewed with excitement and perhaps a slight bit of trepidation and embarrassment – for example, if you were swept up in Euro fever in the summer, you may find that Atomic Kitten’s ‘Southgate You’re The One’  worked its way into your Wrapped. Thankfully I dodged that particular bullet, but ‘Three Lions’ and ‘Sweet Caroline’ did feature!

So who were the big winners this year?

Stats released by Spotify show that the most popular artist of 2021 was Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny with more than 9.1 billion streams. In second place thanks to her re-recorded and re-released albums ‘Fearless’ and ‘Red’ was Taylor Swift.  Third place goes to Korean pop group BTS, in at fourth is Drake and Justin Bieber was in fifth.

The most-streamed song of the year goes to Olivia Rodrigo with her viral smash hit ‘driver’s licence’ which was streamed over 1.1 billion times. The other most streamed songs were:

  • Call Me By Your Name – Lil Nas X
  • Stay – Justin Bieber and The Kid LAROI
  • Good 4 U – Olivia Rodrigo
  • Levitating – Dua Lipa

“If 2020 was the year that flipped the world on its head, 2021 was the year that we got used to seeing things upside down.
“With ‘normal’ thrown out the window, we embraced the unknown and championed all of the things that make each of us unique.
“Spotify’s 2021 Wrapped is a celebration of this – the millions of weird and wonderful ways to listen and live in a world that continues to keep us on our toes.”

Spotify 2021

But what does Spotify Wrapped do for the company?

Wrapped has been a huge win for the streaming company since it was introduced five years ago. Analytics firm MoEngage state the new app installs rise dramatically when Wrapped is rolled out – mobile app downloads increased by 21% in the first week of December 2020. On top of that, more than 90 million people interacted and engaged with Spotify Wrapped in 2020. Big numbers! Socially sharing your listening stats is super easy too with the built-in share buttons and autogenerated personalised graphics, all with the Spotify logo, Wrapped hashtag and design theme for that year.

Isn’t Wrapped just data collection?

Yes, it is. However, Spotify seems to have created a phenomenon of their own, with a day dedicated to Wrapped and the buzz around it. It is clear to see that whilst it is data collection people are, for the most, happy with and enjoy.  And of course audio and music is the entire Spotify business, so anything to create a buzz and increased exposure and app downloads/signups is always a winner and a marketing masterclass.

Spotify has stated that they collate this date from 1st Jan to the end of October, so if you are wanting to curate a specific type of Wrapped for 2022, there’s your heads up!

Oh, and if you were wondering, of course, I loved my Wrapped this year and listening back to my top songs. My Wrapped stats, should you wish to know them were:

  • 54,363 minutes listened – 95% more than listeners in the UK apparently
  • Listened to 145 different genres
  • Listened to 2,114 different artists
  • Audio aura was ‘happy’ and ‘calm’

Roll on the music we will all discover and enjoy in 2022!

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